While it seems that EVs will undoubtedly represent a major factor in the medium-term future of automotive design, there are clearly still more than a few factors that need to be resolved before they’ll receive the backing of everyone. There is, of course, the question of ethics when it comes to the mining of materials utilised within the batteries. Then you have the question of where all this electricity to run them is supposed to come from. Not to mention the actual infrastructure problem of people living on Victorian streets having access to charge their cars.
One major factor, however, is that under the current design, the batteries utilised within the vehicles only have a finite lifespan. Put simply, they can only be recharged so many times before that original 100% eventually turns into more like 30% (not dissimilar to what happens with an iPhone). – Following a report via the Independent, however, BMW has announced a new ‘Solid State Battery’ design which, at least according to them, has solved this problem entirely!
Yes, BMW might have just created a battery that never loses its 100% charge capacity!
BMW Reveals Solid State Battery
Citing it as a “game-changing” design, BMW has said that they have found a means of overcoming one of the more notable issues of degradation within lithium-ion batteries. Upon testing the new design, they claim that after over 300 recharging cycles, the new battery design didn’t lose any of its original capacity. – Why is this important? Well, not only does this hugely increase the potential long-term lifespan of an electric car but this can clearly be transferred over to practically anything which contains a battery.
Yes, BMW may have just found a way to make your iPhone actually viable on a day-to-day basis for more than 5 years! I’m not sure what Apple will think about that though…
Of course, though, initial successful testing is still a long way away from a final product with BMW saying that they still need to find a way to make the manufacturing process more refined. Overall though, refinement is exactly what the EV industry needs right now!
What do you think? – Let us know in the comments!
