General Electric and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory are developing a new water-based battery that could provide an upgrade to electric cars like Tesla’s Model S and Nissan’s Leaf and even reduce their price tags.
The proposed battery uses water-based solutions of inorganic chemicals that would provide high-energy density and make energy discharge and recharge safer, GE said. A short video of the technology can be seen here.
“Our flow battery could be just one-fourth the price of car batteries on the market today, while enabling roughly three times the current driving range. The DOE wants a battery that can power a car for 240 miles; we think we can exceed that,” said GE’s Grigorii Soloveichik, the project leader, in a statement.