Breathing batteries for electric cars

By Nina Notman2015-12-18T00:00:00

Nina Notman discovers how air could power the transport of the future

On paper, electric cars sound so good; cheap to ‘fuel’ and packed with green credentials. But there is one major downside, you can’t get very far.

Before electric car use can really take off, they need to match or even exceed the range of petrol and diesel-fuelled cars. And this means their batteries need to be able to store more energy.

Chemist Clare Grey and her team at Cambridge have recently revealed a new prototype lithium air battery, could this hold the answer?

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