Taking current technology into consideration, the Lithium-Ion battery is the only realistic solution to power electric cars amongst other electronic devices. With ranges quickly exceeding the 500 km range on one charge, the Lithium-Ion battery does serve the purpose it needs to by powered the electric motors in a car. That said, they are quite expensive and the battery pack is without a shadow of doubt the most expensive component in any electric car today. While research into super capacitors and hydrogen fuel cells have been progressing quickly, the immediate relief in terms of a big price drop is a new Sodium-Ion battery technology.
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(Sodium batteries might replace Lithium ones)
According to researchers at Stanford University, the new Sodium based batteries will give the same (or more) charge as compared to the Lithium-Ion ones that are currently available while being inherently 80 per cent cheaper to make than the current batteries. Researchers also say that although the charging cycles have been optimised already in terms of a comparison to the Li-On batteries, the volumetric energy density that is needed to hold a similar charge is yet to be perfected to make it viable to fit inside an automobile. If the physical area needed to store a similar level of energy will be larger than the one on the Li-On batteries, these might well be used as energy storage devices rather than on automobiles.
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In terms of chemical composition, the sodium-based cathode is actually made from the chemical compound Disodium Rhodizonate Na2C6O6 while the anode is made from phosphorous. Although no real indication of commercialisation has been made yet, the fact that there might be a technology that could drop battery costs by nearly 80 per cent excites us as that in turn will make electric cars much cheaper.
