I'd settle for just "less expensive," "less toxic" and "fast to production."

This article may be misleading. Power and energy are not the same thing. Energy is what batteries store, power is how fast that energy can move. For example, a conventional lithium ion battery might store 10 MJ (mega-Joules) of energy, but can only drain at 1kW (kiloWatt). This improvement might allow that battery to drain at 20 kW, but it would still only contain 10MJ. The range of a vehicle with that sort of improvement would not significantly increase, but it could lead to faster vehicles, better torque, quicker acceleration, shorter changing, etc.

So! The take home message is that Power is NOT the same as Energy. Do not confuse the two, and do not get overly excited until there is more clear information about this available.

-John, Mechanical Engineer

Well, if it stores more, it can also be less expensive..

ie. if it stores 20x more power, you can use 20x less for the same result. So unless it is more than 20x more expensive..

I doubt that it's "too good to be true." This is Hitachi Maxell we're talking about here, not some startup in California making extraordinary claims about free energy.

I've long since paying attention to "outlandish" claims of lab breakthru's.
I can't even count how many times some breakthru has been reported & then it's gone the next day.
when I hear stuff like this now, my first response is "proove it". get some batteries made & stick em in a car then you can tell me how inexpensive they were & how much more power you get. until then keep it to yourself.

chas, it might seem that way, but it's because what is long to us is short for a development cycle.

Just look at how powerful our computers or cellphones are. When they announced these breakthroughts 4 years ago, it seemed too much, and then we kind of forgot about them.. and by the time they come out, it looks normal.

Here we go again...one bad translation and it gets repeated over and over....I'll say the same thing I said at engadget

POWER...NOT energy density...

Looks like some bad translation and/or understanding here. Other press releases talk about delivering 20Amps of current by reducing internal resistance compared to standard Lithium cobalt chemistries.

Move along, nothing to see here. The entire industry is gearing up for higher current LiFePO4, LiMn2O4 and other chemistries. Its all about the environment and faster charge/discharge rates.

Yeah, too bad the original article requires a subscription. Don't lithium ion batteries have plenty of power density already? Although higher power cells are more expensive, maybe that's the issue they've claimed to solve. Most of the new tech batteries make far more improvement in power density than energy density. I guess a claim of 20x improvement in drain rate over old style cells would not be that radical. Saying they're cheaper would be the real big claim

I think I have a good analogy for those confused by power vs energy. Say you have a water tank, with a hose to drain it. Power is like the size of the hose, how powerful of a stream. Energy is like the amount of water.

I'd settle for twice as much power and a little more toxic.

i'll take 20x faster recharge and stopping once every 200 miles for 10 minutes. tesla motors already has a 220 mile per charge 2 seat roadster, but it takes a 3-4 hours to recharge.

Inexpensive. I fell for that, when CDs took over vinyl. They said CDs will be cheaper to make. They are, for them.

Inexpensive to produce, not for the customer...perpare to pay just 10 fold if it stores 10 times and 20 fold if 20 times. You still save space.

CD vs. vinyl is a flawed analogy, because what you pay for is not just the disc but the content that is on it (like DVD vs. VHS).

Batteries are more like computers and cellphones. You pay for the hardware, not the software (well, you also later pay for software, but you know what I mean).

"The claim: 20 times more power storage"

I won't repeat the clarifications which are well-stated in the above posts, but I am really, really getting frustrated with the intellectually inadequate writing often found on this blog.
I understand that many of the TH writers may have a liberal arts background that is soft on science, and I don't want to insult anyone. However, I think TH is obliged to hold themselves to a reasonable standard of academic accuracy that includes writing that is true to the basic principles of science.
I am always reluctant to send any TH links to my friends with science backgrounds for fear I'll look silly by suggesting they read something with content like in this article.

No offense, but it needs to be said.

Well, with the original story behind a pay barrier and the via source - Engadget - having made the mistake (as well as others, like Ecogeek, I think), it's kind of hard to verify, even for the writer.

In theory, 20x the power should also mean a proportional increase in rate-of-charge, right? So 10-minute charges might not be that unreasonable a target for a chemistry such as this.

Could it be related to this earlier breakthrough?

http://news-service.stanford.edu/news/2008/january9/nanowire-010908.html

"Stanford researchers have found a way to use silicon nanowires to reinvent the rechargeable lithium-ion batteries that power laptops, iPods, video cameras, cell phones, and countless other devices.

The new technology, developed through research led by Yi Cui, assistant professor of materials science and engineering, produces 10 times the amount of electricity of existing lithium-ion, known as Li-ion, batteries. A laptop that now runs on battery for two hours could operate for 20 hours, a boon to ocean-hopping business travelers."

Nanowire battery (based on lithium ion batteries) has up to 10x energy density per weight. This actually sounds pretty promising and may be around the corner in about 5 years or so.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nanowire_battery

It will be a matter of around two years before the Li-poly battery technologies will be highly evolved for long distance and long life charge cycles.There are also very exciting designs in lightweight construction technologies for chassis and body.Www.fiberforge and www.alulight.com have the strongest and most lightweight solutions.A 1200-1600lb. EV is very possible with these materials.Our company will be using www.acpropulsion driveline and controls powering a 1200lb. EV to 0-60mph in less than 3 seconds with a 150 mile charge.

Power density is significant to EV applications, particularly for effective recovery of energy during regenerative breaking and for rapid charging.

Another thing not noted in the article, conventional lithium ion batteries loose 50% of their capacity after 300 charge / discharge cycles and I believe I read elsewhere that this chemistry is good for more than 10,000 charge / discharge cycles which will bring the long-term cost of ownership down.