Someone's building a battery good for a 621-mile range

Is this the electric car battery that’ll solve, once and for all, the problem of range anxiety? A Swiss company called Innolith AG claims it has developed a battery that can theoretically offer 621 miles of range on a single charge.

It is, they claim, the world’s first 1,000 Wh/kg (watt-hours per kilogram) rechargeable battery. When installed into An Electric Car, it’s capable of 1,000km.

Innolith said its new battery uses “non-flammable, inorganic electrolyte”, as opposed to regular electric car batteries that rely on flammable organic electrolytes. They also say that due to the battery’s avoidance of “exotic and expensive materials”, it’ll be cheaper too.

Innolith say they’ve used a new “conversional approach in the chemistry” of its batteries to create such high density. “This new breakthrough has been made possible by years of dedicated research into all aspects of inorganic electrolytes and their application to rechargeable batteries,” explains Innolith chairman Alan Greenshields.

“Simply put, the experience gained in how to build high power batteries with exceptional robustness and cycle life has proved to be the right basis for building high energy products too,” he adds.

The company will start with a pilot project in Germany, to then licence it to “major battery and automotive companies”. They reckon it’ll take up to five years – so 2024 – for it to be fully developed and ready for proper production.