You may not know it but in addition to patenting new floors IBM have been working on a lithium-air electrical vehicle (EV) battery since 2009. The company has just announced that two other companies, Asahi Kasei and Central Glass, will be joining their Battery 500 Project.
The goal of the project is to “accelerate the switch from gasoline to electricity as the primary power source for vehicles” by developing a lithium-air EV battery capable of travelling 500 miles on a single charge. Asahi Kasei, a leading Japanese chemical manufacturer, and Central Glass, who specialise in electrolytes, both have experience working on lithium ion batteries and will be lending their expertise to the project in the form of membrane and electrolyte/additive development respectively.
IBM hopes to have EV batteries capable of matching the range attained by fuel-burning vehicles by 2030.
Below is a video from IBM Labs detailing a little more on how lithium-air batteries work.
Source: Engadget