I’ve been reading about battery breakthroughs for decades. And I remember when the latest in battery tech was alkaline, then Ni-Cd, then Li-Ion, and now LiPo. All of those have ended up in consumer products.
LFP is actually a relatively old battery technology, it’s only now that the patent is expired that it’s starting to breakthrough (outside of China, they somehow got a license if I understand it correctly).
I’ve been reading about battery breakthroughs for decades. And I remember when the latest in battery tech was alkaline, then Ni-Cd, then Li-Ion, and now LiPo. All of those have ended up in consumer products.
You skipped Ni-MH there, that was major for not having the memory problems of Ni-Cd. We still use those in AA and AAA rechargeable batteries.
Ni-MH production for EVs was effectively shutdown by Texaco and later Chevron through patent acquisitions.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patent_encumbrance_of_large_automotive_NiMH_batteries
Holy shit. I had no idea.
Chevron is pretty fucking evil for a lot of reasons, but we’ll add this one to the pile, I guess.
A little pedantic note, LiPo is still a type of Li-Ion (maybe I got that right)
and the bigger recent breakthrough was LFP (Lithium iron phosphate / LiFePO4)
And probably safe to call Sodium-Ion and solid state the next big phases of development
LFP is actually a relatively old battery technology, it’s only now that the patent is expired that it’s starting to breakthrough (outside of China, they somehow got a license if I understand it correctly).