Many radical advances have come to the automotive industry over the last generation just a few decades ago.
The idea of a fully functional and affordable electric vehicle seemed unachievable.
Now you can see multiple Teslas driving down the street on any given day.
But even with all these changes some things have stayed relatively the same and the general principle of a car's battery is a great example of that.
While batteries have grown more advanced and have become less expensive there's still so much about their construction that hasn't changed.
Some of the improvements that have been made for batteries have come from none other than Elon Musk and tesla.
The importance and construction of the car battery have weighed heavily on musk's mind over the last few years he knows that the better the battery the better the car he also knows there's a lot of room for improvement when it comes to battery technology.
One that's far superior far more efficient and practically invisible too how is this possible and what sort of magic has elon musk stumbled upon in his quest for ev supremacy let's discover how the future of tesla batteries may be invisible to the naked eye.
You might not have marked it on your calendar but every year tesla has an annual celebration called tesla battery day it's the day that tesla highlights the literal power of the car battery and all of its potential.
If you're looking for any big announcements about the future of tesla's power source it would be on battery day.
Last September Elon Musk turned a few heads when he said that his company was working on a brand new battery pack that'll be integrated into the chassis of the car not only will this battery provide energy for the vehicle but it will also create more structural support for it as well.
Fact musk said that his radical new battery will reduce the car's weight by 10 percent and will also greatly improve its mileage he called it a revolution in engineering.
We all know what a typical car battery looks like it's usually about the size of a toaster and weighs around 30 to 50 pounds for decades the battery has rested in the front of the automobile beneath the front hood or sometimes in the rear of the car but most people will admit that there's much room for improvement when it comes to the car battery and some very clever scientists are wondering what if the car was the battery.
This concept would transform the battery from a single item that sits in the car into a piece of material that's built into the entire body of the car.
Using the car's body for energy storage instead of relying on a singular battery pack would make it invisible while surrounding the passengers on the ride this would create major performance gains and would also improve the safety of the car as well that's because there wouldn't be thousands of cells packed tightly into just one section under the hood or floor.
Typically a battery is made up of four components an anode electrolyte cathode and a separator.
Lithium ions pulse through the electrolyte of the battery when it's powered on moving from the negative anode to the positive cathode.
Generally a battery is built like a dense square object with its interior packed in really tight.
This new evolution of batteries called structural batteries can be shaped and molded into different irregular shapes why not have your battery look like the floor of a car or an airplane wing or even the case on your phone with structural batteries the power source can be transformed to look however you please.
While Elon Musk is now looking into this technology it wasn't just invented by him.
Fact the first structural batteries were created back in the mid-2000s by the us military but it didn't come to fruition until a group of european scientists launched a project called storage.
Which sought to master structural batteries these scientists worked long and hard at perfecting the idea and making it even stronger and more impressive.
It all culminated in a fully functional volvo that was partly powered by a super capacitor used as the trunk lid.
A super capacitor is a lot like a battery but it stores energy as an electrostatic charge rather than a chemical reaction the storage team completed their creation with two layers of carbon fiber infused with iron oxide and magnesium oxide wrapped in laminate.
The super capacitor was molded into the shape of the car's trunk and at that moment history was made.
What was the point of this specially made volvo and,
What's the point of structural batteries in general for one they save a lot of space while using this technology in cars can lead to new designs and lower costs just imagine what this sort of technology could do for computers and phones.
Well your smartphone is much much slimmer than the ones you've owned before it still has some extra bulk and weight that you'd probably love to get rid of.
If a future iphone battery were a structural battery it would be a part of the product's physical body and would eliminate much of the phone's superfluous size and weight you could bet that elon musk and his tesla aren't the only ones looking at structural batteries for that very reason alone.
There's even more to structural invisible batteries the team at storage elon musk and many others have discovered that structural batteries reduce the amount of energy an electrical vehicle needs.
Also increases the range that a car can travel on a single charge.
Structural batteries are able to improve and enhance the abilities of electric cars it would be a game-changing and hugely profitable development for any company that cracks the code.
In a world that's becoming increasingly interested in weaning itself off of fossil fuels.
The most efficient ev is going to be the most coveted one.
Elon Musk is able to reveal a future tesla that's powered by a battery built into its structure he would truly shake up the electric vehicle industry once again.
At first glance structural batteries might not seem like the most groundbreaking idea it's just a battery that's part of a car's body.
But when you look at the science behind it and how it can greatly improve the efficiency weight and power consumption of an electric car you see how truly important this type of power source can be.
It's no surprise that elon musk is looking into it and it's also no surprise to hear that he's not alone other automotive companies are now also exploring the exciting possibilities offered by structural batteries and they aren't alone.