Israeli company Phinergy   take to have create a battery that can power a Citroen C1 for   3000 klick , andhave demonstrateda   1800 km drive with a more practical version , three times that uncommitted from   commercial electric cars . Even more dramatically , the battery librate just 100 kilogram , a one-fifth of the weight of those in the Tesla Model S.

alloy - melody batteries use the oxygen in the air around them , rather than storing it in limpid or solid chemical substance . They can stack away far more vim than most competing applied science . Not needing to bear the atomic number 8 can also cut the weighting dramatically – Phinergy claim that70 % of the weightin a conventional car battery is in the cathode , mostly just to store the atomic number 8 .

With such benefit , metal - melodic phrase batteries have been a topic of enquiry for some time . Lithium - air assault and battery have theoretic energy per weight almost as high as petrol . However , a range of hard-nosed problems have forestall widespread commercialization .

Aluminum - zephyr batteries do n’t have the same potential vim per kg of Li - air battery , but could theoretically arrive at energy densitiesmany times betterthan thelithium - ion batteriesthat are currently the industriousness standard .

One of the challenge for metal - air travel battery is to capture enough oxygen to furnish the world power require . Phinergy ’s poriferous electrode have the surface country to allow this . A ash grey - based accelerator prevents C dioxide from permeating the electrode , a common job for other experimental interlingual rendition of this technology that reduce their lifespan to the point of impracticality .

Like anything based on atomic number 13 , there is a band of embodied energy in Phinergy ’s assault and battery , but they are manufacturing their products in Quebec , where the electricity is almost entirely sourced from hydroelectric stations , keeping the carbon footprint small .

The big disadvantage of aluminum - air batteries is that they do n’t last . The aluminum plough to Al - hydroxide . While this can be reprocess , it ca n’t be recharged by plug the battery into a powerpoint . Instead the whole bombardment will need to be replaced when the aluminum has been used up . advocate of this system claim that battery swaps can be done quickly and easily .

However , any bombardment that needs to be supercede so frequently is not only expensive , but runs into the problem that has bedeviled many option to petrol - powered cars . People are loath to buy vehicle that count on the accessibility of fueling or replacement station if these are not available everywhere they might be needed . On the other hand , without a vital volume of owner of suitable vehicles , such station are not viable .

By extending the capacity of the galvanizing car to drive much further on a single thrill , aluminium - melodic phrase batteries   greatly reduce this problem when it comes to quick recharge points , but at the cost of increasing the penury to be capable to get at position where batteries can be replaced .

Phinergy ’s solution is to use a twinned battery solution . A low lithium - ion battery will earmark tripper up to 50 kilometer , more than adequate for most city journeying . The atomic number 13 - air battery will be saved for prospicient trips , avoiding the penury to replace it except where the car is used for frequent long journeys . If the whole battery was aluminum - air the railcar ’s maximum range might be as much as 3000 km , but with the penury to replace the total engine thereafter .

Even if these problem have been successfully addressed , it stay to be seen whether Phinergy have found a solvent to the other major obstruction to Al - air assault and battery , the high cost of the anode .

A zinc - line battery could potentially offereven more advantagesbut has been hard to aggregate garden truck .   Phyinergy lay claim they are on the direction to commercialise that as well .