I’ve been a bit sceptic about electric cars getting massive adoption in the next few years because of the battery technology. I believe that you’ll need at least a 10 fold increase in capacity per litter and cost before you’ll see massive adoption of the electric car. And politicians forcing electric cars on us won’t work either.

If you look at the electric car, the limiting factor — or the critical factor if you prefer — is the power source. How to store and charge the batteries. Until now, if you really wanted to be a good boy scout, as an early adopter you would be waiting at least 30 minutes for a 80% charge. This is not going to cut it in a world where fueling takes 2 minutes at the petrol station.

Now, researchers at UCLA announced that they developed a new kind of battery. It is made of Graphene. And it charges much faster than anything previously invented. The technology would allow a MacBook Pro to charge in just 30 second. AMAZING.

Graphene batteries?

Graphene batteries are just around the corner. They are more powerful, charge faster, and hopefully are stable enough to enter mass production. Graphene is the wonder material of the XXI century. Graphene is a honeycomb lattice structure of carbon atoms bond together. It is like a sheet of carbon atoms. When graphene is then added to the electrodes of batteries it improves their functioning, because of its structural properties, density and electrical conductivity.

Now they’ve made this announcement and are basically looking for funding. I haven’t read the publications they produced, and this might end up being an hoax. Or, due to some technical impossibility impossible to market. They naturally sell it beautifully and being all marvels in the elevator pitch but globally there are many hurdles before such a wonderful super-capacitor could be in the market.