A recent marketing video from battery maker Valence Technologies makes its point with all the subtlety of a Jerry Bruckheimer film: Unlike the competition's, its batteries don't blow up. The Texas-based company is so confident of the safety of its product that it shot one with a bullet to see what would happen. Nothing much, it turns out. That's in stark contrast to the other lithium ion battery shown in the video, which explodes in a fiery ball.
It's simple chemistry. Lithium ion batteries are so potent that they've become ubiquitous in laptops and cell phones, but the cobalt oxide used to generate such prodigious amounts of electricity per gram is highly volatile. That's prevented larger-scale uses -- in cars, for example -- because the risk of a deadly explosion has simply been too great.
Not so with Valence's new Saphion battery, which is among a new generation of lithium ion cells that are beginning to crack the transportation market.
"It's an enabling technology," said Dean Bogues, Valence's president for North America and Europe. "We think, as batteries get better, that reliance on batteries to provide energy in your car will get larger.
As we prepare for $3/Gallon petrol, let's have our eye on the future: battery powered cars.