I have made several references in previous posts to supercapacitor technology that I thought was promising for the evolution of hybrid vehicles. It's here!
Japanese battery company
Furukawa has just closed a deal with
East Penn, a US battery manufacturer. The latter will soon be distributing a new battery made by the Japanese company. What is so special about this battery? It’s a hybrid! This hybrid, though, has nothing to do with fossil fuels. Instead, the “Ultrabattery” combines two existing technologies: standard chemical batteries (the type of battery seen virtually everywhere) and supercapacitors (not as common).
This technology will permit much improved efficiencies in regen braking, strong accelerations and other situations where rapid, short duration, energy conversions are required. The hybrid battery also has the potential to be much cheaper to produce than Li-ion batteries because it can acheive these higher efficiencies with mature NiMH or pehaps even lead acid battery technology.
RFB
