"And, as Musk points out, what is the energy and power density of the resulting battery pack?
I get very frustrated by all the BBB (big battery breakthrough) announcements we see that then seem to disappear without a trace. I’m frustrated that batteries aren’t advancing as quickly as I like (even though they’re improving in performance/cost ratio quite nicely), and I’m also frustrated with the wretched coverage we see in so many articles.
I wish more people, and not just the authors of these wide-eyed articles, understood at least somewhat all the hurdles between, “Holy crap! Look what we just did in the lab!!!” and, “I just bought a new EV with a 500-mile BazookaBattery(TM)”.
Trying to engineer a battery pack that meets all the pertinent real world requirements is a staggering task. Working in different environmental conditions, cost, scaling production, size, weight, power and energy delivery, safety, pack lifespan — it makes my head hurt.
But as I’ve said here before, I have zero doubt that we’ll see at least one BBB that makes it all the way to the showroom floor. (I consider ultracaps to be merely another form of battery, for the purposes of this discussion.) The financial reward is almost unimaginable, and there are far too many groups chasing that goal for none of them to find it."
Elon Musk Responds To Alleged "Battery Breakthroughs"