Phinergy's new battery adds a lot of distance to an electric car with just some common elements.
Better Place may have failed in Israel, but another Israeli EV startup shows promise. Phinergy's air-aluminum car has a 1,000-mile range, substantially beating a conventional EV, and now a major European car maker has invested in it, according to the company. (Bloomberg took it for a spin recently).
Metal-air batteries get energy from the interaction of oxygen and metal. The aluminum is an anode; the oxygen a cathode; and the water an electrolyte. When drivers of the car use up their standard lithium battery's power, they switch on the range-extender, adding water to set off a reaction in the trunk.
At 55 pounds, the battery pack--which is made up of 50 batteries, each representing a further 20-miles of range--is much lighter than a standard lithium-ion battery, with much greater energy density. But the aluminum does deteriorate over time.
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