Magic Battery from China

Chinese researchers have recently created an advanced lithium based battery that has 20 years lifespan and can recharge to 70% in just 2 minutes. Definitely, it is going to reshape the battery industry but whether it will disrupt other, especially environmentally highly unfriendly industries is still questionable. The other disputable issue is whether companies will allow this change to happen.

First let’s start with the obvious.

If carmaker Tesla is on a different track they just got bad news. The old school battery technology got a huge revamp and this might not solve all the issues but definitely few of the major concerns. The 20 yrs lifespan is just fine for any car maker and the refill in just 15 mins is awesome. Just like a Tesla supercharger without all the bells and whistles. It was hard to imagine that any breakthrough could put the original car manufacturing companies back on the map but this did it. Traditional car manufacturers use commodity-technology to have hybrid cars. In the long run, they seemed to have only disadvantages compared to pure electronic cars like Tesla.

What about consumer electronics?

In consumer electronics the trick is much more complex. Having a battery that refills fast is an advantage but current gadget usage is already good enough. Lasting a day or two means you are going to put your stuff on charger at night. Having a faster recharge option is just not that competitive. Not to mention that the juice is the same so charging something in 2 mins instead of an hour requires higher current which in-house power networks might not be able to handle at the moment. So for consumer electronics there is a limited advantage, probably to notebooks only.

In some fields having a higher lifespan is again not a huge breakthrough compared to having enhanced capacity. Such industries include the health industry, for example. If you don’t have access to power at all, things again won’t change much for you. So for example in the construction business this won’t change anything at all.

To make the battery invention extremely successful…

…they either have to create new products that utilize the benefits in extreme ways or have to find already existing products that can provide perceived benefits based on these features. As the previous examples highlight there are not a lot of benefits currently that go beyond the marketing perception. Which is not to be underestimated but still marketing is just marketing and not real products.

A real life example can be a forklift where you can easily replace current batteries with new ones and enjoy the almost zero downtime and have less equipment deliver the same results. Also I can see a difference in uninterrupted power supply systems where you won’t hold more juice but have a faster regeneration period reducing risks enormously.

Are industries willing to adapt change?

I believe we can outrun the environmental apocalypse by innovating and inventing new stuff. The question is whether industries are sensitive enough to adapt change just to make a more livable Earth? I suppose not. Their role is to create profit. Administration and legislation must take part in creating an environmentally competitive landscape. To “outinnovate” the environmental apocalypse and make sure that it is applied and not burnt in the crematory of profit in certain industries. Are we fast enough? Won’t know until we either dodge or bite the bullet.

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