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Ask HN: Are Batteries Not Evolving?

12 points by nunorbatista ↗ HN
For years that I hear about new developments in batteries but the feeling I got is that everything is pretty much the same: bigger batteries and more efficient CPUs/systems/hardware are making the difference, not the battery itself.

If I do a quick search, I find articles making reference to technologies like graphene, next-generation lithium or charges in 5 minutes, but I just don’t see real applications of all of these. Am I missing something?

9 comments

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DamonHD
Fairly substantial improvements and new technologies are coming to the market regularly, and costs are coming down fast.

So no, it's not just efficiency elsewhere making all the running.

nunorbatista
Like what? Everything I find is just “breakthroughs” that I feel never reach mass market. There’s very little information regarding incremental improvements. I got a new Android phone that has an excellent battery but in return, it doesn’t have wireless charging because it just be too slow. This is not new technology, it’s a tradeoff.
speedgoose
Phones charge a lot faster than a few years ago.
throwaway81523
That's the same batteries being charged at higher current, with more careful monitoring, temperature sensors etc. It's actually a little bit distressing: phones use more power than they used to, instead of less, despite improvements in electronics efficiency. It's the Microsoft Word treadmill all over again.
trompetenaccoun
Positively framed the functionality has grown much faster than battery capacity has evolved. Phones back in the day were phones, now they're pocket computers. Ignoring the industry claims I feel like batteries have improved, comparing for example Laptops from 10 or 15 years ago with modern ones.

Another thing that people might not even be consciously aware of is that they're using their mobile devices more these days than in the past, which obviously leads to faster drained batteries.

throwaway81523
Imho that doesn't hold water. Today's phones don't deliver more useful functionality than the phones of 5 years ago, but they do use more power. Their cpus have gotten faster in order to keep up with the javascript and advertising bloat of badly designed web sites. It would be better to keep the phones low powered so the web site operators have to maintain some self-control with their js and ads.
gus_massa
Ignore the “breakthroughs”. They are usually very early reports exaggerated by the pres office of the university and then copy&pasted in the web. They may be useful in 20 years, or not.

Meanwhile, there are a lot of small incremental improvements that are ignored by the press. It's interesting to compare the long term improvement. For example "Lithium-Ion Battery Cell Densities Have Almost Tripled Since 2010" https://cleantechnica.com/2020/02/19/bloombergnef-lithium-io... (I found it with this search https://www.google.com/search?q=battery+weight+per+kwh&tbm=i... and then I picked the one with the graphic I like the most.)

Maursault
Where have you been? Lithium ion battery capacities have steadily increased every year over the last decade. And NiMH cells have really gotten really good, especially the ones coming out of FDK Corporation in Japan. Batteries are definitely evolving. But focus has been on 18650 cells, Tesla pushed capacities forward and has since adopted a new format, 4680 or 46800, so now expect capacity advances for those sized cells.