This EV battery can go 1,000 miles on a single charge

If an electric car is made with a new EV battery from an MIT spinout, you’ll be able to start driving in New York City and keep going until you reach Orlando. The battery, from a company called 24M , is designed to have 1,000 miles of range on a single charge.



That could convince more people to buy electric cars, since some drivers still say that range anxiety—being concerned about how far they can make it on a single charge—holds them back from making the switch. The anxiety isn’t necessarily warranted: A typical commute is a fraction of the 300- to 400-mile range on many EVs, and drivers can often charge their cars overnight at home. (Once people actually buy an EV, their worries about range tend to disappear .) But for drivers who live in apartments and can’t plug in their cars as easily, or for anyone taking a road trip, a longer range could make a difference.



“We think that to get to full competitiveness, or full acceptance for those who are used to an internal combustion engine, something in the 1,000-mile range is going to be needed,” says Rich Chleboski, 24M’s chief financial officer.



[Photo: 24M]



The 1,000-mile EV battery can help boost resale value



The extra-long range also can help the car’s battery last much longer. If you use a rapid charger to fully charge a battery, it can damage the battery, meaning it won’t last as long. Because it has such a long range, the new battery should rarely need a full rapid charge. Quickly topping off a battery with 20% of the battery’s capacity—and then slowly charging the rest later—isn’t as damaging.



With longer-lasting batteries, EVs will also have a better resale value. In the current market, electric cars lose their value much faster than gas cars , another factor holding back some potential buyers. The company says the new battery system could potentially last for 500,000 miles of driving—and even as long as a million miles. With that kind of longevity, “the idea of buying an EV that has maybe a couple of hundred thousand miles on it is now something that’s very doable and acceptable,” says Chleboski. “And you can get a good value for your vehicle on resale.”



[Photo: 24M]



How 24M’s new battery tech works



The company developed a suite of different technologies that work together in its battery system. The battery uses lithium metal rather than lithium ion, which gives it more energy density. Lithium metal batteries aren’t new, but haven’t been widely used because of safety issues. 24M designed a unique separator that helps prevent the formation of dendrites—needle-like bits of metal that can build up on the surface of lithium and cause shorts and fires. The design also monitors the battery cells and can shut them down automatically if it seems like a short will happen.



Inside the cells, the company mixes semisolid, gooey electrolytes directly with other battery materials. The design is simpler to manufacture than lithium-ion batteries, with fewer steps. It also reduces the cost because it uses fewer materials like copper, aluminum, and plastic.



Current EV batteries are glued together with a binder made from a type of “forever chemical” called PVDF, making them difficult to recycle. “They’re very stable—that’s why they’re called forever chemicals,” Chleboski says. “They work well, but they’re also difficult to get rid of.”



Right now, recycling involves multiple steps to pull the battery apart, damaging the active material. More expensive metals are pulled out and then remade into new active material. But because 24M’s system avoids the binder, it’s possible to skip the complicated recycling process and just remove materials for reuse.



The company licenses its technologies to battery manufacturers and automakers. “Impervio,” the separator 24M designed for safety, will likely be mass-manufactured by 2025 or 2026. All the tech to enable the 1,000-mile-range battery could be in testing by automakers by next year. Because of the long timeline for developing new cars, it might be five years before cars with the battery are actually on the road. In the meantime, if you want a long-range EV, look to China , where one new plug-in hybrid can reportedly travel 1,300 miles on a single charge.