We all dream of the day we can step out of the house, unplug our car and drive for 500 miles on a single charge. If IBM has anything to say about it, we will be doing just that in no time at all.

With the IBM Battery 500 Project, they have brought together a team of scientific geniuses to boost battery storage density by a factor of 10 with lithium-air technology. Oh, and those IBM Supercomputers will help a bit too.

These batteries use nanoscale semiconductors which use the air around us to collect positive ions. The oxygen enters the battery on-demand which is unique compared to a sealed battery system. This nanoscale semiconductor fabrication technology will allow the surface area of the lithium-air battery electrodes to be increased by 100 times, allowing them to meet the goals of the project.

As shown in the photo, the comparison of a sealed lead-acid batteries to that of the lithium-air batteries is phenomenal. One lead acid is equivalent to 53 lithium-air batteries in weight! That is a alone will offer a huge performance boost to electric vehicles.

More on the Battery 500 Project in the video below.

Via Smarter Technology