On 2024-01-13 22:10, Rich wrote:
> I swear, every WEEK, more often we see new battery tech boldly announced on science and tech sites and NONE of it EVER comes to market. How long have we had lithium ion? DECADES. Yet the iron, sodium, air all endlessly talked about for decades as well, none of it amounts to anything. Battery tech revolutions are like the "hydrogen economy," pure B.S.

Not at all. It takes a long time for battery technology to be taken up
and massive investments to scale it up.

Li-ion was well known for decades, but because volatility could not be
widely employed until low cost, reliable charge controllers could be
made en-masse. My 90's era laptops were all NiCd or NiMH even though
Li-ion was used in other narrower applications.

Currently the entire small battery industry is Li-ion oriented. It's
what is spec'd for most things from phones to cars.

Tesla for one keeps tinkering with chemistry to improve them (various
tradeoffs) and will likely begin using newer technology in the coming years.

Easy to gripe. Hard to do.

--
“Markets can remain irrational longer than your can remain solvent.”
- John Maynard Keynes.