Will New-Gen Batteries Create an E-Car Breakthrough?

(TNS) -- Upcoming solid-state batteries may be a game changer for electric cars, German electronics maker Robert Bosch said Tuesday as the supplier detailed new technology at the IAA Frankfurt Motor Show. Late last month Bosch took over a US start-up company, Seeo, which has developed technology for batteries that store far more charge safely than older lithium-ion batteries.

The new-gen devices use polymer solid-state electrolytes and metallic lithium anodes, which could give electric cars more range

"Solid-state cells may be the decisive technology in the breakthrough," said Bosch chief executive Volkmar Denner at an IAA media day ahead of the public launch of the event on Saturday.

The Seeo merger opened up access to a combination of know-how and patents for the Stuttgart-based electronics company.

Last year, Bosch entered a joint venture with GS Yuasa and Mitsubishi to develop higher-capacity batteries. The solid-state technology is being forecast as ready to commercialize in five years.

Bosch forecast that energy density - the amount of charge that can be safely held per kilogramme of battery weight - would more than double by 2020, so that about 15 per cent of global car sales in 2025 would be pure electrics or hybrids.

Sales of pure-electric cars in Europe have been sluggish, especially in Germany, where the government offers them no subsidies and is far from reaching its goal of getting a million electronically powered vehicles on its roads by 2020 with just 19,000 registered at the start of 2015.

©2015 Deutsche Presse-Agentur GmbH (Hamburg, Germany) Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.