This development is a goldmine opportunity to reduce America’s economic and energy dependence on foreign states and to create thousands of clean, good-paying middle-class jobs.
Fwiw, the entire thing is a q&a with a scientist that is only speaking on the potential of magnesium-ion batteries. Even they state it’s too early to say one way or the other.
A couple at various points in development. Sodium is going to be in production soon, but it’s mostly going to be cheaper <150-mile range EVs. Zinc-air should have higher capacity per kg than lithium, but it’ll be a while before we see it in cars. Flow batteries were thought to not have the capacity per kg to complete with lithium, but there’s been some advances that suggest it could be competitive.
With batteries, you shouldn’t focus too much on any one advancement. They advance by doing ten things and one of them works out.
is there a good, viable alternative in the horizon?
Maybe solid state. They still contain lithium, but it could possibly be replaced with other components like magnesium. But it’s still a ways out:
https://www.cnn.com/2023/11/23/cars/solid-state-battery-tech-promises-to-radically-change-evs
Yes pantographs.
MgIon
https://www.anl.gov/article/qa-could-magnesium-be-a-battery-future-argonne-chemist-brian-ingram-weighs-in
are there commercial applications? i have no reason not to be skeptical given how common it is to hype up new battery tech only for it to be nothing.
Fwiw, the entire thing is a q&a with a scientist that is only speaking on the potential of magnesium-ion batteries. Even they state it’s too early to say one way or the other.
A couple at various points in development. Sodium is going to be in production soon, but it’s mostly going to be cheaper <150-mile range EVs. Zinc-air should have higher capacity per kg than lithium, but it’ll be a while before we see it in cars. Flow batteries were thought to not have the capacity per kg to complete with lithium, but there’s been some advances that suggest it could be competitive.
With batteries, you shouldn’t focus too much on any one advancement. They advance by doing ten things and one of them works out.