Chicago, Illinois-based NanoGraf Technologies is one company working to improve the technology. The company has demonstrated a novel high-energy-density silicon-based anode material that has the long-term potential to replace graphite-based anodes in Li-ion batteries. By some estimates, NanoGraf’s formulation may be able to increase the energy density of current Li-ion batteries by 20% to 40%, while also improving the usable life of batteries.

One observer on Twitter noted of Tesla’s Battery Day livestream that nearly 300,000 people had tuned in to what was in some ways “a science lesson” about batteries.

ON TUESDAY AFTERNOON, Elon Musk greeted several hundred investors sitting in their Teslas from a makeshift stage in the parking lot of the Tesla factory in Fremont, California. After months of Covid-induced delays, it seemed like an appropriate setting for the company’s much-hyped Battery Day event. Details about what the outspoken CEO had in store were scarce leading up to the day, but Musk had promised to show the world something “very insane” that would result in a “step change in accelerating sustainable energy.”

With the recognition that “battery technology holds the key” to a future of cleaner transport and flexible, resilient electricity grids, four key US government departments have jointly established a Federal Consortium for Advanced Batteries (FCAB).

Two big obstacles stand in the way of widespread EV adoption: cost and driving range. But steady advancements in battery technology are already helping to mitigate both issues, and could make electric cars more affordable and desirable to consumers within just a few years.