My father was working on battery research from his PhD in the early 1960’s until about 1980.
He gave up on them, and moved on to other reasearch areas: physics of surfaces, crystal growth, catalysis.
Lord, I wish he was still here, but one of the things he said was that the Lithium ion batteries were just too dangerous.
Also, nothing fundamentally has changed in battery developments since 1980.
Everything is a refinment of the Li ion batteries of the 1970’s.
There are still safety issues. And, ironically the batteries have much less energy density than motor fuels, while being much more dangerous.
“ironically the batteries have much less energy density than motor fuels, while being much more dangerous.”
Ironic, indeed, isn’t it? The energy density of hydrocarbon fuels is HUGE in comparison to batteries, but the liquid fuels can be handled very safely and are stable.
Interesting