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Comment by mips_avatar | Hacker News Reader

Current lithium-ion technology in the pipeline will probably get us to 400watt hours/kilogram and $50-100 / Kwh. Just having that would give us 700 mile range electric cars. And if the glass substrate stuff dr. Goodenough is doing pans out we could see charge speeds 10x faster. So like 300 miles of range in the time it takes to pee.

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The problem is, however, the longevity of these batteries. In the smartphone world, we've seen a huge emphasis on "50% charge in 10 seconds" but I like to believe batteries weren't designed with that in mind.

I refuse to use 'fast charging' since I believe it will reduce the life span of the battery (which I guess is what they want so you buy a new phone).

If it can be proven batteries can charge much faster AND have an acceptable life span, that's okay. But I don't think that's going to happen any time soon.

Slow charging reduces your lifespan? Doing things other than waiting for charging?

I have started viewing the batteries in my electronics the same way that I do the tires on my vehicle. Sometimes it's fun to push the limits which eats up the tires faster, but they're not that hard to swap out when they're depleted. I refuse to buy electronics that can't have the battery swapped with half an hour of work and some tiny screwdrivers (no glue!).

It’s true that every battery has a charge rate curve with temperature. If you go above it dendrites and other chemical junk starts to occur and you lose capacity. But your phone is designed to keep track of this. Fast charging is really about getting as close to that curve as possible. Glass anodes that I mentioned above basically make the chemical damage much less possible/likely. So you could safely charge at 10x current speeds.

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