Future vehicles: Auto bodywork composite works as a battery

The problem is clear. Hybrid cars and EVs rely on batteries for power, but batteries are bulky and heavy, causing the car to use up more energy. But what if a car’s bodywork was made of a strong, lightweight material that could store and discharge electrical energy just as a conventional battery does? In pursuing this goal, researchers at the Imperial College London are developing a key building block for the hybrid car of the future, and the implications go way beyond automobiles – think wafer thin mobile phones and laptops that don’t need a separate battery because they draw power from their casing.

Imperial College has been working on the idea as part of a €3.4 million 3 year European Union-funded project which includes researchers from a number of European partners, including automotive firm Volvo. The prototype material is a composite of carbon fibers and a polymer resin which can store and discharge large amounts of energy much faster than conventional batteries. Unlike these there is little degradation in the material over time because there is no chemical process involved, and this also aids more rapid recharging. It is lightweight and strong enough to make car body parts, and could be plugged into the household power supply for recharging.

Read more . . .

Related articles by Zemanta

• Video: Volvo helping to develop new material that could be both battery and bodywork (autoblog.com)
• Researchers say new material could let cars be powered by their bodywork (engadget.com)

Random Posts:

• Going, going, gone
• How To Deflect Asteroids And Save Earth
• G.D.P. R.I.P.
• Battery-powered Vehicles To Be Revolutionized By New Technology
• Paying to save trees: Last gasp for the forest

Related posts:

1. Battery-powered Vehicles To Be Revolutionized By New Technology
2. Building a Better Lithium Ion Battery
3. New solar battery technology offers household power at 2.5c per kW/h
4. Dip Ordinary Paper Into Ink Infused With Nanotubes and Nanowires to Create an Instant Battery
5. When an Electric Car Dies, What Will Happen to the Battery?

Tags: auto bodywork, car body, carbon fibers, composite works, conventional batteries, conventional battery, hybrid car, hybrid cars, imperial college london, lightweight material, polymer resin, prototype material, volvo

This entry was posted on Monday, February 8th, 2010 at 9:25 am and is filed under Automotive, Cutting-edge Research, Innovation, Project Energy, gizmag. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.