THERE’S more than meets the eye in the battery-powered model car sitting in Emile Greenhalgh’s laboratory at Imperial College London.

The model has been modified by the researcher’s team to increase the amount of electrical energy it can store — but not by installing a bigger battery. Instead, the team added body components that double as capacitors, devices that hold an electrical charge until they are tapped.

“Although the energies they provide are fairly modest,” Dr. Greenhalgh, a composites expert, said, “they have shown that our material could be used to smooth the demands on the battery, thus enhancing its life.”

Designers of full-scale electric vehicles are working toward the same goal: battery reserves need to be extended because today’s technology typically delivers only enough power for about 100 miles of driving. Larger batteries are not necessarily the solution, either. Even the most advanced designs weigh hundreds of pounds, reducing the vehicle’s range.