On March 11th, the world heard about a new breakthrough in lithium-ion battery technology. Researchers Gerbrand Ceder and Byoungwoo Kang created a new technique that gives lithium-ion batteries a 100 fold increase in power density. These new batteries when moved from lab to factory could allow charging at 100 times the speed and release of 100 times the power of batteries in use today.This technology may apply well to small batteries such as those in a cellphone that one could charge in 10 seconds using typical household current. To recharge an electric car using such a battery at maximum rate, though potentially only taking 5 minutes, would require much more massive currents than whats found in the typical household. But it could enable the possibility of rapid public charging stations.In general, electric vehicles (EV) need batteries with high energy density so that they are light and compact and can store many miles worth of driving energy. Power density is also needed to a lesser extent to release sufficient bursts of energy for acceleration and hill-climbing.Hybrid (HEVs) batteries need better power density to assist the gas engine in high power situations, but energy density is less important. Thus, an automotive battery is usually described in terms of power to energy ratios. A high PE is good for HEVs, EV requirements are lowest, and PHEVs are in between.GE automotive battery expert Herman Weigman told GM-Volt.com of this new breakthrough "a battery of such high power density is only of interest to HEV's (and military pulse power applications), where you need to install power capability over a 1~30 second time frame." He was less enthusiastic about its use in EVs noting "an EV is only interested in Energy Density (Wh/kg and Wh/Liter) and the cost of that energy ($/kWh)... they will never use the (new) technology."I was able to obtain a very brief Q & A with Byoungwoo Kang, the key MIT scientist who created the breakthrough battery:Our development is related to increase power density, not energy density. The energy density of our material is similar with standard LiFePO4 batteries.Under Lab conditions, we tested the cell for at least 100 cycles. At that time, there was no capacity fading.Our strategy sharply increased the power density of the LiFePO4. Also, LiFePO4 has great thermal stability (No Explosion). These properties makes our material more likely feasible for HEV or EV. However, if you see these two properties are more important than others like energy density, our materials can (be used) for portable devices.