BMW’s head of marketing, Ian Robertson, has said the partnership between BMW and Toyota has already heralded “big steps” in battery technology,
“We’ve been genuinely impressed by the speed and quality of the learnings,” said Robertson. “The teams are working very well together. We are making some big steps, especially in battery performance and efficiency. We are now looking at how we can use the learnings together, because there’s no question they will make electric cars far more attractive.”
The two firms announced they would jointly research a lithium-air battery back in January. A lithium-air battery has its anode filled with lithium, and cathode with air. Theoretically, the battery can store more than 5,000 watt-hours per kilogram. (A123 M1 cells are around 120 wh/kg).
Ian Robertson was quoted as saying during the launch of the BMW i3 he expect the i3 to be powered by a 320 km (200 mile) range Lithium-Air Battery by 2017.
Source: Autocar
