The development of battery technology has been comparatively stagnant for quite some time. While there has been plenty of promising research, nothing big has come to fruition, which is why each generation of electric vehicles or smartphones barely has an increase in battery performance. Fortunately, a startup by the name of Sakti3 has had a significant breakthrough in battery technology, one which has prompted Dyson to invest $15 million in the company.
A lithium-ion battery that stores twice as much energy is a step closer to commercialization thanks to a deal with the U.K. home appliance company Dyson. The startup Sakti3 announced today that it has signed a joint development agreement with Dyson, which makes vacuum cleaners and other appliances, to incorporate its batteries into new products. The companies didn’t say when those products will be available, but one could be a cordless vacuum cleaner. Dyson also announced a $15 million investment in the startup. Sakti3 uses new materials and manufacturing techniques to achieve higher energy density. The company’s battery does away with the flammable liquid electrolyte used in conventional lithium-ion batteries, which makes it feasible to use a different set of high-energy storage materials (see “Solid-State Batteries” and “A Battery for Electronics That Lasts Twice as Long”). The technology could have many applications, including electric vehicles, the range of which is limited by the size and cost of conventional batteries.