A company from Australia called Graphene Manufacturing Group (GMG) has announced some interesting test results from aluminum-ion battery testing. This new type of rechargeable battery can charge ten times faster than current lithium-ion units. While charging significantly faster, the new battery type also lasts longer and doesn’t require a cooling system to operate. //

The company has been testing coin cell prototypes of the aluminum-ion battery ahead of delivering them to manufacturing partners and has disclosed some performance figures. The battery offers a power density of around 7000 W/kg, which is a massive amount of power closing in on the power density provided by ultracapacitors capable of 12,000-14,000 W/kg.

The new type of battery has an energy density of 150-160 Wh/kg, which is about 60 percent of the energy per weight of the best lithium-ion batteries available today. That spec means these batteries aren’t well-suited to electric vehicles at first glance. //

The batteries can charge extremely fast, with GMG saying that a smartphone running an aluminum-ion battery could charge fully in one to five minutes. What that would mean if aluminum-ion batteries were used in an electric vehicle is that it would only drive about 60 percent the distance of a comparable vehicle with the lithium-ion battery, but its charge speed may be so fast less driving range wouldn’t matter.