A lithium-ion upgrade for your car, but not the one you’re expecting

Enlarge / The Antigravity battery in place, with the Bluetooth monitor dongle. (credit: Bradley Iger)

From iPhones to Teslas, lithium-ion battery technology is ubiquitous in today's world. It's the chemistry of choice for a wide range of applications due to its high charge density relative to its mass, which in turn yields things like high-end laptops that can run for more than 10 hours on a single charge while weighing less than four pounds.

But what about that lead-acid lump hanging out in your car's engine bay? The origins of that battery date back to the mid-19th century, and yet even today you'll still find this archaic tech serving up electrons in the vast majority of vehicles on the road-including EVs.

In recent years, some automakers have started to make lithium-ion starter batteries available in their vehicles, but the batteries have largely been limited to expensive optional offerings in high-end sports cars from companies like Porsche and McLaren. Antigravity wants to change that.

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