Anyone who’s ever had their car battery go flat on them will know just how vital a piece of equipment is. It’s a little troubling then that most of the advances in the space have been incremental, rather than big leaps forward. When it comes to new cars, that’s slowly changing. But what about the battery in your existing car?
Well that’s where a company called Ohm comes in. The startup has developed a battery which it says is longer-lasting, kinder to the environment, and never needs jump-starting.
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According to the company, its battery can last twice as long as conventional car batteries, weighs less than three kilogrammes, and contains no lead or acid.
Perhaps most crucially though, Ohm claims that the battery will automatically turn itself off when it gets critically low, and then switch itself back on when you go to start your car.
It also reportedly contains an array of intelligent electronics which “ensure continuous and optimal performance”.
So how does it work?
Well, instead of the traditional lead and acid combo, Ohm uses a bank of supercapacitors to start the engine and a bank of smaller batteries to keep things ticking over.
The smart electronics meanwhile mean that the battery looks set to be a great option for the easily distracted. If you leave your lights on for instance, the battery will just switch itself off when it gets near the point where it wouldn’t be able to turn itself back on again.
There is one downside though. Because Ohm’s battery only has 10 amp hours of reserve power, compared with the 45 hours an ordinary car battery has, you won’t be able to keep your lights on or listen to the stereo for as long with your car switched off.
Typically you’d be able to do so for about three hours. In the Ohm, that goes down to about an hour.
Still, being able to shed 15kgs has to make a difference.
