A number of automakers are working to improve hybrid efficiency thru lithium-ion battery development in upcoming models. Could this type of battery develoment be short lived with the emergence of silver-zinc battery technology? Remember there have been issues with lithium-ion batteries in the consumer electronics, these batteries can get "hot" during use and their lithium-ion liquids are highly flammable! OOPS, so is gasoline!

The emergence of silver-zinc battery technology might be positioned to replace current hybrid battery technology in the future.

 

There appear to be a couple of drawbacks with silver oxide (silver-zinc) battery technology. ZPower may not be telling all in its effort to promote their batteries.

First is the current cost of silver which ZPower hopes to solve by offering recycling incentives to recover the silver. Still an obstacle is the initial cost of the batteries. A laptop battery uses a significant amount of silver. Enough so that the initial cost of the battery is significantly higher than li-on batteries. The amount of silver required to put enough batteries in a hybrid car is staggering.

Second is life-cycle; generally the life of a silver oxide battery is 5 years. After they die they tend to leak hazardous substances like mercury. If not recycled, the mercury adds to the contamination of our ground water. ZPower claims that their technology is mercury free, but from what I've been able to determine of silver oxide battery construction they require mercury. MSDS sheets all list aprox. 25mg of mercury per cell.