Global Soken showed a Japanese car converted to full electric power train at Plug-In 2008 this week. We instantly thought of the old radio drama The Green Hornet  when we first saw the lowered body and blacked out windows.

Henry showed us the firm's proprietary prototype battery configuration in the Green Hornet. It has more electric power per cubic foot of battery space, than anyone else in the marketplace.

So how is it done? The exact electrochemical mechanisms in the GS Ionic Liquid battery electrolyte is proprietary. However, a lack of lithium salts resists formation of a Solid Electrolyte Interface (SEI), a feature of conventional Li-ion chemistry which negatively impacts longevity.

Batteries containing GS Ionic Liquid have shown dramatic improvements in cycle life over those containing conventional electrolyte solutions. The conventional Li-ion battery electrolyte has lithium salts such as lithium hexafluorophosphate (LIPF6) and solvents such as ethyl carbonate (EC) and dimethyl carbonate (DMC).

Yes, Henry Mori actually does use those big words in his conversations.

Everybody wants a battery with long cycle life especially for use in mobile phones, but the long life-cycle is much more important in demanding automotive applications. Nobody wants to push their electric car up a hill to get home.

Okay, so they will last longer. What else makes a GS Ionic Liquid battery special? No thermal events - which means no more of those YouTube videos of your mobile phone, laptop, or electric vehicle becoming fiery like a BBQ pit.

As seen in the graph above, the battery containing GS Ionic Liquid as an electrolyte significantly outperformed its conventional counterpart.

Let's go through the numbers in the graph: At a constant discharge rate of 160mAh , the original Li-ion battery only yielded 800mAh of electrical capacity versus over 1700mAh for the battery containing GS Ionic Liquid. The GS Ionic Liquid batteries also sustain higher voltages for a longer period of time, meaning more use out of a single charge for a given application.

These tests were conducted using a typical off-the-shelf cell phone Li-ion battery, modified by the addition of GS’s Ionic Liquid to the existing electrolyte or its entire replacement, as shown by the blue and red lines respectively. Thus, you have more battery for more hours of use.

GS Ionic Liquid isn’t just for small applications such as cell phone batteries either. Their test results indicate that the increased performance is just as pronounced for larger Li-ion batteries, such as those anticipated for use in automotive applications.

Most important thing for the average user is the faster charging time. The graph below shows that you can get complete charging in just over an hour compared to nearly two hours with a conventional Li-ion battery. That is what will get the most attention from the mobile phone and electric car developers.

So what is the next step for Global Soken and their superior electrolyte? They are working with the US Advanced Battery Consortium Consortium (USABC). This organization’s goals are to make sure the battery for your vehicles all connect up properly. For all electric vehicles (EV) and plug-in Hybrid Electric Vehicles (PHEV) that means the connections will be standardized. The data output from the battery package to the car’s controller will be consistent across all manufacturers. So, you will have accurate information about battery charging and discharging rates. Everybody wants to know if they have another 150 miles of driving left before they must think about recharging their battery.

Global Soken electrolyte is being tested by several large battery companies. Henri Mori says they think an ideal choice would be a California-based battery manufacturer because that is the hot spot of the EV and PHEV development world. X