Electrochemical power sources. 1. Rechargeable batteries

Abstract

The pressing need to alleviate our urban airquality has provided the impetus for electric vehicles. Over the years, a great deal of research and development work has been carried out, and is still underway, on all aspects of electric vehicles especially on improving the power sources, namely the re-chargeable batteries, fuel cells and electrochemical supercapacitors. The developments in rechargeable batteries for electric vehicles are reflected in this part of the article while fuel cells and electrochemical supercapacitors will be described in Part 2 of the article.