100,000 mile testing of an ultra capacitor mated to standard lead acid batteries.

An ultra capacitor buffers energy to the battery supply allowing energy surges to be more efficient and improving battery life by reducing shock. Using a known battery type cuts cost.

The Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization in Australia has been running a Prius equipped with lead acid batteries and an ultra capacitor.

The UltraBattery combines a supercapacitor and a lead acid battery in a single unit, creating a hybrid car battery that lasts longer, costs less and is more powerful than current technologies used in hybrid electric vehicles (HEVs).

“Previous tests show the UltraBattery has a life cycle that is at least four times longer and produces 50 per cent more power than conventional battery systems. It’s also about 70 per cent cheaper than the batteries currently used in HEVs,”, according to David Lamb, who leads low emissions transport research with the Energy Transformed National Research Flagship. sciencedaily.com