The drive for commercial releases of electric cars has launched a spate of announcements about battery technology. The weight of existing batteries, the toxic chemicals employed in their manufacture and the limitations on the amount of power they can store makes the battery a limiting factor in the widespread adoption of electric vehicles. This week alone, announcements have been made about an air fuelled battery, sulphur lithium batteries and a ‘spin’ battery that uses the magnetic fields in atoms. Major investments in recharging stations have been made in Israel and Australia in anticipation of the release of electric cars and Warren Buffet has invested in a Chinese company that plans the widespread release of an electric car in the US next February.