Google developing better batteries: Report

The speed at which development has taken place in the smart devices over the last few years is simply phenomenal, but a key component of these smart devices still lags behind. Yes, we are talking about the batteries. Apart from the marginal software-based optimisations, all device manufacturers can do these days is pack a bigger battery to offer more up-time as there are simply no breakthroughs happening in the battery tech.

Now, The Wall Street Journal is reporting that Google has entered the fray to develop better batteries. The company has tasked a team led by former Apple Inc. battery expert Dr. Ramesh Bhardwaj in its Google X labs to come up with new battery technologies. The team was originally set-up in late-2012 to test batteries from other makers for Google devices, but the search giant changed its mandate a year later to look for new technologies that can be developed within the company.

The team is small but that’s how most projects work in Google X Labs. If it is able to come up with some significant results, Google will surely expand them and move them outside Google X.

According WSJ sources, Dr. Bhardwaj’s team is trying to advance lithium-ion technology and the cutting-edge solid-state batteries for consumer devices. Other details are not available at this point, but Google will let us (and the world) know once it has something concrete to share.