Apple is reportedly working on next-generation batteries with increased performance and lifespan that could be commercially deployed on mobile products as soon as 2025, reads a new machine-translated report from the Korean publication ET News.
The project is said to have begun in 2018 and is backed by executives and engineers recruited from other battery engineering companies. One of the project leaders is reportedly a former Samsung SDI executive, which is Samsung’s battery and electronic materials division.
The report notes that the project, which has been in active research for several years, focuses on the development of new and current materials that make up the battery’s cathode and anode. Apple’s goal from this project is to develop an overhauled battery design that dramatically improves battery life and maximum charging capacity.
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Apple is reportedly exploring carbon nanotubes as a new conductive material as part of its battery composition alongside other elements like nickel, cobalt, manganese, and aluminum. Carbon nanotubes have long been the subject of research for energy uses due to their strong properties even when used in small quantities.
Apple is also looking to replace graphite with silicon as an anode material for the battery, the report adds. Silicon has many advantages over graphite, including an increased battery capacity by holding way more lithium ions in addition to a faster charging time. However, silicon expands as the battery charges which can fracture and damage the battery in the long run, but ET News adds that Apple has reportedly found a way to overcome this limitation.
While Apple plans to deploy its new battery chemistry across all of its mobile products, ET News reports that the company is primarily interested in deploying its in-house batteries for mixed-reality applications, presumably for future iterations of Vision Pro. Apple could be looking to maximize battery life as much as possible on its headset through its external battery while still maintaining a compact design.
Apple says that lithium-ion batteries on all iPhones are designed to maintain 80% of their original charging capacity after 500 charge cycles. The company has included new features for all iPhone 15 models that help users better understand their battery performance including limiting charging past 80% and a native battery cycle count.
