#battery-testing

#battery-testing

Battery degradation is inevitable. But as technology advances and carmakers come up with better ways to improve battery life, it's slowly becoming a non-issue. That's what the statistics say, and that's what I discovered after doing a battery capacity test on my own 2023 Volvo V90 plug-in hybrid wagon, which I've owned for almost a year. My car is rare, and that's one of the reasons why I bought it in the first place.

Last month, my colleague Liz Lopatto explained how a gummy bear battery bank was taking over the ultralight backpacking world. I'm talking full-grown, outdoorsy adults nerding out about gummy bear merch beating the battery pros at their own game! Liz and I quickly agreed: We should put it to the test. Could the gummy bear company truly have the best ultralight battery, and could I bring some hard data to prove it?

For The Verge's exclusive tour of these secretive labs, I watch researchers peer at cell chemistries down to the atomistic level, using electron microscopes. Others work at a larger scale, all the way up to the Megashaker. Inside a cavernous hall, an enormous sliding test chamber envelops one of GM's double-stacked, 205-kilowatt-hour battery packs - the type that powers hulking models like the Cadillac Escalade IQ.