Auto manufacturer Chrysler said this week it has chosen A123Systems, a Watertown company based on technology developed at MIT, to make batteries for its new Envi line of electric and hybrid cars.

A123Systems was co-founded in 2001 by Yet-Ming Chiang, the Kyocera Professor of Ceramics in MIT’s Department of Materials Science and Engineering. Several of the company’s key early employees also came from MIT.

For more, see the MIT News Office.

Prof. Gerd Ceder will discuss the “battery beltway” research on NPR’s Talk of the Nation “Science Friday” on March 13. His segment will begin about 2:20, Eastern time.

Update: Link to the segment.

MIT engineers have created a kind of beltway that allows for the rapid transit of electrical energy through a well-known battery material, an advance that could usher in smaller, lighter batteries — for cell phones and other devices — that could recharge in seconds rather than hours.

The work could also allow for the quick recharging of batteries in electric cars, although that particular application would be limited by the amount of power available to a homeowner through the electric grid.

The work, led by Gerbrand Ceder, the Richard P. Simmons Professor of Materials Science and Engineering, is reported in the March 12 issue of Nature.

See the MIT News Office for the full story. Learn more about the Ceder Group’s research.

Update: The story has been covered in

the Boston Globe

Technology Review

the Times, UK

Scientific American

IEEE Spectrum

the BBC

Forbes

Discover Magazine

The Spring 2009 issue of Spectrum reports on Jing Cheng’s research in Prof. Kimerling’s group. The thermophotovoltaic (TPV) cell generates energy not from sunlight, but from the infrared radiation emitted by industrial waste heat. The Kimerling group research is aiming to develop a cheaper and more efficient TPV cell.

New battery technology using all-liquid active materials has the potential to be cheaper and last longer than today’s batteries. See Technology Review for the full story and an interview with Prof. Sadoway.