A Texas company called EEStor has announced a type of battery it calls an Electrical Energy Storage Unit, or EESU. It uses barium-nitrate powder and stores 10 times as much energy as a lead-acid battery, by weight. It also recharges much more quickly than lead-acid or lithium-ion batteries. EEStor claims that, using an automated production line and existing power electronics, it will initially build a 15-kilowatt-hour energy-storage system for a small electric car weighing less than 100 pounds, and with a 200-mile driving range. The vehicle, the company says, will be able to recharge in less than 10 minutes.

The company announced this week that this year it plans to begin shipping such a product to Toronto-based ZENN Motor, a maker of low-speed electric vehicles that has an exclusive license to use the EESU for small- and medium-size electric vehicles. By some estimates, it would only require $9 worth of electricity for an EESU-powered vehicle to travel 500 miles, versus $60 worth of gasoline for a combustion-engine car.