Honda’s announced it’s just completed development of a new type of high-density batteries that use a fluoride ion instead of a traditional lithium ion, resulting in almost 10 times more energy retention.

The press release from Honda was pretty dense as well, but from what we could tell, previous fluoride-ion batteries (FIB) needed to be kept at 150 degrees Celsius or higher to conduct properly.

The newly developed FIBs, engineered in a joint effort between Honda and NASA’s Jet Propulsion Lab, are able to operate at much lower temperatures.

The low atomic weight of fluoride also means the density of the batteries is increased, resulting in the ability to store much more energy.

“Fluoride-ion batteries offer a promising new battery chemistry with up to ten times more energy density than currently available lithium batteries,” said Dr. Christopher Brooks, chief scientist at the Honda Research Institute, and a co-author of the paper outlining the development.

“Unlike Li-ion batteries, FIBs do not pose a safety risk due to overheating, and obtaining the source materials for FIBs creates considerably less environmental impact than the extraction process for lithium and cobalt.”

FIBs are a strong contender for the next generation of battery technology, and the significant reduction of operating temperatures thanks to this research is making a pretty strong case for it.

If you are a particularly brainy person, you can check out the full scientific published in Science here.