Argonne National Labs increased the capacity of a regular lithium-ion battery by 30%. They company claims that those batteries are not only longer-lasting but also saver.
The key to the massive improvement is a new material which replaces the so far used cobalt oxide: partially electrically inactive and manganese oxide-based electrodes.
Argonne apparently licensed the manufacturer Toda Kogyo (Japan) to produce some 30 Mio notebook batteries per year. Simultaneously Argonne is still trying to improve charging quality, as they work fine for notebooks and cellphones, the battery will need to discharge at least three times faster to work in a car.

(via www.extremetech.com)