Researchers at KAIST, working with LG Energy Solution, have developed a lithium metal battery capable of enabling an electric vehicle (EV) to travel more than 800 kilometers (km)/497 miles on a single charge, with a recharge time of just 12 minutes. The battery is also projected to last more than 300,000 km/186,000 miles, addressing one of the key barriers to commercialization.
The research team behind the lithium metal battery breakthrough. Front row, from left: Dr. Hyeokjin Kwon (Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering), Professor Hee Tak Kim, and Professor Seong Su Kim (Mechanical Engineering). (Image: KAIST)
Conventional lithium-ion batteries typically max out around 600 km/373 miles of driving range.
Lithium metal batteries replace the graphite anode with pure lithium, which increases energy density and reduces weight, but they face a major challenge: dendrite formation during fast charging. Dendrites are needle-like structures that can pierce the separator, cause short circuits, and degrade performance.
The KAIST and LG Energy Solution Frontier Research Lab team identified that non-uniform cohesion at the lithium interface during charging drives dendrite formation.
To overcome this, they designed a liquid electrolyte with an anion structure that weakly binds to lithium ions, resulting in a more uniform interface and stable lithium plating. This suppresses dendrite growth, enabling ultra-fast charging without compromising durability.
The team reports that the new cell architecture improves energy density and charge efficiency, representing a step forward in commercializing lithium metal batteries.
According to LG Energy Solution’s Chief Technology Officer Je-Young Kim, the collaboration between industry and academia over the past four years has yielded meaningful results for next-generation batteries. KAIST Professor Hee Tak Kim noted that the research provides a foundation for overcoming one of the most significant obstacles to lithium metal battery adoption in electric vehicles.
The results were published in Nature Energy on September 3rd, 2025, under the title Covariance of interphasic properties and fast chargeability of energy-dense lithium metal batteries.
Filed Under: Charging, Technology News