Skip to Content

Do-It-Yourself Plug-ins

December 18, 2007

Hybrid cars that can recharge their batteries by plugging into electrical outlets could enable nearly gas-free commutes and even provide extra storage on the electrical grid, but they’re not yet commercially available. This year, however, Toyota Prius owners will be able to turn their cars into plug-ins by installing a new battery pack from A123 Systems, a company based in Watertown, MA. The pack stores five kilowatt-hours of electricity and uses a new nanostructured electrode material that makes high-­capacity lithium-ion batteries safe enough for automotive use.

Product: Hymotion L5
Cost: Under $10,000
Source: www.hymotion.com
Companies: A123

Keep Reading

Most Popular

Large language models can do jaw-dropping things. But nobody knows exactly why.

And that's a problem. Figuring it out is one of the biggest scientific puzzles of our time and a crucial step towards controlling more powerful future models.

OpenAI teases an amazing new generative video model called Sora

The firm is sharing Sora with a small group of safety testers but the rest of us will have to wait to learn more.

Google’s Gemini is now in everything. Here’s how you can try it out.

Gmail, Docs, and more will now come with Gemini baked in. But Europeans will have to wait before they can download the app.

This baby with a head camera helped teach an AI how kids learn language

A neural network trained on the experiences of a single young child managed to learn one of the core components of language: how to match words to the objects they represent.

Stay connected

Illustration by Rose Wong

Get the latest updates from
MIT Technology Review

Discover special offers, top stories, upcoming events, and more.

Thank you for submitting your email!

Explore more newsletters

It looks like something went wrong.

We’re having trouble saving your preferences. Try refreshing this page and updating them one more time. If you continue to get this message, reach out to us at customer-service@technologyreview.com with a list of newsletters you’d like to receive.