Most Graphenes are currently very expensive as are most new breakthrough technologies or materials. When mass produced, price will quickly drop. Both ultra capacitors and next generation batteries could make use of this material to achieve higher performances.

E-storage units will evolve much faster in coming years with more R&D and as demand multiplies. Price per Kwh will go down with mass production facilities in many countries.

The current decade may very be called the e-storage units golden years or decade. We will all be surprised at what will be available in 2020+.

Other new technologies such as high performance 3D TVs, low cost color e-books, higher performance lower cost solar cells etc may be overshadowed by high performance, highway capable, lower cost BEVs by the end of the current decade.

This is REALLY BIG NEWS.

EVs were good enough with NiMh batteries.
86wh/kg is not that bad at all considering the features. Li-io tech is only between 150 and 250 wh/kg.

If this capacitor is comparable to other supercapacitors, then an EV with this would:
- Accelerate like a rocket (great power density)
- Never require battery replacement
- Regenerate 90% of braking energy

@joewilder
It seems that graphene will be cheap to produce:
http://www.physorg.com/news187448260.html

Outstanding performance which is above NiMH level(>130 kW/kg) and hopefully GM/Oil can't bury.

In mass production, this electric storage could be a fraction the weight and cost of present alternatives.

Imagine zipping between malls and McD charge stations/plugins with E-bike/light vehicle 1-2 minute charging free, indefinitely, and nearly maintenance-free.

If true, watch for massive illegal big auto/oil actions attacking this transportation advance.

Like murdering 123 medically uninsured Americans daily, the US has the $100's/hr criminal lawyers and politicians to 'get er done'.

I've wanted to say this fore years and it still might be a bit premature but.....

Game Over

This is a huge breakthrough. Even if the cost seems high upfront, the high cycle nature of supercapacitors makes them financeable.

One drawback seems to be capacity dependence on ambient temperature but that may be solved with good insulation and it may not a problem at all for warm climates.

If the cycle life is similar to normal supercaps (in the millions) we have a HUGE breakthrough here because the BIGGEST problem of EV batteries are solved:
- low cycle life
- slow recharge / low brake regeneration ration

The relatively low energy density is NOT a very big problem because it can be circumvented with good engineering and organizational solutions.

And if the low-cost graphene productions work out (which does seem to be the case), we also solve the problem of EXPENSIVE batteries.

This energy density is about the same as Altairnano's (45 wh/kg) Titanium quick-charging Li-Ion batteries, which also have long life. But, it seems like the graphene capacitor would have deeper discharge and lower cost.

I predict that we will never hear of EEStor again. ;-)

"85.6 Wh/kg at room temperature and 136 Wh/kg at 80 °C"

Should one infer that performance continues to drop with ambient temperature?

Do UCs generate heat while discharging as some batteries do?

In order to extend range would it make sense to super-insulate the capacitor pack and heat it up?

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And with the ability to charge very rapidly, it would seem that a ~50 mile range would be fine for many drivers, especially two-car households. One would not need to be too concerned if they could fill up during a very short stop. (Bring on the robotic chargers.)

SAFETY?? And within the system - not as spectacular:

"the system-level specific energy of graphene-based supercapacitors can exceed 21.4-42.8 Wh/kg..."

Still, looks promising.

Power electronics to handle a 50% + voltage drop should not be a major challenge. Inverters can be built to handle that and much more.

The real challenges are:

- high enough energy density
- quicker charge/discharge time
- lower cost.
- improved durability.

Graphene ultra caps (or batteries with similar technologies) could address all the above before 2020. That would mean the end of ICE cars and small trucks.

If something sounds too good to be true... Wow, lots of people jumping the gun on this. IT'S A PAPER. Wait until it's been proven through real life testing and extensive abuse before declaring the end of all other storage regimes.

Yes, this is promising and exciting. Don't forget, it's still in the laboratory stage. Cost, durability, safety, scalability, constructability, cold weather performance... lots to be verified before this can be considered a real technology.

My caution aside, it sure seems like a good UC like this could mate well to a bank of batteries to allow better regen from braking.