Currently, the more battery your electric vehicle packs, the more confident you get about its range and power. After all, size does matter when it comes to the battery pack: the cost and weight of which now nearly defines the electric vehicle market. Well, Volvo is now about to change all of that.

Volvo has joined hands with eight other European organizations to develop a new type of car battery, which might one day hold the potential of taking the place of the steel itself used to fabricate the car chassis. The three-year project, launched by the Imperial College in London and funded by the European Union, is based on the concept of a composite blend of carbon fibers and polymer resin that can store and charge more energy faster than conventional batteries.

The superior strength and flexibility of this material would allow it to be bent into any shape to take the place of steel panels on the cars, and its lightness would signify a lighter body structure for the vehicles. It would further cut down the weight by doing away with the heavy batteries parked on board the hybrid and plug-in vehicles.

Now, a lot remains to be seen, including how viable the material will be for large-scale industrial production, if the project’s ambitions of proceeding to treat the spare tire well in a similar way work out, and how well they can convert on the EUR3.5 million ($4.6 million) funding from the European Union.

via worldcarfans