Toyota and Nissan have released that they are on their way to innovating new technology for batteries that can significantly impact the making of electrical vehicle batteries moving forward.
Toyota's method to making batteries better is by replacing the lithium electrolyte with a magnesium based one. An electrolyte is a chemical medium that allows the flow of electrical charge between the cathode (negative) and anode (positive). Toyota believes the two advantages to using magnesium are that it allows for denser energy storage and is safer in comparison to lithium. The only issue is that Toyota says it may take 20 years to bring the technology to a mass scale which will mean we won't see this for quite a while.
On the other hand, Nissan's plan to improve battery performance in electric vehicles is by using an additive "amorphous silicon monoxide" that enables batteries to contain more lithium ions. In turn it would upgrade the overall performance. Nissan believes this chemistry can create longer-range EV batteries.
Although Nissan's technology isn't projected to take as long as Toyota to be brought to a mass scale, don't expect to see it for quite some time as well.