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Cell sensor: Small fiber-optic sensors like the one shown here, developed at PARC, could help makers of electric cars get the most out of the vehicles’ batteries.

Electric-vehicle battery packs could shrink 20 to 30 percent, and make electric vehicles more affordable, if new sensors were developed to monitor the cells in a pack, according to the U.S. government’s Advanced Research Projects Agency for Energy (ARPA-E). The agency says such sensors could have an even greater effect on hybrid gas-electric vehicle batteries, causing them to shrink by half.

Better sensors could tell what’s happening inside each of the hundreds of cells that make up an electric vehicle’s battery pack, allowing automakers to safely store more energy in them. A $30 million ARPA-E program that’s been underway for about a year is seeking to develop the necessary technology.

To read the full, original article click on this link: Sensors Could Make Electric-Car Batteries Smaller and Cheaper | MIT Technology Review