The Electric: Signs of Progress Toward Electric Airliners

In 2011, the U.S. Energy Department, building on advances in battery technology over the prior three decades, devised a road map for the development of cheap and powerful lithium-ion batteries that would make electric vehicles competitive with combustion ones. It set specific, super-stretch goals for cost and capacity. The resulting batteries power virtually every commercial EV on the planet, all invented in American labs.

Now the department, with help, is taking on an even more ambitious goal: batteries to power electric airliners. These won’t be four-person flying taxis. The aim is a 100-seat electric plane that can fly 700 miles and displace the larger, kerosene-fueled Boeing 737 and Airbus A320 narrow body jets that currently comprise about 80% of all commercial flights.