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Imagine recharging your cell phone to full capacity in less than 10 seconds, your laptop in 2 minutes, and your electric car in less than 5 minutes.  That breakthrough battery has arrived. 

From AFP/Google:

Think of an electric car that can accelerate swiftly to cruising speed, laptop computers that can recharge in a couple of minutes rather than hours and a generation of super-miniature mobile phones.

That's the vision sketched on Wednesday by a pair of scientists in the United States, unveiling an invention that they say could lead to a smaller, lighter and more power-packed lithium battery than anything available today.

A small cellphone battery can be recharged in just 10 seconds thanks to the improved ion flow, they report in the British journal Nature.

A large battery that would be used to power a plug-in hybrid electric car could be recharged in just five minutes, compared to up to six or eight hours at present. But this would only be possible if a beefed-up electricity supply were available.

The invention, which was supported by US government funds, has already been licensed by two companies, MIT said.

Because the material involved is not new -- the difference is the way it is made -- "the work could make it into the marketplace within two to three years," it said.