85-135 wh/kg is above nickel metal hydride and rights under lithium iron phosphate cells. This is with the exact kind of electrodes this process is said to double the energy density. That would put them firmly in the NMC cell range but with hundreds of thousands of cycles and temperature ranges from -20 to plus 100C.
https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/nl102661q
A free copy is available here under his ref pdf.
For automotive applications you don’t need a lot of ultra caps to double or triple fuel economy. To accelerate a typical sedan from zero to 60 mph takes about 600 watt hours and due to physics to slow the same mass down also takes 600 wh of braking energy. This means with a ultra cap of only 1000 watt hours or 1 kWh you can capture all the energy needed via regen braking to stop a car and then accelerate it back up to speed minus ten percent or so for friction and magnetic losses. This is precisely why a Toyota Corolla hhybrid gets 65 mpg in grid lock traffic and the ICE version returns 25 or less. I personally have had long term rentals of each and in LA or Houston grid lock the hybrid was 50-60 mpg over ten to 15 mile trips typical of urban drives in either city.
Having ultra caps with lithium ion level energy density would revolutionize the hybrid industry and also every electric metro system. Ever wonder why the NYC subways are 110+F in the stations in the summer time? It’s because the trains use friction brakes to come to a stop at each station and all that energy is released as heat you guessed it right into the air in the stations and tunnels. Having ultra caps on the trains to capture the 600V DC from the motors would drastically lower the heat loads in the tunnels and stations. Right now the trains cannot push current back to the DC third rail as the rectifiers in the modern system and the rotary converters still in use from the early 1900s n some parts of the system are not bidirectional every joule is dissipated as heat,ozone and brake dust its one of the characteristic smells that makes the NYC subways smell like subway there is no other smell like it its singular you have smelled it or you have not.
Yes, there is no way I would buy an EV, but I would buy the right plug in hybrid for some of those reasons. Haven’t found one I like, though.
“...the electrification of the Milwaukee Road was a significant investment, with the mountainous terrain and the possibility of hydroelectric power being key factors in the decision to electrify the new line. The section from Harlowton, Montana, to Avery, Idaho, was fully turned over to electric operation in late 1916.”
Regenerative braking, back in the day, without batteries....