Does this mean that cars (and so forth) will some day be powered by batteries that never need to be recharged? Or is that pie-in-the-sky?
Well...yes... -- as long as you don't use them...
No. You pull energy out of a battery to run a motor, you’ve used it. But it DOES mean efficient, hi-capacity batteries with rapid charging to run electric vehicles. And without self-draining overnight. . .
No, it would mean that much less of each charge would be lost by leakage before being used. We would be able to use the new generation of supercapacitors in place of inefficient chemical batteries. Capacitors the size of AA cells that hold 3300 farads are already on the market, but the charge leaks away fairly quickly.
Batteries that are used in any application will always need to be re-charged - that's a fundamental law. The 'battery' part mentioned refers to the possibility that some 'new' kind of insulation from this materials-discovery may someday allow a battery to be made that will 'hold its' charge' for a very-long-time - like 30 years or so, unlike todays' 'Duracell', that, even if never used, will go-dead in about 8 years.
Hope that helps, babe ............. FRegards