Since they are available at a low cost, providing the high current required by starter motors makes them perfect for use in motor vehicles.

The symbol for a battery in a circuit diagram. It originated as a schematic drawing of the earliest type of battery, a voltaic pile.

[23] An ideal cell has negligible internal resistance, so it would maintain a constant terminal voltage of E displaystyle mathcal E

Batteries and similar devices accept, store, and release electricity on demand. Batteries use chemistry, in the form of chemical potential, to store energy, just like many other everyday energy sources. For example, logs and oxygen both store energy in their chemical bonds until burning converts some of that chemical energy to heat. Gasoline and oxygen mixtures have stored chemical potential energy until it is converted to mechanical energy in a car engine. Similarly, for batteries to work, electricity must be converted into a chemical potential form before it can be readily stored. Batteries consist of two electrical terminals called the cathode and the anode, separated by a chemical material called an electrolyte. To accept and release energy, a battery is coupled to an external circuit.

Batteries can only provide a DC power supply that is generated from a chemical reaction that takes place within the battery. Batteries also only ever feature positive and negative terminals where the current will only ever flow in the same direction between the two terminals.

Batteries may be harmful or fatal if swallowed.[75] Small button cells can be swallowed, in particular by young children. While in the digestive tract, the battery's electrical discharge may lead to tissue damage;[76] such damage is occasionally serious and can lead to death. Ingested disk batteries do not usually cause problems unless they become lodged in the gastrointestinal tract. The most common place for disk batteries to become lodged is the esophagus, resulting in clinical sequelae.

Alessandro Volta performed an experiment in 1800 in which he observed a reaction that took place when two metals were joined together with a chemical. He was reported to have developed the first true battery with the same principle that we see in batteries today. What are batteries made of?

Standard-format batteries are inserted into battery holder in the device that uses them. When a device does not uses standard-format batteries, they are typically combined into a custom battery pack which holds multiple batteries in addition to features such as a battery management system and battery isolator which ensure that the batteries within are charged and discharged evenly.

The C-rate is a measure of the rate at which a battery is being charged or discharged. It is defined as the current through the battery divided by the theoretical current draw under which the battery would deliver its nominal rated capacity in one hour.[51] It has the units h−1. Because of internal resistance акумулатори бургас loss and the chemical processes inside the cells, a battery rarely delivers nameplate rated capacity in only one hour. Typically, maximum capacity is found at a low C-rate, and charging or discharging at a higher C-rate reduces the usable life and capacity of a battery.

New methods of reuse, such as echelon use of partly-used batteries, add to the overall utility of electric batteries, reduce energy storage costs, and also reduce pollution/emission impacts due to longer lives.

For more information on the future of supply and demand of critical minerals, refer to the Energy Technology Perspective 2023 report. 

Lithium-Metal: These batteries offer promise for powering electric vehicles that can travel further on a single charge. They are like Li-ion batteries, but with lithium metal in place of graphite anodes.

Disposable batteries typically lose 8–20% of their original charge per year when stored at room temperature (20–30 °C).[57] This is known as the "self-discharge" rate, and is due to non-current-producing "side" chemical reactions that occur within the cell even when no load is applied. The rate of side reactions is reduced for batteries stored at lower temperatures, although some can be damaged by freezing and storing in a fridge will not meaningfully prolong shelf life and risks damaging condensation.

Although early batteries were of great value for experimental purposes,[nove] in practice their voltages fluctuated and they could not provide a large current for a sustained period. The Daniell cell, invented in 1836 by British chemist John Frederic Daniell, was the first practical source of electricity, becoming an industry standard and seeing widespread adoption as a power source for electrical telegraph networks.