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Japanese group Hitachi claims that its latest lithium-ion battery has the highest power density of any so far developed.

The new battery, test samples of which will go to vehicle makers in the autumn of 2009, uses a new manganese cathode and a structure with thinner electrodes and a new power collection technology.

Hitachi says that it has a power density of 4,500 W/kg, making it 1.7 times the output of the company's present mass-produced automotive Li-ion batteries.

Hitachi has been making Li-ion batteries for vehicles since 2000 and has sold about 600,000. Its present second-generation batteries deliver a power density of 2,600 W/kg, and third generation devices producing 3,000 W/kg will go into full production next year.

The battery goes on show for the first time this week at an automotive engineering technology exhibition in Japan.