Project Manager Mareike Wolter, presented the battery concept that, in theory, would enable a Tesla Model S to travel up to 1,000 km instead of current 540 km (335 miles – 100D), using the same battery pack footprint.

The solution apparently is a completely new battery design that wouldn't any waste space on inactive components in the system.

"To do so, they got rid of the housings that encase individual batteries and turned to a thin, sheet-like design instead of a cylinder. Their metallic sheet is coated with an energy-storage material made from powdered ceramic mixed with a polymer binder. One side serves as the cathode, and other side serves as the anode.

The researchers stacked several of these so-called bipolar electrodes one on top of the other, like sheets of paper in a ream, separating the electrodes by thin layers of electrolyte and a material that prevents electrical charges from shorting out the whole system.