The main reasons why supercapacitors have not been widely adopted in the automotive field are their low energy density, high cost, and insufficient technical maturity. Although supercapacitors have advantages such as fast charging and discharging, high power density, and long cycle life (up to 10,000 times or more), their manufacturing costs are high, mainly limited by materials and processes, resulting in overall economics being inferior to lithium-ion batteries. In addition, supercapacitors have a high self-discharge rate, with rapid power loss when idle, and current technology has not fully solved system integration issues (such as thermal management and compatibility with existing batteries). However, supercapacitors perform excellently in specific scenarios such as braking energy recovery and instantaneous power supplementation (e.g., acceleration or climbing), and are often used as auxiliary energy sources in conjunction with lithium-ion batteries. In the future, with breakthroughs in technologies such as nanomaterials, if progress can be made in energy density and cost, supercapacitors may play a greater role in the automotive field.
