The Energizer (News - Alert) bunny will die of old age before it stops going with these batteries.

We remember about 20 years ago we thought it would be good to invest in battery manufacturers, since we realized how much we were spending on them, and given the rate of gadget development, we didn't see any letup. We still invest a significant portion of our disposable income on batteries.

Anyway, there might be a way to avoid continual battery purchases: Engadget is reporting that Nikkei said Eamex in Osaka, Japan, "has developed a lithium-ion battery that will last some twenty years of regular use."

In current designs, Engadget said, "the tin that's used for the battery's negative electrode weakens through continual charging and recharging. The new design, however, calls for tin-coated resin that stabilizes the electrode and prevents deterioration."

Industry observer Chris Brandrick said the Japanese research and development firm "claims to have found a new way to increase the typical average life of a high-capacity lithium-ion battery," using "new techniques such as a stabilization process of the battery's electrodes, which in-turn puts less stress on the battery's tin."

See, it's always been possible to make batteries that last ten, twenty years, but of course no battery manufacturer wants to do that -- they like seeing you back at the checkout counter every few months or so, even though many of us would gladly pay five years' worth of battery costs all at once if we got a battery that lasted five years.

"Eamex's technology is currently designed with heavy-duty batteries in mind, such as those used in electric vehicles. However, this technology should eventually find its way into smaller devices, such as cell phones, laptops, and MP3 players," Brandrick said.

And as I4U notes, "While this innovation won't improve battery life, it will drastically change battery life-span. It will also remove (or reduce) the need to fully drain your battery before recharging it in order to save capacity."