The Powerhouse cover art

The Powerhouse

Inside the Invention of a Battery to Save the World

 Preview
Get this deal Try Premium Plus free
Offer ends 29 January 2026 at 11:59PM GMT.
Prime members: New to Audible? Get 2 free audiobooks during trial.
Just £0.99/mo for your first 3 months of Audible.
1 bestseller or new release per month—yours to keep.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, podcasts, and Originals.
Auto-renews at £8.99/mo after 3 months. Cancel monthly.
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection - including bestsellers and new releases.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, celeb exclusives, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
£8.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically.

The Powerhouse

By: Steve LeVine
Narrated by: Mike Chamberlain
Get this deal Try Premium Plus free

£8.99/mo after 3 months. Cancel monthly. Offer ends 29 January 2026 at 11:59PM GMT.

£8.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.

Buy Now for £12.99

Buy Now for £12.99

LIMITED TIME OFFER | £0.99/mo for the first 3 months

Premium Plus auto-renews at £8.99/mo after 3 months. Terms apply.

About this listen

 A Soul of the New Machine for our time, a gripping account of invention, commerce, and duplicity in the age of technology

A worldwide race is on to perfect the next engine of economic growth, the advanced lithium-ion battery. It will power the electric car, relieve global warming, and catapult the winner into a new era of economic and political mastery. Can the United States win?

Steve LeVine was granted unprecedented access to a secret federal laboratory outside Chicago, where a group of geniuses is trying to solve this next monumental task of physics. But these scientists— almost all foreign born—are not alone. With so much at stake, researchers in Japan, South Korea, and China are in the same pursuit. The drama intensifies when a Silicon Valley start-up licenses the federal laboratory’s signature invention with the aim of a blockbuster sale to the world’s biggest carmakers.

The Powerhouse is a real-time, twoyear thrilling account of big invention, big commercialization, and big deception. It exposes the layers of competition and ambition, aspiration and disappointment behind this great turning point in the history of technology. Engineering History History & Culture Innovations Technology China Imperial Japan

Listeners also enjoyed...

 No Better Time cover art
Volt Rush cover art
Riding the Rails cover art
How to Build a Car: The Autobiography of the World’s Greatest Formula 1 Designer cover art
The Dream Machine cover art
Open cover art
The Elon Musk Method cover art
WWW: Wake cover art
Social Engineering, Second Edition cover art
The Space Barons cover art
Loonshots cover art
A Pause in Space-Time: Publisher's Pack cover art
Ebola K Trilogy cover art
Business Biographies and Memoirs: 6 Manuscripts cover art
The Creator's Code cover art
Ignition! cover art
All stars
Most relevant
quite hard to follow with so many characters - at some point i no longer knew which battery guy is working for which company, and i did listen several chapters in each sitting. it was interesting, but maybe too detailed about labaratories scientists to my liking.

story about different research companies

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.