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One of the major limits of mass-produced batteries is the electrolyte. From lead-acid to lithium ion, there’s some temperature where the electrolyte will freeze and cause all sorts of problems, from cracked casings to various non-favorable chemical changes in the battery itself. But if there’ a solid electrolyte available, many of the downsides of charging and discharging batteries in extreme cold disappear. These batteries developed by NASA, for example, can survive some wild temperature swings.
The electrolytes used for these batteries are either a ceramic or polymer electrolyte, both of which are solid. In testing, the batteries could meaningfully operate at temperatures of -60° C and up to 80° C on the high end. Further, the solid electrolyte helps protect them even outside of these temperature ranges. Bringing the battery temperature down to -170° C was not enough to damage the battery at all, and using a small heater to bring the temperature back up to its operating range showed no capacity losses or other issues.
These batteries are eventually intended for use in some of the coldest places outside of Earth still accessible to humans (in theory) such as the south pole of the Moon where the temperatures regularly get that cold and stay cold for long periods, especially in permanently-shadowed craters or places on the Moon we might want to put some telescopes eventually. There are other terrestrial situations where these batteries might be useful as well, since they don’t need as much thermal management as other battery types.
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