Canadian startups focus efforts on zinc, instead of lithium-ion, for future batteries, page-3

Graphene will make Li-ion batteries more stable and more efficient. That is much closer than all the other speculative battery technologies suggested of late. This is not to say that stationary storage may not eventually take the form of zinc or vanadium cathodes, but most of the 'downsides' to li-ion listed in the article will soon be out of date. Plus there's plenty of lithium in the world, it just needs to be refined.

There is definitely a market for researchers proposing elemental alternatives to worried industrialists though.