Sure but I’m not the one who made the original remark
It's just more likely to be Wittingham who is currently working on Lithium-ion batteries.
Ok fair.
I assume he means one of the inventors who are not dead.
That's lithium metal batteries, which are not rechargeable. Most EVs use lithium-ion batteries.
Lithium-ion batteries were invented by M. Stanley Whittingham [1] and John B. Goodenough [2] who are both still alive (81 and 100 years old, respectively).