Ultra Capacitors from Skeleton Technologies
To answer the immediate question, can Ultra Capacitors replace batteries? No they cannot. Yet from the country of Estonia where Skype was invented, the ability to to provide 100 kW of power in a small 10kg module that can handle over 1 million cycles of power for instant accelerate and then recharge it on a deceleration is now a reality. You can use a smaller battery reducing battery costs by 10% and extending the life as the hit on a battery from acceleration is what reduces battery life.
The end result is longer life by using batteries with ultra capacitors that can soak up deceleration and regenerative braking for use later on in acceleration. This also allows a helping with recharging the battery pack by pulling in fast power and feeding it into the battery in a constant manner.
Great video on how they build Ultra Capacitors and showing how one works. They also show a Megawatt Ultra Capacitor system that is a fraction of size of a container size lithium battery that is 10 times the size. This Megawatt Ultra Capacitor system is the answer to reducing brownouts.