Lithium - Toyota's revolutionary 3rd Generation Prius?
Are Computers just the beginning of the lithium revolution?Recently, someone asked if I truly believed that the integration of lithium into hybrid cars was revolutionary - something I had claimed regarding Toyota's decision to use lithium batteries in the third generation Prius.
Absolutely, I replied.
Finish --> Lithium - Toyota's revolutionary 3rd generation Prius
Labels: Hybrid Vehicles, lithium battery, plug-in hybrid vehicles, prius, toyota
posted by Dahcredyns at
11:52 AM
2 Comments:
(Rest of Story)
Sure, the integration of lithium into automobiles might be incremental, and for some hybrid concepts, such as the Chevy Volt, it might never happen. It might just turn out that maintaining the sweet spot of lithium batteries just isn't cost-effective for plug-in hybrid vehicles. Still, Toyota's third generation Prius might achieve as much 70 mpg or more, without plug-in technology, and for the same additional costs as today's hybrids or even less.
That alone is almost revolutionary.
By just the second generation of lithium hybrids, the conventional vehicle might be a dead-vehicle driving and the internal combustion engine, a dead-engine guzzling. More important, imagine what the sales of several hundred thousand lithium powered hybrid vehicles could do for lithium battery costs. Imagine how this lithium revolution not only benefits hybrid technology, but plug-in hybrid technology and electric vehicle technology - not to mention alternative energies, such as solar and wind power, as economies of scale push lithium prices downward.
Yes, it's possible that such lithium-power might be used to increase horsepower and the size of today's vehicles, but it seems enough people are becoming increasingly concerned about foreign oil dependency and/or global warming to prevent this from occurring. Consequently, if used for the right reasons, lithium can end foreign oil dependency and significantly reduce global warming emissions from automobiles.
Without doubt, that is revolutionary.
Fifty years from now history and economics classes might not look back upon this age as the Internet or Computer revolution, but rather they will look back upon how computers and the Internet were the beginning of the Lithium Revolution.
And that could all begin with the Third Generation Prius.
Fair enough, as long as the lithium batteries aren't made by sony.
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