The battery powered auto revolution: Going nowhere fast
Volts of hypeThe battery is the future, at least the mid-term future, according to almost every major automaker. Eventually, after a couple of minor miracles, fuel cell vehicles might replace pure battery powered EVs. Still, even fuel cell vehicles will include hybrid-style batteries.
One way or another, the future of the auto industry is centered around battery technology.
Today, Toyota is the undisputed king of hybrid cars. Not a single other automaker is even on the same field as Toyota. I guess you could say that makes them the leader of the battery revolution. Unfortunately, however, Toyota's hybrid-powering NiMH battery technology is not the battery technology of the future.
On the other hand, for years now, GM has been hyping its battery-powered Chevy Volt hybrid, as Nissan has suggested it would skip hybrids in favor of pure electric cars. Regardless of whether the future is hybrids, pure EVs or a combination of both, every automaker is increasing their battery-powered hype.
Unfortunately, most of the battery-powered revolution is talk, talk, talk and spin, spin, spin.
Unless gas prices rise to at least $4.00, most Americans won't even a consider a hybrid like the Toyota Prius. It'll take even much higher gas prices to make the Chevy Volt cost-effective, and Nissan's EVs probably won't really resonate until battery swapping is perfected.
Yet, until all of that happens, expect even greater hype, more political sound bites, and increased media hoopla regarding how battery-powered cars are going to completely transform America, just don't expect the future to live up to the hype anytime soon.
Labels: Chevy Volt electric vehicle concept, Hybrid Vehicles, lithium battery, toyota prius
posted by Dahcredyns at
8:09 AM
7 Comments:
Dear Dehcredyns:
You know what, you are beginning to sound just a little bit like me with all this talk of $4.00/gallon gasoline. LOL
If you were the President or somehow in charge of some portion of the government; how would you spend the $136,000,000,000 [136 billion] we could collect every year by raising the gas tax? Of course this assumes you would even support such an idea LOL
How many renewable energy solar, geothermal, and wind turbine power plants would say $100 billion a year build. Wouldn't take too many years before we could say so long to foreign oil would it?
How many solar panels could we install on parking lots to recharge our electric cars could we build for let say $10 billion a year. Wouldn't take too many years before we could all be parking our cars in the shade while we were shopping and they were recharging would it.
How much do you believe we might be able to reduce the cost of solar panels to if we just give each one of say 10 manufacturers in the U.S. a billion dollars to increase production and drive down costs? A couple of examples might be Nanosolar and First Solar. One in your state and one in mine LOL. Nanosolar has one roll to roll machine running producing 1000MW per year of panels and most are going to Germany but that's another story. Let's give them a billion dollars for 100 roll to roll machines. Now you are talking some SERIOUS power production and that's just from ONE manufacturer.
But don't worry, we haven't even spent our first year of collected taxes yet so lets do something for every American who owns a home.
Let's use $10 billion to cut the cost of roof top solar to [pick a number, any number LOL] to say $2000.00. We really don't need any tax rebates, tax credits or other funny financial stuff. How many people do you think would be standing in line for a 5 KW system for their home?
When you start thinking about some of these things SOME actually start to make just a little bit of sense don't they?
There is nothing above that can't be done. We don't need any new technology or some whiz bang thing to come along or get invented. We don't need Cap and Trade to pass; we don't need any new government agencies, we don't even need to cap carbon or trade carbon credits on Wall Street. All we need is some LEADERSHIP
All we need is someone who has the guts to tell SOME members of Congress to just go pound sand once in a while. Someone who has big enough brass, you know what, to tell the special interest groups and lobbyist to get the heck out of OUR White House while we go do some work for the American people.
That's all we need - a MIRACLE
p.s. Will be offline for two days.
Nave a great day.
It is frustrating seeing how much these lower gas prices are hampering the movement towards EV's and Hybrids. All the "green" hype from 2008 is gone now that gas is no longer $4.00 per gallon.
It may take years for the global economy to recover enough to significantly increase the price of oil. Without a gasoline tax increase "this year" we will see little movement on the EV/Hybrid front.
As a result we will fall farther and farther behind Europe and Asia, becoming less and less competitve.
It hurts to watch it happen as I feel powerless to be able to do anything about it....
Maybe if we could have used the NiMH batteries from 10 YEARS AGO, we could be in a position to use batteries,....but no.
We are relegated to unknown, costly Li ion.
Such a sham. Just lilke everything else in the world...
This post has been removed by the author.
well, Toyota and Honda are still using a lot of NiMH batteries, despite Detroit's negative stance. so, i agree enigmatic that Detroit should have been far more proactive with NiMH 10 years ago.
still, for wide scale adoption, I do believe that lithium is required. again, however, there was plenty that could have been done - still can be done - with NiMH in the interim.
but detroit doesn't take chances. the big 3 has lost touch with the idea of innovation and out-of-the-box thinking. everything was dictated by quarterly financial statements.
and will anything really change? thank god for alan mulally. yet, look at gm, very little has changed at the executive level, yet now we're supposed to expect a different GM?
tom-
Imagine a Congress full of politicians driven solely by solving big problems, rather than party lines and incumbency. Imagine a Congress full of politicians willing to fight the good fight, even if it meant losing their seat.
I guess we can forget about politicians fixing this problem.
Dahcredyns:
Your last post terrified me - a government that actually worked - insanity my friend insanity LOL.
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