a. palmer jr.

Lithium Ion Batteries and GEVs: False Gods for the New Millennium

John, Thanks for the article and a chance to respond. I feel that in the future various kinds of power is going to be needed for transportation. Depending on your position in life, you'll have to make the choice of what kind of power suits your needs. The population keeps growing and around here when a kid gets to be 16 he has to have a car...it's kind of a right of passage. Given that premise, all forms of energy will be in short supply. I think some of us retired folks would get along very well with a BEV. I hardly travel more than 30 miles at a time and usually just to town and back, 3 miles. Others who commute to work and don't have public transportation will be using hybrids or something that still uses some type of gasoline or NG unless we come up with a nuclear powered car. I'll bet that's what the Iranians are secretly working on right now!

Is Fiat and Chrysler's Pullback on Electric Cars Bad News for A123 Systems?

As Zenfar stated, US auto companies seem to be dragging their feet when it comes to production of electric and hybrid vehicles. GM had a working prototype of their electric some months ago but still can't seem to get it to the production floor. Ford has hybrids out there but don't seem to get the fuel mileage that I would expect from them. My son has an old GEO that is sadly out of tune and will get better mileage than the new hybrids. If they could build a 50 mpg car back in 1993 why can't they do it today? And if individuals can build a car that gets more mileage than that why can't multi-million dollar companies do it? Sounds like to me that they don't want to.

A123 vs. BYD and Other Irrational Battery Investments

John, don't you think that when the EVs and PHEVs finally hit the showrooms and the highways that battery sales will start to take off? Then probably a few years later they'll all need replaced and sales will take off again? I personally would like to see, not batteries replaced, but individual cells of batteries, I think it would be more affordable for the general public. I've seen some of that done in the electric lift (mule) industry. I've seen our maintenance employees cut out individual cells and wire around them so they can get more life out of those huge batteries. A replaceable cell would be much more convenient, though.

Battery Investing for Beginners, Part 2

As usual, a well put-together article. Thanks John.

Battery Investing for Beginners

Concerning fuel savings: If fuel economy is a serious matter, anyone with a brain can see that it doesn't take a four wheel drive, six thousand pound vehicle with three hundred fifty horsepower to propel a 110 pound female to the supermarket! Until we can get people to thinking conservatively we can't begin to save any fuel or become independent of the middle east. All it would take, in this instance is a very small, 2 person vehicle with adequate room for groceries. An electric vehicle would be perfect for this. You hear the argument that EVs aren't good for long trips. I can't remember the last time I took a trip in a car over 100 miles each way. Many older people like myself don't feel like driving 300 miles a day or have a reason to do so. Besides, a person could own a gasoline or diesel car for long trips. EVs should be great sellers if they can figure out how to keep the price down.