Chris B

Alternative Energy Storage Is an Investment Tsunami

First, be very, very careful about companies claiming to have "change the world" technology. Being listed on the stock exhanges does not infer legitimacy or truthfulness. There are a lot of outright cons out there whose only purpose is to collect and lose investor's money. Consider Zap! automotive and assume the prospecti are lying to you.

Second, think critically about resources and the needs of billions of people to use those resources. Is there enough lithium on earth to provide two billion cars with several hundred pound batteries? Enough nickel? What are the economics of mining/recycling that much of a semi-rare element? If you think today's prices are high, imagine if the whole world starting consuming it at once. Gold would be yesterday's precious metal! EV's might be uneconomical long before things got that ridiculous.

Third, I cannot understand how folks advocating energy independence and green living don't get excited about (cheap) 40-50 mpg hybrids and insist instead on pure EVs. Those hybrids are a huge improvement over our current fleet of <20mpg conventional cars and are the only economical and technologically capable solution on the table TODAY that could reduce our oil consumption by half. Getting fired up over hypothetical, unproven technology and panning existing medium-term solutions seems impractical.

Fourth, we all need to realize that in the long run, the rise of China means our lives have to change. Suburbs and exurbs will end. 3,000 sf detached houses will end. 4,000 lb cars to commute 20+ miles back and forth to work will end. Affordable airfare will end. Our cities will resemble Tokyo and our towns will resemble those in continental Europe. It won't be the so-called green movement that mandates these changes, it will be economics, and the sooner we change, the wealthier we will be. Light rail beats any EV in terms of both economics and environmental impact.