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Li-ion Batteries and How Cheap Beat Cool in the Chevy Volt

Hydrogen weighs 1
Lithium weighs 3
Sodium weighs 11
Nickel weighs 28
Zinc weighs 30
Lead weighs 82

With any of these technologies in a vehicle, weight matters. People want to use lithium because it's very light. Lead is always going to be vastly heavier than Lithium. Unfortunately Lithium is not terribly abundant, (Li,Be, B tend not to be produced) though sodium is. I think we'll end up with something like a sodium ion battery technology because it'll be dirt cheap in comparison to Li but still a fraction of the weight of an equivalent lead technology.

Anything which stores enough energy to push a car is likely to be dangerous.