wz

Time for America to Fire First Shot in the EV Revolution

Being personally, deeply involved in electric boating and electric biking for the last 5 years (I've been commuting to work on an electric bicycle for a long time), I've very closely experienced the shift in battery technologies; costs, benefits, complexities and form factor. Anyone telling me that lead based technology can somehow trump the more recent generation nickel or lithium based stuff has a huge mountain to climb. Frankly, the cost of LiFePO4 chemistry has been dropping like a stone, as the use in powertools and alternative vehicles has grown exponentially in just the last 2 years - decent LiFePO4 cells are not much more expensive now than high end AGM lead cells, at less than 30% the weight and over twice the energy for a given volume. Lithium is extraordinarily common in the US, Chile, and China.

When you factor in the extreme weight savings, incredibly long life cycles and simply enormous power to weight ratio advantages of Lithium and even NiMH technology (as used in the prismatic Prius cells) over lead, then add the environmental challenges posed by lead, I can't seem to find any common ground with your position. Good bye lead, and good riddance.

Here are some shots of my boat and bikes. Take note, the NiMH batteries (Prius cells) shown on the bikes can power them for almost 10 miles at 15 to 20 mph, as can the two Dewalt LiFePO4 packs shown in one of the shots. They can then be charged up in less than an hour. 40 miles of power for a car would be nothing in lithium, and lithium can be charged very fast.

powermed.com/electric

3 'Recession-Proof' Medical Device Companies Underperform

The elephants in the room are the unknowns surrounding the move towards nationalization of health care, and simple demographics which are known. Aging baby boomers = lots of medical care, as well as knee and hip replacements over the coming years.