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Waiting for a Super - Battery
The actual realisation of a truly viable electric car, that can go 400+Km on a charge, is cheaper than an internal combusion car, and requires virtually no maintenance - is still IMHO a long way off.
Why do I say that, especially when all of the drive technology, such as ultra high efficiency motors, control gear, charging devices etc. are all in place, and are reasonably priced. What therefore is the ELEPHANT in the room, or rather what is that elephant which is most evidently NOT in the room?
EV Missing Link
The missing link to a cheap efficient and long-journey viable EV (electric vehicle) is a viable high capacity and reasonably priced battery.
Electric cars are way more expensive BECAUSE of the cost of the battery. Currently available batteries can be up to half the cost of an electric car. The problems with available batteries are: (1) It takes too long to charge them, (2) They give too little mileage before going flat some only 100 - 150 Km. (3) If you go flat in the middle of nowhere, you are screwed. (4) The battery costs a fortune, (5) The battery does not last very long and has to be replaced, perhaps up to three times in the life of the car.
Put life / cost of an EV battery another way, how many manufacturers are prepared to give a 10 year guarantees on their lithium EV batteries? Experience has shown that a gas or deisel engine can go for 15+ years. If a car engine goes belly-up you can buy a used one or reconditioned one for much less than half the price of a new car!! Batteries are chemical factories and burn themselves out. EV lithium batteriers are crazy expensive. The current cost of an EV car and the possibility of having to replace the battery in its life, would go a long way towards outweighing the saving on juice.
For most people an EV is not a good bet as the current situation stands.
The Mythical Quest
Several companies have, for several years, been promising us a battery with 2 to 5 times the capacity of current Lithium Ion batteries and at half or less of the crazy price of Lithium Ion.
Ecolocap's Battery "Test" results?
Among those companies "announcing" the imminent launch of a super battery have been, Ecolocap - who went as far as showing a prototype and publishing its "test figures". Strange thing though, is that over a year on and all had gone VERY VERY quiet and no battery of course.
Another outfit proporting to offer a super battery is EEstor which can now safely be classified as a "mythical" company with an equally mythical battery that has failed to emerge after many years of noising abroad.
Fluidic Energy Inc. which managed to get two large grants from the US government has also gone whisper quiet, and nothing much has stirred in a year or so.
Best Bet
I have been thinking, and recon that a letter addressed to Santa Clause might be a better bet for fulfilling all of our hopes of receiving a gift to the world of a cheap and viable EV battery!!
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