i THINK wireless induction heating would be a great feature of office parking complexes. You could pay the attendant to switch on space A-22 and your car woujld simply charge from the field upon which it is parked....and manage heat etc. If there was an issue of runaway or fire, the car should alarm to warn people/owners/attendants.

There are already car sharing services you can join in every major metropolis ToppaTom. I actually was thinking a lot about the Volt when I read this. The Volt has a range extender....why doesn't GM create a car with a modular range extender that can be rented out from the dealer ? (or leased) So you could get a Volt "fully loaded" with the extender in it....or you could get it pure ev....or you could get a second booster batt pack in it's place...all modular and interchangeable. Hell if they ever come up with a fuel cell module...AD can explode in a cloud of euphoria and we'll all be happy too.

Tell that to Three Mile Island.

would imagine that the ice WOULD KEEP THE LITHIUM warm enough with mild ducting.

I don't need a computer system to tell me that I need to lay off the pedal on the highway, stop punching it off the mark, downshift instead of brake, slowly approach red lights instead of gassing up to stops. But if a computer could tell me at the end of each tank of fuel what stupid-%$$ nonsense I had done, then it would be good feedback and in psychology, we have determined that observable functions are controllable functions. Good data makes better drivers.

An EV will use a massive lion's share of wattage in an average home however since charging is almost exclusively in evenings when usage is low and cost is cheap. Still, offsetting it with solar is great and the panels are coming down in price all the time. The amortization of the investment is getting shorter all the time.

Oh god I'm tired. I meant Potassium, K not platinum Pt. Jeeez.... The work sounds intriguing. Will the burning of this as fuel release carbon? If so, isn't it a really expensive way to make no difference? If the end result is carbon neutral or even reduced, I'm all for it.

Oh my bad...I had a brain fart. Not K lol. I must be thinking about catalytic converters or something.

The element is K.

Great idea. EV in town, gas powered for trips. The monthly membership fee should be enough for upkeep and cleaning of sweet wrappers etc.

With this tech, no one can say that wind and solar are not there when you need it. Well done.

wife sharing is not widespread? Mitt ROMNEY, IS THAT YOU?

Fuel cells are a pie in the sky diversion. I agree. I don't think Lithium air is in this category though.

Batteries, motors and wiring all generate resistance heating, it's true but compared to an ICE heating management system, i's a walk in the park and if a clever engineer can heat exchange that with the cabin air, well you've got yourself a problem that becomes a solution! If memory serves, EV1 had such a heat exchanger. I am still not a fan of Lithium though. Thermal runaway is scary and Pb can take such a pounding. Has anyone heard of the lead foam concept? The company went bankrupt I think.

Just7tme, that depends on if you're producing it with renewables but strictly speaking, hydrogen is NOT an energy source, that is correct. It is a medium and not the best medium at that. Alcohol or ethanol if produced through non-feedstock byproduct may in fact be a better and more energy dense(or at least more energy available) option. Fuel cells work quite well with ethanol as compared to methanol which fouls the PEM. Alcohol could also bge used with subtle modification in existing ICEs and therefore would offer a good bridge to batteryh electric. Has anyone considered making a "Baghdad battery" style system whereby alcohol is the electrolyte in a battery, can be refilled at the gas station (or the liquor store :) ) to run cars? Just a thought. The chemistry must already exist for that.

The fact is that hydrogen, unless it is used immediately and at the site of it's production, is a poor energy medium. It's storage problems are greater than or at least equal to those of lithium ion battery tech or other energy dense mediums. Lead acid is probably the safest, most reliable way to store energy other than gasoline (which is not an option for long). CNG is easier to store and use however it is obtained increasingly from fracture drilling....I don't know about you but I like to drink the water from my well...not burn it. Electricity is storable both chemically and electronically, it's storage is getting lighter all the time, it can be produced renewably and it is a well understood medium with entire trades based on it's control.

EP, I have a better idea, how about you don't wage war there OR here?

If nickel is clumping it's due to it's following a path of least resistance. Perhaps if the terrain upon which the nickel ions travel was able to restrict that without restricting the lithiation process, you could have you energy density and voltage without the rapid drop in cycling performance. Don't ask me how though...just throwing that out there for the real egg-heads.

AD, did it ever occur to you that hydrogen is far more flammable, and therefore dangerous than even the worst Lithium ion battery? BTW, did you know what causes the Li cells to burst into flames? The small amounts of metallic dust in the cell can cause resistance that can heat the oxygen and metal causing it to burn....which then in turn causes the cell next to it to burn etc etc....hmm....what gas is more flammable than oxygen? ANyone? Anyone? Oh yes and what gas is harder to contain than all the other gases? Anyone? Anyone? You guessed it. That's Hydrogen. My point is not to mock Hindenberg er um, I mean AD but to merely point out that any high energy density system, including gasoline will have inherent risk. Manage the risk and it's viable.

Reel, solar is about to kick some serious efficiency tail. There are PV in the works that can double that efficiency and perhaps triple it.

I agree. Time to crank out some marketable batts

As for D's comments on global warming, I think it's pointless to try and argue that the earth is round to a flat earther.

D, I have no idea what you're taking but I want a dose for myself. If experts haven't "perfected the ICE" by now, they never will. If EV had the research investment in them that ICE have had over the last hundred+ years, they would be able to hover by now and run on Leprechaun magic. There has never BEEN a more wasteful and "BELIEVER" oriented venture than the fossil fuel industry. Massive wars fought over it, toxic allegiances maintained for it....the cost is frankly incalculable it's so high. So instead of debating how many Oil Executive Government welfare advocates can bluster on the head of a pin, I'll instead hit you with a dose of reality. The REALITY is that the petro-economy will never return to it's former glory....EVER. The oil that can be easily had, the kind that leaps out of a hole in teh ground, the kind that has maintained North America at a breakneck pace of expansion, is for all intents and purposes gone. What is left is oil, however abundant it may be, that takes significantly more energy and time to obtain, through conversion, extraction, synthesis, etc etc....the point is that the cost is just too prohibitive to EVER return us to the "business as usual" models of the past. That ship has sailed, my friend. The fact is that what made America so strong in the past, the cheapness of oil and the ability of large populations to crush smaller ones in economies of scale....well what once was an asset....has now become a tremendous liability....a millstone around the necks of these former production economy Giants. Greece and Italy are merely the canaries in the coal mine. The roaring engines of big business are low on fuel...it's there but the fuel line is plugged. The pump is failing....the engine has sputtered and stalled a few times....so much so that much like the hybrid vehicle, it has had to adapt to accommodate an alternative energy source. If the economy itself was a car it would currently be a giant gas guzzling ICEV and that is simply not sustainable any longer.

Trevor, I respectfully suggest that while what you say is totally true, that people are currently still continuing to choose the wasteful ICEV, that the situation HAS in fact improved with the introduction of other vehicles including EV on the market. We are at the beginning...the geneesis of an EV revolution. When SOny first made electronics, they were LAUGHED at. Hyundai Pony...Chinese production economy...all laughable ventures.Look at them now....this is but the beginning, my friend.

Put in key points across the state, this would make the weekend drive possible. Perhaps next they can put them along route 66?