These appears to be painstakingly created golden samples. Once these components can be created through inexpensive bulk processes then they should be ready for commercialization.

These reported ionic conductivity numbers are quite bad. Not sure why this composition is being promoted as a promising candidate.

New York Governor Cuomo appointed commission is investigating Navigant for possible fraud to Federal Prosecutors in Brooklyn. $$$ are involved.

Heavy Earth mining can be easily restarted if our federal government is willing to treat Thorium by-products in a more reasonable way. It is barely radioactive; we would get more radiation by sun-tanning for example.

Diesel has more carbons per liter compared to gasoline, and more pollution emitting than conventional vehicles. Really dismayed they dared to go through this pollution emitting trip; if one more people had to sit behind a diesel smelling car that is one such car too many.

This study is a head scratchier. Almost everyone knows the auto-manufacturers intend to increase their fuel economy by electrification, be it hybrid, PHEV, or EV. If the EPA is estimating electrical miles in a biased way then surely fixing it is going to easier than this unlinking business. There is a niche for a 3 cylinder supercharged econo-box, but requiring such eco-boxes to do all the heavy lifting of fuel economy is unrealistic.

The B shift mode in Prius enables engine based breaking, so it reduces regen. I think it can be used to reduce break-pad wear in a long descent when the battery is already full.

Permanent magnet motors are more suitable for low powered applications, while AC induction motors are more suitable for high powered applications. Permanent magnet motors are susceptible to overheating; over-cooking the neodym can ruin it.

His progress on the Gen3 model is gated by the improvement on battery technologies. I would peg its roll-out year to 2018, plus or minus 2 years. Dave D may be right on his estimate after all. Obviously the Model X is also very important to Tesla. It is unclear if Model X's Falcon Wing Door design will be a success, definitely a 10 on style point though.

I have spent one hour looking over this study in details. I think one of the primary problem with this study is the mislabeling of the chart column "Average Gasoline" that was represented by the red color. That column should be properly named "Light Duty Vehicle". For example, in year 2020 they projected an improvement of MPG for light duty vehicles. This is all well and good, but the improvements can be traced to hybridization and electrification. Then they compound the error by attributing all of the improvements under "Average Gasoline". There might be other mistakes I have not spotted, but this one is pretty significant.

There is one thing that stood out like a sore thumb; the state of Wyoming is not even an official Southwest state. I wonder how did Wyoming buy representation in this organization?

How about opening up the development of domestic heavy earth mineral resources?

I would be skeptical of a process where CO2 does not end up locked away, but merely re-leased later. If we call this "renewable" it would be questionable as well.

Tesla will only push this battery swap technology to the extent that it makes financial sense. There are still many barriers to a successful roll-out. Let's see how many owners are willing to swap first.

I saw a news item today that Navigant received a referral for federal prosecution of wrong-doings. Frackingly good news...

Tesla uses NCA type of cell in 18650 format. This could mean that this type of cell has a good future road-map.

A Lithium Sulfur battery with very little capacity fade would be a good development.

I am waiting for a "I met my significant-other at a Supercharger station" story any days now!

Navigant Consulting is a for-profit management consulting company that is traded on the NYSE. They have previously published promotional materials for natural gas interests. In this piece they call themselves Navigant Research, but they are just Navigant Consulting. If fuel cells get deployed, then natural gas is likely the energy source to be tapped. This would be very profitable for natural gas companies, but not so good for us who use natural gas for cooking, heating, or electricity.

I am less optimistic about fuel cell vehicles. The capacities of automobile batteries are increasing at a rate of 8-10% per year. There are only a few years of opportunity before the window closes for fuel cell vehicles. There are also developments in non-rechargeable batteries that reduce the need for range extenders. These non-rechargeable automobile batteries might become available by 2017. Also closes out fuel cells as range extenders.

For one thing both the SAE and CHADEMO charging standards are at risk of becoming obsolete in year 2013 because of their low rate of charge.

It boggles my mind how they can claim this patent since in all stationary flow batteries the electrolyte are always pumped.

The trend is toward smart charging circuit. The charger would have to be able to handle AC or DC charging, and accommodate adapters to SAE or Chademo plugs. There are also European and pending Chinese standards to worry about.

The 18650 form factor is popular. I doubt the chemistry could be standardized because new variations are being worked on constantly. Maybe they could research why certain car makers pick specific form factors for their batteries.

They produced a ribbon worth of the material. That means they have produced something interesting, but not ready for production.