Automakers say electric vehicles will soon become viable alternatives to gas-guzzlers - by Jeffry Steele
Choices, choices, choices. After a century of producing cars that ran solely on gasoline, the world’s automakers are working overtime to present a variety of options, including hybrids, biofuel-powered cars, and vehicles that run on hydrogen. Some of the biggest bets are riding on Americans getting charged up over the notion of mass-produced electric cars. Most eagerly anticipated is the 2010 Chevrolet Volt, which General Motors is calling an “extended range electric vehicle.” According to Rob Peterson, manager of electric vehicle technology communications with General Motors in Detroit, the Volt features a nearly 400-pound T-shaped lithium-ion battery that’s aligned down the vehicle’s center spine beneath the passenger compartment.
Note EU-Digest:The most important obstacle to making electric cars competitive is the cost of lithium battery. Every major car manufacturer is pursuing electrically-driven vehicles with lithium ion batteries as a solution to the problem of CO2 emissions and oil consumption.The presumption is that as more batteries are made in larger volumes the price will come down to a point where the cars might become profitable. It might not be, if extracting lithium from the ground becomes increasingly expensive in the same manner that oil is from older fields and other unconventional sources. There are also possibilities like silicon nano-wires or ultra capacitors that could dramatically increase energy storage density and reduce the size and requirement for materials like lithium.All this just goes to show the need for pursuing multiple parallel paths for energy diversity, because there doesn't appear that any one solution will be sufficient. Research must be stimulated and supported in these areas and we certainly are on the right track in taking the electric car from a fad to reality.
No comments:
Post a Comment