If not hydrogen cars, why not electric?
August 13th, 2006

I'm excited over the future promise of electric cars driving around the United States in ten years.

Forget Ford, Toyota, and GM. They have produced non-innovative cars for the past twenty years and will continue to do so until their life as companies are threatened, which they will be in five to ten short years.

Why? Because recent breakthroughs in battery technologies in 2005 and 2006 will enable electric car manufacturers their dream: production of long-range (200+ mile), fast (under nine second 0-60 times), large trunk space enabled, three minute full charges and an under $40K price tag (and possibly much lower once this stuff turns into mass-production). How? Next-generation Lithium-Ion batteries by 4-5 different manufacturers are all coming online almost simultaneously with 2-3 different technologies.

These battery manufacturers are spending hundreds of millions of dollars to create the next-generation battery that will be used by the next-generation electric car manufacturers. Altair NanoTechnology, Toshiba, A123Systems, and MIT have all announced new efficient, long-lasting, or higher energy density for Lithium-Ion batteries. All these technologies will be condensed and realized in unknown ways to produce commercially feasible electric cars.

Toshiba in particular has released some interesting graphs that show their batteries' capabilities:

Remember that Toshiba's new battery is only one of five that are coming onto the market within two years.

Having a new battery that propels cars really well is great, but you still have to have at least one quality manufacturer. Tesla Motors(www.teslamotors.com) is already out there and it's causing a giant buzz in the automotive industry by touting a 0-60 time of 4 seconds and a range of 250 miles without a recharge--and they're using older Lithium-Ion technology! While their only prototype (set for small to medium scale production in the fall of '07) is a coupe with a $100K price tag, they plan to within five years to offer 2-3 other cars--including a mass market SUV and 4-door family car.