Development of an electric car battery able to compete with the internal combustion engine may be five years away, U.S. Energy Secretary Steven Chu said.
The storage capacity of current electric car batteries needs to be increased by a factor of six or seven times in order to be acceptable to car drivers, Chu said. Their lives need to be extended to 15 years, and the cost needs to be reduced by a factor of three, he said.
“Is there any hope of being competitive with an internal combustion car engine? The answer is yes,” Chu said in a speech in Cancun, Mexico, where United Nations climate envoys from 193 nations are holding global warming treaty talks. “It’s not like it’s 10 years off. It might be 5 years off.”
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5 comments:
factor 6 on density?? wow he disappoints.
factor 3 on cost is easy (it might help if he made that happen instead of the nothing he is doing!) but even that is not required. lithium is competitive now, just make it a lean plugin hybrid. low weight low drag
Chu is talking about the re-calcitrant F150 drivers. Unfortunately he hasn't got a clue: the F150 drivers will *never* buy an electric vehicle because they're too conservative.
The facts are that the volt gives an adequate range for 80% of today's commutes. A 300 mile range would be adequate for 80% of road trips too.
I make that just over 2X the best battery electric vehicles of today not 6X.
Disappointing narrow-mindedness on the part of our Sec'y of Energy. Range could easily be extended by building lightweight vehicles with today's batteries, but more to the point, people need to get past the once or twice a week fill-up mindset. Everyone eats, sleeps etc. and it is during those down times that batteries can be recharged. Park it and plug it in, or develop an induction charger, and your EV is charged up daily. ICE vehicles will be around for decades for those applications requiring greater range, but for most people, a range of 100 miles is more than adequate.
Some company in Japan already developed an electric car battery but the speed is limited. Others have also limited working span. Aed batteries
He wants more and more power for electric cars. That's cool.
We won't have to wait so much time for this, as he says.
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