I am a big fan of electric car. When one has my health problem with car pollution as I have it comes as no surprise. Watching all the progress about battery and power generation I made the following interesting "findings".
Battery Makers
of high power and safe Lithium ion batter or related topic.
- A123 System: A battery which store 10 times more energy than previous generation (for an equivalent weight / volume) is also safe (i.e. can be pierced with danger), can recharge 80% in 10 minutes, and has long life.
- NanoSafe: similar to A123 but different technology, hey those guys should team up!
- EEStor: A very promising vaporware, no one has seen their product yet, but they have a commercial agreement with LockheedMartin and Zen motor car. They, supposedly, have a technology to produce super potent super capacitor. And they also have an anonymous unofficial blogger.
- A (non rechargeable) battery with as much energy density as gasoline, it sounds like it has some potential...
- A breakthrough to increase the Lithium ion battery energy density 5 fold, coming soon..
Other technology breakthroughs
- Wireless power transmission goes to space! That's the 3rd wireless power transmission story I heard about this year. Although this is the most ambitious one and could lead to sun powered space power plant, with a ginormous energy potential!
Electric cars
Here are some contender for the affordable, mass marketed, not dead, coming soon electric car. Many are slated for 2010. Some are already there but not as good as the Volt (albeit cheaper).