Friday, March 16, 2007

The road to EV future: battery manufacturers make it to mainstream press

The keywords here are mainstream press. But going back a while, when did auto-future realized the great prospects for electric vehicles. I guess it was when rumours of a future Toyota Prius with Li-ion batteries surfaced. And when were we sure about it? Just a few days ago when Toyota’s boss confirmed the new battery pack for the next Prius. This is the main reason for this EV week: now we know for sure that EVs are for real and will arrive sooner than later.

Of course, now the mainstream press is giving attention to the subject so we were happy to find an article on The New York Times about A123Systems, one of the key battery manufacturers for the next EV revolution. They are now an important company because they signed a contract with GM for the development of automotive batteries and also, in a business full of illusionary claims, because their battery chemistry delivers their promises and is already being used (and abused) in electric tools (Black and Decker/Walt). Now we just need to wait for manufacturers to ride that “robustness improvement” curve and we will have real-life EVs available (and plug in hybrids) to dramatically change future transportation.

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