Filed under: EV/Plug-in, Hybrid
Stimulus package could include big bucks for advanced batteries

With congressional leaders and the incoming Obama administration working on a new economic stimulus package, everyone is angling for a piece of the pie. That includes car and battery manufacturers. With politicians pushing hard for even more stringent fuel economy and CO2 regulations as well as directly pressuring the Detroit car companies to build plug-in vehicles in exchange for financial aid, battery development needs to be accelerated. John Dingell (D-MI) and the rest of the Michigan delegation are preparing to push for at least $1 billion in funding for advanced batteries. Exactly how that will be funded is still unclear. It could come from the existing $25 billion that was allocated in the 2007 energy bill and there have also been proposals to double that funding. In addition to the $1 billion for research and development, additional funds will likely be needed to pay for putting in manufacturing capacity for batteries.
[Source: Detroit News]

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
gorr 3:19PM (1/07/2009)
Do you know how a water electrolyser put inside the car cost?
How about 100$ more and no fuel cost and no pollution. So stop mess with me and put that f?cking water electrolyser inside any actual internal combustion engines for 50% more power and longer spark plugs and engine oil life and no catalytic converter with platinum so the car can cost less to build.
Stop this actual car crisis now. Im fed-up of driving a limp dodge neon 2005 5 speeds. Im looking for a mustang or corvette or even the new chrsler challenger v8 hemi but working on hydrogen. 600 easy h.p is available without gasoline cost whatsoever.
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tjod 5:04PM (1/07/2009)
Could you provide a link to prove your claim.
Chris M 2:33AM (1/08/2009)
Gorr, The only way you're going to get a "hydrogen powered" Mustang or Corvette or Challenger is to build one yourself, and it will cost a heck of a lot more than $100. Also, f?cking produces some wonderful things, but it never produces hydrogen.
Oh, tjod, you shouldn't have said that, Gorr is liable to provide links to all his favorite youtube videos, the ones showing Stan Meyers showing off his "water powered" car to the gullible dupes. Stan collected money for "dealerships" and for downpayments for his devices, but never delivered the goods. Of course he couldn't deliver, the device didn't work the way he claimed, his car was really fueled by a hidden fuel tank. After some of his victims got tired of endless delays and excuses, Stan was arrested, tried and convicted of fraud. Now a guy in the Philippines is running the same scam, he too has a youtube video.
Unfortunately, Gorr saw the show and fell for the scam, hook line and sinker. It fit neatly into his fantasy world, and he is still deperately trying to find someone that will sell him that totally bogus device. I don't know where Gorr got that "$100" figure from, Meyers was selling his ersatz device for $1,900.
paulwesterberg 6:26PM (1/07/2009)
They need to standardize battery form factors and voltages and integrate management systems so that any battery maker can make a pack that will fit into a range of cars.
If you get a123, energizer, ge, samsung, etc competing based on weight, capacity and lifespan then electric car companies will be able to focus on motors and chassis without needing to design custom power packs.
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gorr 9:07PM (1/07/2009)
@tjod
Here some cars that use a water electrolyser.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UVhXrvCCILw
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fJ3juM6vHwg
type water powered car in youtube and enjoy a nice evening at the movies
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Chris M 2:54AM (1/08/2009)
Stan Meyers was convicted of fraud, he took money for dealerships and for downpayments on his device, but never delivered the goods. His "water car" was really fueled by a hidden fuel tank.
Daniel Dingel is simply copying Meyers ware car fraud, he just hasn't been arrested and convicted yet. But just wait, like Meyers he won't ever deliver on his promises.
SteveCT 9:40PM (1/07/2009)
Hey Gorr, there are plans for a supposed water-powered car online. They're not hard to find. Here's a link:
http://www.spiritofmaat.com/archive/feb2/carplans.htm
If you're so sure it's real, do it yourself. I recommend you buy a junker to try it on before you mess with your neon, though.
Or, if you'd rather not waste your time trying to defeat the laws of thermodynamics, you might consider that water is a lower-energy molecule than H2, meaning H2 contains more energy. Since all things tend naturally to lower-energy states, energy is produced from H2, resulting in water. To convert the water back to H2, energy must be applied to break the strong bonds in the water molecule. This energy amounts to more energy than you can possibly ever get from H2. As for claims about "H-H-O" gas, it's impossible. Hydrogen can only bond with one other atom. That's why all water molecules form as H-O-H.
In other words, you CAN "run your car on water," if you know how to tune an engine to burn gaseous hydrogen. The problem is, you need electricity to power electrolysis, and far more of it than burning the hydrogen in the engine can possibly generate. So you'll only be able to run on hydrogen for as long as your battery lasts. You'd be better off trying to convert to electric drive. It costs around $10,000 or so, depending on how much range you want and how fast you want to go, but once you're done, you'll at least have a functional vehicle to use, which won't be the case with your hydrogen-car science project.
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Chris M 2:47AM (1/08/2009)
Fueling an internal combustion engine with a water electrolyzer is incredibly inefficient, loosing about 93% of the electrical energy as waste heat. An electrolyzer big and powerful enough to directly and completely fuel an internal combustion engine will require a lot of electrical power - about 14 times more than the total power output of that internal combustion engine.
But you see, Gorr lives in a fantasy land of his own making, where free energy abounds and he can fuel his hotrod muscle dreamcar with nothing but pure cheap water.
I also told him to build his own, but he'd rather have someone sell it to him. I'm rather surprised he hasn't been contacted by a scam artist yet, perhaps scammers don't read Autoblog Green.
bob barker 3:54PM (1/08/2009)
Gorr probably is Daniel Dingel.
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gorr 12:18PM (1/09/2009)
A good water electrolyser can provide 100% hydrogen gas for the engine and the exhaust can be recirculated, so water is consumed over and over again. We can add to this a stream of water mist to the engine because water mist don't impede hydrogen combustion and when heated give some extra expanding pressure in the cylinders for 50% more power for a certain engine size and no fuel cost. This system mimics the fondamental laws of biology. Peoples that have negated, exploited, distorted, rub, sold, polluted , argued and sell or bouth energy don't want to realize that they were mad-criminals so they still argue with me about natural energy for cars, trucks, airplanes, trains, motorcycles, lawn mower, ships, electrical generation. Gm, toyota, ford, mercedes, fiat, peuguot, kawasaki, yamaha, suzuki, daihashu, tata, porsche, aston-martin, lockeed, general-electric, briggs and straton, e.p.s, d.o.a, hitler, bush, mussolini, pierre eliott trudeau, al gore, toyota president, rick wagonneer, sam abulsamid, yourself, leonardo di caprio, paris hilton, enerdel, sanyo, panasonic, tesla, eco-fueler, nasa, jimmy carter, windmills, coleman camping equipments, etc, all these folks have sold toxic waste or bouth and talk about toxic waste nammely gasoline or even diesel. So all these folks have contradicted the fondamental laws of biology and while they are biology themself, they refute energy for others because they try to kill themself because they feel guilt and they are proposing death to others so we will forget everything and go numb for x years to come.
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