It's looking increasingly likely that plug-in vehicles will not entirely bring America energy independence, at least not in terms of energy storage. The fact that American business over the last couple of years seems to have largely given up on manufacturing in favor of being a service economy means that we will continue to depend on the likes of Japan and China for our battery needs. The latest company to chase the potential bonanza represented by plug-in vehicles is Toshiba. The consumer electronics company plans to spend $194 million to expand production of its super charge ion batteries (SCiB) to 3 million cells per month in 2010. That's an increase from the current 150,000 cells per month. The goal is to capture a significant chunk of the market for electric and plug-in hybrid batteries. Toshiba's SCiB cells use a lithium titanate chemistry similar to those from American company Altairnano, although it's not known if the Japanese company uses a similar nano-particle construction technique. The titanate batteries are more stable than the metal oxide batteries used in most consumer electronics making them safer and able to withstand higher charge rates. However, they have a lower energy density, reducing potential range. Charge rates are also limited by the charging infrastructure, meaning most users won't be able to achieve the fast charge capabilities of the battery.

[Source: Automotive News - Sub. req'd]

Battery-powered cars have a lot to recommend them, but they still have one major flaw - the batteries! Compared to almost any other energy storage solution, even the best of today's electrochemical batteries still have very low energy density and very high cost. Every major car manufacturer is pursuing electrically-driven vehicles with lithium ion batteries as a solution to the problem of CO₂ emissions and oil consumption. They all are aware of the fact that virtually all of these cars will be money losers for at least the first few years until production volumes are ramped up. The presumption is that as more batteries are made in larger volumes the price will come down to a point where the cars might become profitable.

But is this a realistic assumption? It might not be if extracting lithium from the ground becomes increasingly expensive in the same manner that oil is from older fields and other unconventional sources. With dramatically increasing demand for the material, it becomes a real possibility that the price of batteries may never come down. Recycling lithium from depleted batteries is apparently also far more expensive than virgin material. There is of course the possibility of new material breakthroughs that would eliminate the need for lithium. There are also possibilities like silicon nano-wires or ultra capacitors that could dramatically increase energy storage density and reduce the size and requirement for materials like lithium. The only thing we know for sure right now is that we don't know. All this just goes to show the need for pursuing multiple parallel paths for energy diversity, because there doesn't appear that any one solution will be sufficient.

[Source: Autoblog]

A few months ago we showed you the BlueCar, a prototype made by French company Bolloré and today we've got two videos that provide us more information about it, albeit in French.

First of all, the car was just a prototype. So although it was designed by the creator of the Renault Espace (Philippe Guédon) and built by Pininfarina, it won't see production. If you like what you see, take not that the end of the second video says that Renault was interested in it. Boloré used the BlueCar to showcase their lithium-metal-polymer technology on which they have spent 15 years and 70 million Euros on research.

The car has very good performance figures. First of all, it's capable of reaching 135 km/h (about 85 mph) and 250 km without charging (160 miles). A full charge is completed in about 6 hours and it seats four with a decent trunk in less than 3 meters (9 feet).

Second video after the jump.

[Source: YouTube]

Let's speak about a French company that makes lithium batteries, called Batscap. A couple of years ago, they introduced at the Geneva Auto Show a benchmark for their energy storage technologies. It was the prototype of a city car, 3.05 meters long (the size of a classic Mini), called the BlueCar.

The announced specifications are quite good. Thanks to the batteries weighing 5 times less than lead-acid ones, the car is surprisingly light (700kg, about 1550 pounds). This helps in making the car able to have a range of more than 200 km (120 miles). The battery technology allows the car to be fully recharged in 6 hours, although with a few minutes there's enough to get over a bad situation. The car is good for 125 km/h of maximum speed (80 miles), just around the European speed limits thanks to the 50 kW motor (equivalent to 65 HP). It seats 3 at the front, optionally an additional pair at the back, although the default combination is keeping the back for storage (up to 800 dm3).

The design was made by a subsidiary of Pininfarina, who also built the car. The company originally announced that they wouldn't make the car but sell it to a carmaker. Later, they announced that their technology has been sold to Valeo and PSA (Citroën-Peugeot).

We're definitely keeping an eye on them.

Batscap belongs to Bolloré, a long-time electric development French company near Paris and EDF, the French national electricity company. EDF and the French government have subsidized the transformation of regular production cars (such as the Peugeot 106) to EVs.

[Source: Moteurnature]