Battery manufacturer Ener1 has recently announced that they’ll be seeing a 50% drop in the price of lithium ion batteries as production increases. Statements indicate that the majority of the price decrease will come from scaling up manufacturing, and that it won’t happen until their dealing in hundreds of thousands of units. That means it’s a very optimistic prediction, to say the least.
Ener1 has also announced that they’re expecting two new development deals this year. They already provide the lithium ion batteries for Think’s City Car in Europe. But the CEO is promising that these deals will be with much larger car companies. And even though GM and Toyota and Mitsubishi already have their providers lined up, there are still quite a few car companies without a firm supplier of lithium-ion batteries.
Since the lithium-ion batteries are a significant part of the cost in hybrid cars, a 50% decline in price would mean a big drop in hybrid car cost.
Some automotive futurists have predicted that within ten years, every new car on the road will have a lithium ion battery pack. I find that a difficult prediction to make, considering the inherent dangers in lithuin ion technology and the advancements already being made with lithum-polymer and silver-zinc batteries and any unseen technologies that may arise. Still, it’s be good news if it happens.
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There seems to be a number of people and firms and companies out there looking for the next alternative fuel. We have had numerous suggestions from corn to methane to sugar cane to algae to electricity derived from the sun. But the latest news of a new entrant into the alternative fuel hunt is the sweetest of them all. A company called Ecotec out of the UK is taking the waste from a Chocolate Factory and turning it into 100% bio-diesel. And to prove the effectiveness of their delicious alternative fuel (no, the fuel is not edible but the idea is pretty sweet) they plan to drive their chocolate fueled car from the UK to Timbuktu. At a cost of 15 pence a litre (approx. $1.16 US per gallon) that is a far more affordable trip than if it were fueled by regular diesel. (more…)