PHEVs moving in

[SByer]

Then again, with things like this happening, the need for a generator may go away.

As for modular generators, weight would be just one design point. With a tiny ideal torque range and RPM range needed for a generator, it's quite probable that the Otto cycle ICE is simply the wrong design. You don't need to generate all of the power the vehicle needs - just enough to fill in when the battery gets below a certain percentage of charge in order to make the target daily range (600 miles?) under bad conditions.

We'll see. In either case, I sure hope PHEV are just a temporary pit-stop along the way to chucking out gasoline altogether.

 

[tonybelding]

Then again, with things like this happening, the need for a generator may go away.

Sounds good, but. . . As usual with these things, a closer look makes it appear less miraculous than it did at first glance.

Some researchers contacted by Chemistry World questioned whether the technique would be useful for commercial batteries. 'The most appealing result is obviously the high cycling capacity that these materials are able to deliver,' said one leading expert on lithium battery anodes, who asked not to be named. 'However, the test is limited to only 10 cycles and this is far too few to determine the industrial impact of the electrode. Also, the rate of the cycling test is very low and thus the power capability, another important practical requisite, has not been ascertained.'

Full article here: http://www.rsc.org/chemistryworld/News/2007/December/17120702.asp

Also this. . .

"It's a really nice proof of concept," says Gerbrand Ceder, a materials scientist and battery expert at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge. Making lithium ion batteries capable of holding 10 times the charge of conventional versions still requires a cathode that holds 10 times the charge, too, Ceder says. However, he adds, incorporating a silicon nanowire-based anode could allow batterymakers to reduce the weight and volume of the anode and add more cathode material in its place, which could give lithium batteries a power boost.

Full article here: http://sciencenow.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/2007/1217/2

 

[TEG]

That is an exciting development. The nanotechnology is reminiscent of the ultracap breakthrough that MIT had previously announced (but has yet to show up commercially). Using nanotech like that for Li-Ion would make it much easier for Tesla since the voltage characteristics of batteries are easier to deal with than the behavior of ultracapacitors.

Still, a lab breakthrough doesn't always mean production ready anytime soon (if ever).

 

[TEG]

In case anyone missed it, this Hybrids versus Electric Cars blog is worth a read.