Lawrence posted:
> US Co. (Rhode Island) seeks UK / worldwide partners, clients, > government support etc. for its new generation of low-cost, > ultra-long-range Lithium batteries. (April, 2002) -Range: over 200 > miles per charge. Quick 80% recharge in under 1 hour. > > -Battery life: up to 200,000 miles - the life of the car. > > -Cost : $5000-$7000 per EV battery-pack at 100 pack production volume > BUT just $4000(!) per pack with large-scale production volumes. Sounds great, but it's wise to be skeptical of the projections of start-up companies. > I am the president of a start-up company - Eaves Devices Inc.- of Rhode > Island, USA. We have a technique for producing large Lithium -ion > battery packs at greatly reduced cost. However, it is still quite > difficult to write a convincing business plan here in the USA for a > technology that would replace combustion engine vehicles, > when gasoline sells for $1.29/Gallon. Especially with so many oil executives at the top of the government. > It is more difficult to get funding here for battery EVs because of > the Freedom Car Program that has diverted much of the resources to > Fuel Cells. Which was exactly this administration's intent of shutting down funding on near-term research which had promising prospects and shifting to token funding of more distant-term research which is less threatening to both the auto and oil companies. > The US automakers and oil companies are almost one in the same, > and the source of hydrogen for the fuel cell vehicles is scheduled > to come from fossil fuels. They need to keep people on the other side of a meter, just as with solar, which they are all in favor of, as long as they get to build large plants that still have a meter on the line. Vince
