[****]The idea of electric cars is well

over a century old. In the late

1800s and early 1900s, the best

battery for the job was a lead-acid

battery like the one in your car.

At present, the most cost-effective

battery remains the lead-acid battery;

however some more expensive

batteries can do the job with

lighter weight. Lithium, simultaneously

being the lighest metal

and the most reactive one, necessarily

makes the batteries with the

highest energy:weight ratio.

[****]Batteries need to be recharged,

of course. Imagine taking a highway

trip of (say) 160 km (100

miles) on a single battery charge.

Likely, the power required would

be about 10 kW, and let us say that

the trip took 2 hours, so you’ve

used 20 kWh on the trip. Let us ignore

little issues like whether the

battery can stand the abuse, and

assume that you want to recharge

your battery in 10 minutes. You

would need 120 kW of electrical

power, which is the equivalent of

1,200 100-watt light bulbs for that

10-minute period. Suffice it to say

that that scenario isn’t going to

happen.

[****]The only way that long-distance

travel by electric cars can

happen is if there are “filling stations”

along the way that can

rapidly replace your battery. A

Renault/Nissen collaboration [3]

has produced a small electric car

of 200-km (140-mile) range with

a 450-lb (200-kg) lithium battery,

and Israel intends to build a network

of 200 “swap stations” to

change batteries in mere minutes.

[****] [ 3 ] http://www. r e s i s t n e t .

com/group/istandwithisrael/

forum/topics/-israel-

ecorevolution-in-the?xg

_source=activity (Thanks to

Jane Orient)