What's REALLY going to make Electric Cars Viable? BETTER BATTERIES.

THE NEW KID ON THE BLOCK - LITHIUM SULFUR (Li-S) BATTERIES


(Go to SION Power for a technical overview.)

As gas prices have soared and dependence on foreign oil has become a more pressing national concern, more and more of us have been watching in anticipation over the last few years the development of real, viable alternatives to the combustion engine as the predominant vehicle powerplant.

We are now starting to see serious, top-notch inroads being made, like the plug-in, all-electric Fisker Karma ($89,000) pictured below, and the Tesla Roadster and Model S.


The established automotive industry and automobile consumers are finally taking notice - Toyota's Prius is a national favorite, Chevy is actually going to build it's Volt concept car and just recently it's been announced that Daimler has purchased a multi-million dollar, 10% stake in Tesla. (Read about the deal on Engadget.com HERE).

TECHNOLOGY IS FINALLY CATCHING UP

Electric motors have been around for a long time and are comparatively well-developed in contrast to the batteries we are currently powering them with.

As you may recall in the movie "Who Killed the Electric Car" - the socially sickening tale of the birth and demise of GM's wildly succesful EV1 electric car - BATTERY TECHNOLOGY has been the central issue in creating a successful alternative to gasoline engines. And batteries are simply not far enough along in development to make them a viable power source for electric car motors.

Or are they? There seems to be a fair amount of evidence that car manufacturers themselves had a hand in stymieing battery development by buying battery patents and battery development companies and then just sitting on them, but we'll save that discussion for another post.

What I want to tell you about here are the latest advancements in Battery Technology - advancements that are, because of the political climate, no longer being muffled by automotive giants, but actually embraced.

These are LITHIUM SULFUR (Li-S) BATTERIES.

Providing THREE TIMES the capacity of current Lithium-Ion (Li-ion) and Lithium Polymer (LiPo) batteries, Lithium Sulfur (Li-S) batteries use Sulfur as a cheaper, and safer battery ingredient.

For a great technical explanation of the process of creating
Lithium Sulfur (Li-S) batteries, including overcoming the cathode obstacle and the "nanocasting" binding of Sulfur to conductive carbon composites, check out this article at NanoWerk.com HERE

ScienceDaily.com also has an interesting piece on the researchers an the obstacles faced and overcome HERE.

SO EXACTLY WHAT IS THIS NEW TECH CAPABLE OF?

Well let's just say that 2 years ago Lithium Sulfur (Li-S) batteries provided by SION Power of Tucson, Arizona were used in conjunction with solar panels in U.K. defense technology firm Qinetiq's Zephyr 6.1 high-altitude unmanned arial vehicle (UAV) (pictured below) to set a new world record for longest duration unmanned flight.


Zephyr 6.1 stayed aloft for 54 continuous hours, attaining a maximum altitude of 58,370 feet.

Read more about SION POWER and the Zephyr 6.1 HERE and check out SION POWER's website HERE.

The theoretical capacity of Li-S batteries is 5 times that of current Li-ion/LiPo batteries. Researchers have already acheived 80% of that capacity, making today's Li-S battery capacity still 3 times that of Li-ion/LiPo.

CONCLUSION

Imagine the possibilities afforded by the additional weight savings and vehicle storage capacity available with 1/3 less batteries on board. Or the additional range available from the same physical amount of the newer-tech batteries...

Current electric cars (no pun intended) really are breaking new ground almost every day, but it is the advancement of BATTERY TECHNOLOGIES like Lithium Sulfur compounds that are going to make electric motors a viable alternative to the combustion engine as the powerplant for consumer (and hopefully commercial) vehicles with mass appeal.