March 27, 2008
Today is the day the California air resources Board (CARB) decides the fate of the nation with regard to our foreign oil dependency. Today is the day the CARB defines it self and its reason for being.
Where is the media? In the movie "Who Killed The Electric Car", a list of suspects is proposed. Perhaps it is the media who is responsible.
Today’s CARB meeting is news.
Each time General Motors gets up and says we will have Plug in Electric vehicles in two years or five years because we don't have the battery technology, its news, but who is asking the hard questions?
There seems to be almost universal acceptance of the concept that we don't have the battery technology to put Battery Electric Vehicles into mass production.
The news media continue to spread this incorrect notion. The lead of a March 7 Detroit Free Press article declared "Battery technology may still be struggling to reach its goals."
http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080307/BUSINESS01/803070314/1014/BUSINESS01
More accurately, the most promising technology now available --the nickel-metal hydride battery used in the Toyota Prius-- is struggling to reach the market and get out from under the thumb of corporate oil: Chevron, which controls the patent through a joint venture, Cobasys.
What we need to do is liberate the existing nickel-metal hydride technology. These batteries are tried and proven over the last ten years in the Toyota RAV4 EV, Production Battery Electric Vehicle. When compared with alternatives such as lead-acid, they can last twice as long (ten years or more) and, can store twice the energy per pound. Chevron/Cobasys only supply these batteries in a format suitable for hybrid vehicles which still rely on oil, when they should also be making a battery in a larger format suitable for plug-in Battery Electric Vehicles.
The availability of these batteries is a National Security issue. They offer a solution to our foreign oil dependency and global warming. The Government has no problem passing the Patriot Act to limit personal liberties in interest of National Security. They should regulate industry in the interest of National Security with the same zeal.
What this nation needs to hear and understand from the people who know (owner drivers) is that we are driving Battery Electric Vehicles and they work with the technology available today. Further, they would go twice as far and last twice as long with the battery technology now in the hands of corporate oil: the nickel-metal hydride battery.
Cheers,
Al Lococo