Electric-Vehicle Technology Accelerates Toward Tipping Point Says Detroit News

2011 Chevrolet Volt

Electric Vehicles - Solution or Diversion?

Washington DC April 11, 2011; The AIADA newsletter reported when oil hit a record price of $147 a barrel in July 2008, it was a game-changing moment that sparked a serious push to create electric cars and hybrid electric engines that could help wean Americans off oil.

Today, reports The Detroit News, crude is back over $100 a barrel and the payoff is the first generation of mass-produced electric cars rolling off production lines. General Motors and Nissan already have electric cars on the streets of major U.S. cities, and intensified battery research is bringing down costs.

"The question is: Can these guys make a battery that is five times cheaper? I think yes. I think we can do it," said Eric Isaacs, the director of the Argonne National Laboratory. Argonne is the Department of Energy's lead lab for advanced battery research and development. "We think that increasing electric is inevitable. The speed is variable," said Genevieve Cullen, the vice president of the Electric Drive Transportation Association.

That's why a global race is on among the United States, Japan, China, and other manufacturing powers not only to develop the next generation of battery and electric-motor technology, but to define what the auto of the future will be.

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