Lithium
- Toyota's revolutionary Third Generation Prius hybrid car
Friday,
April 06, 2007
Are
Computers just the beginning of the lithium revolution?
Recently, someone asked if I truly believed that the
integration of lithium into hybrid
cars was revolutionary - something I had claimed
regarding Toyota's decision to use lithium batteries in
the third
generation Prius.
Absolutely, I replied.
Sure, the integration of lithium into automobiles might be
incremental, and for some hybrid concepts, such as the Chevy
Volt, it might never happen. It might just turn out
that maintaining the sweet spot of lithium batteries just
isn't cost-effective for plug-in
hybrid vehicles. Still, Toyota's third generation
Prius might achieve as much 70 mpg or more, without
plug-in technology, and for the same additional costs as
today's hybrids or even less.
That alone is almost revolutionary.
By just the second generation of lithium hybrids, the
conventional vehicle might be a dead-vehicle driving and
the internal combustion engine, a dead-engine guzzling.
More important, imagine what the sales of several hundred
thousand lithium powered hybrid vehicles could do for
lithium battery costs. Imagine how this lithium revolution
not only benefits hybrid technology, but plug-in hybrid
technology and electric vehicle technology - not to
mention alternative energies, such as solar and wind
power, as economies of scale push lithium prices downward.
Yes, it's possible that such lithium-power might be used
to increase horsepower and the size of today's vehicles,
but it seems enough people are becoming increasingly
concerned about foreign oil dependency and/or global
warming to prevent this from occurring. Consequently, if
used for the right reasons, lithium can end foreign oil
dependency and significantly reduce global warming
emissions from automobiles.
Without doubt, that is revolutionary.
Fifty years from now history and economics classes might
not look back upon this age as the Internet or Computer
revolution, but rather they will look back upon how
computers and the Internet were the beginning of the
Lithium Revolution.
And that could all begin with the Third Generation Prius.
posted
by Dahcredyns at
|
