The plug-in electric vehicle announcements are flying fast and frequently. As always, it’s an educated guessing game to figure out which will make it to the finish line — and when. Here’s a potpourri of interesting news, rated in order from “real” to “wish I knew”.
One of the few that I’m confident will happen is the Nissan Leaf. CNET gave a pretty good review [review removed from YouTube] of it, minus a couple of misconceptions here and there (like the idea that we’ve got to have public chargers all over the place before people will buy EVs — see my previous post).
The Chevy Volt is real, too, but the marketing team for it at the L.A. Auto Show came up with a really bad idea — a choreographed dance routine set to GM’s official song “Chevy Volt and Me.” (A tip o’ the hat — or complaints — to Chelsea Sexton for the link.)
My favorite news of the week is that Th!nk restarted production of its City EV. (Th!nk was my very first EV, and I loved that car.) Look for it to hit the U.S. market in late 2010 along with the Leaf and GM Volt plug-in hybrid. Of course, the roller-coaster pattern of news from Th!nk could take another dip before then, but I’m optimistic that Th!nk is back on track
Chinese EV maker BYD is still making noises about having its electric sedan in the U.S. market in late 2010 too, as reported in the Wall Street Journal. But that’s a short time away for a car that no one here (that I know of) has seen or driven, and that doesn’t appear as much more than cartoons on the company website. I wouldn’t count it out, but I wouldn’t be at all surprised if that dates gets pushed back, either
And finally, in the category of cartooon-eyes-popping-out, VerdictOnCars reports that Enerdel will have batteries in just a few years that provide 30 times the energy density of today’s batteries. I’ve been bullish on Enerdel since a researcher from Argonne National Laboratory presented impressive test data on Enerdel batteries at EVS23 a few years ago, but a 30-fold increase?! Makes me wonder if it’s a typo somewhere along the line. If not, this could get really, really interesting. Imagine a Tesla Roadster’s 240-mile range muscled up to 7,200 miles per charge. Okay, I’m laughing with you. Too good to be true, right?
Images courtesy of Paul Scott (Leaf) and Sherry Boschert (Th!nk).
