Today's battery breakthrough news was announced by General Motors' CEO Dan Akerson. They invested in a company called Envia Systems, which claims to have made a "huge breakthrough" in the amount of energy density of a lithium-ion battery. GM says that the batteries could power an electric car for "100 or even 200 miles on a single charge". GM is sure that the battery will be able to take a car 100 miles within a couple of years and it could double that with "some luck". Mr. Akerson said that "I think we've got better than a 50-50 chance to develop a car that will go to 200 miles on a charge. That would be a game changer".
Earlier this year Envia said that their battery technology could slash the price of electric vehicles by cutting the battery cost in half. GM Ventures, the automaker's investment arm, put $7 million into Envia in January 2011. Akerson went on to say: "These little companies, come out of nowhere and they surprise you". Akerson said that the company is looking at hybrids, all-electric cars, hydrogen fuel cell vehicles, as well as developing more efficient petroleum-powered engines.
The article was published in my newspaper today and was written by Tom Krisher of the AP and was titled: "Bay Area company's battery breakthrough".
