Recent travails in the electric vehicle (EV) market are raising
questions about the EV's most important component: the battery.
Of late, there's been a battery fire in a parked Chevy Volt and
one in a GM lab. (See: Don't Worry, Your EV Battery Won't
Explode.) There has also been a raging debate over a $40,000
bricked Tesla Roadster battery, and there has been a whopping
$55 million product recall for A123 Systems. More importantly,
sluggish EV sales are highlighting the shortcomings of today's
batteries -- low energy and high cost. After millions of dollars
have been invested by government agencies and millions more by
private investors, some are asking why EV battery development
still seems so excruciatingly slow. The simple answer: Battery
development is hard, slow work. Throwing loads of money at it
will help, but it will not make it happen overnight, as so many
EV proponents have predicted. "There are no specific moving
parts in a battery, but it's one of the most complicated things
to develop, in terms o