Before the Electric Car Takes Over, Someone Needs to Reinvent the Battery
For an electric car, here is my summary:  For a car, a 20 gallon tank of gasoline is tough to compete with.<p>E.g., the US is dotted with high density with gas stations, can fill a 20 gallon tank in just a few minutes, and at 20 MPG that tank will fuel the car for 400 miles.<p>For a battery, apparently so far the range is about 200 mile; for the readily available charging sources the charging time is much longer, maybe hours; and from a really powerful charging source the battery will get hot and need cooling (e.g., see the Jay Leno piece on the new, all electric Mercedes which does cool the battery while charging).<p>The weather is a significant issue:  In hot weather, the battery needs more cooling.  In cold weather, the battery loses lots of its power.<p>So I agree with the OP:  For a good electric car, need a better battery.  IIRC long ago a Ford executive stated &quot;You build me a good battery, and I&#x27;ll build you a good electric car.&quot;<p>Actually, all electric cars are not new but old and go way back to the first days of cars, e.g., before Ford&#x27;s Model T.  And as Leno mentioned, for all or nearly all the time since then, battery technology hasn&#x27;t made much progress.  Right:  Battery technology is still based on basic chemistry, and that chemistry was understood well enough in 1900.<p>Of course, people saw all this 100+ years ago and for one solution tried <i>hybrids</i> where a gasoline engine charged a battery.  Apparently, net, that meant that the car had two sources of power, gasoline and a battery, and could get by with just one, the gasoline, which is just what has been done since then.  Still there is some hope for hybrids.<p>Yes, there are some uses for electric vehicles.  Still:<p>Yup, a 20 gallon tank of gasoline is tough to compete with.