Where Have I Been?!?!?!?!
I know, I know – i’ve been slacking lately.
But that doesn’t mean that it wasn’t for good reason!
This weekend was my girlfriends Birthday – so we spent time in IKEA (hey, that’s what she wanted!) and took a look at all the nifty stuff. I even got my name called on the intercom because apparently I dropped some of my credit cards!
Those IKEA folks – so prompt, so friendly.
Other then that, i’ve been taking a good hard look at cellulosic ethanol and determined that right now it’s still a little early to put your money there. We don’t know who’s going to come up with the best technology first. And then after that, they would need to take a year or two to even get into full blown production.
So instead i’m looking to batteries.
Financial Times said that by 2030 over half of all new cars should be plug-in cars.
Combine that with the fact that in the next three years automakers will put hybrid technology in almost every car they have… or that Nissan wants full electric cars… Or that te Chevy Volt may be one of the most exciting cars of all time.
All of these cars need new lithium Ion batteries.
There aren’t many people making the batteries. And the ones that are really haven’t gone public. But there has to be a way to take advantge of this. And I plan on discovering it in the next few days and telling everyone about it.
Until tomorrow – Charles
I think you are right on with the electric craze. Currently hybrid cars are the big thing (which also semi-rely on a battery to operate), but the next big thing is going to be FULLY electric cars. In the last ten years the technology has really come a long way and we are probably just a couple more from that breakthrough that could make a fully electric car fast, fun, and not any more expensive than a gas one.
Also, IKEA is definitely “the awesome”. It’s perfect for a yuppie in the city that needs to fit everything he owns in a tiny box of an apartment.
I love electric cars! There are several sites in my city where battery plants were located long ago. Giant efforts are always underway to find an affordable way to clean up lead and leaded chemicals or to try to find a way to pass the cost to someone else. Not just the original factory grounds but dozens, sometimes thousands, of acres. In Mexico there is at least one battery plant site that is reviewed by the media sometimes. An entire town is a disaster that just keeps on killing people decades after the factory shut down. Lithium and cadmium and the other metals used in these new batteries are poisons also. They have not been around long enough to leave much lethal residues, but give it time. Then there is the reactivity of lithium. In metalic form it burns with great gusto when exposed to air. Just can’t wait for a big car wreck in an unfortunate location where the entire sequence of events and consequences is very public. Just what kind of public opinion, lawsuits and legislation over the fires and explosions will result will be interesting to see especially if there is much injury and death from the chemical fires. It may not be a good thing to have much invesment money in companies or industries affected when that occurs? Another thing never mentioned is the functional lifespan of various batteries. The one in my old car usually lasts about two to five years. How much does a set of batteries for a hybrid or electric car cost? Does that include service charges for the removal, disposal and installation of new batteries? How does that compare to the costs of current mainstream technology? How about from the viewpoint of us average folks, not the ones resident in NYC or some exotic gated community who have incomes per year that sound to us great unwashed like lottery winnings? Keep in mind that you can fool all of us some of the time and some of us some of the time, but it is very mch more difficult to fool us when we are looking down the throat of ten or more years of very hard times.