PBS Newshour report on Better Batteries for EV

[tbleakne]

This segment on Monday's PBS Newshour mostly covers the Volt, but it does mention that the Nissan Leaf received Europe's Car of the Year award. Paul Solman is shown a table of battery history for last 100 years, Volt vs EV-1 battery density, and wind-tunnel testing of Volt. He asks whether battery technology has plateaued, but is told current progress is steady. He states that the Volt's battery's cost is reported to be 8K$. I was impressed not by the details but that this topic got significant air time on the Newshour.

http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/business/jan-june11/electriccar_01-31.html

 

[planet4ever]

I was rather dismayed that it focused almost exclusively on Detroit cars. Yes, one brief mention of the LEAF, but I don't remember even a hint of Tesla. A fair chunk of Ford Focus, but where was iMiev? No Coda or BYD, but I'll excuse those omissions.

 

[DaveinOlyWA]

great article. i dont care what car was the primary focus...OH WAIT!! it was not the car that had the focus. it was all about batteries and increasing efficiency!!

 

[Randy]

The LEAF is mentioned at 0:50 into the article, but the car they have pictured driving past the solar panels doesn't look like a production LEAF. It does look like a Nissan badge on the front, though. An early version, perhaps? I think they really missed an opportunity to talk about a longer-range battery....

 

[DaveinOlyWA]

the fact that they said "will be released soon" tells me that this article was done a few months back. since the Leaf is not developed here, the opportunity to talk with anyone about it before its launch would have been restricted to the 6 block test drive we all experienced

 

[ENIAC]

It said this was part 2 in the series but I couldn't find part 1. Has anyone seen part 1?