Autoblog

Petroleum prices are making electric vehicles and engines which run on biofuels look more and more attractive with each passing day. That's why its likely to be a hot topic this election season as each presidential candidate sets out his own unique proposals to ease the country into a new era of lower fuel consumption. Biofuels may be the quickest path to lower petroleum usage, but it's electric vehicles which present the biggest step forward in clean auto technology looking forward.

Both biofuels and battery technology are getting some love from Senator John McCain, who's set to propose a prize of $300 million for the first company who can build a better battery. That's a large sum of money, but it won't be easy to tap considering that the goal is for a battery with "the size, capacity, cost and power to leapfrog the commercially available plug-in hybrids or electric cars." Oh yeah, and do all that with a seventy-percent reduction in cost. That shouldn't be a problem, right?

[Source: The Detroit News]

Much has been made of the fact that Toyota is seemingly behind General Motors and other manufacturers in the race to adopt lithium-ion batteries as the future battery of the hybrid and electric vehicle market. Lithium-ion batteries pack more energy into less space than nickel metal hydride batteries, which are the current industry standard in hybrids. Could this delay in the adoption of lithium ion technology be because they have something better up their corporate sleeves for the next-next Prius? According to reports from Japan, Toyota may be investing in zinc-air batteries, which are currently popular only in your grandpa's hearing-aid. If the rumors are true, these new batteries would make up a big chunk of Toyota's plan on offering a hybrid version of every car it sells by 2020. In the meantime, expect to see lithium-ion batteries in future Toyota hybrid models until it's ready to unveil its newest battery technology, whatever that may be.

[Source: Automotive News, sub. req'd]