More Jay Leno EV coverage with the Mini E.
Jay Leno's Garage
What he says is spot on regarding electricity to power cars:
Quote:
You know, in some ways, we're in the same position now we were almost a hundred years ago.
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Electric motors have always been powerful and dependable. The trouble is, again, the range. It's always been, not the motor itself, but the power source.
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It's true. The batteries we see today aren't a new discovery. The battery manufacturing/packaging technology: maybe. You can find the same basic "battery couples" (the combination of a cathode & anode in an electrolyte) in a 100 year-old university library book as we are seeing in "new" batteries today.
This specific lack of new innovation is arguably the main cause of failure for the EV1 as well as the biggest obstacle to new EVs today. The positive side is that most of what we need for a starting place of such innovation was documented a hundred years ago. I would think that could be a paper. There is room for meaningful academic research, as well as a clear fundamental (if not profound) statement.