Right Bob. Why? Because we can't seem to get the batteries out of research. But, I have hope now that Argonne Labs is directing a battery project made up of Industry people and Battery Lab scientists. The project has as it goals: to produce batteries that are 5 times cheaper, with 5 times the density in 5 years...The 5,5,5, Project, if you will.

I like the battery size option feature that Tesla has; and, I hope lesser cars can also offer that option; simply put; you can order and pay for only the range you need and save carrying around the additional unused weight of the larger battery; I also think it's mostly the static weight.

BTW, I propose we add an additional test for EVs; put the car on a spec dyno and run it at 65 mph until the battery output is shut down by the car; I call it the "real world freeway speed range test."

The U.S. graveyard will be full of EV startups before the EV movement takes hold. Even Tesla is not fully solvent enough yet to survive.

It will take a low-cost, light, much higher-density battery to insure that EVs will become common on our highways. And, you can bet there are legacy oil energy companies with a hold on our politicians that will fight this progress.

Perhaps this is the car that will spur interest in EVs and lead the Public to buy.

Reality Check; EVs will populate the roads in numbers when batteries are developed that will move a 2500 pound car 150 miles at freeway speeds. And, can be charged in under half an hour. Even though 50 miles range at freeway speeds will meet most people's requirements, when has sound logic and practicality trumped emotion when Joe Public buys a car?

Now if you can keep the Oil companies from ruining the battery businesses, you might succeed

How about we can them EV refueling spots instead parking spots; make any difference, do you think?

More California PR only;

Mr. Perry, a Nissan marketing executive may be correct; however, some of us who have been around electronics for awhile, believe the battery chemistry used by Nissan is fine and should handle the charge and discharge cycles fine. Do you think Nissan's Leaf Battery Monitoring System is at fault? Are the hall-effect sensing devices, that could also be heat sensitive, cause the charging system to not fully charge the batteries? If so, it would be an easy fix.

I can see this as a good engineering instrument; but, really all we need is less-expensive batteries with better performance. Right now, batteries are at a premium price. So, in the future, it goes something like this...as your battery loses bars; you have a after market company replace any bad cells and re-install the battery; or, have the company replace the battery with an updated battery.

For me this is useful when taking a trip; otherwise, I can afford the time to charge at 3.3kws. However, I think this would be useful if the battery were increased to say...from the current 24kws to about 35kws.