When I bought my Chevy Sonic a couple of years ago, I said my next car purchase would be an all electric. I had been doing a lot of research on EV's and their cost was staggering. There was a car from the Chinese company BYD (backed by Warren Buffett) that provided most of what I needed including range and safety of their proprietary battery technology that is suppose to be earth friendly and non toxic (the batteries). I asked the question at the time "WHY? Why can American companies not innovate and come up with cutting edge new advances like this for a reasonable price?" We are falling behind the rest of the world (namely Asia) in this regard.
During my research I came across a new 3D battery technology that is the brain child of American Scientist Dr. Amy Prieto, and accordingly, named the Prieto 3D Battery. It's based on nano wire with a polymer coating, which greatly increases it's capacity and reduces the weight, and removes the toxic waste and danger from traditional batteries. See an explaination here:
At one point they claimed that the cost to produce was about 1/3 the cost of traditional Li-Ion batteries. This American invention seems like the perfect idea to eventually partner with the Elio for either an ultra high milage hybrid or a completely fossil fuel free EV.
More information can be obtained from the Prieto website:
http://prietobattery.com/
It's a pretty good bit of reading, but I couldn't stop until I had read every single page on their site. I'm excited for some of these young American companies that are actually helping to bring competition back to the USA. But honestly, the nerd in me would be excited over this kind of thing anyway, lol.
Another good read on the battery from last December when they were nearing protype production:
http://innovationews.com/energy/pri...tion-of-its-unique-3d-lithium-ion-technology/