DEC 12

The world will be a better place without another US company attempting to monopolise a market segment. Do we want a Microsoft or Monsanto of batteries?

Intel has enough business ripping off consumers with CPUs, surely it doesn't need to diversify into a battery rip off as well.

Hopefully an Indian or Chinese corporation will be first to make a truly cost efficient and useful auto battery. A large proportion of the US based researchers are Indian and Chinese anyway.

I completely disagree with the previous post.
Big companies don't get big because they monopolise the market, and sell shoddy products, it's because they sell good products (otherwise they wouldn't sell so much, as people would just buy from their competitors), and have the capital to invest in research and production to make better products.
I'd rather buy batteries from a company that has the resources and experience to make a quality and competitive product, than have some small startup company promise a revolutionary product, and then be unable to deliver it (or deliver late, and at a much lower supply than there is demand) due to inexperience (in production or the market) or insufficient funds.

Hi , i am completely agree with the top post. Intel will be able to become major planner and this can help so much to the electric car idea. we all know that battery today must improve and cost less. intel have the power for reaserch and build success industry. china and india will make money from low cost human industry . the battery industry not need the hand of humen power .

@vishwarma

Why exactly would a battery company from India or China be better than an American company? I certainly would be skeptical about using a large-scale potentially dangerous automotive battery pack being manufactured and sold by a Chinese company. It is has already been shown that they have non-existent safety regulations, sub-par manufacturing, and a government that could care less about oversight and regulation and holding companies responsible for negligence. Look at all the exploding lithium-Ion batteries that were manufactured in China! Not to mention who wants to give a repressive communist country with an atrocious human rights record any more money than they have now? In addition to restoring American manufacturing, I think we should punish companies that outsource to China and encourage them to use friendly countries like India, Brazil, Mexico, Malaysia, Phillipines, etc.

I wanted to add something else as well. Both China and India are known for ignoring western intellectual property rights. China is the worst offender by far, allowing rampant piracy of not just western music, movies, TV shows, and other artistic content, but also wholesale theft of technology patents. They allow widescale manufacturing of computers, computer components, networking equipment, cellphones, and many other consumer electronics and industrial equipment that is based on stolen blueprints and designs from western companies without paying licensing fees.

India is similar, although on a much smaller scale. Also, While I wish the situation of international health and welfare was a lot better for the world's impoverished and I believe companies should lend more support to developing nations, It is NOT right that India completely ignores western pharmaceutical intellectual property and patents, manufacturing and selling billions of kilograms of prescription drugs each year to not just Indians, but exporting them around the world -- without paying a dime in licensing or royalties.

How do you think India would like it if large companies in America starting manufacturing and selling next-generation battery technology that was developed exclusively by an Indian company? There would be massive protests, an injuction immediately filed at WIPO and an international firestorm of criticism.

Aside from all the back-and-forth above I'm greatly heartened by the news that a very major corporation might be entering the vehicle battery business.

That says, to me, that we're getting close to electrical cars. Usable, affordable BEVs are the last part we need for implementing a fossil fuel free future. (At least largely fossil fuel free....)

hi i am am a newbie but i wish to bring to your attention the fact that at the end of world war 2 th efrench flew a solar powered plane 200 klms from afiled near paris to its destination where upon it was dimanteled i know this is fact because i met the pilot who actually flew the plane and he had photos of himself in the plane and of the plane itself all the photo where dated and where hanging on his wall when i met him he was living in a suburbe of brisbane queensland australia and did not really want to be knwn about but he has since passed on so i can tell you and ask te question what are we reinventing the wheel for when it has almost be all done before so why not put greater efforts into vastly improving that technology no matter what it is and seek to msake it freely available to all and sundry if such an approach was to be made then the output cost would be more than rewarded by the service contracts and inititial install training. have a great day regards kevin neylon.

i hav no understand

wht u speakin about

i hev no idea wht u talk about

There is no historical record (that I have seen) of a solar power airplane in WWII. Additionally the first practical solar cell was invented in 1954. A decade after WWII. The first acknowledge solar powered aircraft was the Solar Challenger which flew in 1981. The Solar Challenger was an experimental aircraft and wasn't practical for everyday use. I don't know what that guy flew but it was not a solar powered aircraft.

We need all companies, large and small, to look for ways they can remain profitable while addressing the problem of climate change. It is through competition and innovation that new products and technologies will be developed.

BYD, possibly the biggest manufacturer of battery in the world, has already started marketing the first plug-in dual mode F3DM sedan car in China, based on the new Li Ferrous phosphate battery. An all electric E6 will appear next year. This will have a range of 300 km per full charge and is good for 2000 cycles before deteriorating, or 600,000 km.

Your article was very well written, I am very like it, I wish you happy every day!

The American 'Big Guns" have seen the light and have rode in, ready to find the "Holy Grail" of Batteries for Electric cars, Solar homes, Wind Power Ballasts,and the like! G d is grateful! At last! They are here to save us all! First though, they will have to stop consuming over 80% of the world's resources to sustain themselves, as their dollar has fallen disgracefully short of the mark, and the Chinese "Yuan" stands strong, and poised to take over, even internationally, as does the Asian intellectual community - producing more Post Graduates with I Q's over 130, multi-lingual, multi-disciplines, than the U.S.A. has high-school students, drop-outs included. So, You tell me! Who is going to find the miracle battery? Asia or the Americans? Gentlemen place your bets! The big money of the U.S.A., the world, already has: Capital has been moved to Asian stock markets, Beijing, Shanghai and Hang Seng all booming because of it. The money, now all converted to safe, stable, non-fiat, printing press proof "Yuan", finances Ultra Modern, Super Factories built to accommodate the highest skills of 80 pound Asian women. They compete for Yankee Doodle's very life-blood in the states, his job! My heart, with the Great Hulking American Neanderthal, for I am one! My money, bet on the Chinese, 80 pound ladies, with all the capital they need to conquer the world, not a shot fired!