John McCain Proposes $300 Million Prize For Next-generation Car Battery

[Guest]

Fresno (CA) - Senator John McCain, the presumptive Republican presidential candidate, has proposed a $300 million prize for anyone who can build an ultra-efficient car battery.

John McCain Proposes $300 Million Prize For Next-generation Car Battery : Read more

 

[gm0n3y]

Wow, just wow. McCain is an idiot. First of all, money is not the reason for the slow (but steady) progress of battery technology. If a company managed to make a generational leap in battery technology, they would end up making billions in sales anyways. This is just pure political bull to make him seem more environmentally friendly. As for the $5000 credit, a battery powered car is not a 'no emission vehicle' (well maybe a bicycle). Most electricity in the US (and the rest of the world) is from coal plants.

 

[martel80]

They should rather genetically engineer a plant which would produce oil-like hydrocarbons. Gasoline is not the only product we (I mean mankind, I'm not American) need oil for.

 

[stevo777]

Actually, there have been huge leaps in battery and battery/capacitor hybrids. The technology is just not getting the push that it needs to be implemented. On March 29th, 2005, Toshiba claimed to develop a litium-ion nanotech battery that would recharge to 80% in just a minute or so and have extremely long life, while not being a fire threat. I wrote to Toshiba six months later, and they said the technology was transfered to another department and they wouldn't get back to me. http://www.toshiba.com/tai/news/news.jsp?Start=220
This is just another example of technology getting burried so that rich tycoons can play their games.

 

[gm0n3y]

I have also read many articles over the last year or so praising seemingly major developments in battery technologies. Perhaps the problem is that 50 different companies own the patents that if used together would constitute a major leap in battery life/recharging/safety/weight/etc.

 

[stevo777]

Yep, you can catch little snippets of advancements that the "popular" media never seems to mention. The only thing that might be good about an "official" X prize thing with the batteries is that the technology would be harder to sweep under the carpet--at least in the US. Then again, there's so much heel dragging who knows.