While the use of electric two-wheelers has increased in the People's Republic of China (PRC) in the past decade, such unparalleled growth has not extended beyond the PRC's borders to countries, such as India and Viet Nam, where environmentally detrimental gasoline motorcycles dominate.
Lithium-ion batteries have a limited number of charge cycles in electric vehicles, but once a car's battery pack goes kaput, it can be recycled or find new life in less demanding applications - storing renewable energy generated during off-peak hours, for example. At least that's the theory.
Seeking to put the nation back in the lead on an important technology, the Obama administration awarded more than $2 billion in grants on Wednesday for manufacturing advanced batteries and other components for electric cars.
In recent years the legion of supporters of renewable energy has expanded to include labor unions concerned about jobs, as well as national security and energy independence experts such as George Schultz and James Woolsey.
General Electric Co plans to invest $100 million in a factory to build high-tech batteries for heavy equipment, which it believes could be a $1 billion business over the next decade.
The goal of this project is to explore nanowires (NWs) of Li-ion battery electrode materials for improving the battery energy and power density for electric vehicles. NWs offer advantages of a large surface to volume ratio, efficient electron conducting pathways and facile strain relaxation.
