Encouraging Words from Berkeley

I am about halfway through reading a very interesting report issued last week by University of California, Berkeley. Here it is if you are interested ... http://cet.berkeley.edu/dl/CET_Technical_Brief_Economic.pdf

Their encouragement comes from reference to a recent Wired magazine article which leads them to predict that "... a new generation of affordable, high performance electric cars is about to enter the U.S. market."

Their bullish forcast is based heavily on the anticipated success of an emerging business model for these vehicles: Removable and exchangable batteries and a per-mile service contract structure. AKA the "cell phone model" for transportation. I must admit, I have slowly but persistently moved from skeptical to cautious belief with regard to this business model, but thats how paradigm shifts usually work... they are only obvious to the general population in retrospect. I'm still not a complete convert, but certainly look forward with an open mind to seeing the evolution proceed!

I am encouraged by this since the faster we get significant penetration of high capacity Lithium Ion batteries into the transportation sector, and connect them intelligently to the grid, the sooner the benefits flow to our society: lower CO2 emission, improved energy sourcing security, improved grid reliability, and renewed economic base.

Hope you enjoy the article, and it provides you with some great food for thought. Paul