Tagged: electric cars

Boeing hopes to have a permanent fix for its new Dreamliner jet by the end of the month. All Dreamliners have been grounded since January after reports of the batteries smoking or catching fire.

The news is another bump in the road for lithium ion battery manufacturers, who’ve already had some problems marketing the next generation of batteries.

Lithium ion dominating the market

Lithium ion based batteries are everywhere; your cell phone, laptop or tablet, cordless power tools. But there are several kinds of lithium ion batteries. The ones in the Dreamliner aren’t the same as the ones in consumer electronics.

“We’re in the middle of a horse race and right now lithium ion is far in the lead of that horse race,” Sam Jaffe said. He’s an energy storage analyst with Pike Research.

The following is a summary of a previously recorded interview. To hear the complete segment, click the audio above.

The auto industry seems to be coming back to life, but there does not seem to be much buzz surrounding alternative energy vehicles, and that's being reflected in sales.

January figures were anemic at best for electric vehicles and plug-in hybrids.

The Obama Administration predicted a million electric cars would be on our highways by 2015.

Today there are barely 30,000.

Just why aren't these vehicles catching on with the public?

And is there anything the automakers can do to make those EVs and plug-ins more appealing?

Cindy talked with Sean McAlinden, Executive VP of Research and Chief Economist at the Center for Auto Research, and David Shepardson, the Washington Bureau Chief for the Detroit News.