I was hoping for 90+MPG with the new battery

http://www.dailytech.com/article.aspx?newsid=7678

My engineering model strongly suggests the battery chemistry is not the limitation.

Bob Wilson

Operation Iraqi Oil Freedom:

Automatic, stock, project car.

My other 1500 cc car:

Automatic, stock, backup car.
Free speech, dialog and knowledge thrives without the poison of SPAM.

Agreed Bob. And you have to assume this is true from the start.
Toyota wouldn't be devious (I mean smart) enough to
mislead the competition would they?

Alden Bowles
2005 Toyota Prius II HSD

This turnaround is very strange.

Safety is not the real problem, because Toyota have been putting LiIon into vehicles for years (the Japan market Toyota Vitz stop-start uses an onboard high-power lithium-ion pack).

More to the point, the Wall street article cites that the cobalt based electrodes they planned to use can catch fire. That would be a fair point except that the Vitz uses Lithium-nickel, not lithium-cobalt, and Toyota and Panasonic EV wouldn't dream of trying to use cobalt in an automotive application.

There is more to this story than we are being told....

http://mysite.wanadoo-members.co.uk/ecotech/ecot.htm

Apparently Toyota has noticed the Google initiative.

Bob Wilson

Operation Iraqi Oil Freedom:

Automatic, stock, project car.

My other 1500 cc car:

Automatic, stock, backup car.
Free speech, dialog and knowledge thrives without the poison of SPAM.