When it comes to choosing the type of vehicle I want to drive, I like to think and compare in many different categories:

• which type of car will take me from A to B faster?
• which type will do it cheaper?
• which type is emitting less pollution?
• which requires less infrastructure changes to switch to?
• etc.

Knowing that, it’s easier to realize what’s better for me now, what’s better for me in the future and what’s better for the environment we live in.

Interesting to know that even the most efficient gasoline engines, have very limited efficiency in terms of how much energy contained in the fuel will actually be converted to mechanical by the engine. It’s only around 32%.

Medium size electric motors are up to 90% efficient. And the bigger the motor is, the more efficient it can be. [Energy Conversion Efficiency].

Electric vehicle doesn’t need transmission in many cases and regenerative braking would be impossible on a pure gasoline car. This means that electric car can save a lot of energy that would be lost in gasoline car because of: transmission and breaks.

Gasoline car also needs to run its engine while standing in traffic or at the intersections - no need to do it in electric cars.

The bigger picture, comparing well to wheel energy efficiency, is far more complicated. You need to take into consideration storage loses in the battery, electricity delivery from electric plant to where you charge your car, plant efficiency. For gasoline you need to look at fuel refinery and delivery cost.

Another important piece of the puzzle is the effect on the environment. We know that if you are burning gasoline, you are releasing greenhouse gases and other pollutants into the atmosphere.

On the other hand, there are multiple ways to produce electricity without pollution: solar, wind, ocean waves and tide, etc. Some people even talk about harvesting the energy of lightning - you just have to channel it into a big enough battery that can be charged quickly enough.

There has been a lot of talk lately about technological breakthroughs that might allow for great increase of electric vehicle range and reduction of the charge time.

The most noticeable promises have been given by a Texas company EEStor, which promised to create super performant ultracapacitors and have them store several times more energy than the best chemical batteries available today. EEStor’s site is currently under construction: http://eestor.us/.

If this is all true, we will soon have electric cars driving up to 80mph for 400 miles on single charge and you could recharge such car in 5 minutes, given that you can find an outlet powerful enough.

EEStore managed to raise the necessary funding and signed several partnerships, which kinda tells me that they proven that it can be done, although they are not very vocal about their work in press.

One of the big partners is an electric car maker ZENN. They sell low-speed electric vehicles for a while now and I believe represents an important strategic partner for EEStor.

Most recently they got Light Electric Vehicles Company on board, which in turn promises to deliver entire drivetraine based on EEStor’s Ultracapacitors. Here is an overview of what this is about, taken from their website:

EEStor EESUs are expected to provide over 450 watt hours per kilogram and over 700 watt hours per liter, charge in minutes, and, for all practical vehicular purposes, last indefinitely. By comparison, lithium iron phosphate batteries provide about 100 watt hours per kilogram and 170 watt hours per liter. Unlike electrochemical batteries, EESUs should not break down from use or time during the life of a vehicle. They are expected to deliver high current without loss of efficiency or excess heat, and they should operate at optimum efficiency over a wide range of ambient temperatures. They will be configurable for any output voltage that optimizes vehicle performance, and will maintain that output voltage at a constant level over the span of each discharge cycle. Production is expected to start mid 2009.