Mass production should drive the price lower, but not very much.
production cost wise, lithium-ion should be actually slightly cheaper than lead-acid when produced in the same automotive format.
As chinese are copying the tech like mad and ramping up production volumes, this is already evident in dirt-cheap li-powered e-bikes on sale in china, and in some cases you can get them here as well:
http://www.everspring.net/product-battery.htm
$160/kWh. Not bad. Quality is to be determined.

Rapid charging of PHEV or BEV vehicles will increase the morning and afternoon peak load, but because the increase will be gradual, the Utilities will be able to ramp up generation to match. The whole idea is shifting from foreign energy, which funds those who plot against us, to domestic energy. And as we shift, we can work on improving the generation mix to reduce enviromental impact, be it with nuclear to reduce green-house gas polution, or renewables such as wind and PV.
Rapid charge does not present any sort of a problem that is not well understood and manageable.

It is not so much the overall draw, but the local one. The local fueling station does not have a huge electrical service, so one would have to be installed. They do not want to pay $50k for an E85 pump, what would this cost? Telling the customer to wait 2 hours would be like saying "the gas truck won't be here for two hours", that is not good service. These are little details that have to be considered.

Base vehicle: Actyon, base price ~20500 eur (excl. tax) (or ~26000 USD)....

I agree with the previous poster, drop a gen set in the trunk when you know you are going to be pushing your range. The built in charger on this vehicle is not made for long distance, ie discharges faster than it charges, but they have already published that there will be a charging port for fast charge. You could get a purpose built charger and drop it in the bed for longer trips.

One reason I wouldnt own a lith ion car is of course I would never own a car that screams steal me have valueble crap on me. I vcan imagine the steal rate if a car thief can pry out a 25000 gmizo.

Rapid recharging seems like a non-issue. Initially, why can't the "refilling station" charge its batteries at night? It would only need capacity for a few cars to begin with. They could have a red, yellow and green light on their price sign to alert motorists that they are at fast, medium, or slow charge status. As time went on, there would be a biosyngas fired generator or hydrogen fuelcell on site.

Edit: ...fuelcell generator on site. If they went the genset route, fuel could be delivered via pipeline.

wintermane, I guess you don't drive a Ferrari or Rolls?

If I was rich enough to have those cars id be too bussy buying hookers and stuff to read this site...

I don't see rapid charging as an issue. Recharging stations could charge $0.20 per KW*hr for a rapid charge during working hours. This will give people the insentive to charge at home and a handsome profit to the energy companies so that they can speed up the process of building the infrastructure for rapid charging.

Fred,

I California on a sunny summer day we routinely run at 90%+ of our total grid capacity. It has gone as high as 95% at times. Now increase the load with 100,000 cars wanting 250kw for 10 minutes each and you bring the grid into complete collapse. Just surf around for EPRI grid papers and you will see. Night time charging fine, day time huge load quick charging? (I bet no so fine :)

I e-mailed Phoenix and they stated the initial fleet vehicles will sell at approx $45K each.
Altair established a business relationship with a battery company in China over a year ago. Advanced Battery (ABAT) has recently expanded its battery manufacturing capacities. I personally think that Phoenix and Altair are serious upstarts.

Well, there goes that IP. The Chinese will be knocking out copies and selling them on Ebay soon.

Wintermane, Do you also do without A/C and electricity because theives may try to steal the copper? There have been quite a few thefts of copper (and aluminum) around the US lately as prices for each metal have increased.

So, what ever happened to this guys, anyone knows?

http://www.universalelectricvehicle.com/index.htm

FS

Finding the quarter-megawatt chargers will be easy. Just follow the big powerlines.

Seriously, though, there shouldn't be a surge issue as long as we have a smart grid, which we need anyway. If you're in an area with a weak grid and you get multiple charges at once, demand-side management techniques could be invoked which would turn off some local refrigeration units and such for a few minutes. Note that while other loads of that magnitude don't turn on and off very often, they do turn on at will and the grid already has to accomodate that level of transient. Also, while you are charging a cooperative charger could accomodate other, shorter-term load spikes elsewhere by backing off, which enables the grid to be pushed closer to its limit.

You wouldn't have to make a time slot reservation for a power charge. Worse comes to worse, the charge is slowed down some.

As far as the overall grid capacity peak goes, charging in the middle of the day will not be costly as soon as we get enough PV power sprinkled around, which should happen on a similar schedule to the deployment of EV's.

If you want to be able to fast-charge on the road, though, a standard still needs to be developed.

>45K doesnt sound like a crazy price.
How low can that go?
Can it get to under 30K with soft financeing?

I still think that they should think about offering
battery packs as modules. Something like you
the 50mile 100mile and 150mile modules.
You can buy them at different times.
Start with 50 add 50 more later.
Sure would help the price and raise the acceptance.
That with some good financing.
(Wonder if the government could help with direct loans)