Another evidence that the road to electrified cars will be paved with traps and hurddles that will be deceptive for enthusiast of electric cars.
It will come, but much slower than some claim. Battery technology has always been slow to progress, the reason is that it requires breakthrough in material technology, developp and qualify a new material for mass use has always been slow (Iron is still the core of our auto industry 3000 years after the start of the iron age...more than 30 000 different material that can be potential candidate for battery electrode, it takes years to explore only one, so ...

As Tree says, the road to electrification may not run smoothly.
But we are making progress, even as battery development takes longer than expected we are getting better at the rest of it - engines, controls and systems.

The future car may well end up as some kind of serial hybrid, with a small, highly optimized genset rather than the ICE we know, coupled with a rather puny battery, which can nonetheless be charged at night.
And people who live in mountainous regions will need larger gensets than people in flat regions.

Andre Lievin

There is absolutely nothing wrong with steel, my point was only to illustrate the fact that breaktrough in material technology are inherently slow and once you have developp a new material it might take a looong time before you find something better. The problem of EV vehicle is that you can do ultra-efficient light vehicle (Aptera or Venture Car type) that can get 100MPG with ICE or HEV, when you get 100MPG you can still drive to you heart content until the gas price reach 12$/Gallon, and also biofuel can then become important at this point. The combination of biofuel with ultra efficient light ICE car can postpone the electric car for quite a while.

By the way does anybody have information about the new Toshiba SICB battery, they claimn 8000 cycles, fast recharge capabilities, and up to 80Wh/kg and an outstanding power peak density. Scam or real ?

Hey folks remember its still 2x the cost of a normal chinese luxury car. Thats bloody spendy for china. Its also far more expensive then they had hoped for.

It will be interesting to see if BYD can enter the U.S. without violating a gazillion patents. They openly admit reverse engineering and digging through patents and products created by other companies in order to streamline their R&D process. The Goodenough lithium phosphate patent may create a barrier if BYD truly did infringe, which seems likely to me.

According to the article:
'He studied Sony and Sanyo patents and took apart batteries to understand how they were made, a "process that involved much trial and error," he says. (Sony and Sanyo later sued BYD, unsuccessfully, for infringing on their patents.)'

But where did they litigate? Not here, that's for sure.

I've driven in BYD cars, they are bottom of the barrel, even in Africa, which is where I drove them. It will be early adopter's who go electric first in the U.S., not necessarily budget conscious people, who may prefer to buy a used Corolla or another similar car.

I'm skeptical that BYD could deliver the level of safety that U.S. consumers expect without making sacrifices on price at this point. In the years to come I wouldn't be surprised if they gradually worked their way upmarket, just like every other Asian automaker has done.

BYD is smart to stay out of the U.S. for the time being.