Compressed air is a thermodynamic cycle, its efficiency is very limited. Most of the energy in compressing it is lost as heat, most of the energy in expanding it must be provided as heat (by burning fuel). Li-ion have charge-discharge efficiencies has high as 95%. The only way compressed air has a chance is if it could be made cheap enough, and that a hard achievement when all the investment is in batteries.

Mannstein:

Large deposits of lithium have been located in the Ungava peninsula. Mining operations may be 2 or 3 years away. Other Northern parts of Canada and Russia are potential areas for other large deposits.

Future nano-technology batteries will use a lot less lithium per Kwh of stored energy. Other lower cost composites will also be used. The world should not worry too much about shortages, specially at this early deveolpment stage.

Harvey

The idea that we can switch from a petrol powered fleet cars to a lithium battery powered fleet cars is not only naive but also dangerous. There is not enough lithium for this period. With dedicating all the lithium to car production we would be able to produce at best 5 millions car a year, when the current market is 80 millions. The forecast is the in 2020 we will produce a paltry 2-4millions car worldwide of aggregated PHEV EV cars. Still 76-78millions of the rest will be petrol powered cars.
Production of lithium will be enough up to 2020 as long as electric are a fraction of the fleet, if we had to fully switch to EV we would have to use more abundant material like Na-S and non permanent magnet motor because they wouldn't be enough Neodymium anyway

Ben

Then check your numbers. A car like the prius needs 10Kg of Neodymium. Even building wind mill will soon be a problem if they don't find a solution to the decision of China to stop exporting neodymium.

As for extracting lithium from sea water : dream on it, it is far beyond any EROI decent number. And yes when you have resource base of 14 Mtons your annual production can only be small fraction of this, simple geological common sense.

Yes it can recycled, but the fact is that it is not at the time.

Air powered cars probably will not catch on, but air/electric hybrids might. Capturing braking energy can be done with compressed air and allow an assist on take off. The air run through an expander cools and can be used for cooling. If needed, the compressed air passed the expander can be used to super charge the engine when extra power is needed.

Back to the subject; air powered cars. There are ways to make them better. Instead of using a compressed gas use a liquified gas. I once Googled for "cryocar" and found that University of North Texas developed a car that runs on liquid nitrogen (LN2) and called their cryocar the CoolLN2. Also, the University of Washington in Seattle, converted an old mail truck to run on LN2(but their link is now dead), they called their truck LN2000. The specific energy densities of LN2 are 54 and 87 W-h/kg-LN2 for the adiabatic and isothermal expansion processes, respectively, and the corresponding amounts of cryogen to provide a 300 km driving range would be 450 kg and 280 kg.

There are also descriptions of how CO2 engines work at various places on the internet.

http://library.thinkquest.org/26471/thefuture1.html
http://www.mtse.unt.edu/CooLN2Car.html

I said "all the BEVs we could possibly need." We don't need to replace every single ICE (although that would be nice) we just need to replace enough to hold GW below 2 degrees.

Base reserves are "natural resources that are economically recoverable." What is "economically recoverable" depends on what people are willing to pay.

Seawater contains lithium at a low concentration of 0.1 to 0.2 ppm. OTOH estimates for crustal content of lithium range from 20 to 70 ppm (by weight), at 20 mg of lithium per kg of Earth's crust, it is the 25th most abundant element. Nickel and lead have the about the same abundance. The only reason seawater is talked about as a source of lithium is that currently the most economical source is brine from natural salt flats [seawater that's been concentrated for us].

ai vin

if we need only 5millions EV a year then we agree.

SJC, sure as the demand for lithium picks up we will find new reserves, lithium has been in moderate demand so far. But the ultimate reserves including future discoveries are about 30Mtons, and that's not much.

But I am positive that we should be able to developp Na-S battery with good performances that can be used at room temperature. Ceramatec decreased the temperature from 300C to 95C, so, and I don't see why Na-S battery with an electrolyte can no work just like a Li-S battery.

From Treehugger:

"Then check your numbers. A car like the Prius needs 10Kg of Neodymium."

No, it doesn't. Disassemble the motors, remove the magnets, and weigh them.

Not everything that is posted on the Internet is true.

The various govt's and scientific orgs take a global approach to energy and transportation. They describe it as "Scattergun."

In I.E. transport, especially in this transitional phase, all comers are welcomed.

Some will not get to the starting post as too dirty or dangerous or horribly inefficient.

The next group will be eliminated early though may find specific application as they are too expensive, not scalable or exist in special environments.

Most of the familiar technologies have to run the race and be pursued to their logical conclusion.

They may find application in aviation that would be impractical or disallowed in ground transport.

Batteries will we hope find many expressions that are yet undescribed.

It is a common trap that commenters and thinkers fall into advocating a one size fits all approach.If the world were that simple.

It is wrong to think that any technology is 'out' or preferable at this early stage.

Correctly, the whole mix will refine and morph but could expect to substantially exist to varying degrees into the future.

The pollies and scientists understand this quite well.
This is reflected in different countries 'loosely agreeing ' to concentrate efforts in specialty areas.

"MDI says that the researchers erred by comparing the AirPod to a smart (gasoline and electric), because the weights between the two are so different. The Smart gasoline version weighs 837 kg, the Smart electric weighs 924 kg; the MDI Airpod weighs 330 kg (with driver).

So,If UC Berkeley had compared the little MDI Airpod to a big Hummer, the Hummer might have won ? ? ?

Wintermane

mobility is considered a great progress and a fundamental right, but the way our modern societies are organized pose problem in that they require so much mobility that generates enormous costs on whole. The question of its sustainability is clearly on the table. I am not quite sure that the BEV fully address this problem and as you underline our mobility need 20 years from now might be very different. Today people take their car no matter what either it is to ride one mile to the grocery store ((when they could use a bike) or to ride 60 miles for a purpose that is rarely justified. I mean I see people riding 100 miles in a single night just to go to a nightclub, when there is plenty around. We don't even know why we need so much mobility, we are just used to the fact that we have to move around whatever, that's what we need to re-think. Our life quality might greatly improve with less mobility in many aspect