The key factor in reducing greenhouse gas emissions is to reduce the amount of CO2 emitted by the nation's transportation vehicles. US Person advocates a return to tested technology from the turn of the last century: electric cars and light trucks. These cars were immensely popular in towns. Called "women's cars" because they did not require a strong arm to turn a hand crank for starting. Their utility was limited by heavy, dangerous lead acid batteries and short range of twenty miles or less. When Cadillac introduced the electric starter for the internal combustion engine around 1912, the rest is...well, you know. America now needs more efficient engines to stretch remaining oil supplies. The average fuel efficiency of the US vehicle fleet has risen just 3 miles per gallon since the days of Ford's gift to the world, the Model T, according to University of Michigan Transportation Research Institute. Until 1935 fuel efficiency was about 14 mpg, then fell gradually to a low of 11.9 during the muscle car years, only to climb to 16.9 by 1991 where it has flattened. Currently the average is 17.2, an uninspiring performance.Electric vehicles may not impact emissions or fuel efficiency greatly in the short term, but moving away from exclusive reliance on the internal combustion engine for motive power is a necessity. That is why the federal government is now backing the necessary research and development with $8 billion in funds. Of that, Nissan USA will receive $1.6 billion to manufacture vehicles and batteries. A start up company, Tesla Motors, that has built a production high performance electric roadster will receive $465 million to help reduce the cost of its car. The technological hurdle for the electric car to jump has always been its power source, batteries. Improving battery technology has been slow primarily because light, powerful batteries were not needed until the space program came into existence. Once NASA put its collective mind on the problem more powerful batteries using advanced electrolytic chemistry were available at high cost. Nickel-hydride batteries introduced in 1989 increased energy density (the amount of electric energy stored/weight) by several factors.
Density was further improved when Sony introduced lithium ion batteries for digital cameras and portable computers. Lithium is the lightest of all metals. Lithium batteries usually contain two electrodes, one of graphite and one of a metal oxide, separated by a non-conductive material. These are immersed in a lithium salt and organic solvent with electro-chemical properties. Thanks to Sony's heavy investment in this technology, lithium batteries have the highest longevity of all commercially available batteries. It is the battery of choice for an electric vehicle. The technology is expensive, so the first generation of electric vehicles will 
also not be cheap. A current cost estimate for car batteries is $2,016/kWh. However, the government could subsidize the sale of these vehicles to get them on the road until battery costs come down. A Madison Avenue research firm says that the cost of lithium metal is only 3% of the cost of the battery itself, so there is scope for further cost reductions. The energy that can be stored by a battery has doubled and researchers claim it can triple again in the next ten years. An example of modern computational approach to the quantum mechanics involved, recent research showed Li-ion batteries can be charged faster by a factor of 100 when the cathode is made of lithium iron phosphate, a type used in portable power tools. These batteries do not have the requisite power density for vehicle application (despite the humorous demonstration on the TV show "Monster Garage" where the 'boyz' made an electric dragster from an old Chev and 400 Milwaukee power tool batteries), but further tweaking of battery components, such as replacing cobalt (+3) with chromium (+6) will lead to density improvements by a factor of 2 or 3, enough to make low-cost, high-performance batteries feasible. Where a battery might hold 100 watt-hours per kilogram, it will hold 250, rivaling gasoline as a vehicle power source without the noise and fumes.
also not be cheap. A current cost estimate for car batteries is $2,016/kWh. However, the government could subsidize the sale of these vehicles to get them on the road until battery costs come down. A Madison Avenue research firm says that the cost of lithium metal is only 3% of the cost of the battery itself, so there is scope for further cost reductions. The energy that can be stored by a battery has doubled and researchers claim it can triple again in the next ten years. An example of modern computational approach to the quantum mechanics involved, recent research showed Li-ion batteries can be charged faster by a factor of 100 when the cathode is made of lithium iron phosphate, a type used in portable power tools. These batteries do not have the requisite power density for vehicle application (despite the humorous demonstration on the TV show "Monster Garage" where the 'boyz' made an electric dragster from an old Chev and 400 Milwaukee power tool batteries), but further tweaking of battery components, such as replacing cobalt (+3) with chromium (+6) will lead to density improvements by a factor of 2 or 3, enough to make low-cost, high-performance batteries feasible. Where a battery might hold 100 watt-hours per kilogram, it will hold 250, rivaling gasoline as a vehicle power source without the noise and fumes.[r. photo courtesy: Ford Motor Co; l. photo courtesy Nissan Motor Co.]