Well, we certainly hope the folks at EEstor have what they say they have. The Texas company claims to have developed a high-capacity battery that would obviate city driving using gasoline. Toronto’s Zenn Motors bought the rights to the super battery in 2005. EEstor says it will have batteries ready for production cars sometime in 2008. Most batteries are, effectively, small chemical power plants. The EEstor battery, should it work as advertised, uses layers of paper-thin metal sheets, deriving power from particles moving between them and along a mystery material.
Sounds spooky, but venture capitalists have already dumped in millions to back the idea. If it works for cars, imagine a cellular phone that charges in seconds and runs for weeks. Charging up a laptop monthly. Lawn mowers and hedge trimmers that run for days and don’t spew small-engine smoke (or whine). Thousands of silent cars whizzing around our cities, emitting zero and charging up at all-electric “gas” stations in less time than it takes to pump a quarter tank of regular. Almost makes you feel bad for Exxon. Almost.
