Envia Systems, a small battery company with investment from General Motors (GM), is working on new technology that could allow an electric car to travel up to 322km on a single charge within the next 2 to 4 years. That is about the distance between Singapore and Kuala Lumpur.
Speaking at an employee meeting, GM’s CEO, Dan Akerson commented that there is 50-50 chance that the technology will materialize. He described the development to be a game changer.
The Chevrolet Volt, an electric car under GM, travels about 35 miles on a single charge and has a 1.4L naturally-aspirated gasoline engine that keeps the car going after that. There are only a few electric car offerings in the market with more than 100 miles of range.
Tesla Motors' Model S can go up to 300 miles but it has a much larger battery and can cost more than twice as much as a Volt. Envia claims that the new technology would reduce the battery cost by half.
In developing more efficient vehicles, GM is not banking on electric cars alone. Akerson commented that the company is also looking at hybrids, hydrogen fuel cell vehicles, natural gas power plants as well as developing more efficient gasoline engines.
Recently, I also wrote about GM’s investment in the development of lightweight steel material. It looks like we can expect some interesting lineup from GM in the coming years.
