Call me an optimist.  Coal is king, tar sands oil is booming, the arctic is melting, tropical cyclones keep setting new records, and my own city is still flooded.  Yet, in these times, a revolution in both energy and electrified transportation is taking place right beneath our noses, and perhaps nowhere are we seeing the seeds of this being planted more than on the island of Oahu.

Read on to learn more about the world you may be leaving to your grandchildren and the role Hawaii's third largest island may play in bringing it about.

The city I live in, the city I work in, the city of my friends and of good times and bad, is now sinking beneath the waters as we speak.  We're turning into two cities, east and west, as our bridges shut down one by one.  Cedar Rapids crested today, and my heart goes out to them and everyone I know in that beautiful city.  

Next, it's our turn.

These are my pictures of Iowa City today.

So far in this series, we've talked about how I came to EVs, Saudi Arabia's investment in battery research, the state of modern battery technology, a flawed EV tax credit, and a much improved one.  That's all nice and good, but we haven't really touched solidly on the issue that's going to be number one for most potential EV buyers and other interested parties: economics.  

That's the topic of today's diary, and we're going into it in detail.  Read on for more information.

A month and a half ago, I posted an alert in Going EV #3: Tax credit for your EV... so long as it still burns gasoline (action item!).  The House had passed H.R. 5351 -- the Renewable Energy and Energy Conservation Tax Act of 2008 -- which, among other things offered massive incentives for vehicles with electric drivetrains.  However, it specifically mandated that they had to both have four wheels and still have an internal combustion engine, which excluded most EVs.  Lots of people contacted their elected representatives to remedy this situation, and it shows: just recently, the House sent a new bill to the Senate -- H.R. 6049 -- and it's a huge improvement.  However, for those who care about maximizing efficiency, more remains to be done.  

Read on for more details.

The makers of the batteries for today's modern EVs have much to be proud of.  A little over a decade ago, the best EVs on the market ran on lead-acid batteries (a technology so primitive that Thomas Edison didn't find it suitable for the EVs of his era) and nickel-cadmium cells (toxic enough to make lead-acid look clean).  Today's battery upstarts like A123 (lithium phosphate) and AltairNano (lithium titanate) are already becoming superstars in the EV community with their long-life, high performance cells.

That said, their achievements pale in comparison to what's coming our way.  Read on to learn how over a dozen technologies in the lab today promise not only to have EVs match the range of gasoline cars, but completely blow it away.

One particularly interesting bill working its way through the halls of congress right now is H.R. 5351 -- the Renewable Energy and Energy Conservation Tax Act of 2008, which has made it through the House and is now in the Senate.  And wow, does this bill give incentives to promote some great things.  It promotes solar.  It promotes biomass.  It promotes geothermal, wind, tidal power, wave power, ocean thermal power... on and on the list goes.  

One of the more interesting aspects of the bill is Sec. 201, which provides for a potentially large personal income tax credit for EVs... but only if they're PHEVs and still retain a non-electric engine.  

Read on for more.

What is the connection between Saudi Arabia and advanced lithium-ion batteries that could revolutionize electric cars as we know them?  

His name is Yi Cui.

It's $27k.  It runs only on electricity.  It goes 120 miles on just 10 kilowatt hours at highway speeds (that's $0.50 for the whole trip around these parts).  Its only drivetrain moving parts are a simple motor, a belt, and three wheels.  It has 1/5th to 2/5th the drag of a typical car.  It looks like something from Blade Runner.  

And it's available only to California residents, while I'm from the Midwest.  Darn.  As though that will stop me.