interview > romm > romm 10

Romm 10 (0:41)
Topic(s): Alt Vehicles / Car Culture / Electric & Hybrid / Future Transport
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Video Transcript

Well, battery technology needs to get a little better in order for plug-ins to make widespread sense. I mean, the thing people have to realize about driving a car on electricity is that the cost per mile of driving on electricity is maybe one-third to one-quarter that of driving on gasoline. So there is a payback, as long as the first cost isn't too high. I think everyone believes that the next generation of lithium-ion batteries are going to be usable in cars. And in fact, Toyota has publicly announced in the next generation Prius that they're going to run a lithium-ion battery onto the system. So I do think that we are now seeing, and will shortly see, the batteries of the future that are needed to make the plug-in hybrid work.