Building a better battery

Gazette, The (Colorado Springs), Jul 12, 2007 by DEBBIE KELLEY THE GAZETTE

In an industrial building in Palmer Lake, a small company is making a mighty effort to advance what its founders see as the silver bullet for the automotive industry -- pure electric power.

"Every technology has its time -- more exotic battery technology will be developed, costs will decrease, and we'll see the vast proliferation of electric cars," said Daniel Rivers, president and chief operating officer of American Electric Vehicles Inc.

Formed in 2004 as an electric-vehicle research, development and design firm, the seven-employee company has created electric battery packs, drive trains and off-road vehicles for the Air Force, converted commercial and personal vehicles to electric power, developed mega-battery packs that store electricity and act as a generator, and designed battery packs to make Neighborhood Electric Vehicles go faster.

"It's been very challenging. We'll continue to find niche markets," said Rivers, who holds a doctorate in mathematics from the University of California, Los Angeles. His partner, Bruce Johnson, holds a doctorate in mechanical engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Rivers was also the brains behind the race car that holds the electric-vehicle class record in the Pikes Peak International Hill Climb, set in 2003. Competitors included Honda Motor Co., and winning is something Rivers takes pride in.

Deficient battery technology has slowed electric cars from charging around streets, said Rivers, who in the 1990s managed the creation of General Motors Corp.'s first all-electric car, the EV1.

But key signs, such as high crude oil and gasoline prices and growing concern over greenhouse gas emissions, are telling him that fundamental industry change is coming.

"Electric cars can free us from our dependence on oil," he said. "The cost of energy for electric cars versus gasoline-powered cars is equal to buying gas at 60 cents a gallon."

At the same time, companies such as his are cracking technological hurdles that have made electric cars impractical -- namely battery cost, power, lifespan and safety.

Rivers' company specializes in developing vehicles and systems powered by lithium-ion batteries, which he said produce twice the power and are half the size of traditional acid-lead batteries. But lithium-ion battery packs for fully electric cars are costly, about $15,000 to $20,000, he said.

The packs can be recharged in two to three hours, though, and have the capability of driving highway speeds.

And as demand increases, Rivers believes, the price of battery technology will decrease.

Customer S.T. Tripathi, owner of Colorado Auto Connection in Parker, which sells the compact Smart car and electric cars, sees great potential in the company.

"The best battery technology is right here in Colorado," he said. "They have the knowledge to develop a battery system that increases highway speeds, taking an electric car to 150 mph and going 150 miles before needing charging," he said.

Tripathi has hired American Electric Vehicles for several projects and is marketing the company's off-road military-type electric vehicle.

American Electric Vehicles just completed a one-year contract with the U.S. Special Operations Command to develop and build four prototypes of a fully electric off-road vehicle that can be used in combat and can travel at 65 mph.

The assignment was tough, Rivers said. The CERV, or Clandestine Electric Reconnaissance Vehicle, had to be engineered to fit inside a CV-22 Osprey, an aircraft that can do vertical takeoffs and landings but flies more like a plane than a helicopter.

"They were only designed to carry troops, but the Air Force wants to drop electric vehicles with troops behind enemy lines," Rivers said.

Electric vehicles make sense on the battlefield because of their stealth abilities -- no motor means they're quiet and can't be detected by infrared radar, Rivers said.

Plus, the battery pack in the vehicle his company created is so powerful -- delivering 100 kilowatts of power for up to 15 minutes - - it can be used to power electric weapons or field hospital operations.

"Just as laptop computers and cell phones drove better batteries to the market for those products, market demand will lead to smaller, lighter, cheaper, better and safer car batteries," Rivers said. "It's just a matter of time."