Electric Dsm

[JET]

There is a safety aspect when comparing a car like the one this was originally about. The batteries he used are lead acid, they are heavy and of course have acid inside. One of these in your car isn't a big deal, throw 20 of them in and it becomes a bigger deal. There is the inertia you have to deal with in an accident, as 1600 lbs of batteries won't want to stop easily. Then you have the problem of them breaking open and spilling lots of battery acid if you are in an accident. That is part of the reason why you don't see lead acid batteries in production cars, they normally use lithium ion batteries. It is also a packaging and weight issue.

We are getting close to making this feasible, but are not quite there yet for a pure electric car. A dual mode like the Volt coming out is the closest we can get right now.