Mark,

First, some background music to help your much needed rest...naps, a 40 winks, during the day, would do wonderful thing (Hippo singing "the lion sleeps to night")

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=399syDv0bBM

Some observations:

- Very nice to see progress in science and technology. Fast charge battery is always welcome, but...

- Even if the fast charge battery can be mass produced in two years (?). It would be impossible given regulatory requirements for safety testing, etc...and manufacturers who would be willing to put the money down for testing the viability of the new product to make sure that a new and improved gadgets are safe (or else they will be sued..for too fast a charge rate may cause a fire which may burn something down or cause personal injury) in everyday use before making a decision to crank this stuff out for mass production.

- People don't really want to change to a new product after 2 years. It has to be ~5yrs, since it cost money to buy new things, and you would need to throw away the almost new batteries and back-up batteries and charging sytems. I am talking about small batteries for cell phones, cameras and the like. So, there may be a market for these small devices, but people are generally conservative and don't really want to jump in head first for new things. Some manufacturers would try to keep the same batteries, at least the size, to make new cameras (as an example) compatible with old batteries (or use old batteries in new cameras), or the customer would buy another brand.

- Power tools: This is the intermediate level, fast charging rate and power storage capacity would be good, but like cameras people tend to stay with the old desing at least for a few years for similar reasons.

- EVs: This is the area of interest, for most of us. EV batteries are large and expensive (and would use hundred of kg of high grade garphite), and would cost thousands of dollars. Hence, manufacturers don't really want to jump in head first with new promising technology. They are a conservative bunch.

It would be good to increase the range (over 500km with a full charge) and to reduce the charging time to less than 15 minutes (equivalent to the time required to pump gas). It may be easier to increase the power storage capacity for a longer range, but extreme reduction of charging time (e.g. 15 minutes) would pose a problem for the power supply system. If everyone tries to plug the EVs in for a fast charge, the local transformers may not be able to take it...and then everybody would be stranded (no charge when the transformer blows).

In summary, even if the new technology could be applied in a couple of years, it would be for small devices, like cell phones, cameras, etc. The new technology is not for large EV battery application, at least not during the next 5 years.

Just some thoughts so that we can all sleep well tonight!

goldhunter