On Envia: We are watching. http://cleantechnica.com/2012/02/29/envia-ev-battery-potential-breakthrough/

Apparently EV batteries have already hit $400/kW.

http://www.greentechmedia.com/articles/read/ev-batteries-dropping-rapidly-in-price/

Every study I read from Pike seems to fall short of the mark.

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And here’s a company to watch – Envia. They are claiming 3x the range per pound of battery. Think a Nissan Leaf with 210 to 360 mile range but weighing no more than the current model. And their capacity claim has been verified by an independent testing lab.

Envia also claims $125/watt, which is about 1/3rd to 1/4th of current (best) battery prices. If 2012 Leaf battery prices were $600/watt as some claim this would drop the price of a “100 mile range” Leaf from $32,500 to about $21,000. (Even less because less battery weight would mean fewer kWs to purchase.)

(2012 purchase contracts were apparently in place before prices fell to $400/watt. 2013 models should show a drop in price.)

An additional interesting thing about Envia is that they do not intend to become battery manufacturers. They plan on licensing their technology to existing battery manufacturers which means that if they aren’t blowing smoke then we’ll see these batteries come to market much sooner.

Manufacturers would simply have to change the way they manufacture their cathodes, the rest of the cell is ‘business as it is being done’.

Envia also states 1,000 cycles. Put these in a “200 mile range EV” and they would be 200,000 mile batteries. The car would wear out before the batteries would have fallen to 80% capacity. You’d be driving a 180 mile range “hunk o’ junk”.

http://thinkprogress.org/romm/2012/02/28/433434/envia-gm-doe-lithium-ion-batteries-cut-costs-in-half-triple-energy-density/