A wise person once said that: "The only thing that we know about the future is its uncertainty". This uncertainty opens the world of opportunity to us, allowing progress to pave the road to tomorrow. Over the past fifty years, the automobile has become our primary way of transportation and not only for leisure, but a necessity for most people. With the convenience and the increasing number of cars each year, however, come serious consequences with long lasting effects.

For the last hundred years, ever since the first automobile was developed, most vehicles have been gasoline powered. An internal combustion engine, which utilizes chemical bond energy in petroleum, has been practically the only means of powering the vehicle. This type of engine has evolved a long way since its invention by a Dutch physicist Christian Huygens, in about 1680. Efficiency, noise and pollution levels have been drastically improved in its life cycle especially in the last 30 years, however the fundamental problem of reliance on petroleum products and simple chemical reaction of oxidation is still and always will be apparent. These shortcomings didn't cripple the development of automotive

industry in the past, but today, when people are becoming more and more aware of problems associated with mass use of gasoline powered vehicles, there is clearly a need for an alternative source of power - the electric power.

The public has been slow to respond to the overwhelming evidence for the need of alternative fuel sources and vehicles. At the turn of the new century, alternative fuel vehicles represent less then one percent of all vehicles on the road. However, the growing severity of air pollution, combined with the need to reduce America's dependence on imported oil, is causing us to reevaluate our current choices of transportation fuels.

Currently the significant problems with electrical vehicles compared to ICE vehicles are their relatively short drive range per charge and their high cost. These are determined by very large, expensive, heavy and short-lived battery packs. Lead acid batteries are cheaper than alternative technologies but have low energy density. Some advanced batteries such as NiMH and NiCD, do have higher energy density than the lead acid battery, however, they are extremely expensive. Automakers are paying exorbitant sums for the advanced batteries they use in the current generation of electric vehicles, over US $30,000 per unit. This situation makes it very difficult for electric cars to

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Approximate Word count = 904
Approximate Pages = 4 (250 words per page double spaced)