Batteries

Electric vehicles are not high on my list of things to get excited about - primarily because you have to compromise performance to get any decent range out of the vehicles. You either pinch the electrons available, squeezing them to get the last possible mile, or you squander the electrons and get great performance and only get a block or two away from home. (Anyone who thinks electric cars are inherently slow hasn't seen an electric drag racer - they can be sneaky quick.)

The problem to date (and this is given 100 plus years of battery powered electric cars) has been battery technology.

The Chevy Volt will use Li-Ion batteries, but in their current state they are not all that the engineers desire. Here, however, may be the next big thing in electric vehicles. A Li-Ion battery that is not as reactive as the current designs and retains it's charge capacity longer than current designs.

From the MIT Technology Review: Li-Ion

Maybe they can finally build a decent battery pack for my electric razor. ; -)