WinterGreen Research, Inc. has published a study purporting that 32.7 million electric vehicles will be on the roads in six years. While we couldn't check the math (the study costs $3,400 to purchase and our own math prevents us from spending that much), that sounds like a lot of electric vehicle purchases in a short amount of time, considering that only 685 EVs were bought in 2008. Nevertheless, more EV buyers might mean more visitors to AllCarsElectric.com and we're all for that.

The study, entitled Worldwide Nanotechnology Electric Vehicle (EV) Market Shares Strategies, and Forecasts, 2009 to 2015 cites growing demand for a renewable energy powered vehicle that substantially lowers the total cost of ownership. According to Susan Eustis, lead author of the study, “Economies of scale leverage the lithium-ion battery nanotechnology advances needed to make lithium-ion batteries competitive. Nanotechnology provided by lithium-ion research solves the issues poised by the need to store renewable energy. Lithium-ion batteries switch price reductions are poised to drive market adoption by making units affordable."

The nanotechnology advances she's referring to involve thin film lithium-ion batteries which have very high cycle life without losing much capacity. This is critical for an electric vehicle battery that would have to be charged daily for many years without experiencing "memory loss."Availability of a highway legal EV at a middle class price would certainly help validate this study's prediction. (Note: the vehicle pictured above is not currently available at a middle class price.)

Source: WinterGreen Research