The Toshiba SCiB (LTO) battery has impressive specs in terms of cycle life and charging rates so I've been wondering why it is not being used more with EV's and am guessing they must be too expensive. Is this micro hybrid technology best suited for this sort of battery. In Canadian markets it seems that hybrids are close to or exceed cost parity so why bother with an intermediate phase. In 5 or 10 years PHEV could be at the same stage as hybrids are at now and then standard ICEV, SSV and these micro-hybrids will appear very old school it seems.

You should be able to get 10 - 12 Kw from a 48V battery, so you would have enough power for stop/start - roll, possibly all city driving at <= 40 mph.

Then, as @CG says it comes down to money - if there is a significant cost gap between the 300V(ish) full hybrids and a 48V micro hybrid, they have a future, else, people will go straight to 300V.

In Ireland, there is still a significant cost increase between the petrol and hybrid prices (~e6K on e20K for a Toyota Auris). If this could be reduced to (~e2K) for a micro hybrid, they might sell.

However, can you sell micro hybrid as a feature in itself, or just in fuel economy terms. Hybrid cars have a kind of halo effect in being "kind to the environment" and this encourages people to pay more for them.

The question is whether this halo will follow micro hybrids as well as full hybrids.

Stop-start has been well accepted in Europe, but seems to have added very little to the cost, the question is how much will micro hybrid add to the cost, surely not zero, (more likely e1-2K) and will people pay it.

uHybrids could work well with diesel as a way of keeping their engines off in town - but you might end up needing quite a bit of battery to hold enough energy, almost like a micro PHEV (!).

@Harvey, you might be waiting a long time for the 45% efficient batteries to appear on cars - the batteries can be charged by the alternator or by plugging the car in. They are likely to cost a lot and might be used on things like long endurance reconnaissance drones first.

Anyway, we will be waiting a long time for any 45% efficient solar cells for anything outside a lab.

mahonj...please have a closer look at the latest solar cells efficiency.

I would speculate that way more than 50% of modern western economies are based on consumers buying things they don't need.

@Harvey, I see the solar cell diagram in wikipedia showing efficiency vs time by technology.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:PVeff(rev140511).jpg

Then, I go onto the sharp website and I see them selling 15% polycrystalline cells - in 2014.

http://www.sharp.co.uk/cps/rde/xchg/gb/hs.xsl/-/html/polycrystalline.htm

As far as I can see it, the mass market is at 1/3 the lab market and nor moving very fast to improve its efficiency.
(It has dramatically improved its costs, but not efficiency.)

Multi junction cells require concentrators and positioning, so overall system cost is higher. A one CM by one CM 30% efficient cell can cost $20 each in 100 piece quantities but can take 1000 suns with proper cooling.

I seriously doubt that multi junction cells will reach 50% efficiency by 2020. They have pushed the triple junction chip about as far as it will go the last 15 years, I don't see a huge leap in the next 6 years.

The problem w/ micro hybrid and mild hybrid is that the multi-gear-ratio transmission is still needed and the brakes are still required for most of the decceleration thus will require service and replacement. Thus, when adding the motor-generator and the battery, more cost will be added.

In a full HEV or PHEV, no gear-shift transmission is needed, because the pair of motor-generator will serve as an e-CVT, thus will deduct the purchasing cost, service cost and replacement cost of a gear-shift transmission unit that is expensive, heavy and cost a lot to fix or to repair.
Most of the decceleration will be done by the motor-generator, thus will spare the friction brakes from wear and tear and hence service and repair costs.

Thus, in a full HEV or PHEV, the savings in fuel costs, maintenance and repair cost will be around $10,000 USD at 160,000 miles, in comparison to an ICEV. A mild or micro hybrid cannot claim such a generous cost savings because the fuel economy gain is modest, while the mild or micro hybrid feature will cost 1-2 thousands USD more. A full HEV like the Toyota Camry Hybrid or Ford Fusion hybrid costs about $3000 USD more than the ICEV version, yet will save on operating costs 3-4 x the cost premium vs. a non-hybrid version.

With higher production of electric motors, power electronics and batteries, we will expect the cost differential of full HEV or PHEV vs ICEV to narrow more and more, and may eventually reach cost parity with a comparable ICEV, especially with 2-2-5 batteries and downsizing of the ICE in a PHEV or HEV down to 2-3 cylinders. Thus, mild or micro hybrid may soon be a deadend.

@SJC,

Any idea if Alta Devices (acquired last winter by Hanergy) is going to bring their 30% efficient flexibly thin-film cells to market? They had the thin film efficiency record, probably closer to 25% as part of a module, but apparently hadn't worked out how to scale the assembly line before running out of money. If they can scale, their cost per watt should be considerably lower, with no need for concentrators.