Axion has been quietly working since 2003 on another proprietary version of lead acid chemistry called PbC:

http://www.axionpower.com/profiles/i...1&s=0&ID=10299

Axion's product has been undergoing real world testing for at least 5 years so it's not simply a laboratory experiment.

I'll guarantee you that lead acid isn't going away as the infrastructure is simply gigantic and well established worldwide. Lithium reserves are limited so we already know that lithium based chemistry is simply transitional to another type of chemistry, e.g. zinc-air.

Also do you know that carbon fiber can act as a battery? Yeah, that's right, we'll likely see structural components consisting of carbon fiber acting as batteries as well... unbelievable where battery technology is headed...