Originally Posted by nwmtnbkr

Battery technology is the weakest link in most portable electric appliances. It would be nice to see battery technology make some giant strides forward that would improve battery life and performance and reduce cost, but I'm not holding my breath. I think one thing that may be the biggest stumbling block to wide adoption of electric cars will be the cost and the life span of batteries. (Except for the wealthiest of buyers, I think the price tag of replacing the battery power plant in an all electric vehicle will be shocking to vehicle owners.)

I would be interested in seeing reviews of Toshiba's SCIB battery that Schwinn is using on some models. Toshiba offers a "commercial charger" that it claims will fully recharge the battery in 10 minutes. It would be nice to have an independent source verify this as well as do some long-term testing on performance. I haven't seen the battery offered for sale anywhere so I don't know if Toshiba has signed an exclusive agreement with Schwinn (these type of arrangements seem all to common, unfortunately).