Greening of Oil: Exxon’s battery wiz Pat Brant focuses on making lithium-ion batteries viable for vehicles

Closing the economic gap between 5-pound laptops and 5,000-pound trucks

BY STEFAN MILKOWSKI FOR GREENING OF OIL

Pat Brant has a problem.

Or rather, we all have a problem, and Brant is one of the people trying to solve it.

The problem is that electric cars and plug-in hybrids, which could play a key role in reducing greenhouse gas emissions, require batteries that are powerful and long-lasting, but also lightweight, compact and not too expensive.

Lithium-ion batteries—the kind used in cell phones and laptop computers—are seen as the best bet for now. But designing a battery for a 5,000-pound vehicle is quite different than designing a battery for a 5-pound laptop.