1. What is hydrogen, anyway?
Hydrogen is the first element in the Periodic Table. It is rarely found in elemental form, but is rather combined with another hydrogen atom to make the compound H2. While very small amounts of H2 are present in the atmosphere, this molecule is usually bound to 1 oxygen atom to make H2O or dihydrogen monoxide, more commonly known as water.

The bond between hydrogen and oxygen is very strong, requiring a lot of energy to separate them. However, hydrogen and oxygen give off a lot of energy when they are united, either by combustion or in a fuel cell.

Scientists have always admired hydrogen for its simplicity and its energetic nature. Unfortunately, these properties make hydrogen in its gaseous form difficult to store and transport. One kilogram of hydrogen (equivalent to a gallon of gasoline or diesel) occupies 431 cubic feet of space…about the volume of a small office cubicle.

To store and transport hydrogen efficiently, it must be compressed or turned into a liquid. Compression to 350 to 700 times atmospheric pressure (5,000 to 10,000 pounds per square inch) is common for automotive applications. Compression requires a lot of energy, and the storage tanks to safely contain these pressures are heavy and expensive.

Liquefying hydrogen takes even more energy, since hydrogen does not turn into a liquid until it reaches a temperature that is only 17 degrees above the temperature of interstellar space. Hydrogen liquefies at 20ºA (above absolute zero) and interstellar space is 3ºA. Storing liquid hydrogen requires a very high technology Thermos bottle called a Dewar Flask to prevent the hydrogen from turning back into a gas.

Both storage techniques are expensive. The base cost of hydrogen is multiplied by factors of 3 or 4 to purchase these expensive bottles and delivery vehicles required by the high pressures and low temperatures.

As the world becomes more aware of the potential harm that can be caused by carbon dioxide (CO2) in the atmosphere, there has been a renewed effort to replace the complex hydrocarbons in gasoline and diesel fuel with simpler compounds such as methane (CH4 consisting of 1 carbon and 4 hydrogen atoms) and hydrogen itself.

Hydrogen can be burned in internal combustion engines, or it can be combined with oxygen in a fuel cell. Over 99% of the output is simple water vapor (H2O).

Since combusting a gallon of gasoline produces over 20 pounds of CO2, replacing that gallon of gasoline with hydrogen is environmentally very appealing. The United States Department of Energy Web Site (www.fueleconomy.com) has details showing how the octane in gasoline (C8H18) combines with oxygen to produce over 20 pounds of carbon dioxide.

It was not the use of hydrogen that was discredited, rather, scientists realized that the infrastructure to support the hydrogen economy would be very expensive. In fact, the Department of Energy published an estimate of $500 Billion for infrastructure costs. Other factors that dampened the initial enthusiasm for hydrogen were the stubbornly high costs of fuel cell technology, and the difficulty of finding low-cost methods to store and transport hydrogen.

Asemblon’s hydrogen technology, the HYDRNOL™ Carrier, solves these issues in a very elegant way. While the lack of affordable fuel cells is likely to be an issue for another decade at least, hydrogen can be used with great effect to co-combust with gasoline or diesel in existing vehicles. Pollution, including carbon soot, can be reduced substantially at reasonable cost while engine power and efficiency are actually increased.

Hydrogen is not expensive to produce. Large volume purchases at the source can be made for less than $1.50 per kilogram. Whereas the cost to deliver this same kilogram is between $3.50 and $6.00 using compressed or liquid hydrogen, the cost to deliver it using the HYDRNOL Carrier is about $2.28.

Hydrogen trapped on the HYDRNOL Carrier is much safer than free hydrogen in a gaseous or liquid form. In fact, HYDRNOL can be shown to be as safe to store, transport, and handle as gasoline or diesel fuel. To minimize any potential danger. free hydrogen is generated only at the time and place of use.

The benefits of Asemblon’s HYDRNOL Carrier are such that it is expected that regulatory authorities will find putting hydrogen in urban filling stations to be much more appealing than compressed or liquid hydrogen.

There are many misconceptions about what happened to the German airship, Hindenburg, at Lakehurst, New Jersey in 1937. To be brief, it was the skin of the airship that was ignited by an electrical discharge between the ship and the ground.

The paint on the exterior of the Hindenburg was a mixture of iron oxide and aluminum in proportions similar to those used today as a solid propellant for rockets. The skin burned furiously causing the hydrogen stored in internal bladders to ignite. The hydrogen burned quickly and invisibly as the fire rose up and away from the airship. The visible fire was fueled by the skin and by the diesel fuel stored for the propulsion engines.

Thirty-one of the thirty-three deaths in the disaster were caused by passengers and crew jumping or falling from the gondola to the ground. Those passengers who rode the gondola to the ground were injured but escaped death. The remaining two people were burned to death by the falling wreckage. In fact, certain writers are convinced that the damage and loss of life would have been the same whether the Hindenburg were fueled with helium or hydrogen.

For additional information: www.hydrogennow.org/Facts/Safety-1.htm

This is a term coined decades ago to promote the use of hydrogen as the primary energy carrier for the entire economy: transportation, industrial, and home applications. The term encompasses the production, storage, transportation, and use of this versatile resource.

As planners explored the benefits of hydrogen as a transportation energy source, they began to explore rolling out hydrogen fueling stations along particular high traffic routes that became known as Hydrogen Highways.

There are six major initiatives that have been launched around the world in these areas: Japan, Scandinavia, California, Florida, British Columbia and Western Europe — principally Germany.

Asemblon is a research company based in Seattle, Washington. It currently employs 31 full-time and 4 part-time people, including 6 Ph.D. chemists and 8 other advanced degree holders. Asemblon was founded in 2002, and has been developing its products aggressively since 2005. It holds one United States patent and several foreign patents, with many more in the pipeline. As a research company, Asemblon has extensive laboratory space, with advanced instrumentation for qualifying and quantifying its products and experimental developments. Asemblon specializes in products used for surface engineering and renewable energy research. It ships internationally.

The fact that certain compounds give up some of their hydrogen atoms in the presence of heat and a catalyst was a serendipitous discovery by Asemblon’s scientists, as they were developing their surface science business.

Our scientists quickly recognized that having energetic hydrogen bound onto a chemical at standard temperature and pressure would provide enormous benefits for hydrogen storage and transportation.

Asemblon’s HYDRNOL Carrier allows the use of the existing infrastructure of storage tanks, delivery trucks, pipelines, barges, and tankers. This can reduce the cost of the hydrogen infrastructure to far less than 10% of the $500B estimated by the US DOE. These benefits come from the HYDRNOL Carrier being a liquid over the very wide temperature range needed for a transportation fuel. Everything associated with the commercial roll out of hydrogen becomes much less expensive, much safer, and much more understandable by the people who run our current transportation fueling system.

Every kilogram of hydrogen that replaces a gallon of gasoline or diesel fuel will save the environment over 20 pounds of CO2. Dramatic reductions of NOx (nitrogen compound emissions), SOx (sulfur compound emissions,) and soot (unburned carbon nanoparticles) have been shown in the laboratory.

Since the United States burns 20.7 million gallons of petroleum products per day, any substitution of hydrogen will have a beneficial effect on the environment.
(www.greencarcongress.com/2006/01/us_petroleum_co.html)

The lowest cost way to make hydrogen at the moment is to use steam to reform methane. Using current techniques, the carbon atom in methane (CH4) becomes CO2, so the overall CO2 savings would be reduced to a net of 10 pounds. However, Asemblon and others are working on ways to capture this carbon, solidify it, and either turn it into a commercial product or bury it. When these technologies are available in a few years, then the full benefit of 20 pounds of CO2 per gallon of gasoline or diesel replaced will be realized.

Of course, using wind or solar energy to electrolyze water releases no CO2. However, at the moment, these techniques are 3 to 4 times more expensive than reforming methane.

At the height of the Oil Crisis in July of 2008, the United States was sending nearly $1 Billion a day to overseas energy suppliers, many of whom are not our friends. While oil prices have collapsed to less than $35 per barrel from over $140, these low prices are unlikely to remain for long. Our suppliers now expect a minimum of $60 per barrel to cover their higher costs of exploration and extraction.

Hydrogen from United States methane sources (we have a 200 year supply at current usage rates) could cut our balance of payments by hundreds of millions of dollars a year.

Compressed hydrogen works, and is available in a number of fueling stations around the country. Few of these stations are in urban environments, however, because of concerns about leaks of free hydrogen.

The cost of compressed hydrogen is almost twice that of hydrogen generated on board vehicles from HYDRNOL. This is due to the energy that must be expended to compress the gas in the first place, and the cost to store and transport it in special tanks and vehicles.

Comparing the on-board volume and weight for the hydrogen and the pressure vessel gives a distinct advantage to HYDRNOL. Also, the cost of the tank for HYDRNOL is much lower, since there is no pressure vessel required.

Liquid hydrogen is being proposed by BMW, Linde, and the German government. Linde is the largest gas supplier in Western Europe. This group is planning to build a series of hydrogen service stations using liquid hydrogen. The cost of the stations and the cost of the hydrogen itself is three to four times the cost of HYDRNOL.

In Germany, the stations will use robotic fillers to deliver the ultra-cold liquid to the on-board tanks. These robots are expensive and not required with HYDRNOL.

The tanks for liquid hydrogen are very complex, in order to prevent the hydrogen from spontaneously boiling off. They are also very expensive. Despite heavy insulation, the 10 kilograms these tanks typically hold will be gone after 45 days of sitting.

The term, HYDRNOL Carrier, refers to a class of molecules that contain hydrogen that can be stripped away for use by the application of heat and a catalyst. In order to be useful, the energy obtained from the hydrogen has to be much greater than the energy required to extract it. With HYDRNOL that is the case.

Since there is a family of these liquids, it is difficult to describe them all, but they generally have the density and viscosity of water, are clear, are liquid between -96ºC and 136ºC, and have flammability ratings between gasoline and diesel.

The best analogy for HYDRNOL is that it is like the hemoglobin in our blood. Oxygen binds to the hemoglobin, is transported to our tissues where it is needed, and exchanges the oxygen for carbon dioxide. In the lungs, the process is reversed.

The analogy to blood is not precise because there is no gas exchange with HYDRNOL. When the hydrogen atoms are stripped from the HYDRNOL molecule, the molecule changes its chemical form and becomes Spent HYDRNOL. To put more hydrogen onto this recyclable molecule requires a different catalyst, but little or no outside heat, as the reaction is exothermic (gives off heat).

Estimates of the number of times the HYDRNOL Carrier can be recycled is over 100. That is not a limitation of the chemical process, but rather the 100-year experience of the petroleum distribution business, in terms of losses in the system for liquid spills and vapor losses.

The United States Department of Energy has set out specific goals for industry to try to achieve for 2010 and 2015, for the gravimetric efficiency of hydrogen storage systems. For 2010, the goal was 6% hydrogen compared to the weight of the entire support system of tanks, valves and controls. The goal for 2015 is 9%, weight-by-weight.

Asemblon expects to meet the DOE’s 2010 goal of 6% and then exceed the 9% 2015 goal three years ahead of schedule. The DOE also set volumetric goals that Asemblon expects to beat prior to the deadlines.

Hydrogen is not expensive to make. It comes out of the typical steam reformer at slightly elevated temperature and 175 psi (pounds per square inch) pressure. Asemblon’s recycling process can take that stream and couple it directly onto Spent HYDRNOL. This avoids the cost of compressing or liquefying the hydrogen. It also avoids the cost of having to ship the hydrogen in special tankers or store it in expensive storage vessels.

HYDRNOL can be transported in standard tank trucks and petroleum pipelines, unlike its compressed or liquid counterparts. Asemblon expects to be able to deliver a kilogram of hydrogen to a vehicle at a fueling station for $2.28. That price is slightly more than gasoline currently, but much less than diesel fuel. Prices of both gasoline and diesel are expected to increase as the price of crude recovers to $50 per barrel or more — perhaps much more.

As petroleum becomes more and more difficult to find, extract, and refine, petroleum prices are expected to rise above $100/barrel in 10 to 15 years.

There are 230 million cars and light trucks in the United States, over 8 million Class 8 Diesel tractors (the front part of an 18-wheeler), and a half a million school buses. Over 80% of these could be modified for hydrogen use.

Diesel engines are classified as compression ignition engines, since the heat and pressure of the compression stroke is what ignites their air/fuel mixture. Asemblon plans to offer products that would provide a 10% addition of hydrogen to boost performance and to reduce emissions. Another product would provide 30% hydrogen to displace more of the diesel fuel to further lower emissions. Without major modifications, a 50% replacement is seen as the current upper limit for diesel use.

Spark ignition vehicles (most car and light trucks on the highway today) are easier to modify, since the timing of the ignition spark relative to the engine rotation can be controlled. Initially, these engines would be boosted with hydrogen, but ultimately hydrogen would replace 100% of their fuel.

Despite over a decade of promises regarding affordable fuel cells, and billions of dollars being spent by government and industry, we are still another decade away from reaching the goal of $500 per kilowatt of electrical output. The problem is simple: without a breakthrough in science, the fuel cell requires noble metal catalysts such as platinum that are very expensive.

Vehicles designed for highway use require at least 50 kilowatts of energy to accelerate to 60 mph in less than 12 seconds. Even when we reach the goal, the fuel cell alone in these vehicles will cost $25,000 — hardly a mass-market price point.

The push to cost-reduce fuel cells is driven by two primary attributes: zero pollution (all water vapor) and high efficiency. Fuel cells convert chemical energy to electrical energy with 60% efficiency. This is almost twice that of a gasoline engine (32%) and higher than internal combustion engines designed to run on hydrogen (42%).

Asemblon is working with the Federal and State governments to assist financially and to clear the regulatory hurdles to establishing a hydrogen infrastructure. Since we offer the capability to do this for less than 10% of the anticipated cost, we are getting an audience.

Often the Hydrogen Economy is described as a Chicken and Egg problem. Which came first? How can you have one without the other? If the infrastructure is the chicken, Asemblon is also working hard to create the eggs: the vehicles that will be the consumers of the hydrogen.

With a very modest amount of pump priming by government, the Hydrogen Economy will grow on its own to over 50% of the transportation fueling in the United States by 2050 — funded by the people who buy the vehicles and those who create, transport, and sell the fuel. People are eager for the clean vehicles of tomorrow. Asemblon offers them the opportunity to have those vehicles years sooner than fuel cell cars or plug-in hybrid vehicles and at much lower cost.

Since HYDRNOL refers to a class of similar but different molecules, there is no single answer for how each will be made cheaply and efficiently. Several are based on petroleum by-products, some are alcohol based (ethanol and butanol feed stocks,) and others would be best made in plants specializing in fertilizer production.

All the methods used to make the original HYDRNOL molecule are based on well-known process chemistry. The cost of the original molecule is not terribly important, since it will be recycled 100 times or more.

Over the last 100 years, the petroleum industry has calculated that 1% of its products are lost in the system between the well and the vehicle. To be conservative, we have adopted that figure.

Our experiments to date indicate little, if any, chemical degradation to the fuel itself through the action of hydrogen release or recombination.

HYDRNOL and a fuel cell can mimic a battery very well. After the hydrogen is gone, fresh HYDRNOL must be added, of course. Making a rechargeable battery would be much more difficult, but is possible. If the water exhaust from the fuel cell were to be collected and condensed, and the braking energy from the electric vehicle used to break apart the water, a closed loop system could be created.

Asemblon expects to have fueling stations in place in California, Florida, Washington State, and British Columbia prior to 2012. We expect to be modifying gasoline and diesel vehicles for daily use in 2010. All the puzzle pieces will be available in 2012 for a very fast roll out.

The US DOE has set as their goal a three-minute refueling time. Asemblon has designed a dual-channel fueling nozzle to meet that goal. It allows fresh fuel to be pumped in while the spent fuel is withdrawn from the special dual-bladder fuel tank.

While some incentives exist for fuel cell vehicles, Asemblon is working to expand the scope of these incentive programs to include converted internal combustion vehicles.

Surprisingly, all the major automobile manufacturers have hydrogen powered internal combustion vehicles as well as fuel cell vehicles. Of the major manufacturers, BMW (Series H700 sedan), Honda (Clarity fuel cell vehicle) and Ford (F-150 pick-up truck and hydrogen airport bus) are leading the way.

California and Germany are the governments that are out in front in terms of planning and financing the infrastructure build-out. Not far behind are Japan, Norway and Iceland.

HYDRNOL is stored in two flexible bladders, so that the Spent and the Unspent fuel always occupy exactly the volume. Both bladders are contained in a steel tank. This arrangement is actually less prone to leaks in an accident than the gasoline and diesel tanks in today’s vehicles. Should there be a spill, the two HYDRNOL liquids are no more dangerous than gasoline or diesel, so the same procedures for spill clean-up would apply.

Honda has designed a home fueling station for their Clarity fuel cell vehicle. It connects to a natural gas supply and electricity, and steam reforms the methane to hydrogen. The hydrogen is compressed and stored in a tank ready to be transferred to the vehicle. There are two problems: the Clarity will cost $100,000 in 2015, and the home fueling station will add another $50,000. So, yes, you can fill up with hydrogen at your home but it will be very expensive.

Asemblon’s proposal is to build enough fueling stations in a local area so that you are within 5 miles of a station. Stations will be highlighted on Google Maps so that you can find the closest one to your current position. Hydrogen will be generated at very large, central facilities and carried by truck, pipeline, or rail car to fueling depots. From there, trucks would bring it to your local station. This is by far the most economical model for hydrogen fueling.

In order to be able to run large portions of the United States fueling infrastructure, HYDRNOL in all of its forms must flow under severe conditions of heat and cold. Most HYDRNOL molecules are liquid over the range of -96ºC to +136ºC.

Of course, that depends on the vehicle in question. Asemblon plans to have Conversion Kits for 10 or more different vehicle types by 2012. If you would like your vehicle to appear on that list, please e-mail HYDRNOL@asemblon.com with your request.

New high-temperature nuclear reactors are rumored to be the least expensive way to produce hydrogen. As none of these reactors have permits at the moment to be built in the United States, a final answer to this question is in the future.

Converting green energy from wind and solar power to hydrogen is the goal of the alternative energy industry. Substantial investments are being made into electrolyzers to break water apart into hydrogen and oxygen.

Large capital investments are required and the amount of electricity required is large. Currently, it takes between 50 and 60 kilowatt hours of electricity to produce one kilogram of hydrogen. Since there are wide variations in the cost of electrical energy, the cost per kilogram of hydrogen varies from $1.00 (50 kWh times $0.02/kilowatt hour) to $4.50 (60 kWh times $0.075/kWh). The electrolyzer itself costs about $2 million for a 2 MW capacity or enough capacity to make 960 kilograms per day at the 50 kWh/kilogram rate.

Ethanol is a fine starting material for several of the HYDRNOL molecules. In fact, the ethanol does not have to be dried before it can be processed into HYDRNOL. The hydrated ethanol or 120 proof (60% ethanol and 40% water) is significantly less expensive because the costly heating of the liquid to drive off the water for producing 190 proof (95%) ethanol can be avoided. In addition, the denaturing ingredients required by US Federal law do not have to be added to 120 proof ethanol; a further cost savings.

Using ethanol and butanol to make HYDRNOL is an easy way to silence the critics who complain of the impact of these alcohols on the sharp rise in food prices. Since HYDRNOL can be recycled over 100 times, one can imagine expanding the supply of ethanol by 100 or reducing the food crop input by 99%.

Write, call or e-mail these contact points. If your questions probe areas of our intellectual property, we will require a signed mutual non-disclosure agreement to be in place before we can provide more information.

We give presentations over the Internet to your computer screen with a parallel conference call set-up for voice communications.

Mergers and Acquisitions: Michael Ramage, President/CEO mramage@asemblon.com
Investment Information: Jerry Knudson, Exec VP gknudson@asemblon.com
Marketing and Product Management: Bart Norton VP Marketing bnorton@asemblon.com

Asemblon, Inc.
15340 NE 92nd Street, Suite B
Redmond, WA 98052-3521
USA
TEL: 425.558.5100
FAX 425.869.1836

If you would like to schedule a personal visit, we are about 45 minutes north and east of the Seattle-Tacoma International Airport (SeaTac).

All of the major automobile manufacturers have working models of both fuel cell and internal combustion hydrogen engine vehicless. HYDRNOL provides the most efficient way to carry hydrogen on board a vehicle. Besides the weight and cost benefits, HYDRNOL tanks can be made to conform to existing spaces in a vehicle, unlike tanks for compressed or liquid hydrogen, which must be spheres or cylinders because of the internal temperatures and pressures.

Most seaports have a number of problems relating to pollution. First are the trucks employed to transport the containers from dockside to the nearby railheads to be loaded onto flat cars. The companies and individuals that perform this vital work usually have older equipment that does not meet current pollution standards.

Because of the sheer volume of containers moving through these ports, hundreds of trucks make thousands of trips a day. For example, at the Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach this summer, there were 16,300 trucks working each day to transport containers.

Since all of the trucks cycle through the Port facility each day, central HYDRNOL Fueling Stations could be set up to provide the hydrogen to cut CO2, NOox, and soot emissions dramatically.

Another application is the ships themselves. Most ships burn high-sulfur fuel called bunker fuel. The sulfur is measured inamounts to 23,000 parts per million. In fact, a British researcher calculated that the ships at sea and in ports emit more greenhouse gases than all the vehicles on the roads. While this application would be more difficult, hydrogen from Asemblon’s HYDRNOL Carrier could be used to clean up ships exhaust at dockside.

Carbon soot is a problem with diesel engines and in school buses. The particular concern is with the nanoparticle soot that is implicated in the rise of childhood asthma. The particles of concern are 2.5 nanometers or less in diameter and are difficult, if not impossible, to remove with mechanical filters and traps.

The best way to remove these particles is with hydrogen injected into the diesel engine to burn them into carbon dioxide gas.

Hydrogen has been proposed for emissions reductions during take-offs and landings as regulatory authorities, particularly in Europe, advance plans to tax airlines for their emissions. Numbers being discussed are in the range of $50 per seat.

While it is unlikely that an airliner would carry much of the extra weight associated with hydrogen fuel and storage vessels, the HYDRNOL Carrier would be an excellent choice to produce large volumes of hydrogen for co-combustion during take-offs and landings, with only modest weight gains.

In airplanes on the ground, turbines or ancillary sources generate energy for air conditioning. During flight, a part of the energy generated by the main engines is used for a variety of electrical applications as well as for air conditioning. In the future, fuel cells could be an environmentally sound and energy efficient alternative for an aircraft’s electrical requirements. As an auxiliary power supply, a fuel cell would generate electrical power, heat and even potable water for on-board use. Fuel cells would help reduce weight and the risk of power failure by installing several distributed fuel cells.

Steel tanks of modest size can store enormous amounts of hydrogen trapped on Asemblon’s HYDRNOL Carrier. For example, a typical water tower tank might hold 2 million gallons (7.57 M liters) of HYDRNOL in a tank that is 60 feet (18,3 m) in diameter and 100 feet (30,5 m) in height. Converting this amount of HYDRNOL to electricity by combusting it in gas turbines would yield 8.4 GWhr of electricity.

Possible uses for this amount of stored energy would be for grid backup, and to stabilize the grid when over 30% of the grid power suffers from the variability of wind velocity. The grid in the State of Texas is approaching this point of instability.

Wind in most places in the United States blows most strongly from the evening to the early morning (6 PM to 9 AM.) Electrical demand is the highest from 2 PM until 6 PM. The marginal rates for electricity mirror this demand cycle. If wind energy could be stored in the evening and early morning when rates are low and put back on the grid in the afternoon when rates are three to eight times higher, utilities could maximize the return on their investment in wind energy.

Asemblon is working with several of the most forward thinking electric utilities to test the economic feasibility of this time-shifting technique.

Fuel cells require very pure hydrogen. The specification usually calls for 99.999% purity (so-called 5 nine purity). A further requirement is that compounds that could damage the fuel cell must be at extremely low levels: 4 parts per billion for sulfur, for instance.

Asemblon certifies its hydrogen to meet both of these requirements.

The promise from the makers of Plug-in Hybrids has been 150 miles per gallon (63.8 km/l) gasoline/electric vehicles that you plug in at home and at your office to recharge them. A report in the February 22, 2009 issue of the Seattle Times talked about real-world tests conducted on vehicles owned by the City of Seattle. Instead of 150 mpg (63.8 km/l), the study concluded that the practical mileage was 51 mpg (21.7 km/l) or only a third of what was expected!

The problems go deeper, including the cost of the batteries themselves. As vehicle manufacturers around the world compete for lithium and cobalt, the critical elements necessary for the high-powered batteries, prices are soaring and the adequacy of the supply is being questioned. Further, these minerals are found in remote and not always friendly locations: Bolivia, Russia and China.

On February 23, 2009, National Public Radio (NPR) ran a story questioning when electric vehicles would be available in quantity and whether they will be economically viable and will meet heightened consumer expectations: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=101024296

While deliveries of some electric vehicles are beginning such as the Tesla Roadster, the Tesla factory is in financial difficulty requiring $350M in loans from the Federal Government to stay afloat. Prices for the Roadster are a base of $109,000 and $60,000 for the new sedan model.

General Motors has the Chevy Volt poised for deliveries starting in 2010 but will likely miss that date except for a few prototypes. GM had to put on hold the factory to build the electric motor for the Volt because of its financial difficulties. Speculation is that GM will iterate the Volt's design based on small quantities of vehicles over the next 5 years before they get to full production.