Best news ever? If this development pans out, I don't think that's much of an exaggeration.
People have been dreaming of a safe and workable
fusion reactor for just about as long as I can remember. For many years, it seemed like everyone always thought the solution was 25-30 years away, with goalposts that always kept moving.
If commercially viable fusion power becomes a reality within a decade or two, it may be accompanied by dramatic developments in battery technology. A number of people are working on nanoparticle and nanowire lithium-ion batteries, as well as other ideas that may have potential.
http://gcep.stanford.edu/pdfs/Cui-NanowireBattery.pdf
http://news.mst.edu/2014/08/simpler-...ion-batteries/
http://www.geek.com/mobile/lithium-i...wires-1584649/
http://www.gizmag.com/silicon-anode-...battery/26256/
http://www.eetimes.com/document.asp?doc_id=1263172
http://www.popsci.com/article/scienc...e-times-longer
Breakthroughs in battery cost and capacity are critical to the long-term viability of electric cars and trucks.
Another idea is that range anxiety on highway trips could be alleviated by a network of battery exchange stations. The basic idea is that a car owner could opt for the choice of laying off all or part of battery capital costs to an energy company, in return for paying an effectively much higher rate for electricity. That is, an energy company -- not the car owner -- would own the battery, and the driver would pay each time a depleted battery was swapped for a freshly-charged one. But since the cost of fueling a gasoline car is several times that of charging an electric car, the owner should still come out ahead, especially if oil becomes much more expensive in future decades.
And the swap takes less time than filling your gas tank, as this video shows.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5VH4JloWFEI
The driver just pulls the car over a pit resembling ones used in quickie oil change shops, and the robotic devices do the rest.
If something like this ever comes to fruition, imagine how much cleaner the air in our large cities will be!