The hype for EEStor's mythical battery-killing, capacitor-based technology that we've been hearing about for a while keeps coming, re-ringing promises of, for instance, a five-minute plug-in time for a car to make a 500-mile trip. Naturally, details on how EEStor has managed to accomplish a feat academics have been taking whacks at for years—sufficient insulation to create ultracapacitors that don't take up ultra-amounts of space—are scant, descriptions liberally laced with the word "proprietary."
Forgive the lack of cheerleading, but we've witnessed similarly paradigm-breaking promises of so-good-it's-like-magic energy generation fall short literally moments before they were supposed to change the world. The situations aren't so dissimilar—small company claims to miraculously surpass all past and current efforts (by "400-fold," based on the numbers they're giving, according to one scientist) but offers no hard details to back it up. This is partially understandable—trade secrets and whatnot—but where's the beef?
True, EEStor has serious backing and asserts real results on the ground by year's end in the form of one of ZENN Motor's cars. But until we hop a ride and peek under the hood, we won't be letting going of our AAs or Li-ions just yet. Engineers in the audience, what's your take? Are we in for a ride or being taken for one? [AP, Ars]