Johnson Controls, Inc (JCI) isn't necessarily the first name that comes to mind when someone thinks of batteries, but odds are that the lead-acid battery under the hood of your ride comes from the company's Power Solutions group. JCI's I3 ("Ingenuity, Integration, and Interface") concept vehicle on display at the 2008 Detroit Auto Show displays the group's next step forward in battery technology.

The battery displayed in the I3 concept is constructed of cylindrical lithium-ion cells that carry the Saft brand, along with integrated charge management and state-of-health/state-of-charge measurement. The complete pack weighs approximately 90 kg, occupies 70 L of space, and has a usable capacity of approximately 3kWh to yield an electric-only range of about 10 miles. Air cooling is used, as JCI currently does not believe that liquid cooling makes sense for PHEV packs due to its greater complexity.

JCI is also working on a battery that will provide a range of 40 miles; however, this particular pack presents an issue with packaging volume as it's approximately four times the size as the pack on display. This is in direct contradiction with the overall smaller size of a longer-range plug-in hybrid vehicle; we assume that such a pack would also be rather costly, although that topic didn't get any attention.

Expect to see the first use of this lithium battery in Mercedes' upcoming S-class mild hybrid, albeit in a much smaller form.

Ask any pragmatic member of the automotive community when we might see a hydrogen-powered vehicles (fuel cell or internal-combustion engine), and the answer will probably range from "several years" to "several decades". General Electric looks to be trying to push that towards the lower end of the range with a prototype electrolysis device that promises low-cost hydrogen.

GE has replaced certain expensive metal components in the electrolysis process with Noryl, an inexpensive thermoplastic (although not by the standards of the resin world!). We're guessing that this is Noryl GTX, which was developed for use in electrostatic paint processes and thus is electrically conductive by means of embedded carbon fibers. By doing so, the cost of hydrogen may potentially plummet from $8/kilogram to $3/kilogram, or what is said to be in the same realm as current gasoline prices (presumably, this still doesn't include the costs of storing the hydrogen in a practical "fuel tank").

As the saying goes - what should come quickly usually takes a lot longer than anyone thinks, and what looks to be way out on the horizon often appears much more quickly than anyone expects. The category that hydrogen happens to fall into remains to be seen.

[Source: Popular Mechanics]

Land Rover North American VP Richard Beattie was on the podium in New York to show Americans the Land Rover Land_e, which makes use of the company's e-Terrain technology to provide improvements in emissions and fuel economy, without impacting on- or off-road performance. Included in its technology portfolio are an integrated starter-generator, an electric motor in the rear drive axle that provides tractive power and also enables the "seamless" propshaft disconnect and use of Ford's Powershift dual-clutch semiautomatic transmission. The concept was billed in Geneva as being powered by a biodiesel oil-burner, but apparently Land Rover thought that we'd be more impressed if they told us 'mericans that it ran on E85 (when the prototype is a series of flashing lights and not actual hardware, it's easy to make such changes).

The chaps from Land Rover also announced Go Beyond TV, which makes the brand "the first auto maker to offer [its] own broadband TV station". The programming is said to focus more on the "Land Rover brand spirit" than the SUVs themselves, with six different "channels" (Places, People, Adventure, Sport, Culture, and Land Rover) of lifestyle programming.

We've posted a few more live shots of the Land_e after the jump.  

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