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It's not even 10fold -- at least not currently. It's only "several" times improvement without an equivalent cathode improvement. Now, that may well happen, but it hasn't happened yet. However, they think they may be able to commercialize it in five years.

I just wanted to let people know about the Volt concept which is quickly coming to life (planned to be released in 2010 for the 2011 model year). GM calls it an "E-REV" for "extended-range electric vehicle". It's an electric vehicle with a 40 mile range on pure electric, but then has a high-efficiency (it always runs at its maximum-efficiency rotation rate) 1.0 L diesel engine which gives it 55 MPG. With a 12-gal. diesel fuel tank, that means that you can go 700 miles on one battery charge and 12 gal. of fuel!

This is the first time I've been excited about an American-made vehicle in my adult life, and I've been evangelizing it to everyone I know. I think it has a lot of promise.

There is a lot of good discussion at this guy's blog: GM-Volt and here is the Wikipedia article.

I thought "hybrids" referred to cars that use mixed energy sources, such as gas/electric, or diesel/electric. This car seems to run on electricity only, so why is it called a hybrid?

Why are so many people getting this wrong? The article is not particularly clear, no, but it does NOT say that this is an electric-only vehicle!!

In fact, it says quite clearly that this is a PLUG-IN HYBRID. The writers referred to it as a hybrid because Toyota calls it a hybrid. Toyota's own specs say that it has a gasoline engine! Jesus, people, learn to fucking read!