It also likes companies that are working on making smaller batteries, like Qynergy, a New Mexico-based company working on radioisotope batteries, and Infinite Power Solutions, a Colorado developer of thin-film batteries that can power RFID (Radio Frequency Identification) tracking chips.

FORBES: Business In The Beltway

Meanwhile engineers at BYD's research and development center in Shanghai are working on rechargeable batteries that can be used in future generations of electric vehicles and electric hybrids.

FORBES: Thanks, Now Move Over

The failures are blamed on problems with power supplies, either with batteries not working or with cables snapping in the cold.

BBC: Arctic team gives up on ice radar

And we now have across the country people working in factories making advanced batteries that are going into American-made cars, because what we also did at the same time was we raised fuel-efficiency standards on cars and trucks for the first time in 30 years.

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So right now we're looking to move from lead-acid to lithium-ion batteries and we're working with the US Navy on a test programme that would allow us to do that.

BBC: US manned deep-submersible Alvin prepares to resume work

Today, there are thousands of workers building long-lasting batteries and wind turbines, and working to figure out new sources of fuel all across the country.

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Argonne researchers are working on one possible solution to this problem: batteries that can store wind power for use when the wind stops blowing as well as store solar energy for use at night.

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And compared with most rechargeable batteries, supercapacitors tend to have a longer working life.

ECONOMIST: Carbon-composite batteries

Hopefully the infrastructure will have grown by then as well -- Tesla's already working on DC "superchargers" compatible with the Model S and capable of recharging its batteries at a rate of 300 miles of range per hour of charge.

ENGADGET: Tesla Model S first drive: the sports sedan goes electric (update: video)