The lithium-ion battery is already commonplace in cell phones, MP3 players, and so on—but it soon will become the answer to high oil prices and environmental concerns, the Associated Press reports, as it "bulks" up to power rechargeable electric vehicles, government, university and industry panelists predicted Monday at the Plug-In 2008 conference in San Jose, CA.

The battery issue has been around for decades. Essentially, although the technology shows great promise, the report said that battery makers worldwide still are grappling with high costs, the impact of charging and depletion on battery life, keeping the batteries cool, their weight, and so on.

But the report said that Tien Duong, who works in emerging battery technology with the U.S. Department of Energy, told the group he believes lithium-ion batteries are ready to start displacing the nickel-metal-hydride batteries now used in many hybrid gas-electric vehicles.

"The target is 40 miles, and we don't think we can do that with nickel-metal-hydride," said Haresh Kamath, energy storage project manager for the Electric Power Research Institute, one of the conference sponsors, in the article. "Lithium-ion, it's a lot more likely to get there."

(Image credit: Argonne Transportation Technology R&D Center)