Porsche has announced that it will make a production version of its 918 Spyder plug-in hybrid concept car.

The car, which was first shown off this year at the Geneva Auto Show, can accelerate to 60 miles per hour in under 3.2 seconds, and reach a top speed of 198 miles per hour. It pairs an electric motor with an eight-cylinder engine. Drivers will be able to putter along for 16 miles using electricity alone. In ordinary hybrid mode, the car can get 94 miles per imperial gallon (about 78 mpg). For the highest performance, select Sport Hybrid or Race Hybrid mode. The latter includes a "push-to-pass" button that delivers a surge of power from the battery.

With Porsche getting in on the electric-powered action, one wonders how up-starts like Fisker and Tesla will manage.

One of the most exciting battery chemistries for electric vehicles is lithium-sulfur--it has the potential to store three times more energy than the lithium-ion batteries currently used in electric cars. Historically, however, it's had a number of problems. Early prototypes could only be recharged a few times, the lithium metal used in one of the electrodes caused short circuits and can react violently with water, creating a safety concern, and the carbon that makes the sulfur electrode conductive takes up too much space, decreasing storage capacity.

Earlier this year we reported on several advances geared toward addressing these problems, and noted that these advances had caught the eye of the chemical giant BASF, which is now working to bring lithium-sulfur batteries to market. But challenges remain, including bringing down costs. Now the Department of Energy has also taken an interest in the technology. This week Sion Power Cooperation (which is working with BASF) announced that it has received a three-year, $800,000 DOE grant to further develop the lithium-sulfur batteries for electric vehicles.

Maya Electric, a subsidiary of the battery maker Electrovaya, will be launching its Maya 300 electric vehicle on Tuesday. The car is an urban vehicle with a limited range (about 60 miles) and speed (25 or 35 miles per hour, depending on regulations regarding low speed vehicles). The company says that what distinguishes the car from other low-speed electric vehicles for sale is its use of Electrovaya's polymer-electrolyte batteries, which the company says store 60 percent more energy than other lithium ion batteries.

I spoke with Sankar Das Gupta earlier this year about the car and the batteries that power it.