A green-tech start-up known as EEStor filed for a US patent which promises technology that could allow a motorist to plug in a car for five minutes and drive 500 miles roundtrip without gas. Whoa! That's far better than any electric cars we've been introduced to thus far, which have failed to take off here in the US.

Currently, the technology that's been made available to us doesn't even come close to what EEStor is promising. Our pure electric cars are limited in the speeds they can reach, and the distance they can go between charges. Hybrids still require us to use traditional fossil fuels (such as gas), in addition to electric power. There are also some future plug-in hybrids in the works that would require an overnight charge and would only provide 50 miles of gas-free commuting.

ZENN Motor of Toronto has licensed EEStor's invention, and says that it could make traditional engines unneccessary. Their secret ingredient is a chemical compound called barium titanate which is sandwiched between thousands of wafer-thin metal sheets.

It's all very interesting, but there are some skeptics find this all very hard to believe considering the existing technology available. And if this technology does exist, as claimed in the patent, it may still never take off. Why? Because big oil business aren't about to go away quietly into the night. That's why other more energy-efficient means of commuting have never taken hold here.