Toyota is developing magnesium-sulfur battery at Michigan technical center

Way to be GREEN! Just keep using those deadly elements in your cars so people can "feel" better about themselves.

Magnesium Sulfur? How can that be considered environmental.

Here is a link to wikkipedia for your reading
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magnesium_sulfate

These "bad" elements are only bad if they are mishandled and contaminate our environment. It just so happens that the most recyclable product in America is the car battery. Up to 99% of it is recycled. Rare minerals such as magnesium in batteries are also such a small weight percentage of the battery that it compensates for the highly polluting methods needed to make them. Ideally, you want a battery made with metals/minerals that do not require heavily polluting processes to make. Some of the worst polluted spots ON EARTH surround mineral processing plants (this may be the reason why most, if not all, are outside of the US, in places like Russia).

I don't think Toyota would develop batteries, but only test. The development is probably by Matsushita (Panasonic-Sanyo families).

The problem arises when disposing of the batteries/cars, or leakage during car accidents, and so forth. UGH.

Sulfur is actually pretty common in the environment. Also, another name for Magnesium Sulfate is Epsom salt, as in the stuff used for bath salts, etc. You can even eat it in small amounts. Pretty darn innocuous. This would be a big improvement compared to lithium ion, environmentally speaking.

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