Lithium: The right gamble?
Or too big of a bet?Today, Toyota is dominating the the hybrid scene, and while Toyota is moving towards lithium, it's also moving beyond lithium - at least in the lab. Then again, lithium has yet to make its way out of the lab. So, does that mean anything? And, like Toyota, Honda will also embrace NiMH technology as lithium is developed.
While most other automakers will also roll out some NiMH-powered hybrid vehicles, none have offered nearly as aggressive hybrid production numbers as Honda or Toyota - not until lithium.
Just a decade ago, most automakers didn't want to embrace hybrids or electric vehicles, as fuel cell vehicles - the next big thing then - were just around the corner. Isn't this lithium or bust mentality the same kind of eggs in one basket mind set that has US automakers struggling for survival?
Labels: Hybrid Vehicles, lithium battery
posted by Dahcredyns at
8:11 AM
5 Comments:
A reliable engineer told me that there have been no test run on the safety of the toxic gasses that hybrid batteries emit nor is there a ventilation system to keep those gasses a safe distance from the people in the car. I have questions about these battery gasses, where do they go? in the car? seats? garage? what happens if there are in the air you breath? How toxic are they? Should people that spend more time in their cars be more worried than your casual city driver? It is a shame that people are feeling they are doing the right "green" thing with no facts around the potential health issues that could result from what they thought was a good idea. How will this effect children? It would be nice if someone started sharing facts... everyone knows battery acid is bad, but do they know about the potential health issues that the gasses could cause?
that could be true, but id bet that your engineer is not totally correct. aside from automakers there are multiple government bodies that test every element of vehicle safety and set compliance standards. additionally, NiMH battery technology has already been on the road more than a decade and there has been a lot of technology and testing done around these batteries.
oh yeah and as if gasoline fumes and exhaust are so much cleaner.
I'd be more worried about the "spontaneous thermal runaway" effect shown in Sony laptop batteries. Picture the same video, oh yeah, except 1000 times more energy. No thanks. I think these battery-based hybrids and full electric vehicles are stepping stones, kind of like the propeller planes of WWI compared to modern turbofan engines. That is the kind of quantup leap in technology that is required to get REAL electric vehicles on the road. Until then, a partial plug-in hybrid is the best bet. It simply provides power for the electrical systems.
Did you realize that generating 1kW of electrical energy in your car to run accessories burns nearly 8kW worth of fuel? Why not use batteries to run those accessories - that's where the payoff is.
Take it a step further and run all vehicle accessories with electricity from batteries and you have a 40+ MPG vehicle using current technologies.
the sony lithium battery is a lithium technology based on cobalt chemistry. A123, for example, claims their phosphorous chemistry is far more stable. obviously, we have yet to see if that is correct or not.
nonetheless, there is no doubt that thermal integrity will be a key to the success of such vehicles.
Oh yeah, and cost, which i think is the real show stopper.
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