Lithium battery for many vehicles seen a ways off

[Chuck]

Duong said it will take time to develop a lithium battery that can meet the Department of Energy's goal: a plug-in electric vehicle with a 40-mile range by the year 2016.

Andrew Stern - Reuters - Sept 15, 2008

Sounds like the Honda point of view -- Ed.

Argonne National Laboratory, Ill., Sept 15 (Reuters) - Vast improvements are needed to extend the life and lower the cost of lithium batteries before they can efficiently power vehicles, a U.S. government official who tracks high-power battery development said on Monday.

Lithium-ion batteries are widely predicted to replace nickel metal-hydride batteries currently used in most hybrid vehicles, such as Toyota Co's hot-selling Prius.
But among the challenges to overcome are extending the life of high-power lithium batteries and bringing down their relatively high cost, Tien Duong of the U.S. Department of Energy said on the sidelines of a lithium battery conference held at this government laboratory…[Read More]

[hobbit]

If they're that worried about current, they should consider
paralleled architectures with some electronics in between to
deal with cross-currents. If they're that worried about lifetime,
they obviously need to limit SOC swing. Hopefully mass production
would help with cost, but of course the more rushed to market
things get the more concerns there are about safety.
.
So now I've described a huge trailer you have to tow behind your
vehicle, containing all those the multiply-paralleled, SOC-limited
packs you couldn't fit in the car -- and as a bonus, the trailer
is on fire. Maybe we can use it to heat up some steam.
.
_H*

[chilimac02]

I really don't understand why the bar was set so low. A 40mi range isn't enough to get anybody in Texas, California, or most metropolitan areas to and from work on one charge. If that is the case, how would this help anything? This just means that we will all still be driving ICE cars in 2016.

[WriConsult]

NiMH is the way to go. If only the patent holder would allow it. I've been saying for a long time we either need to put pressure on Chevron/Cobasys to make large format NiMH available again, or seize their patent using eminent domain (and, to be fair, pay them royalties until the patent expires in 2015).

The primary argument I've heard against this is that pretty soon NiMH will be irrelevant due to all the advances in Li-ion. To which I now have to say just one thing:


If ever there was a more compelling case for the public use of private "property" (a "right" that Thomas Jefferson himself opposed, BTW, for precisely this reason), I don't know of it.

[Yarisman]

I need to go 60 miles on a charge 1 way at highway speeds. A 40 mile battery isn't going to do the trick. I'd have to carry my generator in the trunk!!