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330 messages, Last post on Nov 13, 2008 at 12:13 PM
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Replying to: kneisl1 (May 25, 2006 9:19 am) The EV1, RAV4 EV, and Nissan Altria could all go 100+ miles on a charge. They also weren't limited to speeds of 25-30 mph. In fact, there were some specially designed EV1s that posted very impressive top speeds well over 100 mph. The RAV4 EV was governed to an 80 mph max. Although I'm certain that they didn't get anywhere near their best range at these speeds. I believe that by the end of their production these all had NiMH batteries. |
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Yes thats usually the way it is. They get 100 miles per charge, but not at any speed. Since I almost never drive more than 5 miles and dont need to go over 30 I could use an electric car. If it was cheap enough.
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Replying to: kneisl1 (May 25, 2006 12:48 pm) |
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| Ho boy that could be a big problem I didnt think of. Shoot. Looks like no electric car for me. | |
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Electro Energy Inc. is a relatively new, small company with a patented bi-polar design for NiMH batteries. According to the company this design provides 50% more power, 30% less volume and is 35% cheaper to manufacture. Their plans are to produce large format batteries of this type specifically for the PHEV and EV market. All sounds good and promising. Maybe. There are a lot of people that seem to know what they're talking about saying that as soon as they go into production they can expect to be sued by Cobasys, i.e. Chevron. If that happens it will be a shame. http://money.cnn.com/services/tickerheadlines/prn/200605250842PR_NEWS_USPR_____N- YTH042.htm
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Replying to: tpe (May 26, 2006 3:58 am) I think it is a little more involved than Chevron. They may have added needed capitol. During the R&D phase of the EV-1 in the early 1990s there was a company formed to develop batteries. That company was GM Ovonics. I am not sure how much GM still owns. All the NiMH patents are still held by Ovonics while Cobasys is a manufacturing partner. I can understand Ovonics wanting a piece of every battery sold. That is what patents are there for. I don't know if Chevron owns a share of ECD Ovonics (ener). Check out their hydrogen powered Prius. Recently, Ovonic Hydrogen Systems demonstrated its new hydrogen hybrid vehicle. Utilizing OvonicŪ Solid Hydrogen Storage, a driving range of nearly 200 miles is achievable on a single hydrogen fill-up. The hydrogen hybrid accelerates and performs similar to the commercially available gasoline version, but with significantly lower emissions. http://www.ovonic.com/
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Replying to: gagrice (May 26, 2006 8:05 am) I can understand that too. What I don't understand is when Ovonics precludes these battery manufacturers from producing large format batteries, the kind most suitable for EVs. Electro Energy has a website with a technical paper regarding the NiMH batteries that they plan on producing. http://www.electroenergyinc.com/products/technicalpapers/BipolarNickel.pdf They state that they can produce large format batteries between 500 Wh and 2 kWh for a retail cost of $300 per kWh. That is very good. That would mean the 26 kWh battery pack on the RAV4 EV could be replaced for $7,800 instead of $26,000. Still expensive but easily recouped through gas savings and other reduced maintenance if the batteries last at least 50,000 miles. So Ovonics wants a cut of this. I think Panasonic is giving them 3% royalties on the batteries it produces for Toyota's Prius. That's fine, I agree it's fair. Hell, make it a 10% royalty, still no big deal. What I think will happen is that Electro Energy Inc. flat out won't be allowed to manufacture these large format batteries for propulsion purposes. If that ends up being the case I'd like to understand the rational behind it. GM sold its 50% share of Ovonics to Chevron. Chevron later changed the name of this subsidiary to Cobasys.
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Replying to: tpe (May 26, 2006 8:48 am) I would like to know also. Be sure and post if you see anything like that come about. I wondered what happened to GM and the NiMH batteries. I guess they needed the cash more than future profits. The thing is Lithium Ion could kill the NiMH battery business in short order, just as capacitors could be the next break through. It is all a gamble.
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Replying to: gagrice (May 26, 2006 9:51 am)
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Replying to: tpe (May 26, 2006 10:55 am) |
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