Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Li-Ion Batteries Hit Final R&D Phase for Plug-in Cars

Posted by Zonk on from the and-then-i-was-like-vroom-vroom dept.

An anonymous reader writes "Tesla finally delivered its first production model of the all-electric Roadster this month. Coinciding with that, researchers from the big automakers and their outsourced startup labs are hitting stride in the development of cheap, high-powered lithium-ion batteries. These may actually end up in our garages. Toyota, in fact, says it's got enough of the chemistry down to roll out a test fleet for the plug-in Prius before the end of 2009. It's mass production of battery tech that's the holdup — which might mean Mercedes' electric hybrids beat the Prius to market en masse by 2010 or 2011."

6 of 238 comments (clear)

  1. Still waiting by The-Bus · · Score: 3, Interesting

    I'm still waiting for the Ariel-Atom-based Wrightspeed X1.

    --

    Small potatoes make the steak look bigger.

  2. Re:Rolling Timebombs? by pipatron · · Score: 4, Interesting

    How safe is your huge tank of extremely flammable gasoline in case of a car crash?

    --
    c++; /* this makes c bigger but returns the old value */
  3. The Cold by Timberwolf0122 · · Score: 3, Interesting

    How well to these batteries fair in the cold? If they are like the Li-ions in my video camera you'll get to the end of the street then they'll die.

    --
    In the not too distant future, next Sunday A.D.
  4. Re:Rolling Timebombs? by Muad'Dave · · Score: 3, Interesting

    I've run into this education issue personally. I have a sand rail (what most people call a "Dune Buggy"). The gas tank is right behind the passenger's heads, inside the roll cage. My mother freaked when she saw that - she was concerned it was so close to passengers. "What happens in an accident?" she asked. I pointed out that the best place for the tank is where there's the most protection, and that's near the people, inside the roll cage. If it were outside, you'd guarantee a ruptured tank (no body skins on this vehicle, just tubular frame). Inside, your body would take as much damage as it takes to rupture the tank, meaning you'd probably be dead of blunt force trauma before a fire started from a ruptured tank.

    --
    Tiller's Rule: Never use a word in written form that you've only heard and never read. You will end up looking foolish.
  5. Re:Are Batteries Evil? by legoman666 · · Score: 3, Interesting
    You have no idea how clean or efficient modern coal plants are, do you? I work in the power industry and I can tell you that powering cars by charging batteries using electricity from the wall that came from a coal plant is way more efficient and clean than burning gasoline or diesel.

    Go troll some place else.

  6. Re:Are Batteries Evil? by Chris+Burke · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Oh, it's worse than all that. You're still going to get that electricity for the batteries from mostly-coal.

    Uh-huh. And then we replace the coal plant with a nuclear plant, or augment it with wind power, or whatever, and your car magically becomes more environmentally friendly without you having to do anything!

    This is the beauty of the plug-in electric car. It decouples transportation from the source of power. So when a better source of power comes along, you don't have to replace the entire fleet of existing cars to benefit, which would mean overcoming a huge amount of inertia.

    --

    The enemies of Democracy are