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

Posted by Zonk on Thursday February 7, 2008 @01:44AM 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."

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Rolling Timebombs? by Loibisch · 2008-02-07 01:51 · Score: 0, Troll

How do you make sure someone does a regular check-up on their car so the battery won't become faulty and potentially catch fire? Just take a look at all those driving junksters and you see what I mean.

Also what happens to the battery in case of a car crash? Let's top it off by saying it's raining, too. Will it completely discharge? Will it catch fire or explode?

Bottom line: How safe are they really...I suppose a lot of research must have gone into this aspect.