Toyota ahead in race for advanced hybrid batteries
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Toyota ahead in race for advanced hybrid batteries
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http://online.wsj.com/article_print/...763068592.html
Allscion -- an e-commerce website with news and accessories for your Scions
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http://online.wsj.com/article_print/...763068592.html
GM, which sells more than half its vehicles outside the U.S. and has an aggressive strategy to shift more purchasing and engineering to Asia, is talking up the importance of an American solution to the problem of building longer-lasting, more-reliable, less-costly automotive batteries, and looking for help from the federal government to subsidize those efforts.
One beneficiary of this battery war is a small Watertown, Mass., start-up called A123 Systems, which has developed a small pack of lithium-ion batteries that can be retrofitted into the spare-tire well of a Toyota Prius. The batteries turn the Prius into a "plug-in hybrid," which can be recharged through an electrical outlet and run almost exclusively on electricity in the first 40 miles of driving. During a test drive around Watertown, near Boston, there is nothing noticeably different about how the converted black Prius drives, except for a screen in the center of the car's dashboard that flashes its eye-popping fuel economy, sometimes 100 miles to the gallon and at other points 150 miles to the gallon.
This is the kind of technology GM wants to use, to develop ... Nearly all hybrid vehicles sold today, including the Toyota Prius, are equipped with a less sophisticated kind of technology, nickel metal hydride batteries....
Auto makers are looking to lithium-ion batteries to take hybrid vehicles to the next level by allowing them to be recharged from the electrical grid, theoretically reducing total carbon emissions. The batteries would be able to pack more electricity in the same space and weight as the current generation, enabling them to power the vehicle for longer distances on electricity alone.
Toyota, considered the industry's hybrid leader, is looking to adopt lithium-ion technology in the redesigned Prius, due to be launched as early as the second half of 2008. Rivals, from GM to Honda Motor Co. to Ford Motor Co. to DaimlerChrysler AG, are fighting to match Toyota and are expected to come out with their own lithium-ion hybrids by the end of the decade.
One beneficiary of this battery war is a small Watertown, Mass., start-up called A123 Systems, which has developed a small pack of lithium-ion batteries that can be retrofitted into the spare-tire well of a Toyota Prius. The batteries turn the Prius into a "plug-in hybrid," which can be recharged through an electrical outlet and run almost exclusively on electricity in the first 40 miles of driving. During a test drive around Watertown, near Boston, there is nothing noticeably different about how the converted black Prius drives, except for a screen in the center of the car's dashboard that flashes its eye-popping fuel economy, sometimes 100 miles to the gallon and at other points 150 miles to the gallon.
This is the kind of technology GM wants to use, to develop ... Nearly all hybrid vehicles sold today, including the Toyota Prius, are equipped with a less sophisticated kind of technology, nickel metal hydride batteries....
Auto makers are looking to lithium-ion batteries to take hybrid vehicles to the next level by allowing them to be recharged from the electrical grid, theoretically reducing total carbon emissions. The batteries would be able to pack more electricity in the same space and weight as the current generation, enabling them to power the vehicle for longer distances on electricity alone.
Toyota, considered the industry's hybrid leader, is looking to adopt lithium-ion technology in the redesigned Prius, due to be launched as early as the second half of 2008. Rivals, from GM to Honda Motor Co. to Ford Motor Co. to DaimlerChrysler AG, are fighting to match Toyota and are expected to come out with their own lithium-ion hybrids by the end of the decade.
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Read an article about the true cost of fuel economy in The Oregonian, maybe someone can find it online? Basically the hybrid car's high cost of battery manufacturing cost something around $3.30 a mile to drive, while the Scion xB was something around .35 cents a mile. Food for thought.
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"Auto makers are looking to lithium-ion batteries to take hybrid vehicles to the next level by allowing them to be recharged from the electrical grid... enabling them to power the vehicle for longer distances on electricity alone.
LOL...WTF going back, to go forward...why don't you call it what it will eventually be...an electric car! cracks me up!
LOL...WTF going back, to go forward...why don't you call it what it will eventually be...an electric car! cracks me up!
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Originally Posted by apexjr
Read an article about the true cost of fuel economy in The Oregonian, maybe someone can find it online? Basically the hybrid car's high cost of battery manufacturing cost something around $3.30 a mile to drive, while the Scion xB was something around .35 cents a mile. Food for thought.
That said I think diesels are a better solution given todays technology. Much cheaper initial price and they can match a hybrids actual real world mileage in the mid 40s. Hybrids are more useful as a city vehicle not so much on the highway.
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