New Battery Research Article

[Mithion]

Interesting!

http://green.autoblog.com/2012/05/31/prieto-battery-working-on-1-000x-more-powerful-lithium-ion-batte/


http://www.prietobattery.com/

[Richard230]

Well, you have to admit, there sure are a lot of universities and private companies working to improve batteries. But the hard part seems to be getting them to work in large-scale consumer use applications at a cost than the public can afford.  A lot of these ideas look good at the start and then seem to drag on and on without ever hitting the market. But hope for more financing springs eternal. 

[Gavin]

more:

http://www.greencarcongress.com/2012/06/ext-20120612.html

Gavin

[protomech]

They're targeting replacements for 12V lead acid batteries rather than a traction battery for an EV. Maybe they've been burned by the Karma battery?

EXT batteries will go into production next year on a mainstream micro-hybrid system, Kessen said, although the customer is not talking about the program yet. The EXT battery is most of the way through product validation, he said.

Wonder if that's BMW. BMW is using a micro-hybrid approach with their current compact cars, though they don't bill it as such. Their pricing certainly could absorb a small increase in cost for the A123 battery.

"most of the way through product validation" is very good news to hear. That's a huge difference from the lab demo announcements we see pretty often.

[FreepZ]

I wish them all the luck in the world. I just hope they can get this to work without any more disasters.

E.g:
- Karma fiasco.
- Explosion at the GM plant.

The company seems like they have some good ideas, but then mess up in the execution.

If they are going to compete against the old lead acid batteries, they had better be cheap, since that is probably the most attractive feature of lead acid.

[protomech]

They claim TCO is higher for the NEXT battery, given that a typical AGM battery (more expensive, $100+) lasts 4 years in a micro-hybrid application. I assume that means the batteries are probably somewhere north of $200 for a 12V 40Ah battery .. that's still not so bad, < $500/kWh.

[860]

I wish them all the luck in the world. I just hope they can get this to work without any more disasters.

E.g:
- Karma fiasco.
- Explosion at the GM plant.

The company seems like they have some good ideas, but then mess up in the execution.

If they are going to compete against the old lead acid batteries, they had better be cheap, since that is probably the most attractive feature of lead acid.

What's the problem with the GM plant explosion?  They were doing destructive testing to see exactly what would happen when you do everything possible to intentionally destroy the thing.  They succeeded.

Would you blame Exxon if GM were doing destructive testing on gas tanks, and succeeded in blowing up a gas tank?

I just don't get what the complaint is about A123 when GM does destructive testing and succeeds in achieving destruction?  Physics tells us that storing enough energy to move large vehicles at high speeds for extended times will always carry inherent risk no matter how that energy is stored.

 

[FreepZ]

What's the problem with the GM plant explosion?  They were doing destructive testing to see exactly what would happen when you do everything possible to intentionally destroy the thing.  They succeeded.

According to the GM report, they were doing "extreme testing of an experimental battery", which does not necessarily mean that they were trying to destroy it. My guess is that they were trying to over charge it, or perhaps heat it up to extreme temperatures.

Whatever test they were doing, the GM plant was clearly not prepared for the explosion that they got, otherwise they should have been able to contain it without incident.

So, was GM at fault for not predicting the magnitude of the explosion, or was A123 at fault for not warning GM about the risks? Considering that GM had the testing lab that was going to be doing the destroying, I would tend to believe that it was GM's responsibility to be aware of the risks. It still looks bad for A123, even if that's unfair.