Lithium Ion battery on Two Eco

there are many different lithium ion chemistries. one challenge is longevity. another is heat. charging and discharging parameters are important. toyota has to make sure most last the 10/150 warranty. it's not like a cell phone or laptop.
it's really an unknown, to date, what advantages toyota's lion has over nimh, but they're gathering data quickly, between 4+ years of pip and euro prius 7 seater.

 

very little, actually. they don't improve mpg's much, and they likely won't last much longer. here's another thing to think about, availability, mining, transportation, production, cost, recycle ability, etc. there are some many factors the mfg.'s have to take into account.

 

Li more expensive...
Toyota is not disclosing any performance difference between their Li and NiMH batteries in the Prius, other than weight. We don't know if the Li batt explains the 4+ EPA MPG rating for eco, or not. Believe USA is the only country getting Li batts in the Gen4. Everyone else getting the NiMH.

 

Our Notebook computer, GPS units and smartphone batteries haven't proven very long living, but I suspect TOYOTA has put more effort into charge/discharge cycles. NiMH has proven to outlast their warranty in the vast majority of cases. The Li-ION and NiMH batteries have similar usable capacity - and, yes, the Li-ION is a little lighter.

Interestingly, Japan is the major market for TOYOTA's Li-ION batteries - where car longevity is much shorter than in USA or Australia - has led to some suspicions that their favouring NiMH for us could be due to long term battery life. There has also been mention in some forums about the availability of Lithium for batteries - with some claims countering that as well. Time will tell. By which time, Li-ION will be "old hat".

 

I believe Japan only gets Li-ION, no NiMH.

 

I hear you but I wonder?
Since most Prii are sold in USA and Japan, if we both have mostly LiON, that would say vast majority of Prii are LiON. I am thinking Toyota makes mostly NiMH.

 

Li gives the most power per grams of battery, so that enables such miniature things as iPhones and Drones. But it's more expensive, so depends on application. As far as cars, plug-ins can be Lead acid, NiMH or Li. Li will be better for long range BEV. I am thinking many China BEV's are lead acid batteries due to cost, but if you can afford Li that is a better car.

 

Not necessarily - it's what is appropriate. They both do the same job, just one is a little heavier, they have different power discharge rates, but the software manages them differently - they're not interchangeable between cars. NiMH are less liable to explode too, though I haven't heard that as a problem with Prius - unlike SAMSUNG phones in the news today.

Here in Australia, we have no choice - and with our vehicle fleet AVERAGES 10+ yrs old, I'd be reticent to get a potentially shorter-lived Li-ION battery. Similarly, the Japanese wouldn't see the logic of a battery which lasts 10+ years, when the age of their vehicle fleet is nearer 3-5 yrs.

 

what happens to used cars from Japan?

 

I can't see up-do-date figures - just "Nearly 1.4 million used vehicles were exported from Japan in 2006". There used to be heaps about 5yr old, some younger, come here, but the Govt changed the rules a couple of years ago, it's only vans which come in nowdays.

[ Japanese used vehicle exporting - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia ]

 

Didn't the lithium ion battery in the Mitsubishi outlander catch fire which is why that plugin vehicle was delayed 2 years?

Also, what do Chevy 2011volt owners think of their car...?

Then you have Elon musk who wants his lithium ion cars to last 5+ years for sure...

And then the fact there are slight differences in battery chemistry

 

The ECO's battery does have some of those advantages. If the pack was of the same total capacity of the NiMH, it would have far more usable charge for operation. Toyota opted to use the higher power density of the lithium battery to make a smaller battery and save weight.

For car applications Li-ion is around the same as NiMH in price, and is dropping, were as NiMH has been stable for years. Toyota pays less for NiMH than the others would because of their investments during the gen2's heyday. They will likely use NiMH to so degree for awhile. Toyota likes to wring every cent out of such investments; the base Corolla still has a four speed automatic.

Models with the E-four get NiMH. This is likely because the low power AWD is meant for conditions like snow, and NiMH is better at handling freezing temps.

 

Lithium ion has better charge efficiency than NiMH. NiMH is safer and cheaper. Both technologies have their advantages for this application.

 

Many seem to be imported to UK also, because we too drives on the left side of the road.

Oops! This should have quoted the question about what happens to Japan's old vehicles...
Finger trouble I suppose.

 

I visited FIJI about 15 years ago - and talking to a TAXI driver, he said they don't get new cars there, only used Japanese vehicles. He was driving a Japanese Market TOYOTA about the size of today's Camry, but it was quite plush, with some fittings which I'd never seen on any of our local Aussie TOYOTAs.