Rainbow Prius Hybrid Powered by Lithium!

And that may be true. But sellers have reasons to tweak the truth in their favor or to even outright lie. Not that I'm saying he's a liar. But we won't really know until hundreds, if not thousands of Prii converted to LiFePO4 reach those kinds of years. Lab tests don't allways account for everything, heat, cold, moisture, etc. over a long period of time.

Still, LiFePO4 is in general considered a longer lasting chemistry than NiMH. Cell quality is a factor though. If LiFePO4 were a bad chemistry then companies like Tesla would not be using it in their cars.

 

That's true with all new advancements... We have plenty of proof in a lab that says LiFePo4 is good for more cycles than all previous battery chemistry. We have proof that it runs safer, cooler and charges and discharges more efficiently, as well as runs better in super cold temps. What we don't have is decades of real life testing... So it comes down to if you're an early adopter or an anti-early adopter that won't shut up about how you use to walk 10 miles to school every day in a deep snow uphill both ways.

 

What about a sideline early adopter watcher? The one that tries to remind early adopters that there's always a chance that things won't go as planned,
and that tries to remind the anti-early adopters that if no one ever tried something new we'd still be in caves grunting about how hard it is to kill a wooly mammoth with your bare hands.

 

The view always seems better when you're sitting on the fence... But that's not much of legacy to leave behind if that which was early adopted was eventually proven the best option.

 

I was an early adopted once. I had gotten myself a three-year-old Nissan Leaf. I'm not sure if that left me much of a legacy though as I only endured a year with it before giving up on the car. And instead of boosting my confidence in EV's, now I'm not sure if even a 300 mile range EV would work, even if I had the money.

Yesterday I trudged through a hundred miles of deep snow. The Leaf's battery would drain like a flushing toilet when I drove it in those conditions.

 

The real quality of the LiFeP04 cells used will be the telling point. I have a whole pack of Winston LFP 90Ah cells that are still plodding on strong after 12yrs use in an electric vehicl. I also have 76 x 40Ah LFP cells with the square terminals that use 4 screws to attach the links to the next cell. Neither brand cells have ever been over charged or drawn down to below 3v in any cell, yet after roughly 2 yrs the blue 40Ah battle to produce 20Ah under a 20 amp load, so no hope of supplying the 100 plus amps required as a direct replacement battery.
Reading the reports from users of Headway cells in their DIY EVs, the cycle life is better than lead acid, but not even close to Winston cells as far as cycle life goes ......

T1 Terry

 

Do a one time charge to 100% and discharge to 0% on one if your cells and report back of the total amp discharged from the discharged cycle to check how much amps the cell can still hold. I want numbers like bill norton!!!e. Rainbow lithium found after the life cycle of his cell from a pack was 9.3 years. And he urged customers on his video to keep the pack within 50% soc much as possible.

 

Its a bad chemistry; the kids that are forced to mine lithium and other minerals that makes up the battery, water to flush and separate sediments from the chemistry elements, the native people who are forced off their land to see their sacred ground be eroded by heavy machinery.

 

Some time in the next week or so. I'll record the charge and discharge cycles on the cell logger of a 4 cell 12v pack of each brand so the tests will be over 4 cells rather than a single cell. The usual test rate for lithium cells is C2 or 0.5CA or the load equals the advertised capacity divided by 2, all mean the same thing, designed to discharge from 100% SOC to 0% SOC in 2 hrs.
I've gotta tell you, there aren't many lithium cells that actually live up their claimed capacity when tested this way.

T1 Terry

 

More the chemistries that use cobalt in the mix have this reputation. There are a number of lithium mines in Australia, not many kids forced to work in those and earn the big $$ the miners pay over here. The water use is now greatly reduced due to new methods, a requirement in Australia because water can be a very scarce commodity ..... just not at our place at the moment, the river is in major flood and still climbing from rain that fell in the eastern states, it just runs past our front door on the way to the ocean :lol:
As for the native people being forced off the land, not over here, they get big $$ in royalties and the major problem is they all try to claim the mining site will be on land their mob originally owned ...... The amount of stuff any proposed mine needs to go through before the first shovel of dirt is moved is incredible, yet they still open new mines, so here must be enough money in it to pay all involved, meet all the environment guild lines (or they get shut down) and have to repatriate the site when the mining is completed to the standards set out by the original first nations people. The miners have to pay a bond up front, greater than the cost of cleaning up the site, only refundable once everyone is satisfied all the conditions have been met.

T1 Terry

 

...in Australia because water can be a very scarce commodity...
Seriously??? They are and ISLAND! Surrounded by WATER!

 

as long as saltwater works for your chemical process, I guess

 

Sounds like you're talking about colbalt containing lithium batteries. LiFePO4 has iron and phosphate instead of cobalt.

 

:lol: Some parts of it are flooded at the moment as well, but none of it suitable for washing out the rubbish sediment, even desalinated water isn't pure enough as it still has some sea salt in the water. we do have enough sun to to drive a distillation plant though so I'm guessing plants will open up in Australia soon to refine the lithium from the ore rather than just sending it off shore for processing.

T1 Terry

 

It depend on how they process the water. And what filters they use.