Li-Ion King: New Ford Test for Hybrid Vehicle Batteries Simulates 10 Years of Use in 10 Months’ Time

...they are claiming FORD has near zero hybrid battery failure rate?...not too shabby if so

 

That is really gratifying to see a US manufacturer obtaining that kind of reliability and investing that kind of money in research and testing.

 

Let's what happens when the electrons hit the road!

 

Did Ford Engineers made the batteries pass this test like they did with EPA mpg testing cycles?

 

This is for hybrid mode only, don't get confused with EV usage.
The battery does not drive the full 150K miles.

 

It's a very good thing that Ford is doing accelerated battery life testing and releasing results. However, take it with a small grain of salt, accelerated life tests are only an indication.

 

YBLMV - Your Battery Life May Vary

 

Lets hope the numbers Ford are for MPG are accurate! I have already read that 37 MPG is what to really expect!
We will see!

 

While this is a pro Ford article, but any news like this is good news for hybrids in general.

 

I wonder what that means? I can understand that they know of 6 cells that failed. Is there a way that they could know that the remaining 49,994,000 have not failed?

What am I missing?

 

Yes. Ford would be called for warranty work if the other cells failed. Some may just be gathering dust, or in accidents but the batteries should all be good.

 

I heard Toyota have been doing real testing for the past 15 years... LOL

 

Really? the current nimh have only been around since 2003, and they changed parameters in 2009.

Toyota does aging on their newer batteries. The older lithium batteries failed lab testing. The earliest real world lithium tests of current battery chemistry is 2011. If you are going to progress in technology you need to test in the lab Both toyota and ford do this.

 

It would be curious how they are accelerating it.

Just doing some simple math, 10 months is ~7300 hours. 150K miles driving at an average of 20.5mph 24/7 will produce these results. 20.5mph is lower than average speed with mixed highway/city for most people. In the city, that sounds about right, and the city will be the heavier usage model, so that is better news.

However batteries have aging factors related to temperature and then aging itself because it is a chemical reaction. It seems they have tested that in terms of charge/recharge cycles at average or above average coulomb pulling/pushing a new battery can take it with an extremely low failure rate. But as the battery ages, and the demands remain the same, it is still unknown. This can be accelerated with heat, but that is not an exact replica either. It would be great if some of their 10month test included high temperature cell bakes...

 

The main ways of traditionally aging batteries is SOC and temperature. I don't know ford's method or if it is valid, but I would guess these factors along with charge discharge would be done. I do know that hyundai did 300,000 miles of charge/discharge in their labs before releasing the sonat hybrid.

 

I wonder how different were the NimH chemistries of the NHW10...

Cilindrical, not prismatic. That's it. LOL

 

There were problems with the battery design that were causing premature failures in the gen 0 and gen 1 batteries. The design was changed twice to help fix this.

That made them better batteries for the gen II and gen III. Toyota did not road test these new designs for 10 years,. they have not even been on the road for 10 years.

The lab results for the newer lithium are better than nimh with the same small 40% SOC window. This allows all the makers to use bigger windows and draw more current. The question really is how much bigger it will stay 10 years from now. The lab tests have also improved.

 

Of course, new design means getting back to the drawing board!...LOL

AG, battery design had almost nothing to do with premature failures, their production was much to blame (defects), and later on, the SOC swing allowed (control).

You seem not confident in the manufacturer of 4 million hybrids, 15 years rolling.
Can you simulate corrosion, for example?

Ford may show some progress, but...hey...how about EV Panasonic R&D and their immense job done so far? It lacks marketing/publicity/advertising, probably

 

That would make sense, except.... Toyota changed the physical design twice. Changing SOC control algorithm and the power algorithm is part of the bms design.

Why are we not using the gen 1 design? Why is higher power now allowed?

That is putting a false statement in my mouth.

I said toyota tested in the lab and modified the battery design. They did not stop 10 years ago. They also did alright with the batteries, even with some problems. Lithium should not be held to an impossible standard. That only kills progress.

THere is a large amount of PR. We know that panasonic bought sanyo for their lithium technology. It is this sanyo design that is being aged in the labs of ford and toyota.