Lithium ion batteries

I'm sure that when it happens there'll be wide spread reports of older prius owners setting fire to their cars. :lol:

It's all about timing. I finally decided that if I was always waiting for the best thing I'd never get a new car.

 

I agree with the limited distance thing. A lot of places I drive regularly are over 100 miles one way. Whos to say you couldn't add a small generator to extend the battery life? But at 3000 lbs, it weighs 200 lbs less than the Prius, with a racing style roll cage seems pretty safe. I'd consider buying the cheap version when it comes out sometime in 2009 to use as a town car.

 

yep.. computers, TV's, monitors, cell phones, PDA's.. .. anything technical will outdate soon after you buy it.... when the LiIons come out, they will have ones around the corner that charge faster, and bigger, and stronger on and on....

I could see service stations that allow you to fill up in outlying areas.... when we get to where we can get enough electric energy to go another 500 miles and be able to fill up in about 5 minutes, then we'll be talking!...

but then they will have hydrogen generated from water by cold fusion or some other energy that superceeds.... there is no end!

 

There will probably be an abundance of affordable upgrade kits when cars go to LI-Ion

 

This is funny.. I remember this discussion back several months ago and it came to this question.... which is a good question.
The motor in the prius "is" the generator!... true its a heavy one, but it also allows you to get up to 115mph should you need to!

... if you add a generator, then you will have a honda! :lol: ... I know.. that was a low blow......


Seriously.. a generator would not allow you to go very fast unless you sit on the side of the road and let it charge up.. otherwise to add a generator big enough to power you any decent speeds once your battery was dead.. you would be back to a hybrid again?

 

But if you knew you were going on a distance trip it would buy you time on your batteries if it was running the whole time.

 

True, but you have a noisy genertor and your burning gas?... Wouldn't a nice quiet priuse be better?

 

Of course it would.

 

waaaiittt... we are not talking about a 100% EV... what we are talking about is a Prius that has extended range EV operation but still has the ICE to fall back on to use gasoline for longer trips and to maintain basic charge on the traction battery.

the ion battery in AER (all electric range) Prius does make major changes to the EV system because in AER vehicles, the charging system only maintains minimum charge on the traction battery using gasoline. any other charging is ONLY done on the grid while plugged in. that is a very radical change from the Prius you now drive.

 

These hobby batteries claim a new chemistry, so I would keep an eye on them. The hobby market is relatively insensitive to price so it is reasonable that new technology would show up there first. Note the claim of 50C charge/discharge rate (unconfirmed).

JeffD

 

Its pretty exciting about all the new chemistry they are discovering for batteries.... the more efficient the use of "whatever" energy we choose to use combined with batteries to capture loses with minimal conversion losses...
I'm excited we live in an era of such technology!....

It can only get crazier from here!

 

RC racing can definitely be a spendy hobby. i maintain two cars and spend 20-100$ nearly every time i race