Hybrid
Vehicle Battery Wars?
Wednesday, May
16, 2007
Not
your father's battery
Many call hybrid
cars an interim technology to the hydrogen economy, to
fuel cell vehicles or to pure electric vehicles. Much like
Toyota, I believe the hybrid powertrain is the future, not
some temporary technology.
For starters, hybrids make hydrogen powered vehicles more
efficient. Hybrids could integrate smaller, therefore
cheaper, fuel cells into automobiles - making fuel cell
vehicles much more cost-effective. Hybrids can also extend
the range of electric vehicles, while also providing a
plethora of fuel options to electric vehicles when
electric power is either unavailable or more expensive
than an alternative fuel.
Nonetheless, whether hybrids are just an interim
technology or not, the key to the hybrid future, as well
as the key to these other alternative vehicles, is
significantly influenced by battery development,
particularly lithium-ion batteries. Thus, the flurry of
news regarding lithium developments in the last few weeks
is quite interesting.
Last week Toyota announced that their lithium-ion
batteries were ready to power the third
generation Prius and the rest of Toyota's hybrids.
Earlier this week LTC
announced a major breakthrough in their lithium
technology. Nissan has built a new
technology center to perfect their lithium production.
And today, A123Systems
introduced its 32-series cells lithium technology designed
specifically for hybrids and plug-in
hybrid vehicles.
The hybrid vehicle battery wars are heating up, and this
competition isn't just going to push these next generation
batteries to market sooner, this competition will also
make these batteries cheaper. That means better hybrid
vehicles and
cheaper hybrid vehicles.
posted by Dahcredyns
at
|
