The Battery technology thread - How will EVs be powered?

[PatQ562]

The EV1 had electrically heated front and rear windows. The windshield used some kind of clear coating, and there were wires in the rear window. The rear worked about as well as usual (clearing from the wires outwards for several minutes) and the windshield worked a little better (evenly clearing, in a minute or two, which was at least as fast as waiting for a gas powered motor to warm up). I don't recall ever having to deal with frost, here in SoCal.
It still seemed to me that an instant "hair dryer" flow of warm air would have been more useful, but GM used the platform to try a number of ideas, including electric power steering and AC (successful) and a pushbutton combination rather than key to start the car (annoying, especially with valet parking).
Pat Q

[NeilBlanchard]

This is more good battery news: http://www.cleanmpg.com/forums/showthread.php?t=47855

[NeilBlanchard]

Some more information on lithium sulfur solid batteries:

http://insideevs.com/oak-ridge-natio...f-lithium-ion/

[kerbe]

I understand that the downside of the solid electrolyte LiS battery is that it needs an operating temperature of 60 C in order to functioned efficiently.

[Grendal]

Originally Posted by kerbe

I understand that the downside of the solid electrolyte LiS battery is that it needs an operating temperature of 60 C in order to functioned efficiently.

Ouch. That's going to cost a lot of energy just to prevent your batteries from dying.

You'll need to add a lot of weight too to keep them both warm and insulated.

[SEGsby]

You could use aerogel to keep them insulated. It's quite light, but also quite expensive...

[Grendal]

I'm cribbing this from Doug G on the Tesla Motor Club forum since I couldn't put it any better:

New battery announcements come out daily. Unfortunately the vast majority never come to anything. The reason is that a battery technology has to optimize many things at one time:


•high storage capacity
•high power delivery
•long cycle life
•long calendar life
•sufficient temperature range
•low weight and bulk
•safety
•manufacturability


Many new battery technologies optimize one of these items at the expense of another.

[Sheepdog 44]

Originally Posted by Grendal

Ouch. That's going to cost a lot of energy just to prevent your batteries from dying.

You'll need to add a lot of weight too to keep them both warm and insulated.

According to wikipedia the molten salt Zebra battery operates at 245 degrees celsius. So it's not something that can't be easily dealt with.