EVcast #15: EV Batteries - What You Need To Know as a Consumer

Hey Guys!  This is Paul from Austin, Texas.  Do you have any info on the newer lead-acid batteries that may yet play a role in EV's- first, there is the Firefly 'foam' lead acid battery, and, perhaps more promising, the 'ultrabattery' frm CSIRO in Australia, a hybrid lead-acid and capacitor battery- there is a story on this one in Technology Review at:  http://www.technologyreview.com/read_article.aspx?ch=specialsections&sc=batteries&id=20105&a=

They claim in the story to go 100,000 miles without degradation of the battery.  Hey- even if it is much heavier than Lithium-ion (or one of its offspring), at 1/10th the price, it may make EV's, and their replacement battery packs, affordable:-)

(Also, I live down the road a few miles from the EESTOR office/lab- sadly, the couple of times I have driven by, there has been nothing to see:-(  Perhaps the next time you talk to Ian, have him pick me up to tour the EESTOR facility next time he visits the Austin area.)

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Hey, nice to see the video mode!  I'd agree with BrianM that it's a good idea when you have a guest in the studio.  Looks like you guys really cleaned up your space for the videocast -- positively tidy!  (...except for that pile of electronic stuff next to the monitor)  Nice graphic on the wall, too!  One suggestion -- as long as it's video, you might consider looking into the camera once in a while. 

Dumb comment about 6-year-olds in China. 

Incidentally, the U.S. Department of Transportation reports that the average life span of a vehicle is just over 13 years, with a final mileage of 145,000 miles, not 10 years, as you said on your show.

But overall, nice job!  I really got a charge out of it! 

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Good show. Batteries are the key to the success of the electric car. I read with great interest the comment from Paul Cummings about EEstor down the street from him and would have hoped the site would have a robust activity at the secretive facility. The UltraBattery at the linked sites where they are combining capacitors and lead technology sounds like it might have great promise. Thanks for the linked sites. The video of the show is a nice addition. Appreciate your show and look forward to each broadcast.

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I like the video format. But as long as you're doing that, you might consider taking some field trips, maybe seeing if you can actually show (or better yet, test-drive), some of these cars. Probably GM won't let you tour the production lines where they're making the Volt just yet, but hey, it wouldn't hurt to ask. And I know you'd all love to try out the Tesla (good luck on that one...)

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If I was EEstor, I would not make my company public, I would put up a dummy facade to prevent oil and car investigators gaining any info on the company.

This ultrabattery does not mention anything about range, as any external supercap or flywheel will take the stress off the battery.  Thus there is little excitement about this product.  As for the firefly, this seems extremely promising and I bet every oil company is offering to buy them out or delay product. Just require every car company to make 2% of their vehicles electric and make them do it immediately July 1st 2008.  Make them sell them this time.

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Hi guys! This is an update to an older EVCast, but it seemed appropriate- I came across a very interesting press release at the Actacell web site, and then found the original at the Argonne Nat Lab site- They are starting a battery-manufacturing consortium that they hope is on the order of Sematech- this could bode very well for the battery technology in the US for the future.  The press release at the Argonne site is:  http://www.anl.gov/Media_Center/News/2008/news081218.html

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