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To: bigbob

Well, a lot of battery issues are fragility (obviously, not good in a car, never mind accidents, vibrations), self-discharge, cycling, cold-weather performance, and rate of charge.

The downside of being able to charge quickly, is...with what kind of current? It wouldn’t be that useful for a car to be able to charge in five minutes if the charger had to be next to an industrial substation. Also, generally, batteries that charge quickly...also discharge internally quickly (that is, whether they are used or not). This MIGHT be OK in a car, or a portable device/weapon such as a laser or rail gun.

It’s really difficult to get ALL the good qualities you want at once.


6 posted on 03/20/2011 1:51:00 PM PDT by The Antiyuppie ("When small men cast long shadows, then it is very late in the day.")
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To: The Antiyuppie

Nobody does infrastructure analysis anymore. Problem with digital age engineers/technologists is they tend to forget industrial age issues such as logistics and infrastructure. Li ion cars must wait 10 or more years in order to develop the mines to provide lithium metals for battery factories. Current production can provide batteries for only 40 to 60,000 vehicles a year. I had a electric car supporter point out reports showing there is enough lithium ore in the ground to support 20 to 40 million vehicles a year, but most of it is still in the ground awaiting for mines to be built (can take 10 years to set up after legal challenges and etc). So can GM afford to build a car line that sells only 40 to 60,000 vehicles a year for ten years.
Next issue is as we attempt to recharge the batteries quicker, the DC power source to do the charging must get many factors larger. Example if it takes 10 hours to recharge a 1000 kWH battery, you will need 100 watt DC source. If you want to recharge the same battery in one hour, you will need a 1000 watt DC source. If you want to recharge the battery in five minutes you will need a 12000 watt DC source. If a recharge station has 8 stations it will need 96 000 watt DC power. DC burns hot and the cable providing the power will be immense. God help you if you accidentally touched the wrong terminal during charging, try human toast. The power and size of power cables/lines would be immense. By the way 5000 watt generator can provide power for a military forward operating base.


17 posted on 03/20/2011 2:57:37 PM PDT by Fee
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