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To: cuban leaf

While these preliminary numbers suggest a low battery life for an iron battery, suppose after 30 cycles the iron batt retains 75% capacity. So a low-mileage user might swap out batteries at some sort of swap-station after 30 days or 45 days. An in-town driver might get 90 days out of a cycle.

Costs to replace a lithium batt are estimated to be from $1K to $6K, a range so wide so as to be ridiculous. I have no direct experience. Allegedly they last 2-3 years. But we know lithium is a problem on the supply front. Suppose a Li 30 month batt costs $3K, $100 a month. Lithium costs roughly $10 per kilo, iron is pennies. It’s not inconceivable that a rapid-and-cheap-replace iron battery pack that only lasts a month and costs $100 to swap out wouldn’t be the functional equivalent of a lithium batt.

I don’t know, there are a lot of interconnected factors, obviously. Just sayin’. We *do* have a history of replacing costly elements with cheaper ones; iron for lithium would be about as dramatic as imaginable. We went from platinum catalysts in cat converters to palladium, however those are both extremely rare metals. In the process, platinum went from $2000 to $850 and now sells for $600 less than gold, when it is 10x as rare a metal as gold in nature. (a nearly unfathomable anomaly) And palladium went from (depends where you measure from) $600-700 to $100 LESS than gold or about $1430. Yes, I recognize lithium is about 1/14th the weight of iron and that is sweet for vehicle use. But iron is so bloody cheap, there MUST be an economic argument in there somewhere.


13 posted on 08/16/2019 11:44:14 AM PDT by Attention Surplus Disorder (Apoplectic is where we want them)
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To: Attention Surplus Disorder

I just had to replace a 50ah 48v LiFePO4 battery in my hot-dogging electric wheelchair (15mph! Wahoo!) Manufacturer wanted $3500! I found replacement cells on Ebay (Korean, top-of-the-line) for $725 including a new BMS board, delivered. Said to be good for 1-2000 cycles. The original died due to being flooded in a downpour, not wear and tear.


30 posted on 08/16/2019 2:04:56 PM PDT by pingman ("I ain't in no ways tarred.." of WINNING!)
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