Neo wrote:
> On Jul 19, 10:25 am, samjones <samjo...@worldnet.com> wrote:
>> This year's so called third generation Prius was originally expected
>> to deliver with lithium ion batteries. They upgraded every subsystem
>> except the batteries. I think lithium ion batteries are ready to go
>> but some safety issues are lingering. I'm guessing another year of
>> safey testing and tweaking and we will be there. Lithium ion
>> batteries should boost the Prius (and the Insight) into the 70+ MPG
>> range.
>
> The 3rd gen Prius has a bigger NiMH battery but many were
> hoping it would have been a Li-Ion battery all the same.
> Toyota is testing the lithium ion batteries. The challenge is
> more of a marketing issue. The way Toyota makes the battery
> last over 15 years is that the battery is never allowed to
> discharge over 66%. Given those restrictions the EV mode
> range of a LiIon battery Prius is still pretty limited while
> the cost is significantly high. It sounds like Toyota has the
> heat dissipation problem licked but they are not getting any
> significant performance or energy efficiency increase that
> would justify the extra cost of LiIon batteries. To get any
> significant increase in energy efficiency the Prius needs
> to go on a diet - its too heavy.


A123 phosphorus battery technology?