Honda Car Forum

Folks are waiting for either Honda or Toyota to release a version with
lithium ion batteries. I'm hoping next years Prius will finally
deliver.

Thus spake samjones <samjones@worldnet.com> :

>Folks are waiting for either Honda or Toyota to release a version with
>lithium ion batteries. I'm hoping next years Prius will finally
>deliver.

I can hold my breath for about 6 1/2 minutes. Can you hold your's for
longer? Much longer?

People are pointing at laptops getting longer lives out of their
lithium ion batteries, but most of those also run cooler processors
and the power management slows them down. That 3GHz quad you just
bought? Probably runs two processors at 1.33 GHz (FSB speed).

I'm making more of a bet on plug-in hybrids first.
--

- dillon I am not invalid

"Jimmy, I'm sorry your girlfriend turned out
to be a cylon."
-Special Agent Tim McGee, "NCIS"

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.

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.
..

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?