AA Lithium Ion Battery Block VS Wet Battery

[Matrix1000]

I was watching a show reciently about a new electric car. They were using blocks of Lithium Ion Laptop batteries (basically AA's) as a powersource rather than wet batteries. They said it charged much faster and had a very good lifespan.

I was wondering if it would be a better deal to buy 100 lithium ion batteries at $1 each and create a battery 'block' to put them in rather than purchase traditional wet batteries.

[Nando]

Propaganda many times occurs.

Lithium AAA or AA have a limited charging and discharging current, there are D and F size lithium that have much higher current levels.

The hybrid cars do have those batteries and the ones I know have D size batteries that may last about 5 to 10,000 miles, all depending the ON/OFF battery ratios.

Charging current may higher than nickel cadmium -- but one needs to be careful as you all can see the battery chargers specifically designed for the different chemistries

Regards

Nando

[tecker]

   Your talking about connections there  gota plan those carfully . No acid is the only advantage .

[thunderhead]

If you want value-for-money and you're insisting on lithium, the "Thunder Sky" lithium batteries (available from the Metric Mind website) are a better bet than small cells.

If you just want value-for-money, though, you won't insist on lithium.

[whatsnext]

I saw a number of news stories about the lithium batteries in that car. I never heard any mention about the weight advantage, if there is one, of the lithium batteries and just assumed that the reporters were not engineers and therefor didn't think to ask. If the power to weight of your system is important to you, a quick get away perhaps when your wife finds out what you paid for them, then definately check out the lithium AA's.

John.........

/being mildly sarcastic

[thunderhead]

There is a weight advantage on the T-Zero, though: it does 4.1 seconds for 0-60 with the standard "Optima" battery, and about 3.6 for the lithium.  That doesn't sound like a lot, but it is a lot: another 12% acceleration in something that is respectable for a drag-car.

As for price, have a look at this:-

http://www.speedace.info/lithium_ion_electric_car.htm

That UK15,000 price-tag is about double the entry level cost of a small petrol car.

Notice which batteries he's using?  It's those "Thunder Sky" batteries again.