Description
Many people have
misconceptions about hybrid car batteries: "You don't want a hybrid
'cause every couple days you've gotta plug them in somewhere to
recharge the batteries."
But interestingly enough, many hybrid car owners actually would like
the ability to plug in their vehicles at night. This way, they can use
that much less gasoline; the gas engine part of the hybrid would now
need to run that much less when they made their morning commutes. Now,
nothing's free--including household electricity. However, the idea here
is that the additional charges on their monthly electric bill would
still be far less than the added $3.00+ per each additional gallon of
fuel. The 2008 and beyond hybrid electric vehicles are supposedly going
to have the capability to plug them in.
Another popular myth is that the batteries only last a couple years at
the most. Then you've gotta buy thousands of dollars worth of new
batteries. This is far from true:
The standard warranty on hybrid batteries usually runs between 80,000
and 100,000 miles. Great advances in battery technology since 2000 have
raised the life expectancy to a respectable level in 2007. Taxi
services using hybrid-only cars are springing up everywhere...now THAT
should raise the eyebrows of hybrid naysayers. The warranty for battery
life may be at 100,000 miles, however, taxi services are seeing 200,000
to 300,000 miles with absolutely no degradation in battery performance.
And we're talking several large taxi fleets in New York City!
If the batteries DO need replacing, they will cost between $1700 - $3000, not $10,000+ like many folks say.
But the key to this long battery life lies in "smart charging" where
the electronic charging computer will not let the battery get charged
above around 60% of capacity, nor let it drop below 40% of its
capacity. This allows the new NIMH (Nickel Metal Hydride) batteries to
run practically forever.
That being said, battery technology remains the main area for the
greatest advances in hybrid car technology yet to come. Lighter
batteries that hold longer charges and put out higher power is the
dream of every hybrid engineering company. Battery technology is where
hybrids stand to gain the most benefit.
The main hope for improving this situation for hybrid cars lies with
lithium batteries. These are the same batteries that are currently used
to power laptops and cameras. They provide a much more concentrated and
therefore smaller way of storing energy as electricity. While lithium
batteries are the best option for batteries in hybrids now, they aren't
without problems...
The problem with lithium batteries is making them big enough so that
they can store enough energy to power hybrid cars without having to
revert to the gas engine when driving in town. Lithium batteries are
very efficient when manufactured to a certain capacity and size. But if
this is increased they are subject to a condition called thermal run
off. This can cause larger batteries to overheat and in some instances
they can actually catch fire! (You've noticed how hot laptop computer
batteries can get.)
The main problem is the cobalt, a metal used in the manufacture of
lithium batteries. Many manufacturers have been working on a solution
to this problem. The most promising solution seems to be replacing the
cobalt with phosphate. This produces a much safer and more reliable
battery. There is some power loss as opposed to using cobalt only, but
the batteries should still be a long way ahead of conventional
lead-acid and NiMH batteries now used in hybrid cars.
By: Charles Brown
Sustainable Living Articles @ http://www.articlegarden.com
C. Brown is the author of Hybrid-Electric-Car.net where you can learn more about hybrid car batteries on his website.
