li-ion powered sports car!

[Paladin]

While googling 18650's I discovered the Teslamotors.com web site. Something like 6800 individual 18650 cells in their huge battery pack, 375 volts total. My brain was smoking from the details, either it's an elaborate hoax or one cool way to use a bunch of 18650's. The claimed MPG equivalent to petroleum was fantastic.

Paladin

 

[FlashCrazy]

No hoax....they did a press release a few months ago. It's supposed to do 0-60 mph in about 4 seconds too! They have a lot of money backing them...hopefully they'll be successful.

 

[big_willie]

i remeber seeing soomething about a Li-ion powered car awhaile back on the future car series that aired on the science channel that one was said to have a 200-300 miles driving distance and a lot of battries dont remeber how many though

 

[JetskiMark]

I saw the original press release and the Tesla Roadster looked good and performed excellently. Too bad it's going to be over $100,000, if I recall correctly.

I have wanted to build an electric car for a long time. I wanted to buy an EV1 (NiMH) when they were in production, but they were only for lease without a purchase option.

The real questions are: What would be the best bulb to run off of that 56 kWh pack, how many lumens would it produce and how much run time?

Regards,
Mark

 

[Illum]

i dont think its 18650s, but "[size=-1]A123Systems[/size]" cells...

http://www.a123systems.com/newsite/index.php

 

[LuxLuthor]

This website has a lot of useful information if you follow links. I was looking up more about A123 when I found this mpower site.

 

[Icebreak]

CPF moderator and genius, Darell knows about that stuff and those people.

If you use the on board google search on Darell's site and search for Wrightspeed X1 Prototype you will find a picture of him next to one. Also, there will be a lot of video links in that area. The X1 Prototype looks good and so does the Tesla roadster.

 

[HarveyRich]

There was a segment of nightline featuring the Tesla sports car and company a couple of nights ago--very interesting. Wonder if there's any chance of one or more of those battery packs exploding while charging?

 

[LuxLuthor]

There was a segment of nightline featuring the Tesla sports car and company a couple of nights ago--very interesting. Wonder if there's any chance of one or more of those battery packs exploding while charging?

Not with the A123 (Saphion) technology. That is the great thing about this new Lithium battery development.

 

[2xTrinity]

There was a segment of nightline featuring the Tesla sports car and company a couple of nights ago--very interesting. Wonder if there's any chance of one or more of those battery packs exploding while charging?

The only situations of LiIon batteries exploding that I know of were some computers that had faulty regulator circuits. I remember an interview with the designers of that vehicle, who were asked that same question, and they replied that each battery has its own set of tap wires, and temperatures sensors to prevent overcharge etc. and that basically they have software that actively balances all the cells, disconnecting cells that have detectably failed, or are running too hot. Overheating would almost certainly have to precede explosion, so I think the vehicle should be fairly safe.

I persoanlly would worry more about a conventional gasoline tank "venting with flame" in the event of a crash or something, as the consequences of that are much worse. A cell popping might make for an expensive cleanup/maintenance, but shouldn't be an immediate hazard.

I know the big-name hybrid vehicles (Toyota, Honda etc.) have independent taps, temperature probes (along with A/C lines and cooling fans), and computer controlled charging on their battery packs as well -- as well as a very strict limit of 40%-80% state of charge -- the shallower cycles dramatiaclly prolong the lifespan (from hundreds of full cycles, to many tens of thousands of partial cycles) In the event of the Tesla, presumably the best way to prolong the life of the batteries will be to recharge as often as possible to prevent deep-cycling.

 

[monkeyboy]

Surely it would make more sense to use a smaller number of larger cells. It would be easier to monitor each cell and simpler to construct. For example Saft's VL45E cell has a capacity of 45Ah and measures 54.3mm diameter x 222mm height. It is intended for use in electric vehicles.

http://www.saftbatteries.com/120-Techno/20-10_produit.asp?paramtechnolien=20-10_lithium_system.asp&paramtechno=Lithium+systems&Intitule_Produit=VLEcells

Imagine a flashlight using one of these

Imagine what would happen if it blew up

 

[Nubo]

Here's a link to Tesla Motors' white paper on their battery system

http://www.teslamotors.com/display_data/TeslaRoadsterBatterySystem.pdf

 

[yuandrew]

The first electric vehicle I knew of which used Li-Ion batteries was the Nissan ALTRA electric station wagon which came out around the year 2000. It used Sony cells though and had a range of 120 miles per charge. I think Nissan was the first to use Li-Ion cells in an electric vehicle as they also had an experimental prototype before they had the production ALTRA

 

[LEDependent]

Given Li-ion's life of ~3 years, that is going to be one expensive battery changeout.

 

[Daekar]

Surely it would make more sense to use a smaller number of larger cells. It would be easier to monitor each cell and simpler to construct. For example Saft's VL45E cell has a capacity of 45Ah and measures 54.3mm diameter x 222mm height. It is intended for use in electric vehicles.

http://www.saftbatteries.com/120-Te...hno=Lithium+systems&Intitule_Produit=VLEcells

Imagine a flashlight using one of these

Imagine what would happen if it blew up

Why in the heck doesn't somebody build a light around one of THOSE? Really, for a large light 222mm long isn't that bad, and the diameter is fairly managable too. It's not exactly an EDC candidate, but it would make a heck of a power source for a high power light. Look at that, 100 amp max continuous current! I mean, theoretically you could run an incan lamp @ 42 amps for an hour before it died. That means if you have a triplet of Cree emitters running at 1000mA for a total of 600+ emitter lumens, you could run them for.. 14 hours straight. It would make a nice battery for an HID light too... can you imagine an AE Powerlight with a 42Ah battery? It boggles the mind...

 

[knot]

Given Li-ion's life of ~3 years, that is going to be one expensive battery changeout.

Perhaps more than a timing belt replacement every 90,000 miles?

 

[matrixshaman]

I saw the original press release and the Tesla Roadster looked good and performed excellently. Too bad it's going to be over $100,000, if I recall correctly.

I have wanted to build an electric car for a long time. I wanted to buy an EV1 (NiMH) when they were in production, but they were only for lease without a purchase option.

The real questions are: What would be the best bulb to run off of that 56 kWh pack, how many lumens would it produce and how much run time?

Regards,
Mark

Actually in just a quest to see how much they are I put in an order for one with a couple of the add ons and it was still $3K under $100K - cancelled the order of course before completing They DO have some big names and money backing this and will have some delivering middle of next year I believe. Very exciting stuff!