Better Batteries for Electric Vehicles

Anthony Fontanelle
February 5, 2007

Hybrid vehicles are now either being developed or already in the lineup of several car manufacturers. This revolution is brought to American shores by Japanese car manufacturers like Toyota and Honda. The Toyota Prius has become a favorite for the American buyers who are concerned with the conservation of the environment as well as the ever increasing prices of gasoline.

The success of Japanese car manufacturers has challenged different car manufacturers to develop their own hybrid-electric vehicles - or in the case of Volvo, a vehicle that runs on an alternative fuel. Different designs and concepts have surfaced in the race to produce energy efficient vehicles. These include plug-in hybrid-electric vehicles, and electric vehicles.

The past two years has seen the development of vehicles that not only depends on its engine for power but also on electric motors. What an electric motor needs do is to provide power for the car in a long span of time. It should be a good power storage box or a battery.

This is where Lithium Technology Corporation steps in. The company provides rechargeable batteries for any conceivable use. And the company is moving forward to help the automotive industry in providing quality batteries that can be used on electric cars whether to a fully electric vehicle or a hybrid-electric vehicle. The batteries being offered by the company are lithium ion ones which stores the same amount of energy to that of a metal-hydride battery but weigh less.

The company has shown what their batteries can do by teaming up with Innosys Engineering to convert a mass produced car with a gasoline engine to an electric car. The team started out with a four-seater Daihatsu Cuore and converted it to be run from the power stored by lithium-ion batteries and a three-phase asynchronous electric motor. The battery used to power the vehicle has a capacity of 250 kWh and can power the car to a range of approximately 180-200 kilometers depending on driving conditions. The car can reach speeds of up to 100 kilometer per hour. The performance of the converted electric car is at par to that of the previously announced Chevrolet Volt from General Motors that will be produced and sold to the public by 2010.

The availability of such technology is a great boost to the efforts of car manufacturers to produce cars that will be less dependent on fossil fuels. The only problem being encountered is the cost of production of such batteries and the convenience for the drivers especially the concern about recharging the battery. But with collaborations on the part of Lithium Technology Corporation and the car industry could mean a development of ways to bring down the cost of production of such components. Partnerships between car manufacturers and the global provider of large format rechargeable power solutions could mean that, in the near future, majority of the cars in our roads will be energy efficient and produce less or no emissions at all.

The batteries being produced by Lithium Technology Corporation can be recharged by an engine as in the case of hybrid-electric vehicles. They can also be charged via a standard AC electrical socket for plug-in hybrid-electric vehicles. The company has developed a range of high quality batteries like the brake components that can be found at Active Brakes Direct. These batteries are produced with electronic controls or battery management systems that harnesses the battery’s full potential.

Aside from batteries that can be used by electric cars, the Lithium Technology Corporation also produces batteries for other technological gizmos like laptop computers and the likes.

Source: Amazines.com