Battery Technology

[HenryTo]

Nissan to (finally) spend funds on battery technology and hybrids - starting with the following joint venture with NEC:
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Nissan-NEC to make lithium-ion batteries
Sunday May 18, 11:09 pm ET
By Yuri Kageyama, AP Business Writer
Nissan-NEC joint venture to invest US$115 million to mass produce lithium-ion batteries

TOKYO (AP) -- Nissan's joint venture with electronics maker NEC Corp. will invest 12 billion yen (US$115 million; euro74 million) to start mass-producing lithium-ion batteries -- a technology widely viewed as key for next-generation green cars.

Nissan Motor Co. Executive Vice President Carlos Tavares told reporters Monday the Japanese automaker wants to be a global leader in "zero-emission vehicles."

Lithium-ion batteries are now more common in laptops and other gadgets, although all the world's automakers are working on applying the batteries for their cars.

Nissan's joint venture called Automotive Energy Supply Corp. plans to make advanced lithium-ion batteries for electric vehicles, hybrids and fuel cells -- all important technology to reduce pollution as well as global warming gases.

"Nissan firmly believes the ultimate solution for sustainable mobility lies in zero-emission vehicles," Tavares said at a Tokyo hotel.

A plant for the batteries, set to be running by 2009, will have annual production capacity of 65,000, and starting capacity of 13,000, Nissan said. The investment will cover three years, it said.

Tokyo-based Nissan has been sometimes criticized as falling behind Japanese rivals such as Toyota Motor Corp. and Honda Motor Co. in ecological technology.

Toyota has a big hit with its gas-electric hybrid, Prius, which has already crossed the 1 million sales mark worldwide. Honda also has its own hybrid and fuel-cell models.

Nissan has said it will introduce an electric vehicle in the U.S. and Japan, as well as its own hybrid, in 2010.

By 2012, Nissan plans to mass-market electric vehicles to consumers globally. It is also planning to make available on a wide scale zero-emission vehicles in Israel and Denmark in 2011.

[rffrydr]

Better in every way...the dirt bike!

http://www.latimes.com/classified/automotive/highway1/la-fi-throttle28-2008jul28,0,7214815.story
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Today is the Tomorrow you worried about Yesterday!

[rffrydr]

General Motors has partnered with Segway Inc scroll down
Segway on Board! New Dual EV Concept Vehicle Shown
General Motors has partnered with Segway Inc. to roll out a demonstrator that combines the Saturn Flextreme concept car built on GM's global E-flex electric drive architecture (debuted by Opel) with two onboard Segway PT personal mobility devices charged by the car's E-flex battery system. The Flextreme's FlexLoad cargo bay has been configured with ramps to accommodate loading and unloading of the Segways, which themselves have undergone compatibility redesign that includes optimization of tire diameter and track width and refitting with retractable handlebars to fit comfortably in the cargo area. Once fully charged (8 to 10 hours) by the E-flex system, the lithium-ion battery equipped Segway PTs can travel up to 24 miles at an electric power consumption rate of 0.052 kWh/mi (0.032 kWh/km).

http://www.ieahev.org/news/index.html
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Today is the Tomorrow you worried about Yesterday!

[rffrydr]

Sold Out:

http://www.schwinnbike.com/products/intbikes_detail.php?id=892
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Today is the Tomorrow you worried about Yesterday!

[rffrydr]

GM teaming with utilties for "charging infrastructure."

http://tech.slashdot.org/tech/08/07/22/1827224.shtml
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Today is the Tomorrow you worried about Yesterday!

[HenryTo]

This all-electric car comes equipped with "fast charge" technology:

http://www.dailytech.com/Lightning+Car+Company+Shows+Off+Allelectric+Lightning+GT+/article12463.htm

[pcoulter]

About 2.5kg of cobalt goes into producing every hybrid battery, and supply is limited now that the stocks from the US / soviet arms build ups have been depleted.

OMG is a good way to play this.

[HenryTo]

The lithium-ion battery "war" between the US and Japan is now heating up - as both sides try to develop the "best" technology and get it standardized.
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Japan firms to work out next-gen car battery norms
Sat Jul 19, 2008 2:08am EDT

TOKYO (Reuters) - Toyota Motor Corp (7203.T: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz), Nissan Motor Co (7201.T: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz), xxx Electric Industrial Co (6752.T: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) and other Japanese companies will work together to set up common standards for lithium-ion batteries being developed to power next-generation cars, the Nikkei business daily said on Saturday.

Under the lead of an organization affiliated with the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry, nine car and motorcycle makers, six battery makers and utility Tokyo Electric Power Co (9501.T: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) will come up with a draft of the standards covering testing and charging methods, vehicle safety and other areas.

The group aims to pitch its specifications to the International Organization for Standardization with the goal of creating a global standard for lithium-ion batteries, the paper said.

Lithium-ion batteries, commonly used in laptop computers and mobile phones today, are seen as a key component to improve the performance of pure electric vehicles and plug-in hybrid cars.

Creating a common standard would help the companies cut development costs and gain an edge over overseas rivals.

Carmakers Toyota, Nissan and Mitsubishi Motors Corp (7211.T: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) each have a joint venture to develop and produce lithium-ion batteries for car use with xxx Electric, the NEC Corp (6701.T: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) group and GS Yuasa Corp (6674.T: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz), respectively.

Major automakers, including Detroit's General Motors Corp (GM.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz), are in a tight race to bring fuel-efficient, zero-emissions electric vehicles to market as consumers increasingly shun record-high fuel prices.

GM, which is heavily promoting the upcoming Chevrolet Volt electric car, is set to announce next week a partnership with U.S. utilities to prepare for the widespread sale of plug-in electric cars, people familiar with the plans have said.

[diesel]

Volvo also has an electric car concept that looks appealing to me.

http://www.gizmag.com/go/7975/

More details on it can be found at www.volvo.com under the passenger vehicle link. They have a trial starting in 2009.

Also http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kmJTsHcZMFQ
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“I was once Snow White, but I drifted” – Mae West

[HenryTo]

Thanks for your views, DJ. And good points on the other uses of petroleum. I like your views - but at the same time, consumption by the transportation industry still makes up the majority of the demand, so any advances in battery and transportation technology would go a long way to depressing the demand and price of crude oil. By that point, some of these materials developed by newer processes to compete with petroleum-based products may have a hard time competing. That being said, if we could simply decrease the weight of our current vehicles by 30% to 40% by commercializing carbon composites/carbon nanotubes, etc., then this in itself could decrease our gasoline consumption by a couple of million barrels per day.

In other news, Nissan is now working with the Portuguese government to bring electric vehicles to the country by 2011. Subaru and Mitsubishi Motors also on schedule to bring electric vehicles to Japan by 2009:

http://www.dailytech.com/article.aspx?newsid=12324

[texfly101]

Iron Phosphate, one of GM's A123Systems developing technologies is getting a hard look because of the application of nanotechnology. It sure looks promising, along with Altairnano and its nanotech lithium titanate version. Anything that has electron flow benefits from the greater surface area that nanotech assures. I would bet that some application of this will be the way that the future cars wil be powered.
One interesting flip on the hybrids is the battery powering the car and a gas powered generator picking up the slack when needed. Getting the most from a plug in and then using gas only when needed gets past the traditional problem of zero battery power in electric cars.
I think Henry is right in the view that this problem of gas/petroleum can be resolved with technology. It sure fits Shumpeter's creative destruction schema. I had as a stumbling block all the other needs for petroleum, i.e. plastics, chemicals, etc, but have seen that they too, have been the focus of developing technologies where they are finding alternate ways to producs these materials also.
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dj

[Bob]

Bet on safety, sure they will be expensive, but they are 95% recyclable! How high will silver go when silver zinc batteries power cars?

http://www.zmp.com/pdf/ZP_WhitePaper_082207.pdf

http://www.zpowerbattery.com/about/index.htm

[diesel]

The problem with CH4 is first letter. Isnt there a kyoto protocol or something?
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“I was once Snow White, but I drifted” – Mae West

[rffrydr]

Here, it's simple:

http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?id=hydrogen-house

There's a scientist dude who uses cartridges of powdered aluminium--of all things! Yeah, they surely got off with the wrong vision on this thing.

NatGAS, my good man. And filled from home. From space you can see Nigeria is still lit up like a christmas tree flaring the stuff. And right there in Coalinga south of Santa Barbara, right next to the freeway. If it gets cold, Gazprom will get us through--It's always cold over there.

A challenge, no doubt, but there's 36 BMWs driving around LA right now.
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Today is the Tomorrow you worried about Yesterday!

[diesel]

Wheres the hydrogen going to come from though?

If we all start reforming our natural gas NATGAS will go through the roof and if we electrolyze water we are still using that inefficient grid.

Go the nanobattery I say.
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“I was once Snow White, but I drifted” – Mae West

[rffrydr]

That's the one they couldn't produce in the US. I still think owing to weight and grid ineffieciencies alternative fuels (yes, even good ol' hydrogen) has a shot.

Gazprom chief, after dismissing OPEC as irrelevant and talking up a 1000billlion market cap, talking of Alaska NG pipeline to keep up well supplied for our Honda home power system.
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Today is the Tomorrow you worried about Yesterday!