Electric Echo Blog

Mmm, it’s been a looong time since my last post but not due to a lack of things to write about, more to do with suffering from a hefty case of Bloggers fatigue.

So what’s been happening over the last year (yikes!)? Well we’ve had a 1kW solar panel array put on our roof - kindly paid for (mostly) by the federal government, converted my toxic two-stroke Victa lawnmower to a thermonuclear turf trimmer and written some Flash software for reading electricity meters with a web cam. More on those down the track but the really big news is that I’m back on the Lithium! Well I’m not on the full dosage yet but I have spent some serious cash for the trial phase on some LiFePO4 (Lithium Ferrous(iron) Phosphate) that I’m quite excited about.

For some time now I’ve been dealing with the very patient Armin Pauza who has set himself up as Lithium Batteries Australia and who is the national distributor for BMI. BMI are a Taiwanese company that manufacture battery cells and battery packs using LiFePO4 electrode material  manufactured in Germany by Süd-Chemie AG under license from Phostech Canada. So these guys are the real deal. BMI also assemble the cells into battery packs of various configurations which all have built in Voltage Management Systems and come with a three-year warranty.

So far I’ve only done one simple test which was to pull out most of the very heavy lead batteries from under the bonnet of the e-e and replace them with a SINGLE (144 Volt, 10 Amphere hour) Lithium battery and drive it around the block a few times!

There is a lot to tell about these batteries so I have dedicated some web space to them on my electric-echo website here;

www.electric-echo.com/lifepo4/lifepo4_bmi_overview.shtml 

I’ve received quite a few email over the last few months asking about one Chinese battery manufacturer who appears to be offering the backyard EVer the ultimate battery solution; Lithium on a budget. Thunder Sky have been making Lithium batteries for years but unfortunately it is a name that sends shivers down many an EVer’s spine. Basically this web site explains why.

A few years ago Thunder Sky (TS) were offering large format Li-Ion cells which they promoted as being suitable for electric vehicles. As far as I know - several individuals, at least one university (QUT) and a couple of groups (UK and USA) bought batches of various sizes and quantities of these cells. I also was very tempted to part with many thousands of dollars to be part of the action. Fortunately for me, I only went as far as requesting a price list from them and that was enough to encourage me to try something less expensive first.

Victor Tikhonov from Metric Mind Engineering organised the USA group buy of TS batteries. Victor is no dunce, he is an electrical engineer and sells advanced AC EV motors and controllers that are to drool over, he sources other EV components from Europe which just ooze quality (read $$$!) and he recently designed the ultimate in EV instrumentation - EVision. (As a matter of fact Victor’s conversion web site was the inspiration for me to do my own conversion and to document the process on the web.) Anyhow, if you were to ask Victor what he thinks of TS now he wouldn’t be inspiring. TS simply ripped him and many others off with poor quality, grossly under performing cells.

OK so now TS are making large format LiFePO4 cells and initial independent testing shows that these cells are performing as specified but the BIG question is how long for??

I notice that for their 160Ah cells they specify a maximum constant discharge current of 480A (3C) yet a “standard” discharge current of 48A (0.3C), presumably to get >2000 cycles (80% DOD). 48A is barely enough to maintain my EV at 40km/h on the flat. So how many cycles do you get when you need much more than 48A for normal driving? I don’t know and as far as I know neither does anybody else.

Be warned; if you purchase TS LiFePO4 batteries you are participating in an expensive experiment, a one year warranty is no protection for poor cycle life.

Ok, so the doco Who Killed The Electric Car may have stung GM into full blown counter-spin mode and hence the knee-jerk announcement of the Chevy Volt, AKA “the electric car that runs on press releases” but I’ve got to admit that after viewing this interview with GM’s Bob Lutz my scepticism is waning. Which can only mean that my excitement is building!

Yes, I am now fully convinced that the Chevy Volt will be built and that it just may be the catalyst that triggers our departure from the Fossil Fuel Age and finally propels the human species into the into the Lithium Age. If GM are telling us that they have 150 engineers working on the Volt and another 400 engineers working on the “flexible” drive trains of the near future then I ain’t gunna fight it any more, I believe ‘em.

My Hero; David Vieau, President & CEO, A123 Systems.

Of course, it isn’t GM who’re the real catalyst, it’s the Apple Computers of the battery industry, A123 systems, that are really changing the world and to GM’s credit, they know it. If you want to get a good idea where we are at the moment with Lithium batteries and EV’s and you have a spare half hour then I can highly recommend this “Lithium-Ion Live” video (also from Autoline Detroit), in particular, the Q & A video at the end is very interesting.

Now, back to the garage to do some more cycle testing on MY A123 batteries…

(Thanks to Steven Lough for posting these links on the EV Discussion List.)

Whether your an occasional lurker of the EVlist archives or a frequent visitor of the Green Car Congress, you find out pretty quickly about the latest (public) movements in battery technology.

Without any doubt, lithium technology is forging ahead, things are moving really fast. Early last year A123 Systems signed a deal with the large battery manufacturing company China Bak Battery to make lithium battery packs primarily for DeWalt (Black and Decker) power tools. These Nano-Phophate Li-ion batteries have some very promising spec’s (mainly the number of recharge cycles) AND they’re cheaper to make AND mass production is making them even cheaper.

Then a few weeks ago there was a discussion over at GCC on the economics of these batteries and how they’re not far off a tipping point of affordability. Believe it or not the proposition was put that if a new 36V DeWalt battery pack reached the price of $40 on eBay then lithium would be unstoppable and could compete with fossil fuels as an economic energy storage medium! So what’s the current eBay price? Only about $130. I don’t know about you but I find this very exciting…

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