Solid State Batteries Coming Soon

[Treedbear]

One problem with 100% EV is how to heat the cabin in cold weather. I'm thinking that would be a huge drain on the batteries. It wouldn't be a problem with hybrids. They could recapture some of the otherwise wasted heat from the engine. Although if the generator is on a detachable trailer that might not work so well. So in regions where the weather can get cold for a significant length of time a hybrid might be the best choice for now. Of course having a compact, dedicated, propane or diesel-oil burning heater would be another solution. So a 100% EV with an auxiliary heater and an optional trailer for long trips seems like a winning combination. As soon as Black and Decker announces theirs I'm buying!

I would like to see that setup just for the sheer spectacle! Extra points if you have to keep the window open for the diesel-power indoor heater's exhaust pipe.

Maybe it could employ a catalytic heater placed in the cargo area and circulating water through radiators in the cabin.

 

[Loren Pechtel]

I'll be curious to see how small this tech can go. Will SS replace the current crop even at the scale of D, C, AA etc. household batteries? I would love some smaller, lighter batteries for some of my applications, but not necessarily if they don't have at least the equivalent number of charge cycles.

Lithium runs at a higher voltage than household batteries. There are a few dual-power devices (I've got a little flashlight that runs on a AA or a same-size lithium-ion which will make it substantially brighter) but in most cases it's one or the other. It's also possible to have a device that runs on 3 standard batteries or one lithium-ion--an almost perfect voltage match. I recently bought a headlamp that works that way but I've seen very few devices of that sort.

 

[ZiprHead]

One problem with 100% EV is how to heat the cabin in cold weather. I'm thinking that would be a huge drain on the batteries. It wouldn't be a problem with hybrids. They could recapture some of the otherwise wasted heat from the engine. Although if the generator is on a detachable trailer that might not work so well. So in regions where the weather can get cold for a significant length of time a hybrid might be the best choice for now. Of course having a compact, dedicated, propane or diesel-oil burning heater would be another solution. So a 100% EV with an auxiliary heater and an optional trailer for long trips seems like a winning combination. As soon as Black and Decker announces theirs I'm buying!

I would like to see that setup just for the sheer spectacle! Extra points if you have to keep the window open for the diesel-power indoor heater's exhaust pipe.

Reminds me of the gasoline powered heaters in VW Beetles.

 

[Worldtraveller]

I'll be curious to see how small this tech can go. Will SS replace the current crop even at the scale of D, C, AA etc. household batteries? I would love some smaller, lighter batteries for some of my applications, but not necessarily if they don't have at least the equivalent number of charge cycles.

Lithium runs at a higher voltage than household batteries. There are a few dual-power devices (I've got a little flashlight that runs on a AA or a same-size lithium-ion which will make it substantially brighter) but in most cases it's one or the other. It's also possible to have a device that runs on 3 standard batteries or one lithium-ion--an almost perfect voltage match. I recently bought a headlamp that works that way but I've seen very few devices of that sort.

I'm specifically thinking of the current crop of e-bikes and am less concerned about cars (although the cars are obviously a much larger market).

I have a 12v electrical system on my velomobile that runs off a battery pack (3.4 Ah, I think) that's just an 8 pack of rechargeable C batteries (NiMH, 4 inline x 2 parallel). Looking at velomobiel.nl, it looks like my older battery pack is already obsolete compared to the newer, smaller (and more Ah) system.

 

[Loren Pechtel]

I'll be curious to see how small this tech can go. Will SS replace the current crop even at the scale of D, C, AA etc. household batteries? I would love some smaller, lighter batteries for some of my applications, but not necessarily if they don't have at least the equivalent number of charge cycles.

Lithium runs at a higher voltage than household batteries. There are a few dual-power devices (I've got a little flashlight that runs on a AA or a same-size lithium-ion which will make it substantially brighter) but in most cases it's one or the other. It's also possible to have a device that runs on 3 standard batteries or one lithium-ion--an almost perfect voltage match. I recently bought a headlamp that works that way but I've seen very few devices of that sort.

I'm specifically thinking of the current crop of e-bikes and am less concerned about cars (although the cars are obviously a much larger market).

I have a 12v electrical system on my velomobile that runs off a battery pack (3.4 Ah, I think) that's just an 8 pack of rechargeable C batteries (NiMH, 4 inline x 2 parallel). Looking at velomobiel.nl, it looks like my older battery pack is already obsolete compared to the newer, smaller (and more Ah) system.

Your wiring is wrong--that's 8 inline. 4 NiMH inline x 2 parallel would be a 6v system. You could get 12V (actually, more like 14v) out of 4 Li-Ion x 2 parallel but that needs a reasonably sophisticated charge controller to keep from blowing it up.

 

[T.G.G. Moogly]

I'll be curious to see how small this tech can go. Will SS replace the current crop even at the scale of D, C, AA etc. household batteries? I would love some smaller, lighter batteries for some of my applications, but not necessarily if they don't have at least the equivalent number of charge cycles.

Lithium runs at a higher voltage than household batteries. There are a few dual-power devices (I've got a little flashlight that runs on a AA or a same-size lithium-ion which will make it substantially brighter) but in most cases it's one or the other. It's also possible to have a device that runs on 3 standard batteries or one lithium-ion--an almost perfect voltage match. I recently bought a headlamp that works that way but I've seen very few devices of that sort.

Could you chew that a bit finer? So if I buy a lithium battery as opposed to your standard battery I shouldn't be using them in the same device, like a flashlight or headlamp?

 

[Loren Pechtel]

I'll be curious to see how small this tech can go. Will SS replace the current crop even at the scale of D, C, AA etc. household batteries? I would love some smaller, lighter batteries for some of my applications, but not necessarily if they don't have at least the equivalent number of charge cycles.

Lithium runs at a higher voltage than household batteries. There are a few dual-power devices (I've got a little flashlight that runs on a AA or a same-size lithium-ion which will make it substantially brighter) but in most cases it's one or the other. It's also possible to have a device that runs on 3 standard batteries or one lithium-ion--an almost perfect voltage match. I recently bought a headlamp that works that way but I've seen very few devices of that sort.

Could you chew that a bit finer? So if I buy a lithium battery as opposed to your standard battery I shouldn't be using them in the same device, like a flashlight or headlamp?

The lithium that you buy as a replacement for a normal battery is a different chemistry, it works fine. I'm talking about the rechargeable chemistry, that runs around 3.7 volts compared to the 1.5 or less of an ordinary battery.