OT: Battery Technology Update

A 70KW battery would cost about 7 bucks to charge in a perfect world, figuring 10 cents a KW. Given that the charger will not be 100% efficient, it would cost even more.

Still a bargain though.

Michael Johnson wrote in news:JvqdnTJz07zkAkvanZ2dnUVZ snipped-for-privacy@giganews.com:

The real breakthrough IMO is the 2nd link:

The other thing was that they can be recharged for the equivalent of around 500,000 miles of driving. That is more durable than most car engines and the original battery packs should last the life of the automobile.

Michael Johnson wrote in news:5PWdnQMhnvR7LUvanZ2dnUVZ snipped-for-privacy@giganews.com:

If Yi Cui hooks up with a battery manufacturer, that company might be a very good investment.

Correct my arithmetic if I am wrong.

A 70 KWatt hour battery.

Recharge it in 10 minutes requires 420 KWatts for 10 minutes. Where the heck are you gonna find a 420 KWatt circuit. At 120 volts thats about 3500 amps. Not gonna do that at home. Lets try a gas station. Five cars wanna 'fill up' simultaneously. Station needs 2 MWatts of power coming in. Sounds like a LOT of infrastructure has to be built.

My guess is that initially these cars will be commuter vehicles and will be slow charged overnight. Actually, they probably can be topped off every night since most daily commutes are well under 120 miles and definitely under 250 miles. The beauty of it is the gas station can have an electric plug-in next to the pump.

Pretty realistic, but I would like a nuke at every station with a big long heavy duty power strip.

Yikes. Having a high-current source next to a gas pump should cause a few good fires -- just wait until Joe SixPack pulls out the cable when it is delivering a KAmp or two at 120V. And, when it is pumping E85 which can't be put out with water, the fire department will have a nice surprise.

I'm sure the socket connection will be engineered to hell and back.

Which is the sort of thing that worries me at times.