More about batteries than competitors...

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debbievh

Member
Joined
Aug 4, 2009
Messages
12
I wasn't sure where to post this since it is about Lithium Ion batteries, but it's info specifically from the company that is manufacturing the battery packs for the GM Volt...

Anyways, Lithium Ion batteries are expected to come down in the future, but how fast or how much they come down is still unknown.

Apparently li-ion batteries cost somewhere around $350 per kwh...

Here's some interesting thoughts about batteries, taken from the GM-Volt forum:
First, we have to keep adding factors for in a vehicle application, when you look at it as a 10 year life and you have this 25% degradation, then your denominator goes down by 25%.

Secondly, if you’re not using all of the capacity, just the combination of those two factors will effectively cut the denominator in half in terms of usable capacity at the end of life as opposed to nominal capacity at the beginning of life. And that will raise the price in dollars per kwh, if you do it in terms of usable capacity at the end of life, by a factor of two

Third, if you add all of the other stuff you have to put in the pack, and it depends on what you consider inside the pack as opposed to outside, because that depends on vehicle architecture. So that’s why it gets very fuzzy and inconclusive to talk about gross level numbers unless you know specifically on how they are being defined.

The other perspective is that lithium ion in the 17 years since it was first introduced has come down by a factor of 14 in terms of dollars per kwh and it’s not done. It will continue to come down not at the same rate, but I fully expect over the next 5 to 10 years for the cost to get better by anywhere from a factor of 2 to 4 in terms of dollars per kwh as compared to where we are now.

One of the things that has nothing to do with the cell or any technology itself, is at the end of life if the battery still has 70 to 75% of its power and energy left. Why throw it away when you can recapture it? If you could capture that residual value by effectively leasing the battery and putting it to work again in a utility application, at 50% of its initial value, it will cut the effective cost by a factor of two.
 
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