How Hybrids Work
Owning a Hybrid Car
Famous People and Their Hybrids
The Toyota Prius
The Future of Hybrids
Lithium Batteries in hybrids
Honda Hybrids
The First Hybrid Car
Are they Worth it?
What is a Hybrid?
Alternative Fuel Cars
Saturn Hybrid Car
BMW Hybrid Car
Lexus Hybrid Car
Hybrid Cars For Sale
2007 Hybrid Car Lineup
Comparing 2007 Hybrid Car Models
Diesel Hybrid Cars
Ford Hybrid Car
Diesel or Hybrid?
Hybrids Need Less Maintenance
Water-Gas Hybrid Cars
Buying Discount Hybrid Cars - 50% off or more!
Harvest The Sun | Solar Energy
On The Hook | Fishing Articles
Partners,
Links And Resources
Privacy Policy
Scroll down for the latest news on Hybrid Cars
Lithium Batteries, the Way Forward for Hybrid Cars
by Scott HarkerThe thing that makes a car a hybrid car is its use of dual technology. At the moment, almost all hybrid
cars use a combination of a gas or diesel engine and an electric motor. The energy for the electric motors is
generated from the hybrid car's gas or diesel engine and stored in the batteries. There is however a slight
difficulty with this system: The battery. The batteries that are commonly used in hybrid cars are still very
similar to the standard car batteries that have been used for a great many years.
This capacity shortfall has, in the past, been made up by simply using larger amounts of batteries. More batteries equal more power available. However this solution has its own set of problems. The power demands of the hybrid car's electric motor meant that a large number of batteries were needed and this meant increased weight and cost.
The extra weight of the batteries meant more load had to be pulled by the car's motor (whether gas or electric) and this led to increased fuel consumption, either to directly gas power the car or to provide electricity for the motor. This, in part, defeats the object of using the electric motor, which was to cut fuel costs. Additionally, large amounts of batteries are expensive to buy and, given the limited longevity of most batteries, to replace. And this adds to both the initial price and the ongoing cost of maintaining the vehicle.
The main hope for improving this situation for hybrid cars lies with lithium batteries. These are the same batteries that are currently used to power laptops and cameras. Lithium batteries provide a much more concentrated, and therefore smaller, way of storing energy as electricity. Developed to their full potential, they could provide a long term solution to the problem of providing sufficient electric power to hybrid cars.
The problem with lithium batteries is one of size. Making the battery big enough is the challenge. Large lithium batteries are needed to store enough energy to power hybrid cars without having to revert to the gas engine while driving in town. Now small lithium batteries are very efficient, when manufactured to a certain capacity. But if this capacity is increased, they are subject to a condition called thermal run off. This can cause larger batteries to overheat and in some instances they can actually catch fire.
The culprit here is cobalt, a metal used in the manufacture of lithium batteries. Subaru, Nissan, Mitsubishi and Toyota, probably the leading manufactured of hybrid cars, are all working on solutions to this. The most promising solution seems to be replacing the cobalt with phosphate - this produces a much safer and more reliable battery. There is some power loss when phosphate replaces the cobalt, but the batteries should still be a long way ahead of conventional batteries now used in hybrid cars.
With these advances in battery technology, the hybrid cars of the future seem set to be even more efficient. The promise is greater power storage available at a lower cost. And with more reliable and smaller batteries being used, costs both in the way of retail prices and running costs should decrease, The saving in both fuel and emissions that have always been the goal of hybrid cars manufacturers, appear to be improving.