[ausev] Fwd: EV

[Christopher Robison]

On Fri, 2007-06-22 at 12:03 -0500, Alisa Evelyn wrote:
>  
> 
> I haven’t built that solar home yet.  I am looking at land and plan to
> do it in the fairly near future.  I will probably need an ev that has
> a 75 mile range because I like the San Marcos and Wimberley area which
> would make my commute about 30 miles one way.

Is there a way you could charge your car in town during the day?  This
would make the project much less expensive to do.


> Just how much more expensive are lithium batteries than the lead-base?

Lead-acid batteries will run you somewhere between $1k and $3k depending
on what type you get and what kind of performance you want.

A Valence lithium pack would probably run you at least $15-17k. Talk to
Marc Kohler at Valence if you're interested in pursuing it.  As it turns
out, it may actually be less expensive over time than lead-acid, as the
lithiums should last a lot longer.  Bear in mind that these are not
high-power batteries, but they're the only real off-the-shelf option
right now since they have a battery management system built in. If you
use these, you'll probably want to have a very high-voltage pack (e.g.
use a high voltage Zilla controller, or an AC system from MetricMind).

As a bonus, the lithium pack will make your car lighter, so problems
with improving brakes and suspension mostly go away.

>   Aren’t lithium batteries combustible?  How much space would each
> type of battery take up in order to get the desired range?

Traditional lithium-ion batteries are combustible; Valence and the more
modern lithiums will not burn. In destructive testing they emit smoke,
but don't actually catch fire.


-- 
Christopher Robison
chris at ohmbre.org
http://ohmbre.org          <-- 1999 Isuzu Hombre + Z2K + Warp13!