Batteries

13.01.2010

During the last year, there were many innovations that had crossed the path of the EVs. Almost all of the automobile companies started to develop electric vehicles or hybrids from EVs and gasoline engines. Many companies started the production of batteries for the EV industry in order to satisfy its need of energy sources. There’s no doubt that the lithium-ion polymer batteries are in first place. At the time being, according to my researches, this type of batteries is the most suitable to put into electric vehicles. And for now I’m totally dropping my first idea of putting lead batteries. There are two companies that deserve a special attention:  www.thunder-sky.com and www.a123systems.com .  Both of them are producing lithium-ion batteries, and naturally each one of these companies has its own developments and improvements that they had patented. You can even find an information that Tesla is using the A123 batteries, if you search the web. The advantage of the thunder-sky batteries is that they have big capacity on good price, but they lack the large current electricity, which is only 3C. A123systems on the other hand have less capacity for a certain price, but they have large current electricity – 30C. The conclusion is that the thunder-sky batteries are more suitable for family vehicles that don’t have any claims of having highly dynamic indications. On the website of a123systems we are informed of the new 20Ah Prismatic battery that’s on its way to the market. It has magnificent characteristics and it’s promising to bring a revolution in the EV’s world: 20Ah on 3.3 V, with max electricity of 600A and weight of 480 gr.

The mass production of this battery is expected to begin in June or July this year, and also at that time it’ll have a pretty good price.
For the moment, I stick to the idea of buying the batteries at the last minute, when everything else will be done. My observations show that any time now in this field there’s going to be a strongly dynamic boom, and if you rash with your choice and purchase, you may make a serious mistake.

Disassemble and measuring

In the past few days, I began to remove parts that I find “unneeded” for my car.

Then I tried to measure everything that I took off from the car, and that I had no intent of returning in it.

Here are the weights:

15 kg – exhaust system
1 kg – water reservoirs and tubes of the cooling system
6 kg – radiator with fan
9.5 kg – an empty tank
165 kg – a full equipped engine and gear box
Total: 196.5 kg

Soon I’m also going to take off the rear axle because I want to change it with one from VW synch. I’m also planning to put rear differential from Audi Quattro with differential lock. My idea is to make the car with entirly rear-wheel drive.
Expect pictures of their installation in the near future.