Old Battery Type (NiMH) Gets an Energy Boost [View all]

[OKIsItJustMe]

http://www.technologyreview.com/news/535251/old-battery-type-gets-an-energy-boost/

[font face=Serif][font size=5]Old Battery Type Gets an Energy Boost[/font]

[font size=4]The chemical company BASF says the basic type of battery used now in hybrids could be improved tenfold, leading to cheaper electric cars.[/font]

By Kevin Bullis on February 19, 2015

[font size=3]Almost every automaker interested in producing electric cars is betting on improvements to lithium-ion batteries to make the cars cheaper and extend their driving range.

But scientists at BASF are exploring the possibilities of an older type of battery, nickel-metal hydride, now used in hybrids. They recently doubled the amount of energy that these batteries can store, making them comparable to lithium-ion batteries. And they have a plan to improve them far more, potentially increasing energy storage by an additional eight times.

The BASF researchers are aiming for batteries that cost $146 per kilowatt-hour, roughly half as much as the cheapest lithium-ion electric car batteries.

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But nickel-metal hydride batteries have some significant advantages in cars, which is why they’ve been used in hybrids for decades. They’re durable, and inherently safer than lithium-ion batteries, partly because they don’t use flammable liquids, as lithium-ion batteries do—they don’t catch fire if they overheat or are overcharged so their cooling systems and electronic controls are far simpler. Safety systems can add about 25 percent to the cost of a lithium-ion battery pack, and increase their weight by 50 percent, based on data from the industry group U.S. Advanced Battery Consortium.

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