Posted on 05/30/2007 2:07:06 PM PDT by Rick_Michael
AeroVironment (AV) (NASDAQ:AVAV), a leader in unmanned aircraft systems and efficient electric energy systems, today announced that it performed a fast charge demonstration of a lithium chemistry electric vehicle battery pack for representatives of the California Air Resources Board (CARB). The 35kWh (kilowatt-hour) battery pack, developed by Altair Nanotechnologies, (NASDAQ: ALTI) is designed for use in the Phoenix Motorcar Sport Utility Truck. This battery pack is designed to allow the truck to travel more than 100 miles on a single charge. The test, conducted by engineers at AV’s Monrovia, California Energy Technology Center, was a milestone in battery fast charging, demonstrating the capability of fully charging the pack in less than ten minutes......
“Our PosiCharge® fast charge technology has demonstrated itself to be reliable for the daily operation of thousands of heavily used, low voltage electric industrial vehicles throughout North America. Our ability to fast charge high voltage battery packs used in consumer electric vehicles safely and in such a short period of time will help to extend the useful range of these vehicles greatly, eliminating a significant objection to their use in everyday applications.”
When I grow up, i want to work for Aerovironment.
Yeah, it’s unique name.
A little long for a fill-up, but not too bad.
wow...that’s almost unbelieveable numbers....the maximum speeds seems incredibly high, and 350 miles per charge...?
Well, one to watch. What’s the price? Expensive?
Coming to a Starbucks near you. :)
Plug ‘er up and have a cup of joe while you wait...not a bad time at all.
Get me a frosty cold soda pop and a free map while they whisk broom the deck and empty the ashtrays.
I’d imagine with price decreases, they could separate the cells and give people a smaller time frame for charges w/option of longer distances.
We’ll see, though. I’m just looking at anything that will work and defund the middle east.
I'm thinking that this rapid recharge will end up significantly reducing the effective life of the battery.
That’s 210,000 watts for 10 minutes with 100% charging efficiency - which is very unlikely... Or 875 Amps at 240 Volts... That’ll take another larger battery pack as a charger. Nobodies home or normal business is going to be able to supply that kind of short term demand directly. Typical modern homes have a 200 Amp panel.
ha...yeah, I’m sure the energy companies the coffee companies will be loving this. Although I suppose many parking lots will probably get into the charging industry. Just ask for a small margin, and think of the dough.
They couldn’t do that with petro.
Generally the faster the charge the less effecient as well. Meaning you lose more energy as heat in the process.
You might be right. I think time will tell.
As consumers and conservatives, I think it’s okay to watch these things and be a bit open to the fact they might work. That’s the only reason I post this stuff. Hoping they do work in the long-run, because we can’t depend on our enemies...
I would assume that stations would exist for this, and the options of longer charges would be optional.
The assumption.
"Boss, I've got some good news and some bad news. The good news is that we developed a battery capable of being fully charged in less than ten minutes."
"The bad news is it requires a substation-sized power supply operating at 14,700 volts and 600 amps. We're still working on the plug design."
No mention either on just how expensive this battery pack will be to replace.
A little long for a fill-up, but not too bad.
They probably limit the charge rate a bit to reduce the peak current requirements during charging.
If you're pumping 35 KWhr of energy into the battery pack in ten minutes, you'd need to supply 210 KW to the charger for that duration (plus the losses due to any ineffeciency in the charging circuit of course). I presume that they're using multi-phase power since even single-phase 240V would need 875 amps even with a 100% efficient charger.
maybe a capacitor with the power stored and ready to discharge?
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