Nissan Leaf EV to Have Ultra-Cheap Battery Pack

fast company ^ | May 5, 2010 | Ariel Schwartz

[mylife]

Nissan Leaf EV to Have Ultra-Cheap Battery Pack BY Ariel Schwartz Wed May 5, 2010

Over 8,200 people have made online reservations in the past month for the upcoming Nissan Leaf EV, and for good reason. The $33,000 vehicle, set to be released later this year, is the first affordable all-electric vehicle from a major auto manufacturer. It's an early adopter's dream. Now Nissan has revealed the secret behind the Leaf's reasonable price: an ultra-cheap battery pack.

While most lithium-ion batteries cost $1000 to $1,200 per kWh, the Leaf's 24 kWh battery pack costs just $9,000 to produce, or $375 per kWh, according to a report in the Times of London. In comparison, the Chevy Volt battery pack reportedly costs $600 per kWh, and even the U.S. Advanced Battery Consortium only has a goal of producing batteries at $400 per kWh by mid-decade.

So what gives? If the report is correct, Nissan could revolutionize the EV battery industry--assuming it will share its technology with other automakers. We still have our doubts, though, that this too-good-to-be-true pricing scheme is real. Nissan hasn't yet responded to our request for comment.

[mylife]

So I hear that the fed is giving a 7.8K tax credit to make these things affordable.

Thats right, YOU get to pay 7.8K for every smug liberal ahole that buys one of these.

When did we vote on that?

[pnh102]

How much are we going to charge (pardon the pun) idiots who drive these for vehicle removal when their glorified Power Wheels dies in the middle of the road?

[mylife]

[mylife]

Good question.

[mylife]

Only 33K! Woo Woo!

[cavador]

Cheap SLA batteries?

[laker_dad]

Will they be like the battery packs for computer laptops, and have a couple of cells go bad making the entire pack useless?

[norwaypinesavage]

"Leaf's 24 kWh battery pack costs just $9,000"

A gallon of gasoline contains 40 kWh of energy. 24 kWh of gasoline costs less than two bucks.

[DTogo]

The $33,000 vehicle, set to be released later this year, is the first affordable all-electric vehicle from a major auto manufacturer.

$33K = affordable??

[Nervous Tick]

>> A gallon of gasoline contains 40 kWh of energy. 24 kWh of gasoline costs less than two bucks.

Yeah, but once you burn up the gas, it’s gone. You can charge the 24kWh battery pack up again and again and again! (With electricity from an oil or coal fired electric power plant. ;-) )

[Cicero]

Gosh, an ultra-cheap battery that only costs $9,000? Wow!

And more KW-sucking greenies attached to the power grid with one hand, while they vote to close down coal, oil, and nuclear power plants with the other.

[babygene]

“A gallon of gasoline contains 40 kWh of energy.”

By my figures, this is wrong. The right answer is 28 kwh. Plus, the engine is only 40% efficient so that makes it effectively 11.176 kWh of useful energy.

[FrankR]

It looks like an inverted bathtub.

I went to Lowes to buy a battery for my riding lawn mower, it was like $25 but they gave me a $5 credit for the old battery, or the "core".

So I get the new battery, go to the checkout line, and they charge me only $20, with an EXTRA $5 CHARGE TO RECYCLE THE "CORE"...this was about 2 years ago.

So, I have vowed to just never take them another core, I'd rather just drop it off at the local recycling center and buy the battery outright...but, it won't be from Lowes.

A lesson lies therein for the coming "electric car" craze...those batteries are going to be E X P E N S I V E...especially at first, THEN you're going to have a hell of a time "disposing of them". You've got to buy them, and then pay to "throw them out".

All I know about batteries is, they go dead a lot faster than an internal engine goes dead.

I hope they only sell them to the fringe, lunatic environuts.

[mylife]

thats what I said!

[norwaypinesavage]

Wikipedia, if you can believe them, says 36.6 kWh per US gallon. (Sorry, I did the calculation of 40 in my head.) The useful efficiency of electricity is not 100% either. You have wires, chargers, dischargers, motors, inverters, transmission systems, regeneration for braking, etc. It's certainly higher than an IC powertrain, but no where near 100%.

[babygene]

http://hypertextbook.com/facts/2003/ArthurGolnik.shtml. It’s in kilograms so you have to convert...

motor efficiencies are over 90%. Chargers in the high 90s.

[WHBates]

LOL, just what I was thinking. Of course when I buy a car I take care of it and drive it until it just won’t run anymore or I give/sell it to a needy family member.

Still even a new car for me is a good used car. LOL

If I can’t pay cash I don’t buy it.

[VOA]

bump

[VOA]

“
How much are we going to charge (pardon the pun) idiots who drive these
for vehicle removal when their glorified Power Wheels dies in the
middle of the road?
“

I suspect one of my barely-literate relatives will clean up
when it comes time to put one of these dead cars (and their battery) into
a land-fill.
(or make $$$ off the recycling scheme that surely must have already
been constructed by Obama and Co.).

[Moltke]

...and then there’s the question where the energy to heat the darn thing in winter comes from. I figure you’d need a couple of kWs at least. So you’ll be driving slower or not go very far...