RAV4-EV Battery story - part one (1)

RAV4-EV uses EV-95 batteries, as you've heard. What are these marvelous batteries? Are they invisible, immaterial? Can they be for real?

Here's the story of how they came to be, and why they work in the Toyota RAV4-EV. And why GM never was much interested in using them for an EV -- because, it seems, they work. Something GM is afraid of.

Category:

Autos & Vehicles

Tags:

• RAV4-EV
• EV1
• Who Killed the Electric car
• GM
• Chevron
• Lutz
• Wagoner

[capitalflush]

Is this the battery that got Panasonic sued?

[liveoilfree]

Yes, this is the one that Toyota apparently was compelled to agree never to produce again, the "improved" version that Chevron sued them over.

[eerfmi]

The fight will be hard, the EV is in total contradiction with our current monetary system. The internal combustion car "system" we have is design to generate profit AND taxes: Fuel cost, life span, maintenance...is all part of the system and is designed in that way. The EV is the opposite, it's the real freedom. Will the gov. let you escape from taxes from fuel, CO2 emission & maintenance by having an EV and charging it at home with solar panels? I think not... They (WE) are too much in debt.

[terrorist420x]

I want those EV95s soooo bad. Not as much power as I'd like, but double the range of conventional lead acid per unit weight...

The original Delco PbA batteries in the EV1 sucked ass. Optimas could have done the job just fine, but Panasonic worked well too. Ovonic NiMH gave 150 mph range, and John Wayland lead fotting it at 80 mph got 130 miles range! Pussyfooting it in a Tour De Sol, someone got 225 miles range out of the NiMH EV1.

[toyotaprius79]

So these NiMH batteries are better than the Li-Ion batteries Nissan and Renault invested €5bl in.

[ElectricCarFan]

When your pack eventually does die, could you refurbish it? Kind of like replacing the "Core" in a Lead Acid SLI battery? Or does Nickel-Metal Hydride not work like that?

[BatusaiJack]

some nice batteries.

[pfun41]

where can you get these batteries?

[johnson1095]

i thought that nickle-metal hydryd were less efficiant then Lithium batteries? Also, i thought that these batteris overheated and weren't laminated like the ones we see in "Better Place" cars?!

[sirdavidbowie]

Thanks so much live oil free.....the planet earth thanks you! Wouldn't it be great if on a nominated day we all didn't drive combustion cars in protest to the rich oil and car mongrels of the world.

[eerfmi]

No, this is a 12V pack (1.2V cell x 10)... He said the car run on 288V so it's part of a 24 Packs of 12V batteries = 288Volts...

[hephaestus88]

Is that the whole battery? I thought it would be much bigger.

If that is the whole battery, you could design batteries in a way that you can take them out at night and charge them at home, which is the only way of operating an EV if you don't have a garage.