Battery developments-lead to lithium

The electric-vehicle designer, in selecting a battery, has to interpret battery weight, procurement cost, and charge/discharge cycle-life into the vehicle´s predicted life-cycle cost. The greatest unknown component in the analysis is the battery´s useful life, which varies with the depth of discharge between rechargings. Acquiring real-time cycle-life data can take years of testing. Even accelerated life tests take months. In the meantime, new batteries set performance records. For example, on May 14, 1996 Selectra´s “Sunrise” electric car, powered with nickel-metal hydride batteries, traveled 375 miles on one battery charge. Thus vehicle developers are pressed to evaluate new batteries on the basis of limited test data. We review lessons learned from previous battery developments