Lithium-Ion Batteries for Electric Cars | Smart Car Technology

Electric cars have been around because the 19th century, so they’re not exactly space-age technologies. But the recent surge in electric vehicles springs, at least in component, from NASA know-how. (HP laptop battery) A carmaker, Hybrid Technologies Inc., signed a deal with NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in 2006 to assist test and enhance the lithium-ion battery systems in its vehicles. With NASA’s contributions, the business, now recognized as Li-Ion Motors, was able to deploy New York City’s initial all-electric taxi and develop a broad range of other lithium-powered vehicles, including converted PT Cruisers and chanel purse Mini Coopers. Lengthy history of battery expertise With its long history of IBM thinkpad battery development and testing, NASA was a natural partner for an aspiring electric-vehicle maker. Many of the space agency’s craft rely on battery power. The moon buggy, for example, was powered around the lunar surface in the early 1970s by non-rechargeable silver-zinc potassium hydroxide batteries. The Mars Chance rover — which landed on the Red Planet in January 2004 and is still going strong — is primarily solar-powered, but rechargeable lithium-ion batteries store energy for use at night. The batteries that power rovers, satellites and other spacecraft should be dependable and robust. They need to be able to withstand the jolts and shudders of a launch, and they should be able to work in tough conditions — in extreme heat or cold and high radiation, for example. dre headphones Their premature failure could end the mission, because replacement or repair would be either hard (and expensive) or basically impossible. Testing electric cars Li-Ion Motors, which is based in Las Vegas, converts cars, trucks and other vehicles to run on rechargeable lithium-ion batteries. In March 2006, the organization entered into a Space Act Agreement with the Kennedy Space Center. Under the deal, the company supplied a fleet of electric cars — such as PT Cruisers, smart cars and high-performance all-terrain vehicles — for KSC engineers to use and test. The aim was to assist figure out the utility of lithium-powered coach tote vehicles, and to that end the NASA engineers studied the cars’ advanced battery-management program. NASA’s efforts helped boost the vehicles, and the firm soon was selling them. Lithium-powered Mini Coopers and smart cars were obtainable in the 2007 Sam’s Club catalog.(Sony laptop battery) These days, electric vehicles are becomingincreasingly widespread on highways around the world, and many carmakers have gotten into the game. This surge is due in huge part to improvements in lithium-ion batteries that permit cars to go farther on a single charge. Meanwhile, NASA engineers are working to boost lithium-ion systems for spacesuits, to make the batteries less prone to “thermal runaway” — when batteries heat up significantly and, in some instances, explode. These improvements are likely to find their way to the road at some point, too, making next-generation electric vehicles a lot more robust and a lot more reliable.