Better Batteries for Electric Vehicles

Hybrid vehicles are now either being developed orused to power the vehicle has a capacity of 250 kWh
already in the lineup of several car manufacturers. Thisand can power the car to a range of approximately
revolution is brought to American shores by Japanese180-200 kilometers depending on driving conditions. The
car manufacturers like Toyota and Honda. The Toyotacar can reach speeds of up to 100 kilometer per hour.
Prius has become a favorite for the American buyersThe performance of the converted electric car is at
who are concerned with the conservation of thepar to that of the previously announced Chevrolet Volt
environment as well as the ever increasing prices offrom General Motors that will be produced and sold to
gasoline.the public by 2010.
The success of Japanese car manufacturers hasThe availability of such technology is a great boost to
challenged different car manufacturers to develop theirthe efforts of car manufacturers to produce cars that
own hybrid-electric vehicles - or in the case of Volvo,will be less dependent on fossil fuels. The only problem
a vehicle that runs on an alternative fuel. Differentbeing encountered is the cost of production of such
designs and concepts have surfaced in the race tobatteries and the convenience for the drivers
produce energy efficient vehicles. These include plug-inespecially the concern about recharging the battery.
hybrid-electric vehicles, and electric vehicles.But with collaborations on the part of Lithium
The past two years has seen the development ofTechnology Corporation and the car industry could
vehicles that not only depends on its engine for powermean a development of ways to bring down the cost
but also on electric motors. What an electric motorof production of such components. Partnerships
needs do is to provide power for the car in a longbetween car manufacturers and the global provider of
span of time. It should be a good power storage boxlarge format rechargeable power solutions could mean
or a battery.that, in the near future, majority of the cars in our
This is where Lithium Technology Corporation steps in.roads will be energy efficient and produce less or no
The company provides rechargeable batteries for anyemissions at all.
conceivable use. And the company is moving forwardThe batteries being produced by Lithium Technology
to help the automotive industry in providing qualityCorporation can be recharged by an engine as in the
batteries that can be used on electric cars whether tocase of hybrid-electric vehicles. They can also be
a fully electric vehicle or a hybrid-electric vehicle. Thecharged via a standard AC electrical socket for plug-in
batteries being offered by the company are lithium ionhybrid-electric vehicles. The company has developed a
ones which stores the same amount of energy to thatrange of high quality batteries like the brake
of a metal-hydride battery but weigh less.components that can be found at Active Brakes
The company has shown what their batteries can doDirect. These batteries are produced with electronic
by teaming up with Innosys Engineering to convert acontrols or battery management systems that
mass produced car with a gasoline engine to anharnesses the battery's full potential.
electric car. The team started out with a four-seaterAside from batteries that can be used by electric cars,
Daihatsu Cuore and converted it to be run from thethe Lithium Technology Corporation also produces
power stored by lithium-ion batteries and abatteries for other technological gizmos like laptop
three-phase asynchronous electric motor. The batterycomputers and the likes.