Mitsubishi to sell electric car in the U.S.
Mitsubishi President Osamu Masuko said the company plans to start selling an electric car similar to the hybrid concept they showed at the 2006 Detroit Auto Show. The car is likely to be based on the next-generation Colt platform which is smaller than the Lancer platform, the smallest car Mitsubishi sells in the US market. With fuel cells still some way off in the future, according to Mitsubishi (ed.: and everyone else), and diesels unpopular in North American and Japan, they feel that electric car and possibly a hybrid variant are the way to go in the short term. Timing hasn't been announced yet, but the car is likely to be marketed in Japan first and then the US market. The car will use lithium-ion batteries for maximum energy density. Hopefully they have come up with a way to increase the maximum number of charge cycles for the battery pack, because current lithium batteries can only handle about 300-500 charge cycles before being replaced. Also, presumably, the batteries won't be sourced from Sony!
[Source: Automotive News - subscription required]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
JIM BREWER 2:18PM (12/11/2008)
ONE THING NO ONE HAS ADDRESSED YET IS WHAT ARE WE GOING TO DO WITH ALL THE GAS CARS WE HAVE NOW.CONVERSION,SCRAP,WHAT WILL BE THE THING ?SOME BODY IS GOING TO GET RICH THAT COMES UP WITH THE BEST SOLUTION.
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Sam Abuelsamid 6:08PM (12/12/2008)
That's easy, they aren't going anywhere anytime soon. Nobody is going to replace all 200 million vehicles on American roads over night. As older vehicles die they will be scrapped out and recycled just as they always have. Same thing for EVs
Jimmy 12:53PM (10/09/2006)
The biggest draw back to Li-ion is the permanent capacity loss due to age and not simply charge cycles. After a year it is likely that the Li-ion batteries will only hold 80% of their original capacity. The NiMH batteries currently in use don't have this problem.
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Richard 1:05PM (10/09/2006)
Jimmy, how do the lithium polymer batteries compare with regards to capacity loss?
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Jimmy 4:14PM (10/09/2006)
Richard, I don't have specific data on lithium ion polymer vs conventional (solvent) lithium ion. However, the two batteries electrochemistry is basically the same and capacity loss due to age is caused by oxidation within the cell.
For what it's worth, Apple's 1st and 2nd generation iPods used Lithium-Polymer batteries.. and they had a fairly large number of angry customers due to poor battery life.
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Scott Eaton 9:23PM (10/10/2006)
As an aside (since it was mentioned), here's a table with battery types for each iPod model:
http://ipodbatteryfaq.com/ipodbatteryandpower.html
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Scott Eaton 9:28PM (10/10/2006)
Coem to think of it, I don't really think it was the -Polymer aspect of the batteries that was the problem. I think it was just a secondary issue (design, manufacture, dunno).
According to wikipedia's entry, the -Polymer batteries are safer and still in successful use in several consumer electronics including some i have (PSP, MacBook, etc.)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lithium_polymer
OH, and that car design is HOT in a weird way. I like it!
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