BYD may license Fe batteries to other automakers
Click above for high-res image gallery of BYD's PHEVs
BYD, the Chinese car and battery company who are now at the Detroit Auto Show with their "Dual mode" hybrids and e6 all-electric MPV (above) have made it known that they may be willing to license their inexpensive battery tech to other automakers. Indeed, they have already been fielding inquiries from Japanese, European and American firms. They say their "Fe battery," thought to be a lithium iron phosphate (LiFePO4) formulation, costs less than half of what typical lithium ion batteries cost, and are safer and longer lasting. Their downside is that they can not hold as much energy and can add greatly to the weight of an electric vehicle. The BYD e6, for example, needs 1323 lbs of "Fe battery" to achieve its 249-mile range whereas the Tesla Roadster power pack weighs in at about 900 lbs. Despite that shortcoming we think this may be a decent solution for the right sort of vehicle and expect someone might take them up on it.
Gallery: Detroit 2009: BYD F6DM and F3DM
Gallery: Beijing 2008: BYD e6
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[Source: Reuters UK]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
why not the LS2LS7? 1:12PM (1/18/2009)
As a tall 4-door, the e6 would be hard pressed to have the same range as a Tesla Roadster with 40% more battery capacity even if the batteries have the same energy density.
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jharlan 2:07PM (1/18/2009)
We need an ABG test.
gorr 2:23PM (1/18/2009)
Each and every dollar spend in batteries that are not a water battery like let's say genepax water battery is lost and is not a good invesment. So billions of dollars, trillions of words, millions of hours, 2 or 3 hopes, all that for nothing. That's a shame that i notice each day all over the world. In 1998 honda was ready with a good hydrogen battery but stupids with slow brains and empty head and dirty hands didn't catch this good offer and now 11 years laters millions of peoples having rejecting honda and genepax are investing money for nothing with a concept that a battery cannot produce his own energy. So the actual car engineers try to build a battery without energy inside because they don't want to use water. So i'll will keep my neon for a long long time but the worst is that economy, vegetation, sociaty, human corpses will dissapear sooner then when i will get my water-battery available on the market.
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nads 2:53PM (1/18/2009)
I don't know....to go from 900lbs to 1,300lbs,...and reduce costs by 50% in the process, does not seem like a bad deal at all, nor is it that huge an additional weight gain.
Who wants to bet Chrylser or Nissian gets in on this first.
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TX CHL Instructor 2:58PM (1/18/2009)
I would not mind having an EV with a 75-mile range, if it was reasonably priced. That would cover about 95% of my driving.
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Mark Kiernan 6:44PM (1/18/2009)
If it is coming from China it should be reasonably priced, I saw prices of less than 20,000 which is pretty good. The problem is crash testing, but I think that shouldn't be a big issues as it isn't as complicated as battery tech.
tom 3:12PM (1/18/2009)
Why can't we have a modular battery option?
I'd like to have to have 10 miles of all-electric, with an option to upgrade to 100 in the future.
why is that so hard?
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Herm 5:36PM (1/18/2009)
modular batteries can be done, all you do is connect the new pack in parallel with the old pack.. your range now increases. Both packs have to have the same voltage and cell technology, ie you cant mix lithium and nimh easily.
Both packs still need to be monitored by the electronics, and there should be a way to disconect the packs routinely by a relay. it is not a hard problem.
The tendency now is to have a single massive pack in a car, may be easier/safer to split it up into smaller packs.
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Herm 5:48PM (1/18/2009)
Previous articles have said the cost is under $300 per Kwh of capacity.. so the standard 40 mile pack, derated to 50% discharge is 16kwh at $4800.. 80 miles if you want to abuse the batteries. I think the cost will go even lower.
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Don 10:38PM (1/18/2009)
1323 lbs added by just the battery?
No thanks.
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!!D 10:57PM (1/18/2009)
Did you see the vehicle's gross weight on the specs sticker? 2395 Kg == 5280 lbs !!! That's over 2.5 tons... I do NOT want to be in front of that vehicle when it tries to break from highway speeds.
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wave54 11:11PM (1/19/2009)
You DO know what "gross vehicle weight" is, right? It's the weight of the empty vehicle PLUS the maximum weight for passengers and cargo.
Yes, the curb weight for this vehicle is high at about 4400 lbs. with that heavy battery pack, but that's no more than a mid-size SUV. I'm sure the engineers have included enough braking capacity.
Rafa 5:06PM (1/19/2009)
!!D
"Did you see the vehicle's gross weight on the specs sticker? 2395 Kg == 5280 lbs !!! That's over 2.5 tons... I do NOT want to be in front of that vehicle when it tries to break from highway speeds."
You're afraid of this car, but you are not afraid of the other SUV's that weigh as much ?
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Herm 12:28PM (1/21/2009)
the heavier it is the more regenerative braking you have, this is no ICE suv.. obviously not 100% efficient but it helps.
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Steve 2:32PM (1/23/2009)
There are 2 huge differences between BYD Fe batteries and Tesla batteries:
Tesla: 50% remaining battery capacity after 50,000 miles. So you have to change batteries for $20,000 every 5 years.
BYD Fe: 80% remaining battery capacity after 360,000 miles. So you would never ever have a need at all to change Fe batteries. And the batteries cost less than $6,000. Even if Fe batteries got burnt in a crashed car, it would never explode: it can handle way above 1,500 degrees Celsius.
BYE Fe batteries are indeed way superior to Tesla's batteries, and they are the only viable solution to pure EVs for the big mass in the next 5 to 10 years - believe it or not.
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ferk 4:54AM (2/11/2009)
Oh, the I love Chinese, they are smart and cheap, oh yeah!!
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Doug 12:47AM (5/21/2009)
Either the e6 is twice as efficient per kg of vehicle weight than any other EV, they are overstating the range (400 km rather than a more probable 190 km), or BYD has developed a battery that has a specific energy content of around 175 Wh/kg. If so it isn't a LiFePO4 battery.
Doug
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Doug 12:12AM (5/22/2009)
I was jsut wondering the numbers make more sense if the battery pack weighs 1,300 kg not lbs. If so 1/2 the curb weight is the battery pack.
Doug