battery life

Chelsea Sexton, founder of the Lightning Rod Foundation, a co-founder of Plug In America, and star of Who Killed the Electric Car, recently sat down with Andy Palmer, executive vice president of Nissan, to discuss the Nissan Leaf and its battery degradation crisis in Arizona. You can watch the ...

The plot thickens on the health and durability of the Nissan Leaf's battery pack. A class action lawsuit has been filed in federal court by a Leaf owner accusing Nissan of covering up the electric vehicle's range reality. California plaintiff Humberto Klee says Nissan is advertising the Leaf as ...

Ouch. There's now some independent analysis that says the Nissan Leaf wilts in the heat. Led by Leaf owner Tony Williams, a group of Nissan EV owners tested a dozen Leafs in Phoenix last weekend. The group put the Leafs on a pre-planned route at pre-determined speeds to measure their fully ...

As a company that sees plug-in hybrids as the future, it makes sense that Volkswagen would want to advance the technology needed for these cars. What's less expected is how VW wants to do this: through a new annual "Science Award for Electrochemistry," offered jointly with BASF SE, that any ...

Repeated use of a DC Fast Charge, "Level 3" quick-charge unit negatively affects the long-term performance of the battery pack that powers most plug-in vehicles, right? Wrong, according to Mitsubishi. Officials over at Mitsubishi believe that even daily use of a quick-charge unit won't have ...

Is battery longevity a legitimate concern? You bet it is. With plug-in vehicles, their unproven battery technology could be the cause for constant worry among individuals, first among them the owners. Sure, lengthy warranties are attached to most plug-ins, but are there simple techniques to ...

Hundreds, not thousands. That's the word from Nissan's chief vice-president of global marketing communications, Simon Sproule, who believes that after five years of repeated use, the battery pack in the Nissan Leaf may require some maintenance, but not complete replacement. Nissan states that ...

If you get enough like-minded individuals together, they can accomplish quite a lot. Take, for instance, a group of fans on the MyNissanLeaf forum who wanted a more accurate way to tell how much further they could drive their Nissan Leaf. They accomplished this goal by coding up a device that ...

You may not be able to buy a Fisker Karma just yet, but thanks to MIT you may learn a little bit more about the plug-in's battery life. Back in January 2010, it was announced that the Karma would be using batteries supplied by A123 Systems, which just happens to be an MIT spinoff company. The MIT ...

GM-Volt.com found an interesting patent application from General Motors (filed a year ago) that entertains the possibility of refurbishing worn out lithium-ion battery packs such as the one in the Chevrolet Volt. While the Volt's 8-year, 100,000 mile battery warranty will cover a lot of people ...

In a lab at Ohio State University (OSU), scientists, engineers and experts in the chemical field are studying the effects that time has on lithium-ion batteries. The goal: to discover the "hows" and "whys" behind battery aging. Specifically, why do lithium-ion batteries degrade from repeated use ...

Safety is a common concern as the automotive industry moves towards electric vehicles. In particular, focusing on the potential risks involved with li-ion battery technology is crucial as automakers move away from NiMH packs and towards li-ion storage. Fire is a recurring problem with li-ion ...

Electric vehicle batteries don't last forever. Sure, they can be charged up, drained and charged again, but at some point they just won't get the job done anymore. Automakers estimate that advanced batteries will provide about ten years of serviceable life in vehicles. So what happens to that ...

Some automakers are toying with the idea of leasing the batteries of their electric vehicles (EVs) when they sell their wares on the market (Think, for example). Others, like Nissan, have decided that this arrangement is too complicated and just ...

A group of researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology has been focusing their efforts on advanced technology batteries for electric vehicles. Their work on lithium-air batteries has led to several recent discoveries, and gives "riding on air" a whole new meaning. Lithium-air ...

General Motors realizes that it will need to get the cost of its Voltec drivetrain down in order to stay competitive and allow it to more easily be integrated into other, differently-sized vehicles. Since the battery is the most expensive part of the system, that's where the focus on cost-cutting ...

Research study says EVs have a tough road ahead Those of us who love smooth, silent, energy-efficient volt-powered vehicles would love to see them capture a major share of new-car sales ASAP. Only one thing stands in the way: The battery. Lithium-ion batteries appear to be on track to power ...

Aside from the issue of limited range, the biggest problem with electric vehicles in the near term is expected to be cost. Mitsubishi has already announced that the starting price for its diminutive iMiEV in Japan will be approximately ...

Why does (ok, ok, might) the Chevy Volt cost around $40,000? The main reason the car will cost so much more than a comparable sedan is the 16 kWh lithium ion battery pack running down the floor of the cabin. The exact price of that pack is still ...