I used to, in the 70's, work with battery powered mining equipment. You could tell when the battery was dying. The equipment slowed down and it was time to charge it up. A ruined lead acid cell appears like an open circuit.
I have found out, through the school of hard knocks, that lithium ion does not work that way. It will respond like a fresh battery during a time when the battery is getting ruined. A ruined cell appears like a short circuit. The sad part about this is that the cell voltage only goes low under full load. That's just when you need the battery the most. You put it under full load to get out of the way. I would not want my a car to brick on an entry ramp to an expressway. A nice picture of the MINI is below. The ICE has improved in efficiency so much that the hi-bread may be dead. The roll over bars pop up during a roll over. I hope never to test this option. http://www.angelfire.com/scifi2/zpt/images/mini.jpg Frank Z
