On Sun, 01 Sep 2002 12:04:15 -0400, Seth <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: >EV folks will pull over and bypass a smoking 90Ah NiMH cell on the side >of the road on the drive to work, but John/Jane Doe the consumer won't. >I would love for NiMH to work, and I think it is close, but it has been >close for a while and it just isn't "here" yet.
The NiMH battery in my Prius is warranteed for 8 years or 100,000 miles. The Honday Civic Hybrid also has a similar warranty. I don't think they would provide this warranty if they hadn't done extensive testing. The battery is kept in a narrow range of discharge and charge and that could account for the long life. I have seen reports of a taxi in London going 125,000 miles on the same battery. I don't recall reading about many replacements of the packs in the Prius. It would be interesting to hear from some of the Californian's who have both the EV-1 and the Honda plus EV. I recall a Honda owner who had 60,000 miles on his pack and said there was only a slight decrease in range. I recall a few problems with the NiMH in the EV-1 but they say that auto was not designed properly for the NiMH. The reports I have seen on the Panasonic lead-acid batteries are a drastic drop off in range after 3 years. The USABC has stated that the long term goal is for the Lithium battery but it hasn't gotten there yet. Evidently the risk of fire was too much for the auto companies to put them in the hybrids yet. There is also the issue of life, cost, and safety as of today with the Lithium bettery.
