Warming to lithium-ion, Toyota charges up its battery options

Toyota City, Japan (Reuters-
Engineers at Toyota say they have tamed unstable lithium.
Ion battery technology, which can now safely pack more power without adding additional costs, gives Japanese automakers the option to enter the ever-growing full
Electric car market.
Rivals such as Tesla and Nissan are starting to adopt lithium
Nearly a decade ago, toyotai had largely backed down due to concerns about cost, size and safety. Lithium-
The ion battery may be unstable and is blamed for Samsung smartphones and smoking Dreamliner.
Let Toyota speak for lithium-
Ion will be a bright spot in the developing technology and provide the choice for the automotive manufacturers to produce for all products
The electric passenger car market it has been avoiding is more willing to put its weight behind hydrogen fuel
Battery Vehicle (FCVs ).
Toyota says its Prius Primeto-be-launched plug-
The world\'s top electric version-
Gasoline hybrids will be sold, lithium will be used-
The ion battery has enough energy to drive the car about 60 kilometers (37.
3 miles) fully charged before the gasoline engine starts.
Due to the different methods of measuring the range of electric modes of the car, the 60 km range of Prime will be listed as about 25 miles (40 miles) in the United States ). 2 kms). Many lithium-
Ion car batteries use a chemical combination of nickel, cobalt and manganese.
These store more energy and charge less time, which is considered to be more energy than other Li-
Ion technology.
However, they will still overheat and catch fire if not properly designed, manufactured and controlled.
\"Developing lithium is a difficult task.
Ion car batteries can run reliably and safely for 10 years, or more than a few hundred kilometers, \"said Koji Toyoshima, chief engineer at Prius.
\"We have battery packs with double support and triple support to make sure they fail --safe . . .
\"It\'s all about safety, safety,\" he told Reuters . \".
Toyota mainly uses more mature nickel.
The traditional Prius is widely regarded as the predecessor of the \"green\" car, but it does use some lithium-
Starting from 2009, the first plug of the ion battery
In the hybrid Prius, about the first
Electric vehicles powered by lithiumion batteries -
For example, Tesla sports car and Nissan Leaf-
Came to the mass market.
Toyota\'s confidence in the safety and stability of its batteries comes from improved control technology that can accurately monitor the temperature and status of 95 batteries in the new battery pack.
\"Our control system can even identify potential slight signs --
HiroakiTakeuchi, a senior engineer at Toyota involved in the development, said: \"The circuit in a single battery will either stop it from spreading or turn off the entire battery . \".
Cooperate with Panasonic battery supplier
This also produced Li.
Tesla\'s ion battery
Toyota has also improved the accuracy of the battery assembly to ensure that the battery is chemical free of impurities.
Even the introduction of tiny metal particles or other impurities can trigger a short period of time.
Circuit, overheating and potential explosion.
\"Our lithium environment --
\"The ion batteries produced are not very like clean rooms for making semiconductors, but very close,\" said Takeuchi . \".
Battery experts say increasingly complex systems that can track individual battery conditions are getting closer and closer --
Holding trade secrets
\"Charge status management, safety management and algorithm development are becoming one of the higher levels of proprietary internal development,\" said Eric Lasker, chief research engineer at Argonne National Laboratory, USA. S.
Department of Energy outside Chicago.
\"It\'s very internal, very strategic, and the company sees the management algorithm as a competitive advantage.
\"Toyota is also able to reduce the size of each battery, for example, by closing the distance between the anode and the cathode, where active ions move when charging and discharging.
This has doubled the battery capacity to about 8.
At 8 KW, the battery pack size is only increased by about 2-
More than 30 catties, half the weight.
Battery experts say lithium
The price of ion batteries dropped by about 60% in five years to about $145 per kWh.
Mass production makes them cheaper.
Toyota says falling battery prices have enabled it to develop more compact and efficient batteries, while adding more sophisticated controls to its battery pack.
Toyota declined to disclose more costs.
While Toyota sees FCVs as the ultimate \"green\" car, the US and China encourage automakers to make more --
Electric-battery vehicles drive alternative energy strategies.
\"Develop lithium
Ion batteries for hybrid and plug-in batteries
Ins will enable us to produce all-
Electric cars of the future, \"said toydo.
\"It makes sense to have a range of batteries suitable for different power systems.