"Panasonic have announced the development of a new Li-ion battery design that increases the capacity for a standard 18650 size battery increases from 2.9 Ah to 3.6 Ah. The batteries will also incorporate a heat resistance layer to prevent batteries from overheating as a result of a short-circuit." Interesting since Panasonic/Matsushita are developing the LiIon batteries for the next Prius. If the announced batteries are 280 Wh/kg as promised, a 50 mile range could be achieved with a pack weighing just 45 kg. http://www.dailytech.com/article.aspx?newsid=5681
Pure coincidence I'm sure..... 50mile PHEV who'd want something like that? Where's my dealer's phone number.....
Yea, I saw that news a week ago and didn't think much of it. 18650 cells are mainly used in the laptop so it is gear toward the consumer electronics. Prius battery pack should be prismatic. I can't imagine Toyota going back to the cylinder shape. The question came in my mind is how big can PEVE make per prismatic cell? For current Prius, PEVE were able to achieve 6.5 Ah for prismatic cell while AA NiMH cells are reaching 2.8 Ah. So we should expect 2 to 3 times larger in capacity and Wh/kg should also go up as well. On another topic, Toyota also has Manganese Li-ion tech available to use. Will they be able to apply this advancement to Mn based Li-ion cell? Manganese Li-ion cells on the market today (as seen in V28 Milwaukee Power Tools) have 3.0 Ah using the same 18650 size. Durability seems great since Milwaukee increased their warranty from 2 years to 5 years. I can't wait to see Manganese Li-ion and nano phosphate Li-ion (A123) cells appear in laptops and hybrids. Dennis
