| Batteries for high-end vehicles represent future opportunities for retailer and workshops
OK, one reason for writing a story that starts with the description of the new lithium-ion battery now available in some Porsche models is that we get to run a picture of a Porsche, a feature no automotive-focus magazine should be without. Otherwise, it becomes a bit like a magazine about bikinis illustrated with nothing but Venn diagrams.
However, the "real" reason is that what Porsche does today has a way of becoming relevant to everyone tomorrow. In a way, the advent of these new batteries is both good news and bad news for the automotive battery industry. It’s good news because these batteries will — eventually — offer some great advantages to car drivers, which means a fantastic aftermarket opportunity for retailers and car mechanic workshops alike. There are also some very attractive aspects to these batteries for performance-oriented car modifiers.
It’s actually bad news because it looks like these developments have led to the collapse of a number of companies dedicated to the further development of the “traditional” lead-acid battery. Some of these technologies were very promising, and could have reached the market this year. It’s unlikely that lithium-ion batteries will take another couple of years to become inexpensive and widely available. So now we have one of these uncomfortable technology gaps to get through, still using very old tech, while waiting for the new tech to come along.
Porsche advances
To begin with, let’s take a good look at exactly what Porsche is offering, as well as its advantages and disadvantages.
Porsche’s main reason for offering this battery is that it weighs far less than the standard lead-acid battery. The lithium-ion (LI) battery weights just six kilos, which is 10 kilos less than the standard battery. Not a big difference in the average family sedan, but those of us who have been involved with performance cars know how much you can sweat to get rid of 10 kilos in a car — especially 10 kilos right in the nose of the car. So that’s a great advantage.
The battery has the same width and length as the standard lead-acid battery, but is 70mm shorter. It seems likely that this size and shape is not really required, though it’s convenient for the Porsche implementation, for reasons that will become clear later. So another advantage for manufacturers will be the ability to house the battery in a more confined space, something especially important in the micro-car category.
Porsche cites a number of other advantages as well. The standard lead-acid battery has a capacity of around 60 amp-hours (Ah), while the LI battery has only 18Ah. The reason this still works fine is that lead-acid batteries typically make on 30% of their capacity available, while LI batteries provide access to the total capacity at all times.
What’s more, the LI battery will deliver its full charge on starting up a car, independent of the actual charge level of the battery. In practical terms that means drivers will need to utter far fewer of those encouraging swear words we all know so well as we listen to the engine of our daily driver barely crank over one cold morning after we’ve let the car sit for two weeks because we were away on holiday. (This feature alone will endear the LI technology to child-raising experts and English schoolteachers everywhere.)
The LI battery also charges much more swiftly than conventional lead-acid batteries, which means it will drain less power overall during its operation. Further, the LI battery can sustain many more discharge-recharge cycles than current batteries.
The not-so-good news
Of course, anything which offers this number of advantages must have considerable disadvantages, or else we'd all be using it already. The first is price. Porsche is selling the battery for 2,000 euros ex-tax. Even given the Porsche mark-up factor, it's unlikely that the technology will become affordable anytime soon.
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The second most significant drawback is the reason why the Porsche battery is the same size as the existing lead-acid battery, and why the battery is designed only to "supplement" that original battery: the LI battery doesn't work in temperatures below freezing, i.e., zero degrees Celsius. This is due to the effect of low temperatures on electrolyte conductivity, especially under high loads. So during the winter months, the Porsche owner needs to replace the LI battery with the lead-acid battery. Somehow I don't think that will catch on with your average Holden owner.
The third problem is that LI batteries have a limited use-life. An unused lead-acid battery will not degrade significantly, but an LI battery degrades continuously as it grows older. Porsche have not provided an estimated total life for their battery.
Failure of alternatives
It seems likely it will be around another two years before this technology overcomes some of its obstacles and achieves a reasonable price. For example, lithium-ion batteries can operate at temperatures as low as -20 degrees Celsius, and more massively scaled production of batteries will tend to lower costs. One factor driving scale in production will no doubt be the use of lithium-ion batteries to power fully electric and hybrid cars, such as the Chevrolet (and hopefully Holden) Volt.
The difficulty the future potential lithium-ion batteries presents is that it makes it tough for new developments in lead-acid batteries to get the funding they need. The failure of Firefly Energy, a US Corporation set up to build a better lead-acid battery, is a result of investors deciding lead-acid will simply not be able to compete with lithium-ion over the next decade. The company filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy (which is complete dissolution of the corporation) in early 2010.
The story of Firefly is quite interesting. It has its origins in the US maker of earthmoving equipment, Caterpillar. According to Mil Ovan, former senior vice president of Firefly, Caterpillar materials scientist Kurt Kelly came up the technology.
"Caterpillar, which makes heavy earth moving equipment, found that their vehicles were plagued with battery failures. Batteries had to work in environments of extreme hot and cold temperatures, tremendous vibrations, and long periods when the batteries weren’t used, and current lead acid technology wasn’t always up to the task. Caterpillar, which spends between seven hundred and nine hundred million dollars a year on R&D, turned to Kurt Kelly. He was asked to build a better battery.
"Kurt, who had never worked with batteries before, started by taking batteries apart and found that the lead plates in these batteries were failing often due to corrosion on the positive plate and sulfation on the negative plate. Kurt was walking down the hallway one day and saw a group of his co-workers examining some graphite foam that they were investigating for use in radiators. A light bulb went off in his head – he could make that graphite foam work in a grid. This became the base of the firefly battery. It allowed an increase in surface area while reducing weight and the amount of lead needed for the battery. In other words, much higher energy density. The increased area also means the batteries will except and disperse power faster than traditional lead acid batteries. Caterpillar established Firefly to further develop and market these new batteries."
While Firefly was mainly concerned with producing batteries for electric/hybrid cars, the transfer of this technology to car batteries (similar to its initial usage for earthmoving equipment) would have seen lighter, more reliable batteries developed.
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