"Mark Borgerson" wrote in message
g...
In article ,
says...
In article ,
says...
The heck with this battery water stuff. Go Lithium-ion!
http://www.genasun.com/genasunbattery.shtml
Only 5 grand a pop!
Gordon

Which raises a question about battery-driven cars. Those LiH batteries
don't last very long in my laptop computer. How long will they last in a
car given normal neglect?


Hybrid cars are designed to keep the batteries between 70 and 100
percent charged at all times. That won't be so easy with
an all-electric car. However, they may have the system
set up to use less than the full capacity of the batteries to
prolong the life.

Even if the dial on the dashboard is set to indicate 'recharge' when the
battery falls to, say, 70%, people out on the road are going to discover
that you can go on driving for quite a while after this so the battery is
likely to go much lower than planned on many occasions.
Current advertisements suggest battery life will be about 5 years but I
suspect this is optimistic for reason above.
When a large and complex battery needs replacing, say after 5 years, the way
auto spares are priced will ensure that it will be more sensible to buy a
new car and start afresh rather than spending as much as a 5 year old car is
worth in order to renew its battery. And do not forget there is sure to be
an 'environmental' charge to safely dispose of the toxic substances in the
old battery.