On 9 Sep 2014 at 3:20, brucedp5 via EV wrote: > The Concept J is supposed to be powered by the Kawasaki's proprietary > GIGACELL® ... nickel-metal hydride battery composed of individual cells > that are connected in series at their cell walls, with the front and > rear surfaces becoming the positive and negative terminals, forming a > bipolar structure.
Interesting that they might use NiMH. This battery tech has largely been forgotten in the rush to lithium. However, it's proven very reliable in the old first generation Toyota RAV4-EVs. Many of them have gone well over 100,000 miles on the original battery. The problem has been the obstinate refusal of the NiMH patent holder Cobasys (originally Ovonics) to license BEV-size modules (anything over 10ah). Perhaps the Kawasaki design evades the Ovonics patents by virtue of their very different design. Or perhaps BASF, who IIRC now owns those patents, is less restrictive. Anyone know what might be going on here? I'd love to see NiMH as a viable and affordable EV alternative to lithium. OTOH the word "proprietary" is generally not a good sign in this context. PS - is what they describe here a true bipolar battery? I'm not so sure. I had the impression that in a bipolar battery the negative electrode of one cell and the positive electrode of the next one in series were THE SAME PIECE OF MATERIAL, not just two electrodes butted or welded together. Heck, if butted electrodes defined a bipolar battery, then the battery in my flashlight is bipolar, no? David Roden - Akron, Ohio, USA EVDL Administrator = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = EVDL Information: http://www.evdl.org/help/ = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = Note: mail sent to "evpost" and "etpost" addresses will not reach me. To send a private message, please obtain my email address from the webpage http://www.evdl.org/help/ . = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = _______________________________________________ UNSUBSCRIBE: http://www.evdl.org/help/index.html#usub http://lists.evdl.org/listinfo.cgi/ev-evdl.org For EV drag racing discussion, please use NEDRA (http://groups.yahoo.com/group/NEDRA)
