Battery technology overtaking itself on road to recovery, writes motoring editor Alastair Sloane
In the middle of all the talk about electric vehicles comes a small, portable battery that says more about the future packaging of such power sources than the role it has been specifically designed for: an emergency unit that kick-starts a flat battery.
It's called Porta-Jump, an alkaline battery about the size of three packs of cigarettes. There is nothing new about the electrochemical technology - long-life alkaline-manganese dioxide batteries first appeared in the United States 40 years ago.
What's new, say the Porta-Jump people, is the way the battery is packaged with circuitry that plugs into a car's cigarette lighter. It is patented in the US and made in China.
It can be used on all four-, six-, and eight-cylinder petrol and diesel engines with 12-volt electrical systems. It will also work on boats with a 12-volt battery and alternator, says Porta-Jump.
The Herald hasn't tried it out, but Porta-Jump says US Government contractor Sigma Test Labs gave it the thumbs up after testing it on old and new vehicles.
It comes with step-by-step directions, like making sure the headlights are switched off. In a nutshell, plug it into the car's cigarette lighter, wait five to 10 minutes for Porta-Jump to transfer its stored-up power to the flat battery, then start the car.
Leave it plugged in and it recharges in 30-40 minutes. After that, say the Porta-Jump people, put it back in the glovebox. They say it is maintenance-free and has a five-year shelf life.
It's about to go on sale in New Zealand, priced from around $50. Porta-Jump executive Grant Leach says the company has orders for "thousands" from retail outlets.
The development of more powerful and efficient batteries is crucial to the future of electric cars. Mitsubishi's iMiEV - the plug-in version of the petrol-powered iCar, on trial in Wellington - uses 88 lithium-ion units packaged in modules under the floor.
Fully charged, they give the car a range of 160km. A full charge takes about seven hours at a cost of between $3 and $4. A fast-charge unit will do the job in under 60 minutes, but the unit itself costs many thousands of dollars.
The iMiEV will be built in Japan from August, initially priced at around $60,000. Mitsubishi will build 2000 cars and 176,000 batteries this year and ramp up production in 2010 to 20,000 cars and 1,760,000 batteries. It has signed a deal with the French PSA Peugeot/Citroen group to use the iMiEV powertrain.
That's for its first-generation lithium-ion technology - second-generation designs, say industry analysts, will recharge much quicker, perhaps using the technology developed by Massachussetts Institute of Technology Professor Gerbrand Ceder.
Ceder and his team of engineers built a new type of lithium-ion battery they say can be recharged in just 10 to 20 seconds.
Gram for gram, lithium-ion batteries store plenty of energy but are slow to charge, because they can only charge when the lithium-ions are precisely aligned with microscopic tunnels in the battery material.
Ceder's team came up with a design that allows the lithium-ions to move quickly around the outside of the material, like a ring road around a city. When an ion travelling along this road reaches a tunnel, it is instantly diverted into it.
Further tests showed that unlike other battery materials, the new material does not significantly degrade when repeatedly charged and recharged.
"The ability to charge and discharge batteries in a matter of seconds rather than hours may open up new technological applications and induce lifestyle changes," says Ceder.
Not least of which could be practical electric car batteries that don't require an overnight connection to power up again.
Because the material involved is not new - the researchers have simply changed the way they make it - Ceder believes the work could make it into the marketplace within three years.
Nissan says it will use new lithium-ion technology in its plug-in Denki Cube, an all-electric development with electronics giant NEC Corporation.
The car - denki is Japanese for "electric" - has been around for the past couple of years and spearheads a wider initiative by Nissan to move towards a zero-emission motoring future, called the Nissan Green Programme 2010.
The Renault-Nissan Alliance will mass-market electric vehicles in Israel and Denmark in 2011. Moreover, Nissan recently announced plans to sell a purpose-built electric vehicle in the US and Japan by the end of 2010 before rolling out sales to Europe by 2012.
British automotive designer Gordon Murray is working on a eco-friendly micro car that he says vacuum cleaner experts could build.
It could also be adapted to run on plug-in power. The model, called the T25, is due for launch in 2012.
The man behind the legendary McLaren F1 supercar has revealed who might be selling it.
"It may be large industrial concerns that haven't yet been associated with cars - like Sony, Virgin or Dyson," he said.
"It would be companies wanting to diversify, rather than needing to, and ones that don't want the huge capital investment required."
Negotiations to buy a licence to make the T25 - and the right to badge the car - are ongoing. But Murray has already had 16 approaches from 12 different countries.
His vision is for a new way of building cars called iStream, and uses 40 per cent less energy. There's no need for a steel press, and a combination of materials is employed for strength, safety and weight reduction.
"This city car is more radical than the Smart or Toyota iQ," said Murray. "It's smaller, lighter, easier to build and cheaper to run."
He has predicted a "micro-revolution" in car design, adding: "Until a year ago, the marketing guys decided who would drive what car. But the financial crisis has meant people are now choosing for themselves."
