First and foremost, in terms of Nissan, four times more EV range equals 250 miles. This according to Mitsuhiko Yamashita, Nissan's executive VP of R&D. That's slightly more distance than the all-new Toyota Land Cruiser can cover with a single tank of gas. Nissan's first-generation lithium ion packs are good for just 75 miles. The second-gen batteries will arrive in that most magical of years (2010) to propel an unspecified vehicle a bit over 100 miles. Third-gen lithiums will show-up right when the Mayan calendar ends (2012), and propel a car 185 miles on a charge. As AutoblogGreen's Dom Yoney points out, it's best not to compare these (hypothetical) numbers to the Tesla Roadster's (hypothetical) numbers. Apparently there's a metric called "watt hours per kilogram" involved, but my brain is too small and lizard-like to comprehend. Nissan lithium ion battery production will begin in earnest next year at 13k units before ramping-up to a 65k units. Eventually.
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Wh/kg is an energy density figure for the battery. In effect, is Nissan going to make the battery bigger or better?
Toyota Land Rover?
Did I miss a product announcement?
Landcrusher :
Toyota Land Rover?
Did I miss a product announcement?
OOPS! Shows it doesn’t pay to proofread at 6 AM. Fixed.
I want that Tama. Cute.
Keep in mind that range back than was at probably 20-30mph. At that speed, Nissan’s 76 mile EV could probably go close to 200 miles.
Do you think it is possible that all the manufacturers could get together and come up with standard battery configurations? That way we might be able to upgrade when newer batteries are available. And–just maybe–the country could develop a system of battery swapping … pull into the gas station and swap your battery for a fresh one in 1 minute instead of waiting 20 minutes to quick-charge.
Looking at that Tama, I can see where the Cube got some DNA…
Sunnyvale: A darn good point about standardization, but I doubt anything but a govt. mandate would make it happen this early in Hybrid-slash-EV development.
Of course, if the US government were behind it, the battery would probably be required to look like a giant “D” cell.
Standardization will necessarily shake out due to market forces at some point. Most recently look at the battles between laser disc and dvd, blu ray and hddvd, vhs and beta, etc. Or to go back many years, cars themselves.
Bring on the nukes, windmills, solar panels and electric cars. I’ve had enough of energy insecurity in the US.
That thing is so ugly, it’s cute. Sort of breadvan meets kiddie car meets bug-eye Sprite. I’ll bet it had a really low center of gravity.
That Tama EV looks like just the thing for my local errands. Cool!
“watt hours per kilogram”
The amount of energy stored per unit of weight by the battery expressed in metric units.
Would “BTUs per pound” be easier to stomach?
I don’t have high hopes for battery pack standardization. Laptops never got there nor did cell phones.
John:
True enough about standardization for cell phones and laptops…
though, one could argue that vehicle batter packs are [can be] different…