A feisty ride in the Chevy Volt

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"But the emperor is naked"

Or maybe the title should be:
"Don't confuse me with the facts, my mind is made up!"
The media is just full of wonderfull stories about electric cars
and how they will save Michigan, the auto industry, possibiliy the whole world,
and so forth.

Now maybe there is something brand new and wonderfull about the Li-Ion batteries that all of this hype is based on but I really don't think so.

Lets review how these batteries work in laptop computers.
The typical laptop battery has a lifetime of about three years if used an average of two hours a day.
When half way through this three-year period the usefull output time has generally
dropped to one half of that of a new battery.

The most popular configuration of these batteries contain six or nine Li-Ion cells per battery.
The typical replacement cost is about $150.00 or if you can find the cells ( very hard to get )
and if you can find someone to replace them ( nontrival ) the cells are about $8.00 each.

I have never found a legimate supplier that would warranty their replacement batteries for more
than one year, and even then there were usually stings attached and/or it was a pro-rated warrentry.

Now the Tesla, the dream car of the media hypsters, reportedly uses over SIX THOUSAND!!!! of these cells.
Simple arithmatic says that the replacement cost for the batteries would be about fifty thousand dollars.
Ya right.

Posted by: oldfart111   Posted on: 08/14/09 You are currently: a Guest | Members login | Terms of Use

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