Webchat w/Mark Perry today @ 1:00PM CDT

[SanDust]

To be honest, I find it neat that the battery in the ActiveE has the exact same voltage as the Leaf. Who knew? It appears that a lot of what we learned about Leaf's pack design applies to theirs as well. And it's a similar story with the Volt.

The basic chemistry is similar but the Koreans have incorporated some aspects of NMC and I'm not sure Nissan has. One interesting aspect of this is that both BMW and GM think the chemistry requires a thermal management system. Nissan has decided to forego that. Nissan may be right but the lack of a TMS is one reason I never seriously considered buying. Leasing just gives you downside cover.

GM is also pushing LG Chem towards the Argonne "layered-layered" technology used by Envia. Envia is touting 400 wh/kg, using this technology on the cathode and some other changes in the electrolyte and the anode, but that's probably exaggerated. GM has said the improvement attributable to using inert layers is more in the range of "high teens", which is a big deal but not the huge increase that's been bandied about.

Since the cathode tends to set the tone for the battery, we might see more divergence in the future as some move to the Argonne technology and others don't.

 

[DaveinOlyWA]

odds on getting the "2011 SV" back? i am betting yes for 2014 but it will be the Versa EV

 

[Nubo]

Kind of disappointed about the battery warranty explanation. As I understood him, they are guaranteeing the "power", but not the capacity. So, as long as you get some power level ( xx kW), the battery is "good", regardless of how many kWH? Not a good plan for long-term customer acquisition. Heck, I'm enthusiastic but hedged my bets with a lease, partly due to this lack of warranty. To make matters worse, he blithely speaks about the "70%-80% capacity after 10 years". *sigh*. Misleading AT BEST if they are not willing to guarantee it.

Can you imagine Sears doing that with their Die-Hard?

"Well, she's putting out 300CCA so you're good to go"
"Yeah, but that only lasts half a second"
"We guarantee power, not capacity"
"It doesn't start my car. It's dead."
"No, No. It's 'pining' for the Fjords".