



I. Expert Panel -- How to Make Batteries Safer







On the other hand, replacing batteries also isn't cheap.

II. Battery Fires Hit Boeing, GM, Hard




Boeing 787 production line [Image Source: Boeing]



Chevrolet Volt [Source: TECHVEHI]


III. Soft Demand Tempts Some to Cut Corners




Battery product
[Image Source: ANL]


Many companies have gone out of business.


Sources: NTSB, Reuters

Comments     Threshold


RE: Manufacturing
By Motoman on 4/12/2013 6:47:07 PM , Rating: 3
I don't think anybody's "ignoring" anything.

The problem is trying to make a battery pack provide the highest performance within the smallest volume of area. If you wanted "perfect" batteries that you could guarantee 100% that they would never fail, they'd probably be twice the size and half the power. If you wanted maximum power and density, all else be damned, you could probably make the batteries be even smaller and provide even more performance - but they'd blow up all the time.

These manufacturers have to dance a delicate dance. I don't know what the actual physical problems are with the battery tech, but I imagine them running into something analagous to CPU foundries with the problem of electron migration. The smaller your processes get, the more electron migration happens. At some point, the electron migration with completely invalidate the CPU entirely. What can you do about it? Mmmm...change the laws of physics?

RE: Manufacturing
By Shig on 4/13/2013 3:47:28 PM , Rating: 2
Tesla Motors and SpaceX are both using a battery technology that the other guys are not. They should probably give Elon Musk a call because his power-train is years ahead of the others.

It's pretty obvious now that there are battery designs that work and those that do not. Redesign your frickin batteries if they're having problems.

RE: Manufacturing
By maugrimtr on 4/15/2013 8:39:16 AM , Rating: 2
This should be where the free market kicks in and corrects the imbalance. Which it slowly is. Tesla are performing extremely well while competing EVs have suffered lost sales. That seems to be recovering now that the initial fire scare is over. Fisker is, quite rightly, the obvious loser so far. Given the market growth in EVs, I'm getting worried about the proposed 10k tax credit thing. The current 7.5k has done its job - expanding it doesn't seem necessary.

RE: Manufacturing
By Shig on 4/15/2013 1:39:53 PM , Rating: 2
I don't think we should eliminate the tax credit until a mass market EV comes out. We're still 3-4 years away at the earliest.

