Battery Electric Cars

    Battery electric cars have held a fascination with people for a very long time. Vehicle manufacturers have taken note as well and are about to release several all electric vehicles in the next years time

    In addition, many drivers have taken matters into their own hands and are converting their current cars to a battery electric car themselves.

    This process is fairly easy to do and will allow them to simply plug the vehicle in for a charge and avoid the gas pumps altogether.

•   The biggest challenge in the development of battery electric cars has been the batteries themselves.

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•   Most of the current battery technology hasn’t changed much in decades and even though these automotive batteries do a fine job of starting our cars, they were never designed for the many cycles of deep charge and discharge that these battery electric cars require.

•   It was clear from the beginning that more powerful and lighter batteries were needed to make these battery electric cars a reality.

New Battery Technology  ⇒

    In recent years there have been several new technologies applied to the chemistry of batteries, and these have produced some impressive results.

    In years past most of the battery technology was based on the lead-acid cell and there have been minor improvements to this technology recently that allow it to hold its charge longer and be used in these battery electric cars.

    Even though it’s not the perfect choice for the vehicle it offers a good performance to cost ratio for most vehicles.

There are Two Types of Batteries ⇒

    This style of battery is available in two versions and each has it's advantages. You can find these batteries in either a “flooded” or a sealed version.

•   The flooded version means that the batteries are filled with water and they will have to be checked every so often to make sure they have adequate water to operate.

    The advantage to this battery is a faster charging time. The downside is that they can be sloppy and need to be filled and cleaned on a regular basis.

•   The other type of lead-acid battery is a sealed version and these use a gel as a catalyst that requires no attention, which allows the battery to be sealed.

    This is great because there is no maintenance needed and no mess created by the battery. The challenge is that these type of batteries need to be charged more slowly than the flooded style and this can be a problem if you’re in a hurry.

•   A little more expensive option is a flooded NiCad battery. These are designed to be charged and discharged often and work very well in battery electric cars as a result.

    The advantage is that they are designed to provide a very strong charge that can last for a long time. The disadvantage to the flooded NiCad is it needs to be checked and filled like flooded lead-acid batteries and over time it may develop a memory.

      This memory has to do with its charge/discharge cycle and some of these batteries will become conditioned to expect a certain use. If you only use them a little and then charge them, they won’t provide as long of a charge the next time as a result.

     Modern controllers are helping to mitigate this effect so it will become less of a concern going forward.

    All of these batteries will provide a good power source for these battery electric cars. The thing to remember is that other more exotic technologies are being released that will improve these power sources even more in the years ahead.

    Once these become commercially available it will be easy to swap out your current batteries for this new technology and instantly increase the range and power of your car.

    I hope you've gained some valuable information from this magnetic Battery Electric Car guide.

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