lithium

U.S. companies team up to make electric car batteries

A consortium of 14 U.S. technology companies is seeking $1 billion in federal aid to build a factory to manufacture advanced electric car batteries, according to a report Wednesday night by The Wall Street Journal.

Aiming to catch up to Asian battery producers that already dominate the market, the National Alliance for Advanced Transportation Battery Cell Manufacture is described as the most ambitious effort to date to meet automakers' increasing demand for lithium-ion batteries. The report noted that U.S. automakers such as GM and Ford plan to roll out plug-in electric cars by 2010, but that the U.… Read more

97: We drive the 2009 Acura TL

It's White House or bust for Detroit, will Intel go into the car battery business? Mercedes puts two displays in the dashboard, and we drive the 2009 Acura TL.

Listen now: Download today's podcast SHOW NOTES

• 2009 Acura TL review

• HD Radio explained

• Vote for Tech Car of the Year

• Mercedes SplitView in-dash display

• Ford cuts noise with a new kind of windshield

HP laptops to sport long-lasting 'Enviro' batteries

Hewlett-Packard early next year will begin offering a new line of "Enviro" batteries for laptop users who want to upgrade to longer-lasting and more sustainably designed batteries.

HP and Boston Power have been testing the Sonata lithium-ion batteries for three years. The batteries were designed specifically for laptop use. After three years of use, the batteries will be able to keep 80 percent of their initial charge.

Laptop battery time typically starts to drop significantly after 150 or so charges, or cycles. Boston Power says that its batteries can be charged 1,000 times and get "like … Read more

Hawaii unveils plans for Better Place

Hawaii has decided to partner with Better Place to bring car battery exchange stations for electric vehicles to the islands, Hawaii Gov. Linda Lingle announced Tuesday.

Better Place stations, similar in concept to gas stations, offer drivers with electric vehicles an automated system that swaps out exhausted lithium ion car batteries for fully-charged ones. The swapping system is intended to be convenient for both drivers and local electric companies, since Better Place can recharge the exhausted batteries with excess electricity generated from renewable sources during off-peak electricity hours.

Lingle said the project is an example of Hawaii's efforts to … Read more

Boston-Power readies long-lasting laptop batteries

Upstart Boston-Power is within months of having its long-lasting batteries shipped in notebook PCs, as it eyes expansion into portable power packs and electric cars.

The three-year-old company says its Sonata batteries are able to recharge to 80 percent capacity in 30 minutes, versus two hours to get to a 90 percent charge in conventional notebook batteries. And Boston-Power's batteries can be recharged 1,000 times before their performance starts to wane, versus 150 times in today's laptops, according to founder and CEO Christina Lampe-Onnerud. Typically, the amount of computing time that a laptop battery supplies goes down … Read more

Buzz Out Loud 852: Tempest in a Twitter teapot

Turns out a lot of people are all too happy to hand over their password to some unknown Web site just to find out if they're popular. Oh, people. When will you learn? Also, Microsoft Live gets a purpose, Valleywag loses its teeth, the BlackBerry Storm gets a release date, and we're all going to become (a) elves in the Wrath of the Lich King or (b) total buffsters on the new EA Sports Active Wii game. Listen now: Download today's podcast Episode 852

BlackBerry Storm gets release date http://www.boygeniusreport.com/2008/11/13/verizon-announces-blackberry-storm-release-date-november-21st-199/… Read more

Electric-car race could strain lithium battery supply

The headlong rush to create electric cars for green-minded consumers may come with a significant economic and environmental cost.

Lithium ion batteries--the same used in electronic gadgets and laptops--have become the preferred battery type for plug-in hybrids and electric cars now starting to come to market.

That swelling demand has some industry observers concerned that there will be a shortage of the metal lithium, the material used to make the batteries.

"You can solve the transportation problem but end up creating an equally vexing commodity problem," said Matthew Nordan, president of emerging technology consulting firm Lux Research. "… Read more

Sony batteries involved in another recall

Updated at 2:15 p.m. PDT with the names and quantities of notebooks affected by each manufacturer.

More than two years after the largest battery recall in the electronics industry, Sony batteries have been fingered again as the culprit in more than 40 worldwide incidents of laptops overheating.

Sony and the Consumer Product Safety Commission will announce Thursday afternoon that Sony is supporting the voluntary recall of 100,000 notebook battery packs powered by Sony's 2.15Ah lithium ion cells. Thirty-five thousand of those were sold in the U.S., and 65,000 in international markets. Sony says … Read more

Mini E pure electric car revealed

Mini just revealed the Mini E on Friday, scheduled to be revealed at the 2008 LA Auto Show. The E stands for electric, as the major difference between this and the standard Mini is the all-electric drivetrain. The Mini E will be produced in a limited quantity of 500-1000 units and leased to customers in a few major cities.

The Mini E's 204 horsepower electric motor also puts out 162 pound-feet of torque with juice being supplied by advanced lithium ion battery tech. Charge time is expected to be about 8 hours with a range of about 150 miles … Read more