Tesla passes U.N. battery tests

The lithium ion car battery created by Tesla Motors has passed a battery of certification tests that effectively remove another hurdle in the path toward selling products.

Because they can burst into flames, lithium ion batteries are classified as dangerous goods, according to Erik Toomre, Director of Manufacturing Programs. "Before we ship it to the public, we have to demonstrate that it is safe," he said.

The United Nations has issued specifications on what tests lithium batteries have to pass and these regulations have been adopted and/or tweaked by various governments. In third party tests, both the individual lithium ion cells and the entire battery, which consists of 6,831 cells, passed the UN criteria.

It is something other electric car companies will have to do to.

What's involved? The batteries are deliberately short-circuited and placed on shaking tables. The company also did some puncture testing. Even if one cell blows, the battery pack is designed so that it won't burst into what the lithium ion industry quaintly calls "a runaway thermal reaction." That exploding Dell notebook? That was a runaway reaction.

The entire battery pack weighs about 1,000 pounds, Toomre added.

The company will include the battery packs in its cars as well as ship them to third parties.

[william roark]

shove that one in your oil well OPEC

One way or another we as a country are going to live on this planet
without being a slave to the third world headchoppers who are
living in a sandbox. Please watch the Showtime or Stars movie
"who killed the electric car?" Its really time we woke up as a nation
and found a better way to live this life. Hybrid and Electric cars are
more then enough for 90% of the nation to get around in. We really
need to take a close look at this maverick company and give them
our support.

[expatincebu]

Not really

OPEC is not the problem nor are we "slaves to third world
headchoppers". Comments like that are ludicrous and show that
you have bought into the mainstream propaganda the real
crooks feed to you.

You are being held hostage by the U.S. Military Industrial /
Energy complex. The bad guys are white men in suits in
America, not arabs in the M.E.

Further, this car is still dirty because the electric that goes into it
will come from oil or coal burning plants. If you want to find a
way to live life better you need to dump suburban sprawl
entirely and stop building your life around the automobile and
center on mass transit instead.

Finally, as far as I have read, Tesla is only making a hyper-
expensive sports car for the super wealthy. So those same rich
white guys screwing us all over are the only ones who will own
them! Maybe that is why they are allowing this one to be built,
while the electric commuter cars from Honda and Toyota were
all cancelled.

[rbiz]

Is It Going To be Yet Another Ten Years?

"Because they can burst into flames, lithium ion batteries are
classified as dangerous goods..."

Now I admit that I'm a bit simple minded but, can someone tell
me exactly how gasoline passed the U.N. saftey test, or any
safety test for that matter? By the quoted standard above any
fuel required to mobilize an internal combustion engine should
have already been banned.

Or am I missing something?

[Jim_Mattos]

What's the bump???

Why does this article seem to not go away? I like it, but it seems to
make it to the top of my "new" news everyday. What gives???

[Bill Hembree]

CNet Screwed up

The RSS feed for the article is dated Oct. 26, rather a long time in
the future.