Crave

Sony's new batteries are just available for motor-driven devices for now--thus the non-fancy label.

(Credit: Sony)

Sony on Tuesday announced a new type of rechargeable lithium ion battery that promises a life span more than four times that of current lithium ion batteries. Specifically, Sony touts a capacity retention north of 80 percent after 2,000 charge-discharge cycles.

Without getting too technical about the whole thing, the new battery uses as its cathode material olivine-type lithium iron phosphate, which Sony says is ideal for the job "due to its robust crystal structure and stable performance, even at high temperatures."

The material also apparently contributes to the battery's faster charging time--it can hit 99 percent of its full capacity in 30 minutes (approximately half the charge time of Sony's current lithium ion battery line, which mainly use cobalt oxide-based cathodes).

For the moment, the batteries will just be showing up in motor-driven devices like power tools--so if you own a cordless band saw, you're in luck. Those of us who just need to worry about powering our iPods and laptops, however, will have to wait a little while.

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 it has shipped 260 million of these batteries since 2002.

The HP Pavilion dv1000 is among the models affected by the battery recall.

(Credit: CNET Networks)

According to the CPSC, 32,000 Hewlett-Packard notebooks, 3,000 Toshiba notebooks, and 150 Dell notebooks are said to be affected. Sony has said that its Vaio notebooks are not included in the recall as they use a different type of battery.

The 2.15Ah lithium ion battery is also not the same Sony battery involved in the massive 2006 recall, according to the company. This also, so far, appears to be on a much smaller scale than during 2006, when more than 8 million notebook batteries were recalled.

Sony says it first received reports of problems with the 2.15Ah batteries in June 2005. Since then, PC manufacturers have received reports of 40 overheating incidents worldwide. Some of the overheating resulted in smoke or flames, leading to some "small burns," and about half of the incidents included "minor property damage," according to Sony and the CPSC.

Sony believes the battery problems are isolated to some 2.15Ah batteries manufactured between October 2004 and June 2005.

"Machine settings were adjusted more frequently than usual on one line from October 2004 to June 2005, and we believe that a combination of such adjustments may have affected the quality of cells in certain manufacturing lots, creating the potential for such cells to overheat on rare occasion," said a Sony representative.

Sony says it has not received any reports of overheating on any of the batteries produced after 2006.

HP, Toshiba, and Dell have each set up their own Web sites where customers can fill out a form and receive a replacement battery pack by mail for free.

Affected models include: HP Pavilion dv1000, dv8000, and zd8000, Compaq Presario v2000 and v2400, and HP Compaq nc6110, nc6120, nc6140, nc6220, nc6230, nx4800, nx4820, nx6110, nx6120, nx9600; Toshiba Satellite A70/A75, P30/P5, M30X/M35X, and M50/M55; and Dell Latitude 110L, Inspiron 1100, 1150, 5100, 5150, and 5160.

(Credit: Energizer)

Disposable lithium batteries--a market seemingly cornered by Energizer's Ultimate Lithium batteries--are great if you need enduring power. They're not great for the environment and they're too slow to use in a camera flash, but they last much longer than alkalines and significantly longer than rechargeables. At $3 apiece (based on the street price of a 4 pack), they're also someone sticker shocking. So we shouldn't be surprised that Energizer has decided to sell the Energizer Advanced Lithium version with a kindler, gentler price of about $2 each.

The company only cites the performance of the Advanced batteries to that of alkalines (Energizer Max)--claiming 4x the life in a digital camera compared with 8x for the Ultimates. So unless you can find the Advanced cells for less than half the price of the Ultimates, the Ultimates should remain the better buy on a per-shot basis.

(Credit: Crave Asia)

Panasonic's Lithium Vivi RX-10S is no ordinary electric bicycle. For one thing, it has a battery that helps to power the onboard electric motor for assisted peddling. But what really sets it apart from the competition is its regenerative braking system.

A regenerative brake is a mechanism that reduces vehicle speed by converting some of its kinetic activity into another form of energy. In the case of the Panasonic Vivi RX-10S, the regenerative braking system stores the energy in the bicycle's 2.5-kilogram secondary Lithium-ion battery. This energy can then be used to extend the assisted travel range from 90 kilometers (without regenerative system) to approximately 125 kilometers (with the system).

Cyclists can choose to generate the maximum regenerative power by squeezing the brake levers on both sides, or squeezing the brake lever on one side to produce half the maximum power. The bicycle also comes with an Automatic Mode that automatically switches between four levels of peddle assistance using a built-in torque sensor. For instance, the assistance force increases when the bicycle is going uphill and deactivates when it detects a downhill ride.

Panasonic is apparently not the only manufacturer making use of regenerative braking to charge its bicycle's secondary Lithium-ion battery. Sanyo is believed to have had a similar technology in its "Enacle" bicycle series.

Slated for launch in Japan on August 20, the Panasonic Vivi RX-10S will retail for 150,000 yen (US$1,395). The company expects to sell about 3,000 units of the electric bicycle in a year.

(Source: Crave Asia)

The U.S. Department of Transportation issued a ruling today that will let passengers carry approved methanol fuel cells and up to two spare fuel cartridges in their carry-on bags.

Peng Lim and a fuel cell. Methanol goes in. Water, CO2, and electrons come out.

(Credit: Hanna Sistek, CNET Networks)

Since fuel cells for phones and other devices won't likely hit the market until next year, the ruling technically doesn't affect anyone. That is, except for people like Peng Lim, CEO of MTI Micro Fuel Cells, who travels the country showing off prototypes of fuel cells for cameras and phones. (Peng's got a great collection of toys. See video here.)

Still, the ruling helps clear the way for the industry and consumer acceptance. Fuel cells extract electrons from a reaction between methanol, ambient oxygen, and a catalytic membrane. Fuel cell makers hope to replace lithium-ion batteries as a power source in portable electronics. One advantage: no recharging time. Refueling a fuel cell only requires popping in a new fuel canister. A universal charger made from a fuel cell can charge notebooks, phones, MP3 players, and other devices, cutting down the number of chargers travelers have to carry.

Fuel cells also can't spontaneously burst into flames. A person would have to apply a flame to a fuel cell to ignite methanol, which is an alcohol. Presumably, security will take lighters and matches away from someone at the gate. Lithium-ion batteries in rare instances have blown up, but those instances have been alarming.

Fuel cell technology, though, isn't easy and fuel cells have faced several delays. Lim says fuel cells will likely begin to come out in 2009. MTI is working with Samsung on fuel cells for phones.

Canada, China, Japan, and the UK already let passengers carry their nonexistent fuel cells onboard.

Lithium-ion batteries. They do blow up good.

Boom!

(Credit: Sandia National Labs)

Peter Roth at Sandia National Labs is conducting research on the durability and reliability of lithium-ion batteries, which are expected to power plug-in hybrids and electric cars in the future. Lithium-ion batteries store more energy than conventional batteries--six times as much as lead acid and two to three times as much as nickel metal hydride batteries, according to Sandia. However, lithium-ion cells can have unfortunate side effects.

Namely, an internal short circuit can lead to fire and a nasty explosion. In 2006, Sony had to conduct a multimillion-dollar battery recall because some had caught fire in notebooks. The potential damage is higher in a car because electric cars will contain thousands of cells, rather than six or nine, like a notebook. The inside of a car is also a more hostile environment than the one where you ordinarily use your notebooks.

I am the god of hell fire!

(Credit: Sandia National Labs)

So Roth is driving nails into batteries, heating them up to extreme temperatures, overcharging them, and having other types of fun. That's Roth in the photo to the right preparing to blow up some batteries. The other photo shows the results of his research.

"We look at fundamental chemistry, wanting to discover the kinds of gases they emit when they are heated and explode," Roth said in a prepared statement. "We also build smaller prototype batteries that, once we get the chemistry right, may eventually be built full size to go into vehicles."

On a positive note, many of the latest lithium-ion batteries sold for power tools are actually quite resilient, he noted, and can withstand adverse conditions better than many other types of batteries.

If you don't want to lose your spare lithium batteries for your camera, notebook or cell phone, you might want to pack carefully for your next flight.

New rules from the Transportation and Security Administration that take effect on January 1 ban travelers from carrying loose lithium batteries in checked baggage. Passengers are allowed to pack two spare batteries in their carry-on bag, as long as they're in clear plastic baggies.

Fortunately, you don't have to worry about the batteries that are already installed in the devices you're bringing. The TSA has said it's safe to check in items like a laptop or iPhone that already have the batteries in place.

The agency said that loose lithium batteries not installed in devices pose a fire risk to passenger planes. Recently, the National Transportation Safety Board could not rule out the possibility that lithium batteries started a fire in a plane at the Philadelphia National Airport last year, according to the Associated Press.

If you do plan on bringing spare batteries in your carry-on bag, be aware of some other rules: You can only bring batteries with an equivalent of up to 8 grams of lithium content. (Most batteries for cell phones and laptops meet this requirement.) And for lithium metal batteries, whether carried as a spare or installed in a device, batteries are limited to 2 grams of lithium metal.

As part of its effort to get its first cars out of the door, Tesla Motors is putting its battery business on ice for a bit.

(Credit: Michael Kanellos/CNET Networks)

The electric car company back in January said it was going to sell its battery pack--composed of thousands of lithium-ion battery cells--to third party manufacturers. Interim CEO Michael Marks, however, made the decision to suspend the program in September when he also decided to push out the release of the car and scale back production a bit. Although a few Tesla Roadsters may come out this year, the bulk of the first cars will come out next year. Fifty are due in the first quarter. The delays in the battery program, however, were not flagged then.

Tesla's first and so far only announced customer was going to be Think Global, which is trying to come out with an electric town car.

"We delayed the program with Think until we had roadsters on the road," said Darryl Siry, vice president of sales and marketing at Tesla.

As a result, Think has been lining up alternative battery suppliers. A deal with EnerDel was announced yesterday. EnerDel will be the "supplier of choice" for Think.

It is unclear if the switch in battery providers will delay Think's car, but it could. It's a major change. In September, the company told The Norway Post that it wanted to get the initial cars out in November. Think has made cars with other types of batteries--the company grew out of a dying electric car project from Ford. EnerDel won't deliver prototypes until next March and preproduction batteries until July 2008. Still, Think is not aiming to get large numbers out of the factory at first anyway. The company in July, a few months before Tesla changed management, said it only planned to start producing 250 cars a month by mid-2008.

On a happier note for Tesla, it has also started to let customers who have put down deposits on the $98,000 Tesla Roadster take test drives with the latest prototype. They are doing 12 a week and many of the drivers are posting blogs about the experience (see link above). The test drives are taking place in the Skyline Drive and Highway 84 area. You know, the Alice's Restaurant intersection in the Bay Area.

Despite a few nitpicks here and there, the reviews are all fairly positive. (I've ridden in one and they are a lot of fun, particularly the subtle "whoosh" sound the electric engine makes.)

"I've certainly faced some raised eyebrows at my decision to write a check for $100,000 to purchase a car I've never driven, so if nothing else my thrilling test drive of VP10 was worth it just to explain that I have been behind the wheel, and come away impressed," wrote Josh Hannah.

Hannah, though, did get passed by a Subaru Roadster. He wanted to be cautious.

No entries yet from Sergey, Larry, George Clooney or San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom yet, who have all allegedly put down deposits.

Phoenix Motorcars, the guys who want to bring you all-electric SUVs and trucks, won't be coming out with their cars this year after all.

CEO Dan Elliot posted this note on the company's site late Thursday night:

A Phoenix truck

(Credit: Phoenix Motorcars)

"We must also thank you for your patience in our development progress as we have worked to bring our product to market. We recognize that our product rollout has taken longer than originally expected as we continue to work through certification with the California Air Resources Board (ARB), finalize our financing package, and set up our production facility that will allow us to deliver at the sales volumes we are targeting.

"While Phoenix Motorcars had hoped to begin initial deliveries of its vehicles by this fall, we have decided to delay deliveries until early 2008," the note stated.

Getting cars through the certification process isn't easy and costs a lot of money. Testing--along with the millions of dollars required for design and manufacturing and advertising--is one of the many reasons why you don't see a lot of successful auto start-ups. Tesla Motors is still finalizing testing on its roadster, which it hopes to get out before the end of the year.

Phoenix has more than 500 orders for cars. Pacific Gas and Electric is one customer, Phoenix says. The company has shown its cars at the White House and the Lake Tahoe Summit.

The company's SUVs run on the lithium titanate batteries from Altair Nanotechnologies. The cars are expected to run for about 130 miles on a single charge and hit about 100 miles per hour. The key to the battery, says Altair CEO Alan Gotcher, is that it can be recharged quickly.

The SUVs will first be sold to utility companies and municipalities. These companies buy large fleets of cars and often they don't leave town. Thus, the 100-mile range isn't as big a problem as it is for the consumer market. Later, it will hit up consumers. (Here is an article on Phoenix CNET News.com wrote last year.)

Phoenix is one of a number of companies pumping electric cars. There is also Miles Automotive in Southern California.