Altairnano Battery Comparison
Phoenix Motorcars capitalizes on technology breakthroughs which eliminate previous deficiencies in battery and drivetrain performance. The result: all-electric vehicles with performance similar to gas- or diesel-powered vehicles without the polluting by-products.
Our earth-friendly vehicles also use the lithium titanate battery technology developed by Altairnano, a leading innovative battery developer. Similar to lithium-ion chemistry, it implements a compound containing titanium that prevents the fundamental cause of uncontrolled thermal runaway.
The Altairnano lithium titanate battery delivers safety, long life and high performance, hurdles that have prevented the electric vehicle from being commercially successful in the past. It can be recharged in less than 10 minutes, operates in cold and hot weather and is expected to last more than 12 years.
Battery Performance:
-
Lead-Acid: This technology is over 100 years old. Lead acid batteries were the power source of General Motors’ EV1. These batteries have poor lifetime characteristics, which lead to an economically unfeasible total cost of ownership when periodic battery replacements are considered. Lead-acid batteries are available from numerous manufacturers located in almost every industrialized nation.
-
Nickel Metal Hydride (NiMH): The predominant NiMH manufacturers are (in order) Panasonic, Sanyo and Cobasys. NiMH batteries are the foundation of the Toyota Prius and Honda Insight hybrid electric vehicles. These batteries are intolerant of full-charge and discharge cycles, which make electric vehicle usage inappropriate. Toyota demonstrated this with the RAV4-EV, their NiMH-powered production electric vehicle. Toyota manufactured approximately 800 RAV4 EVs through 2002 and could not demonstrate the NiMH battery was suitable for electric vehicle purposes.
- Lithium-Ion: This battery is ubiquitous in consumer electronics (cell phones, laptop computers, iPods). The International Electrotechnique Commission (Geneva) and the United Nations (Brussels) have passed international regulatory standards about the safety of lithium-ion batteries. Battery pack systems larger than the average consumer electronics device have been ruled as a fire and safety hazard. This is because the fundamental chemistry of the lithium-ion battery allows for an uncontrolled thermal runaway, which can result in a fire or explosion; this was recently demonstrated by lithium-ion batteries in Dell and Apple Macintosh laptop computers.
