Lithium-Ion Batteries Are All the Rage and Will Soon Help Power Hybrid Cars

Lithium-Ion batteries are all the rage today. You can find Lithium-Ion batteries in everything from iPods to cell phones and almost everything electronic in between. The popularity of the Lithium-Ion battery has grown so much and is becoming so widely used that you will soon see them powering hybrid cars and trucks.

A typical hybrid vehicle that you see on the road today has NiMH (nickel-metal-hydride) batteries that assist in the powering of the car. The Lithium-Ion battery is becoming more appealing to car manufacturers for a couple of different reasons. Fist the size of the Lithium-Ion battery is much more compact that the NiMH battery and will thusly weigh less. Also the Lithium-Ion battery can store more energy than the NiMH battery. So ultimately what you have is an opportunity to lighten the total weight of the car, which will help increase the miles per gallon, and with more energy storing capability the hybrid vehicle's range will be increased also adding to the total miles per gallon (source: greencar.com). When you look at it from the outset it seems a no brainer. But not so fast, there are concerns as well.

The main problem with the Lithium-Ion batteries is that they are considered unstable while charging. There have been cases in the past (though rare) were a battery spontaneously combusted and caused a fire (source: greencar.com). Now that may not be a big deal for your lap-top, but it would be a major deal if that were to happen while you had your family were loaded up in your hybrid SUV and were on your way to Disney. So there are some obvious hurdles that will have to be overcome before the car manufacturers can feel safe with putting these Lithium-Ion batteries into hybrids.

Then there is the ever pressing issue of cost. As of now it is more expensive to use a Lithium-Ion battery that it is to use a NiMH battery (source: greencar.com). So while the Lithium-Ion battery may be the best solution for the consumer, you can be assured that if is going to cost the manufacturer more money to produce hybrids with Lithium-Ion technology, it probably won't get done. That being said there is significant research and development going on right now that will hopefully ensure that the Lithium-Ion batteries will be used in the near future.

Lastly there is the concern of longevity. Everyone knows that the more you charge your cell phone the less charge the battery holds. This would pose a problem if the Lithium-Ion batteries in the hybrids cars held less and less of a charge over time. In essence, the car could last longer than the batteries (source: greencar.com). Again there is research and development going on to tackle that problem as well. So there are kinks to be worked out for sure, but if all goes as planned, expect to soon see Lithium-Ion batteries helping power hybrid cars, trucks and SUVs.