"Panasonic Developing Low Cost Lithium-Ion EV Battery Using Laptop Cells " Green Car Advisor

Panasonic Developing Low Cost Lithium-Ion EV Battery Using Laptop Cells

In an interesting development on the EV battery front, electronics giant Panasonic Corp says it has developed a technology for linking mass-produced lithium-ion cells (right) into bundles large and stable enough for hybrid and all-electric cars, Reuters news service reports.

The system sounds like an automated, mass-production version of the Tesla Motors method of linking thousands of conventional laptop battery cells into a hand-assembled power pack for its speedy Tesla Roadster EV.

Because the Panasonic system would use existing battery plants and production equipment it could dramatically reduce the cost of EV batteries - presently the most expensive component on an electric car.

The report doesn't mention them, but the Panasonic technology presumably includes a battery management system and a cooling methodology to keep the volatile cells from overheating and to protect the entire pack from damage if a single cell does experiences what the industry likes to call a "thermal event."

Panasonic said it hopes to have a commercial EV battery ready as early as 2013.
In addition to use in autos, an affordable, compact lithium-ion battery pack could be sold as an energy storage device for solar- and wind-generation systems and for fuel cells.