Large electric motors, batteries and vehicles

[Funkworks]

No car is battery free and here’s a company making starter batteries with lithium, which are lighter.

LITHIUM BATTERIES, MICRO-STARTS

Smallest, Lightest, Most Powerful Lithium Motorsports Batteries - the First with Built-In Jump-Starting! Top Rated MICRO-START Jump-Starter Power Supplies

antigravitybatteries.com

 

[KC3KNM]

No car is battery free and here’s a company making starter batteries with lithium, which are lighter.

LITHIUM BATTERIES, MICRO-STARTS

Smallest, Lightest, Most Powerful Lithium Motorsports Batteries - the First with Built-In Jump-Starting! Top Rated MICRO-START Jump-Starter Power Supplies

antigravitybatteries.com

I’ve got one of those in the e Golf I’m modifying. Can’t really speak to them as a starter battery as the 12V system on an EV doesn’t have a huge load but they do save a good chunk of weight.

 

[Greg Furtman]

No car is battery free and here’s a company making starter batteries with lithium, which are lighter.

LITHIUM BATTERIES, MICRO-STARTS

Smallest, Lightest, Most Powerful Lithium Motorsports Batteries - the First with Built-In Jump-Starting! Top Rated MICRO-START Jump-Starter Power Supplies

antigravitybatteries.com

Kind of a strange name for a battery line.

 

[Funkworks]

I’ve got one of those in the e Golf I’m modifying. Can’t really speak to them as a starter battery as the 12V system on an EV doesn’t have a huge load but they do save a good chunk of weight.

Specs say "Drop up to 40 lbs instantly! 70% lighter than lead." I see they also have "Wireless Jump-Starting" from a keyfob, and a built-in battery management system. Maybe I'll look at them if ever I have to replace the one in my PHEV. I've been lucky so far but it looks like my car model sometimes has 12V battery problems.

Kind of a strange name for a battery line.

I think it's because they're so much lighter than lead batteries, it's like they were pushing up the car!



But real antigravity is better done with aerodynamics:

Airspeeder Announce Two-Year Broadcast Deal with Fox Sports Australia

Airspeeder is the world’s first electric flying car racing series where frontier technology meets new world entertainment.

airspeeder.com

 

[kuririn]

No car is battery free and here’s a company making starter batteries with lithium, which are lighter.

LITHIUM BATTERIES, MICRO-STARTS

Smallest, Lightest, Most Powerful Lithium Motorsports Batteries - the First with Built-In Jump-Starting! Top Rated MICRO-START Jump-Starter Power Supplies

antigravitybatteries.com

I used the battery finder out of curiosity for my ICE. $660 for one that fits my car!
Lead acid batteries will be around for a while, lithium is too expensive to do the same job for now.
But if you are looking for a replacement 12v battery, I highly recommend the Optima series.
I just got tired of replacing my auto battery every 3 or 4 years. Invariably it would crap out in the worst place and the worst time. Optimas are more expensive than the average lead acid battery but worth it. Instead of flat lead plates, their plates are spiral wound, with an absorbent glass mat in between the plates. More expensive to manufacture but delivers higher cranking power and recharges faster. With proper maintenance and use the Yellowtop series which I have can last up to 8 years (or so they say). We shall see.

 

[Funkworks]

I used the battery finder out of curiosity for my ICE. $660 for one that fits my car!
Lead acid batteries will be around for a while, lithium is too expensive to do the same job for now.
But if you are looking for a replacement 12v battery, I highly recommend the Optima series.
I just got tired of replacing my auto battery every 3 or 4 years. Invariably it would crap out in the worst place and the worst time. Optimas are more expensive than the average lead acid battery but worth it. Instead of flat lead plates, their plates are spiral wound, with an absorbent glass mat in between the plates. More expensive to manufacture but delivers higher cranking power and recharges faster. With proper maintenance and use the Yellowtop series which I have can last up to 8 years (or so they say). We shall see.

My car isn't listed on their site so I'll stick with regular ones if I need it. Not looking for me really. Just looking at lithium progress and applications, as usual.

I think lithium is better used for EV and hybrid traction batteries. The lead acid version seems to be doing fine for common vehicle starters, and they are mostly recycled. Lithium starter batteries seem to be better suited for extreme performance, where people are willing to pay a premium for speed.

FWIW, here's the link for Optima batteries.

https://www.optimabatteries.com/

 

[boatgeek]

Specs say "Drop up to 40 lbs instantly! 70% lighter than lead." I see they also have "Wireless Jump-Starting" from a keyfob, and a built-in battery management system. Maybe I'll look at them if ever I have to replace the one in my PHEV. I've been lucky so far but it looks like my car model sometimes has 12V battery problems.


I think it's because they're so much lighter than lead batteries, it's like they were pushing up the car!



But real antigravity is better done with aerodynamics:

Airspeeder Announce Two-Year Broadcast Deal with Fox Sports Australia

Airspeeder is the world’s first electric flying car racing series where frontier technology meets new world entertainment.

airspeeder.com

There are sooooo many ways to save 40 lbs in any of my cars right now. If I decide to do that, I'll pick one of the ones that involves taking some stuff out for free as opposed to paying $500 more than my current battery. It's sort of like my co-worker, who's an avid bicyclist. When asked why he didn't have a carbon bike, he said that if he wanted to lose 10 lbs off his total vehicle weight, he should start with himself before spending on the bike.

I'm also really not sure how keyfob wireless jumpstarting works. Is there lightning flying between the two cars?

I'm with you and @kurinin, this is solving a problem that doesn't exist.

 

[Tyeeking]

A lot of us who use electric bow mount motors (12v, 24v, and 36v) for fishing are switching over from AGM lead acid to LIFePo4 batteries. They provide much longer run times and save about 40 pounds per battery (36v requires 3 batteries). Also for power hungry and power sensitive electronics the even discharge curve is much better.

With all that said the initial price outlay for good quality LIFePo4’s is absolutely brutal and not something that all recreational anglers can stomach.

 

[Funkworks]

There are sooooo many ways to save 40 lbs in any of my cars right now. If I decide to do that, I'll pick one of the ones that involves taking some stuff out for free as opposed to paying $500 more than my current battery. It's sort of like my co-worker, who's an avid bicyclist. When asked why he didn't have a carbon bike, he said that if he wanted to lose 10 lbs off his total vehicle weight, he should start with himself before spending on the bike.

I'm also really not sure how keyfob wireless jumpstarting works. Is there lightning flying between the two cars?

I'm with you and @kurinin, this is solving a problem that doesn't exist.

There are many different ways to reduce weight. Using all of them is how they “win”. After everything else has been done, then there’s the battery.

If they lasted long enough, maybe they could reduce energy use over time (40 lbs less to haul). But that would be a calculation requiring hard to find data.

 

[KC3KNM]

There are sooooo many ways to save 40 lbs in any of my cars right now. If I decide to do that, I'll pick one of the ones that involves taking some stuff out for free as opposed to paying $500 more than my current battery. It's sort of like my co-worker, who's an avid bicyclist. When asked why he didn't have a carbon bike, he said that if he wanted to lose 10 lbs off his total vehicle weight, he should start with himself before spending on the bike.

I'm also really not sure how keyfob wireless jumpstarting works. Is there lightning flying between the two cars?

I'm with you and @kurinin, this is solving a problem that doesn't exist.

Yeah, but the benefit here is after you strip the interior you can still get some appreciable weight reduction. For a street car it’s kind of silly, obviously. When you’re trying to drop every pound you can, 30lbs for a few hundred bucks isn’t unreasonable. They claim they have a longer life than lead acid batteries which plays into the cost analysis too. How much longer (if at all) is probably entirely dependent on use and temp cycles it’s seeing.

The “jump starter” is just a battery reserve. Instead of it draining to its cutoff point it reserves enough to give you a chance to start the car.

 

[OverTheTop]

I'm also really not sure how keyfob wireless jumpstarting works. Is there lightning flying between the two cars?

I am guessing there is a second, smaller, partition in the battery that is not drained when the main one is. The remote then connects the charged partition to the discharged one to get you going.

We had "Switch" batteries here decades ago which worked the same system but with a manual switch, and while it was a neat idea they never seemed to sell and I haven't seen one for decades.

 

[KC3KNM]

I am guessing there is a second, smaller, partition in the battery that is not drained when the main one is. The remote then connects the charged partition to the discharged one to get you going.

We had "Switch" batteries here decades ago which worked the same system but with a manual switch, and while it was a neat idea they never seemed to sell and I haven't seen one for decades.

 

[OverTheTop]

OK. So "battery saver" electronics and switching built in. Interesting. I wonder what they use for a load switch? Guessing a mechanical contactor, perhaps driven by a motor and a cam. It is difficult to get high-currents with semiconductor devices, but maybe they managed that? Semiconductors are getting so much better at power handling these days, and it has opened up many more applications than were possible a couple of decades ago.

 

[KC3KNM]

OK. So "battery saver" electronics and switching built in. Interesting. I wonder what they use for a load switch? Guessing a mechanical contactor, perhaps driven by a motor and a cam. It is difficult to get high-currents with semiconductor devices, but maybe they managed that? Semiconductors are getting so much better at power handling these days, and it has opened up many more applications than were possible a couple of decades ago.

I can take mine apart at some point. I can’t find anything about it from a quick google and I haven’t had to use the restart function yet… but if I do I’ll listen for a click.

 

[Funkworks]

An instant favorite:

 

[Greg Furtman]

An instant favorite:

I grew up in Duluth, MN at the western tip of Lake Superior. Duluth has a bay, Saint Louis Bay and a peninsula (Park Point) that is around 6 miles long. So Saint Louis Bay is isolated from the lake and it freezes over. There was an ice racing course out on it almost every year & it was fun to watch. At that time the car to try to beat was a Saab 96. I bought one after I got out of college.

 

[Greg Furtman]

This looks good. I'd love to see one.

 

[Greg Furtman]

Cool but spendy.

 

[Funkworks]

This company is called Nth Cyle, a name emphasizing that mined minerals can be recycled forever. To be clear, this means one can limit the number of mines, and use the mined resource forever in cycles. Mined minerals are never exhausted, unlike petroleum, which can only be used once, and therefore relies on opening new fields all the time, increasing land use forever (or until exhausted, in tens or hundreds of years or whatever the real estimates are these days). In the grand scheme of things, this is an important feature of batteries and EVs.

In any case, Nth Cyle will be producing one of the links in the battery supply chain, called "mixed Hydroxide Precipitate (MHP)", a nickel intermediary product for nickel sulfate producers.

Nth Cycle Introduces Premium Domestic MHP Product - Nth Cycle

Mixed Hydroxide Precipitate Has High Nickel/Cobalt, Low Impurity Content and is expected to be first MHP offered in the United States Nth Cycle, an innovative metals refining company, announced today that it would offer a premium Mixed Hydroxide Precipitate (MHP) nickel intermediary product for...

nthcycle.com

A kayak motor! Or small boat maybe. Seems good for fishing.

Newport NK300 - 3HP Electric Kayak Motor

description It’s time for a revolutionary experience on the water. Designed for the serious kayak angler, the NK300 offers unmatched power in an ultra-quiet, energy-efficient 3HP electric kayak motor.

newportvessels.com

Arguably the most famous battery recycler:

This is where Tesla’s former CTO thinks battery recycling is headed

JB Straubel speaks about his company, Redwood Materials, and what challenges loom for batteries.

www.technologyreview.com

How old batteries will help power tomorrow’s EVs

Recycling lithium-ion batteries is taking off thanks to companies like Redwood Materials and could help the transition to renewable energy.

www.technologyreview.com

 

[Greg Furtman]

It seems that Level 2 charging is safest for a Chevy Bolt.

[UPDATE] GM Tells Chevy Bolt EV Owner It's “Not Responsible” For Fast Charging At Non-Approved Public Stations

Following a recall-related battery replacement, this Chevrolet Bolt EV can no longer fast charge. General Motors says that's not their problem, but we think otherwise.

insideevs.com

 

[Funkworks]

No emissions also means no intake.





A list of production EVs.

List of production battery electric vehicles - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

 

[Greg Furtman]

I ran across this video about the Tesla Semi and why it has much better range than other electric semis. Pretty cool.

 

[Funkworks]

NASA’s first all-electric aircraft is almost ready to fly.

NASA’s X-57 Maxwell is a step closer to flight readiness

NASA’s X-57 Maxwell all-electric aircraft reached another milestone toward its first flight with the successful thermal testing of its cruise motor controllers at NASA’s Glenn Research Center.

www.nasa.gov

 

[PatD]

Electrified kitplane built for humanitarian medical deliveries.
Experimental STOL

 

[Greg Furtman]

Redwood Materials has received a $2B loan from the US Energy Department to get its recycling plant up & running. I'd say a good investment for the future, especially for our grandkids.

U.S. set to loan Redwood Materials $2 bln for EV materials plant

The U.S. Energy Department on Thursday made a conditional commitment to Redwood Materials for a $2 billion low-cost government loan to help build out a $3.5 billion recycling and remanufacturing complex in Nevada for battery materials.

www.reuters.com

 

[Funkworks]

A short video about it:





Electric lawn mower:

https://www.deere.com/en/news/all-news/all-electric-zero-turn-mower/

First electric concrete mixer:

Volvo Trucks delivers the first heavy-duty electric concrete mixer truck to CEMEX

Volvo Trucks has supplied CEMEX with its first fully electric and zero exhaust emission heavy-duty concrete mixer truck. The battery electric truck is the latest development of an agreement signed between Volvo and CEMEX in 2021, on global collaboration in electromobility solutions to achieve...

www.volvotrucks.com

 

[kuririn]

A Danish company has developed a process to recycle large electric turbine blades. That could mean that they will no longer have to go into landfills.

A Danish wind turbine giant just discovered how to recycle all blades

Danish wind turbine maker Vestas says it’s figured out how to recycle all wind turbine blades – even ones already sitting in landfills.

electrek.co

 

[Funkworks]

While a Chinese balloon and UFOs are grabbing everyone's attention, Ford and CATL (Chinese battery maker) are working at building a battery plant in Michigan.

Ford Plans to Build EV Battery Plant in Michigan With Chinese Partner

Ford Motor Co. and Contemporary Amperex Technology Co. Ltd. plan to build a battery plant in Michigan, capping a months-long search that became mired in geopolitical tensions between the US and China.

www.bloomberg.com

And Tesla remains among the most desired EV brands in China:

"Most immediately, Tesla's January price cuts drove deliveries of its China-made vehicles up 18% from December. Tesla's thick profit margins have put it in a position to take a price war to competitors in China and beyond, analysts say."

In China, Tesla could win electric vehicle price battle – but lose the war

SHANGHAI (Reuters) -Slashed prices have given Tesla's China sales a pop, but analysts, and even fans, warn the U.S. automaker needs to up its long-term game to avoid choking on the dust of fast-moving rivals in the world's biggest electric vehicle market. Most immediately, Tesla's January price...

finance.yahoo.com

The US-China economic relationship is both very complex and very interesting.

 

[Greg Furtman]

An interesting video about a battery gigafactory being built in northern Sweden by Nortvolt.

 

[Funkworks]

A camping trailer that will also charge a car:

EV Charging Camper Trailer | Colorado Teardrops

The Boulder™ EV charging camper trailer from Colorado Teardrops stores camping gear and electric batteries. Enjoy the outdoors longer with an electric vehicle trailer.

coloradoteardrops.com