Quote:
Originally Posted by Timco
My lithium ion batteries weigh a fraction of my cell type batteries in my cordless tools. Why no lithium ion car batteries yet?? Maybe 4-5 lbs max?
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One word answer: Money. Lithium batteries are expensive to make, have to be recycled totally separately from lead acid units (trace amounts of lithium contamination in lead make the lead useless for making new batteries, and lead acid battery manufacturers have by law a mandated candle to grave responsibility to recover and reuse the lead, so they do not want to be required to set up a second system to handle lithium), and they require a unique charging profile to bring them back up. So to go mainstream, they need their own recycling and recovery systems, plus alternators and voltage regulators designed specifically for them. And they are still going to cost a lot more, like several times more, than a lead acid battery.
From a bang for the buck perspective, lead acid is pretty hard to beat.