Green Car Congress: ISE and Altair Nanotechnologies in Joint Development Agreement for Li-Ion Packs for Heavy-Duty Vehicles

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ISE and Altair Nanotechnologies in Joint Development Agreement for Li-Ion Packs for Heavy-Duty Vehicles

1 June 2007

ISE Corporation, a developer and manufacturer of electric and hybrid-electric drive systems and components for heavy-duty vehicles, and Altair Nanotechnologies (Altairnano) have entered into an agreement to jointly develop and commercially supply lithium-ion rechargeable battery packs for use in hybrid-electric and all-electric heavy-duty vehicles.

Under the agreement, Altairnano will provide NanoSafe cells and batteries for the battery pack based on their proprietary lithium titanate electrode materials, along with data concerning the proper care and management of their cells and batteries.

ISE will design the system utilizing its data on operating environments, vehicle shock and vibration criteria, vehicle duty cycles and proprietary software and control electronics. Other cooperative areas will include cell equalization and packaging of the commercial product. The goal is to develop and commercially supply high quality, cost-effective, lithium battery packs for heavy-duty buses, trucks, military vehicles and airport ground support equipment.

ISE intends to continue to be a leader in the development of energy storage solutions for heavy duty electric and hybrid electric vehicles. We are excited to have partnered with Altairnano and feel that Altairnano's unique nano technology yields power storage solutions with high power and extremely long life that are ideally suited to maximize the performance of heavy duty hybrid vehicles.

—David Mazaika, President and CEO of ISE Corporation

Altairnano currently is providing a 35 kWh lithium-ion battery pack for the Phoenix Motorcars all-electric light-duty sport utility truck. (Earlier post.) Separately, AeroVironment announced that it has tested and validated Altairnano and Phoenix Motorcar’s claim that the Altairnano battery can be recharged in less than 10 minutes without harm to the battery.

At the Advanced Automotive Battery Conference 2007 (AABC), Altairnano described its work on developing new battery modules optimized for the differing application requirements of hybrid-electric (HEV) and plug-in hybrid electric (PHEV) vehicles.

Altairnano HEV and PHEV Prototype Modules
Parameter	HEV Module 38V 10Ah	PHEV Module 36V 33Ah
Voltage range	22 to 45 V	22 to 45 V
Average Voltage	38 V	36 V
Nominal capacity	10 Ah	33 Ah
Max Discharge	1,000 A	500 A
Energy	400 Wh	1,200 Wh
Specific Energy	35 Wh/kg	70 Wh/kg
1 Sec Impedance	7 miliohms	10 miliohms
10 Sec Impedance	12 miliohms	14 miliohms
Discharge Power	35 kW	25 kW
Specific Power	2.9 kW/kg	1.5 kW/kg
Cycle life	> 5,000 cycles	> 5,000 cycles
Weight	12 kg	17 kg
Operating temperature	-40°C to +75°C	-40°C to +75°C

Earlier in May, lithium-ion battery maker A123Systems announced that it had entered a partnership with BAE Systems to provide li-ion battery packs for BAE’s heavy-duty HybriDrive. (Earlier post.)

ISE recently announced the sale of 150 gasoline hybrid-electric buses to Montebello, California. (Earlier post.)

June 1, 2007 in Batteries, Electric (Battery), Heavy-duty, Hybrids | Permalink | Comments (8) | TrackBack (0)

Comments

Hybrid sales for May-2007 have touched 44,274 without counting Nissan and GM. Its an all time record and roughly 3 % of overall US auto market.

Prius 24,009
Camry-H 6,853
Highlander-H 3,312

RX400h 1,746
GS450h 181
Toyota Total 36,101

Civic-H 4,520
Accord-H 439
Honda Total 4,959

Escape 2,680
Mariner 534
Ford Total 3,214

Grand Total 44,274

Posted by: Max Reid | June 01, 2007 at 12:39 PM

This agreement, Alcoa Deal and Phoenix MotorCars put AltairNano is a very envious position as they seem to be the only Battery Producer to cover the full spectrum EV-HEV-PHEV.
NANOSAFE is the uncontested best of breed battery greenTech out there NOW and for a long time to come.
Just the begining of the R-EV-olution.(and maybe last chance to invest in ALTI at bargain price}.

Posted by: yev | June 01, 2007 at 03:04 PM

These start-ups are all very risky; Smarter investors are going with balanced index funds.

Posted by: Energex42 | June 01, 2007 at 03:17 PM

FYI
http://www.podtech.net/home/2343/altairnanos-revolutionary-battery

Posted by: yev | June 01, 2007 at 03:31 PM

the REAL news from Altair is the "Stationary Power" market. They have recently added Robert Hemphill to their board of directors. He is Executive Vice President of AES the big electric utility. He was asked to explain the "Stationary Power" market last wed at Altairs shareholders meeting in Reno. He said that it is "unquantifiably large" in terms of storage neeeds for exixsting power plants and the onslaught of wind farms and pv farms that are being built. The battery will be used for load leveling and power storage. Altairs product is perfect in terms of handling large quantities of incoming energy and density.

Posted by: rick | June 02, 2007 at 11:35 AM

rick - "The battery will be used for load leveling and power storage. Altairs product is perfect in terms of handling large quantities of incoming energy and density."

I agree however I would really like the batteries to be doing something else as well like powering transport to reduce CO2 emissions.

Hopefully someone will find a business model for V2G cars. I am thinking along the lines of treating the car like a mobile phone and leasing for a fixed amount per month in return for unlimited use of the batteries for ancillary grid services and peak supply. With peak supply wholesaling at AUD$40 - $50 per MWh it could work.

Posted by: Ender | June 04, 2007 at 05:17 PM

Ender,
If you will listen to the podcast above posted by yev, you will hear Dr Gotcher address the possibility of actually making a profit from your nanosafe battery by charging it in the evening and selling the juice back at peak prices-v2g. He also mentions that the battery is perfect for home backup since your vehicle would have 35kwh and your home typically only uses 1kwh. This is possible since the Nanosafe has an awesome and still unknown number of cycles--currently 25000 and counting in their lab.

So your auto, equiped with Nanosafe could become your entire fuel source for the future, a revenue producer AND backup home electric supply all in one. An investment that could be amortized over 30-50 years, not an expense.

Posted by: rick | June 05, 2007 at 09:20 AM

how much for one of them?

Posted by: Joe | November 30, 2007 at 05:43 AM