Boston-Power Gets Into Electric Cars
The battery company has been trying to get into cars for a while. But Saab may not be ideal.
Boston-Power, one of the most highly funded battery companies in the U.S., has landed a deal to develop experimental electric cars in partnership with Saab.S E K, the Swedish energy agency, will fund a $12 million project that will build over 100 electric automobiles next year.
Boston-Power makes a lithium-cobalt battery. That's the same kind of battery used inside notebooks and the Tesla Roadster. They can deliver a wallop of power, but safety has been an issue: internal short circuits and high heats can lead to the euphemistic "thermal runaway reaction." The company's secret sauce is quality control: Boston-Power has fine-tuned the casing, the anode, the cathode and other systems inside the battery. In the end, this results in a battery that can last three years, or 1,000 charging cycles, before the battery's capacity to hold power becomes substantially diminished. Conventional lithium-ion batteries might only go 300 cycles or less.
Many auto manufacturers have chosen to concentrate on lithium-manganese batteries or lithium phosphates, which can't deliver as much power but are safer than other brands. The Nissan Leaf, which runs on a lithium-polymer-manganese battery, will be one of the major test cases for lithium manganese.
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