[Technologic]

No... I'm not even half joking here guys, I really did.

I finally found a chinese source for larger NI-MH batteries.

I have just be quoted... no fooling here, $43USD/pc for a 12vx10AH pack (or 35 cents/wh).

Now... what to do with it...

I will supply the source when I can give you all more info from them about if they can get even LARGER.

I'm going to be double checking over the next few days to find out if other manufacturers can do the same thing for me.

Just wanted to give a heads up, since I can finally contribute something valuable outside of advice to this community (and my advice is rarely valuable )

"12V 10AH Ni-Mh battery pack is USD43.90/pc 1000pcs USD43.05/pc 10,000pcs."

Contact information to come if it's valid (don't want people freaking losing money trying something like this out).

if it IS valid... and if they can even go larger (say to like 12v x 40AH) for cheaper? maybe it's possible, I'll be buying a sample and doing full charge/discharge tests on this pack including cycle life. I want to see where the DOD is after about 100 cycles (which will take me upwards of 3 weeks to do), I want to see if pack stability stays intact and if voltage drop starts occuring.

This company is in Henan so the chances are very good this is legit (Henan being the home of thundersky).

80% DOD shouldn't be occurring till 500+ cycles with NI-MH... I want to see what price i get for 12v x 50AH cells.... maybe $150? ... it could happen.

[ClintK]

It'd be pretty sweet to collect some more battery test results on the site. Keep us posted on how it goes!

[Zemmo]

So if someone would want to build a 100 Ah 144 Volt pack it would take 120 of these batteries at $43.90 USD that would be $5,268 USD. Do you happen to know the weight of each of these batteries? Just Curious.

[engineer_Bill]

Any info yet?

[Technologic]

I talked with the guy until I was exhausted (4am) and will pick it up this coming monday.

I'll see if he can send me some larger formats, they should be slightly cheaper (probably around 0.30/WH)

http://www.eastarbattery.com/index.asp is the company. It seems like, at least to my knowledge, a legitimate offer.

I believe the battery weighs around 2kg... at least that's what he was suggesting (I was expecting an expensive price on the quotation, not such a useable one).

Remember 85% DOD is common with NI-MH as well. for discharging...

I'll be picking up the largest pack I can get at 12v (namely so I can just use a crappy car charger) this week and I'll update the thread with more specifics... as with most chinese companies, their ability to explain something isn't so wonderful.

[gerd1022]

ah ok you changed it to 2 kg each

i was going to say, if it was 3.2 kg for a 12V 10Ah battery, its right around the energy density for lead. A 144V, 100Ah would weight like 850 lbs.

2 kg means the same pack would be 530 lbs which is pretty good

[Technologic]

Originally Posted by gerd1022

ah ok you changed it to 2 kg each

i was going to say, if it was 3.2 kg for a 12V 10Ah battery, its right around the energy density for lead. A 144V, 100Ah would weight like 850 lbs.

2 kg means the same pack would be 530 lbs which is pretty good

I had to go back and look at the conversation
For some reason my mind remembered 3.2kg. He said <2kg but since battery is custom made, he didn't have an exact weight anywhere I could see.

It might be less for the larger ones? that's generally how it goes (less cases).
The attraction to NI-MH is the cycle life (possibly upwards of 1000 useable cycles) for a cheap enough price that you're not blowing the entire value of the car every replacement (lithium quotations have consistently been twice this much).

At any rate I'm still amazed I found a company that's making large format NI-MH's. Only Panasonic was doing it for years. I'm looking forward to actually being able to test this... my battery pack for 96Vx100AH would cost about $3000 this way... and I'd have to replace it after about 125,000 miles. It's only about twice as much as FLA batteries.

He did say he can go cheaper with large format packs... I don't know what that means yet though.
Since The specific energy density for NiMH material is approximately 70 W·h/kg, his 2kg number seems about right I guess?

[Jason Lattimer]

http://www.batteryspace.com/index.as...S&Category=864

Here, check out this site. They have 39.6 volt packs at 10 amp hours for $420. They also have 37volt lithium ion high polymer batteries at 21 amp hours for $794.

http://www.all-battery.com/36vto60vn...ackseries.aspx

Here is another one. How about 50v 5 amp hour for $165 or 48v and 13 amp hour for 441.55

Just thought you might like these sites, hope it comes in handy.

[Technologic]

Originally Posted by Jason Lattimer

http://www.batteryspace.com/index.as...S&Category=864

Here, check out this site. They have 39.6 volt packs at 10 amp hours for $420. They also have 37volt lithium ion high polymer batteries at 21 amp hours for $794.

1 dollar/wh vs 35 cents

I can get lithium polymers for 50cents/wh in whatever quantity I want. I want something more in the 25 cent range though that ISN'T LA. Weight is a large factor in my build, and range. (shooting for 700lbs and 120 mile range for the completed car)

[gerd1022]

hey that is great!

do we know whether the larger formats are actually larger Ah cells, or are they just more cells in parallel in a case?