# prius batteries



## dimitri (May 16, 2008)

I have no personal experience, but from the specs you posted sounds like you will need about 10 of them in parallel to get decent energy levels for EV. How much would 10 packs cost even from scrap yard? Also, 10 packs would weigh 680 kg, ouch  

Are these supposed to me NiMh chemistry? You'd have to find suitable charger, but that is probably the easiest part...

At that voltage you will also need to use AC motor/controller, since 288V is too much for DC motors, unless you use advanced controller that can handle high voltage and safely pass it to the motor.

just my $.02


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## major (Apr 4, 2008)

dimitri said:


> but from the specs you posted sounds like you will need about 10 of them in parallel to get decent energy levels for EV.
> 
> Are these supposed to me NiMh chemistry? You'd have to find suitable charger, but that is probably the easiest part...


I'm pretty sure they are NiMh. And that NiMh cells in parallel are problematic to charge. So the charger, or BMS of sorts, does become an issue.

Regards,

major


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## rillip3 (Jun 19, 2009)

Agree with Dimitri, these are only 6.5 Ah. Even 65 Ah would leave you with some pretty sorry range. These are probably fine for the Prius because it's only looking to get say 5, maybe 10 minutes of use out of them at any given time, and is continually recharging them with the engine when it kicks on, but they'r pretty unsuitable for an EV.


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## IamIan (Mar 29, 2009)

Prius batteries , are NiMH.

They are not designed for Energy density ... there are other NiMH cells with ~twice the wh/kg... and many Li versions have even more Energy density ... energy density is a very important thing for an EV.

I would say it depends on the application and what kind of deal you get.

Looking at the 04:
46Wh/kg is pretty much the same energy density as the best PbA.
1,300 W/kg is a good power density... better than any PbA I've seen.

Depending on the price you can find them at... will I think end up being the deal breaker or maker.... if you buy them from a junk yard ... just test each module with a few cycles on a RC type of battery tester / battery analyzer ... you want to wead out any bad ones before you build up the larger EV pack... hopefuly there are no bad ones.

I would not leave them in the Prius battery box ... it is allot of dead weight... If you pull out the batteries themselves... 10 packs of the 04 type would have ~13 kwh of energy potential ... and weigh ~285 kg + your own battery box ... or ~628 Lbs... and that same battery pack could dish out up to 370 kW of peak surge power.... more than most EV controllers and motors will ever ask for.

If you can get a deal on them to bring the $ / wh down to be equal or better than PbA's $ / Wh ... then they are definately a better EV option than PbA... but... there are Li options that can give you even more kwh from the same weight ... and even more kw of power from the same weight.... but those Li options tend to cost significantly more.

So ... yes they can be used for EV applications ... depends on what you need from a battery and what kind of a deal you can find on enough of these.


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