AGR

This Oshkosh military truck has an ultra capacitor mounted behind the cab.

http://www.oshkoshtruck.com/pdf/Oshkosh_HEMTT_A305.pdf

Michael

EEstor seems to be so far behind in providing any info on their development that I've gotten pretty disappointed in them and not expecting to hear anything promising.

Iz

I was expecting a major 2nd quarter announcement from EEstor. Their product would have a positive impact on EV-evolution.

TEG

Small tidbits:

"The potential commercialization of the Electrical Energy Storage Units being developed by ZENN Motor Company's strategic partner, EEStor Inc., in future ZENN vehicles will allow them to go as far and as fast as a traditional car at a fraction of the cost."


Caption: "The Feel Good Car will use EEstor's device by 2008"

"The production EESU for ZENN Motor Company will function to specification in operating environments as severe as negative 20 to plus 65 degrees Celsius, will weigh less than 100 pounds, and will have ability to be recharged in a matter of minutes."

"this new power source will allow ZENN to quadruple the range and introduce high-speed charging to their Low Speed Vehicles (LSVs). ZENN will also be able to seriously look at a high-speed platform and make a highway-ready vehicle if the technology is as good as the hushed rumors suggest. Clifford said using EESTOR's tech would add less $1,000 to the cost of a ZENN car and return performance that rivals an ICE."

"-- It is a parallel plate capacitor with barium titanate as the dielectric.
-- It claims that it can make a battery at half the cost per kilowatt-hour and one-tenth the weight of lead-acid batteries.
-- As of last year selling price would start at $3,200 and fall to $2,100 in high-volume production
-- The product weighs 400 pounds and delivers 52 kilowatt-hours.
-- The batteries fully charge in minutes as opposed to hours.
-- The EEStor technology has been tested up to a million cycles with no material degradation compared to lead acid batteries that optimistically have 500 to 700 recharge cycles,
Because it's a solid state battery rather than a chemical battery, such being the case for lithium ion technology, there would be no overheating and thus safety concerns with using it in a vehicle.
-- With volume manufacturing it's expected to be cost-competitive with lead-acid technology.
-- As of last year, EEStor planned to build its own assembly line to prove the battery can work and then license the technology to manufacturers for volume production"

"EEStor, the developer of a new high-power-density ceramic ultracapacitor (the Energy Storage Unit—EESU), has broken a long public silence and announced reaching two key production milestones. First, its automated production line has been proven to meet the requirements for precise chemical delivery, purity control, parameter control and stability.
Second, EEStor has completed the initial milestone of certifying purification, concentration, and stability of all of its key production chemicals—notably the attainment of 99.9994% purity of its barium nitrate powder.
...
The EEStor ESU is projected to offer up to 10x the energy density (volumetric and gravimetric) of lead-acid batteries at the same cost. In addition, the ESU is projected to store up to 1.5 to 2.5 times the energy of Li-Ion batteries at 12 to 25% of the cost."

"Richard Weir, EEStor's cofounder and chief executive, says he would prefer to keep a low profile and let the results of his company's innovation speak for themselves. "We're well on our way to doing everything we said," Weir told Technology Review in a rare interview."

Patent Here

Georgia Tech is working on a similar technology

Iz

Some of that EEStor information was published earlier this year and was followed by silence.

If we take a leap of faith and this product becomes available around 2nd or 3rd quarter 2008 it would have wide implications for WhiteStar and future models.

One 52kwh L-ion pack* * = ~900 lbs and has* *> 200 mile range
Two 52kwh EEstor units = ~800 lbs and have ~ 400 mile range

I may be repeating myself from previous posts; but as a potential WhiteStar buyer (ready to put down a deposit), I would hesitate purchasing with L-ion batteries knowing an EEStor unit was proven, meets regulation and is ready for market.* WhiteStar could be offered with 1 or 2 EEStor battery units, its weight and price would decrease.* Assuming an L-ion battery pack is $20k and the “base model” WhiteStar price is $50k, a $3200 EEStor battery unit would drop the WhiteStar price to $33k.* *WhiteStar could then be sold with one, two or three battery units or designed so that additional battery units can be added for long trips.* At $33k or $36k Tesla would not be able to produce WhiteStars fast enough.* *;D

TEG

Agreed. Lets hope that Tesla is quietly working with EEstor in the background in case this actually works.

tonybelding

Previously their plan was to deliver engineering samples to ZENN by Jan/Feb of 2007. Now they are saying EEstor and ZENN will have something to show before the end of this year. That implies a large schedule slip, a big chunk of a year slipped.

Kardax

Tesla themselves have expressed enthusiasm about the possibilities of ultracapacitors, but they're affected by the same problem as everyone else: you can't actually buy EEstor-class capacitors today.

-Ryan / Kardax

Brent

Because it's in the French papers, this article last April seemed to escape much notice among anglophones. Plus, I haven't seen any of the promised prototypes since its publication. But for what it's worth:

http://www.lefigaro.fr/automobile/20...tionnaire.html

-----------------------------------------
Executive summary (and don't rely on my French translation abilities too much!):

The main news from the article -- entitled “The Birth of a Revolutionary ‘Battery’” -- is that MIT's Joel Schindall will have working a nano-enhanced capacitor prototype within three months (by July 13?). The article goes on to provide a short history of the capacitor, the charge-limiting factor of surface area, and the possibility that nanotubes may improve that. It says the prototype “est attendu comme le messie par les industriels,” or, roughly, “waited for like the messiah by industry.” It alleges that the ultimate use will be in the auto industry, but it will find uses in many other areas (mobile phones, laptops, etc.). It also says Ford has funded Schindall’s research with some “hundreds of thousands” of dollars.

Iz

That is what I am hoping for too. It would be beneficial to both companies on so many levels.

Brent, another application for ultra-capacitors is to store energy collected by solar panels for evening use. The right combination of solar panels and battery storage units may one day enable homeowners to get completely off the grid.