Significant strides are being made towards the use of
supercapacitors for energy storage and power smoothing in
vehicles.
Supercaps are already being used in larger vehicles, such as
trucks and buses, to store energy wasted during braking.
The US Advanced Battery Consortium, formed by DaimlerChrysler,
Ford, General Motors and the Department of Energy, wants to push
the technology down to smaller vehicles.
Maxwell Technologies is now in production of 2.7V, 2,600F cells
and 16V balanced modules based on those cells. It is developing a
48V version specifically for cars. This could be used to smooth
power in the electrical system.
These cells will be tested for energy capacity, pulse power,
abuse tolerance, calendar life and cycle life at the Sandia and
Idaho national labs.
“This independent third-party testing will supplement and
validate the performance and reliability data that we have been
generating internally,” said Richard Smith, Maxwell’s
executive v-p for business development.
The firm is targeting “the 50-plus million-unit annual new
car market”, Smith said.
www.maxwell.com
www.uscar.org/.../con-usabc.htm