Comments on: BMW X6 to be powerful hybrid-electric vehicle http://fuel-efficient-vehicles.org/energy-news/?p=854 Energy to save our Environment, our Economy, ... ourselves! Sat, 04 Sep 2010 12:30:28 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9 hourly 1 By: KDB_Geneva http://fuel-efficient-vehicles.org/energy-news/?p=854&cpage=1#comment-65 KDB_Geneva Wed, 02 Sep 2009 11:57:44 +0000 ?p=854#comment-65 The BMW X6 is one of the few hybrid cars in Europe that takes advantage of the innovative high energy storage system NiMH (Titan-Nickel-Metalhydride). Also Porsche prefers with the Panamera and Cayenne HEVs the safe and lowcost NiMH system over the very expensive ( > 1000 $/kWh = factor: 3 to 4 over NiMH) and <del>still unsafe</del> Li-ion technology. In the second generation NiMH increases the energy density close to 100 Wh/kg comparable to the LiFePO4 system. It is worth mentioning that the pioneering work on NiMH was performed at the Power Sources Division of Battelle, Innovation R&D Center in Geneva/Switzerland. The innovative NiMH system (Titan-Nickel-Metalhydride) now powers worldwide over 2 mio hybrid electric vehicles (Toyota PRIUS, LEXUS, Honda CIVIC, INSIGHT, Ford, GM etc.) The basic development of NiMH was performed over nearly 20 years for Daimler-Benz and Volkswagen and improved & commercialized / worldwide licensed by the US firm ECD (Energy Conversion Devices, Inc., Michigan). Recently, the automotive division COBASYS (jointly owned by Chevron Oil and ECD) was sold to the SBL (SB-LiMotive: a German (Bosch) & Korean (Samsung) joint company) which shows the tendency NOT to concentrate all efforts on the Li-ion storage system which after 25 years of its development has still not reached commercial industrial maturity at acceptable cost. A comparison of both storage systems is available on request as pdf-file from a presentation at the IAMF - 2009 Conference of the Geneva Autoshow. The BMW X6 is one of the few hybrid cars in Europe that takes advantage of the innovative high energy storage system NiMH (Titan-Nickel-Metalhydride). Also Porsche prefers with the Panamera and Cayenne HEVs the safe and lowcost NiMH system over the very expensive ( > 1000 $/kWh = factor: 3 to 4 over NiMH) and still unsafe Li-ion technology. In the second generation NiMH increases the energy density close to 100 Wh/kg comparable to the LiFePO4 system.

It is worth mentioning that the pioneering work on NiMH was performed at the Power Sources Division of Battelle, Innovation R&D Center in Geneva/Switzerland. The innovative NiMH system (Titan-Nickel-Metalhydride) now powers worldwide over 2 mio hybrid electric vehicles (Toyota PRIUS, LEXUS, Honda CIVIC, INSIGHT, Ford, GM etc.) The basic development of NiMH was performed over nearly 20 years for Daimler-Benz and Volkswagen and improved & commercialized / worldwide licensed by the US firm ECD (Energy Conversion Devices, Inc., Michigan).

Recently, the automotive division COBASYS (jointly owned by Chevron Oil and ECD) was sold to the SBL (SB-LiMotive: a German (Bosch) & Korean (Samsung) joint company) which shows the tendency NOT to concentrate all efforts on the Li-ion storage system which after 25 years of its development has still not reached commercial industrial maturity at acceptable cost. A comparison of both storage systems is available on request as pdf-file from a presentation at the IAMF - 2009 Conference of the Geneva Autoshow.

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