Daimler/Mercedes
Mercedes producer, Daimler, is fresh off of releasing their new home and businesses powering lithium-ion batteries to Germany and have now created a dedicated branch that will assist with further innovation in the energy sector. The new entity's name is Mercedes-Benz Energy GmbH. The entity will be leading the charge in the sales of the brand new batteries by Daimler.
"With growing electrification of the automobile, demand for lithium-ion batteries is constantly rising. By expanding this line of business to include stationary private and industrial applications, Daimler AG with its wholly owned subsidiary Deutsche ACCUMOTIVE GmbH & Company KG are already opened up additional prospects for growth last year. Delivery of domestic storage solutions for the Germany market started in April," the press release for the company said.
The hope is that Mercedes' new lines of cars will also benefit from the battery technology and release something that could be considered a competitor to the Model S that will be released from Tesla in 2017/18.
Tesla
A new study into the viability of the lithium-ion batteries that are available in Tesla vehicles has been conducted. The results are very positive. The potential battery capacity degradation was studies and shows that the Model S' battery pack loses only 5% of its capacity within 50,000 miles. This could mean great things for the reusability of these batteries once they have gone through their legal cycles in the car. It could mean that you could use a secondhand battery from a Tesla vehicle to use as a Tesla PowerWall, in the same way that Nissan is currently advertising their home-powering battery.
According to Electrek, Tesla's cars come with 8 years of battery warranty no matter how far you drive them. Elon Musk was quoted when announcing the warranty, saying: "Moreover, the warranty extension will apply retroactively to all Model S vehicles ever produced...If we truly believe that electric motors are fundamentally more reliable than gasoline engines, with far fewer moving parts and no oily residue or combustion byproducts to gum up the works, then our warranty policy should reflect that."
So lithium-ion rules once again in the powering of electric vehicles and is here to stay. Encouragingly, the strength of the Model S' impending battery bodes well for people who have installed Tesla's grid-balancing PowerWall in their households. It seems more and more automakers are vying for spots on your wall to power your house, and to power your car with a battery instead of a carbon emitting engine. Who get's your vote?
Source: Clean Technica
