Nimh or LifePO4?

Nimh or LifePO4 drop in replacement battery for hybrids

We currently have two drop in replacement battery packs designed for hybrids. One pack which meets vehicle demand while at the same time exceeding OEM specs is our Nickle Metal Hydride based pack. Each cell in the pack runs at a capacity of ~8Ah as compared to most manufacturers 6.5Ah. This battery pack would be warrantied for up to 3 years and have multiple pack options. Our specially designed circuit would allow us to be able to build a pack for almost any car, at any capacity. Our larger packs would have enough capacity to be available in plug-in form alongside being a standard, non-plug in replacement. Due to the shape of the cells we would use, each battery chassis would need to be engineered into a different shape than the original, taking up a different footprint in the back of the car while having a shorter profile. The larger packs would remove the HV pack from it's original position and place it in the trunk or above the spare tire. Our pack would cost considerably less than the OEM replacement while being above spec and having a higher capacity. Above all this pack would have a high build quality, easy serviceability, and a high safety standard. This safety includes the possibly of having a smoke detecting expanding foam satchel that would discharge and snuff out any fires within the battery before they posed a problem. 

LifePO4 is the next pack that we are still currently engineering. LifePO4 batteries have a much longer life than Nimh due to their long cycle life. 5+ years would be the warranty on this drop-in replacement. Each cell would have a capacity of 20-40Ah as compared to the Nimh's 8Ah. Due to the nature of the LifePO4 battery's voltage, there would be close to double the amount of cells in the pack, increasing the capacity even further. Each cell would have it's own surge protector of sorts. The device drains excess current that would otherwise harm the cell while at the same time discharging the cell to the same capacity as the rest in the pack, keeping the entire pack completely balanced. The pack would be plug-in compatible for sure with such a high capacity. Due to the nature of the cells and how the car charges the battery, the battery would only be at full charge after being plugged in. Once amperage has been drained the battery will run at low to mid charge until it's plugged in once more. This keeps the battery from cycling as often as a Nimh would, increasing it's life. There is no chance of these cells losing capacity from memory problems from the low cycling. While the cost of the cells and technology in these cells being higher, we are still able to keep the cost slightly below OEM while exceeding the specs 6+ fold. The pack would use the existing battery chassis, keeping the car nearly stock looking. Our plug-in system would be an external charger that would plug into a battery pigtail to charge the large series from your home 110 outlet. As with our Nimh pack, the LifePO4 pack would have an expandable capacity reaching almost unlimited capacity as would fit in the car. The build quality would be astounding, while the safety would surpass our Nimh because of the safe cell technology. 

Let us know what battery you would like to see as a stock replacement in our poll on the right side of our site and stay tuned for even more news as we develop our packs even further!

New Hybrid Batteries with High Capacity Cells

We are currently in the development stages of offering a better alternative to New replacement batteries for your hybrid vehicle. These batteries will be a complete, bolt-in, plug and play part to your existing system. In addition this, each pack contains cells with a capacity of 10 Amp hours! On top of this offering there will be an extended capacity pack, which already exceeds OEM specs. As well as a double capacity pack which is exactly double the capacity of our extended pack

Using our scale-able cell technology we are able to produce packs with an almost endless capacity by combining serial and parallel circuit technology. Theoretically, we could produce a pack for any hybrid vehicle using this technology. Our pack also uses a more standard cell technology, allowing better cooling and higher efficiency outputs.

After the first pack has been installed into our test vehicle, we will run a fuel mileage report and a scan of the charge rate of the battery. Once we are satisfied with our findings and some fine tuning, our product will be ready for pre-order and manufacturing will proceed.

We are aiming to provide the public with our entry battery for substantially less than what a new battery from Toyota or Honda costs. Our first packs will be for 04-09 Prius's and 03-07 Honda civics and insights. We will later expand our line to the older 1st generation Prius's and newer Civics and accords. From there we will expand to other hybrids and beyond.

Keep your eyes peeled for more updates as our development continues!

Protean In-Wheel Electric Motor

So what's one problem with today's hybrids and electrics? Weight of the electronics and size of the components. There's also serviceability issues with these hybrids and electrics, only being serviceable by trained professionals or someone with a lot of time and knowledge on their hands.

Protean has an amazing, ingenious solution for this, they put the electric motor, IN the wheel.

Pretty cool huh? Now according to their website each in wheel motor can produce up to 100 horsepower and 735 lb-ft of torque. Yes, 735 Foot Pounds of Torque! These specs are peaked at 400 volts DC, which means you're not likely to get a long range off of juicing your motor with electricity. Instead opt for these motors on all four wheels and push 50-100 volts on each and get amazing range when you want it, or step it up to 400 volts and get power when you need to have fun. Each motor has an 85% regenerative braking energy regain according to their site. With fewer moving parts i'm not surprised at that kind of efficiency. The in wheel design also seems ideal for serviceability. Instead of taking the engine apart to get to hybrid components, just take the wheel off and it's all right there. 

One thing Protean brags is 'retrofitability', being easy to implement on newer vehicles or existing fleet. Care to turn your 200 hp car into a 600hp all wheel drive monster? As this motor uses the existing wheel hub, the existing drive axle can fit through the motor as well. You can see more of the drive-train on Protean's website. If this is the case, i'd be ready to retrofit this on any car, any day.

If Protean's motor is as good as they say it is, we may be seeing the horizon of a whole new direction in electric drives. However, some ideas can sound too good to be true. We will just have to wait and see what happens. 

Common Prius HV Battery Problems and Their Uncommon Counterparts.

Common Prius HV Battery Problems and Their Uncommon Counterparts.

So, you're driving your Prius then suddenly, your dashboard lights up like a Christmas tree, there's a big red triangle, and your lcd is showing you that the car has a problem. When this happens there are many different things it can be, inverter, corroded HV lines, or even a low 12 volt battery. To properly diagnose whether or not the HV battery is to blame for these codes, you must look at what DTC's your Prius is showing, and how it is acting.

Most every time we've seen a Prius come into our shop for a battery repair it's either had P0A80 or P3000. For most scanners the P0A80 code simply reads "replace hybrid battery" or "hybrid battery pack failure". Both of these codes simply mean that there was an HV Battery malfunction. Many times, these codes will come alongside other P30xx codes. These extra codes can help diagnose what exactly is wrong with the battery and can help you make an informed decision on how to go about your repair. Often times with any of these codes we recommend a full rebuild of the harness and battery to ensure that your repair lasts.

P3030, or "HV line snapped" is a code given when there is a very large discrepancy in either the voltage levels of the battery, or the voltage level of the entire battery. When we say "very large discrepancy" we mean that there is a line reading absolutely 0 volts. For example, in a second generation Prius, there are 14 cell blocks and a total of 28 cells. These individual cell voltages are read by the ecu in pairs, therefore 2-7.2 volt cells should read at least 14.4 or more. With a P3030 code there is a high chance that one of these block voltages will read "0". This is usually caused by a broken and corroded voltage sensor wire, however there have been times where an entire battery cell will read 0, causing this code to appear.

The corrosion on picture 1 will eventually
lead to a full breakage of picture 2

A full voltage line "snapped" is caused
when there is full loss of voltage read.

A cell rupture, though uncommon, could
cause the same p3030 code, among
others.

The main reason for most hybrids batteries going bad is that there's a cell that loses charge before the others and drops voltage. Many different things cause this such as electrolyte leakage, cell element deterioration, stratification or crystallization of cell element, impact and overheating. Hybrid batteries are run in a series circuit, meaning that all the batteries are run end to end, adding up the voltages to make one large high voltage battery. Eventually after many charge/discharge cycles, the battery will lose it's balance. The balance is how close the cell voltages and SOC (state of charge) are to each other. When a cell loses it's SOC it's voltage drops and causes problems within the circuit. We've seen this lead to the failure of multiple cell blocks as well as the rupture of one or more cells. This rupture issue is uncommon, however you can prevent it by getting it repaired asap. Prolonged use of a compromised battery can cause more and more problems as you drive.

A rare failure seen on a 2001 Prius. All 38 cells expanded or ruptured.
Prolonged drive on a compromised battery could be to blame.

P3006, or "Battery Levels are unusually different". This code is given with the state of charge on individual blocks read "outside of the range" of the others. For example if cell block 14 and 5 are reading 14.4 volts while the rest of the blocks are reading 17.0 volts the car will trigger this code. What this means is that either one or both cells in either block has a low state of charge caused by deterioration. Often times this also means that the voltage sensor wires are corroded, but just enough to cause enough resistance for the computer to read that block as being low. In either case we recommend that the battery is rebuilt simply because if there's corrosion on the terminals and sensor wires, there is crystallization inside of the battery cell itself causing the voltages to read lower, and lower. This code usually comes in tandem with the P0A80 code or the P3000 code. 

P3011-P3029 codes indicate individual block malfunctions. These codes appear in the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd generation prius' according to their block count. 1st gen has 19 blocks, and 2nd and 3rd gens have 14 blocks. P3011 starts at block 1 and P3029 ends with block 19. This code is triggered in a similar manner to how the P3006 code is triggered, just on a more specific level. This basically just means that that particular cell block is below the systems voltage range. When any of these codes are triggered it means the cells need to be replaced. We recommend that with any of these codes you get a full battery rebuild. As the cells deteriorate over time, one or more will start to fail. If you simply replace a failed one, another older one is likely to go bad soon after.

A swollen cell can throw different voltage readings than it's
neighboring blocks, causing individual block codes.

Ecu Malfunctions

In each hybrid battery in a Prius there is a battery ECU. This ECU records the temperatures and voltages, computes them, then sends those readings to the cars main computer. The computer takes these readings and decides whether or not there is a problem with the battery. As a vehicle component, the ECU is prone to failure, as with every other vehicle part. Fortunately ECU malfunction is not as common as a battery cell malfunction or a battery harness malfunction. Often times the car can be saying that there is a problem with the computer, when the problem is within the harness itself. ECU malfunctions can only be diagnosed by a professional battery re-builder, dealer, or a shop with a dealer computer.

There are codes that can appear on an ordinary code scanner, however often times it can be very indecisive whether the ECU is actually bad. 

P3001 or "Battery ECU Malfunction" indicates that the ECU is bad and needs to be replaced. This code may be triggered by either yes the ECU being bad or no by something being unplugged, shorted, or corroded. 

Burnt harness plug exterior causing symptoms of a bad ecu.

P3002 or "HV ECU Communication Malfunction" may indicate that the battery's ECU is bad. The communication malfunction is caused by the computers not properly communicating with each other. Now, this can mean that the battery ecu is bad, or the car's computer is bad. Often time it is the battery ECU that will be bad. We've also seen this code triggered by extremely corroded voltage sensor wires and temperature wires. We recommend getting your car checked by a professional first before deciding on what repair route to take. 

Burnt pins on an ECU port causing symptoms of a bad ECU.
Repair is possible on the pins however, if the damage is on the
ECU board itself it will need to be replaced.

Summary

All of these codes are the most common codes you see with HV battery malfunctions in a Prius. Most of these codes can be read using a handheld code scanner or by being scanned by a shop or even some parts stores. Now, proper diagnostics can only be achieved by a trained professional as the hybrid system in a Prius has many variables and components. If it is deemed that yes you need to replace or get your battery rebuilt, we recommend that you decide on how much money you're willing to spend, then consider your options accordingly. Buying a brand new battery from Toyota would come with a long warranty but would cost between $3000-$4500. We've even heard from one customer that the dealer wanted to charge $5000, Ouch! There are also many different battery re-builders, including us. We recommend that you take care and caution when looking around for a good re-builder. How is their price? Do they have a good warranty? Do they have a lot of complaints? Are they very hesitant to give you straight answers? Are they a real business with a permanent location? Do they just put a volt meter to the battery can call it good, or do they use real testing equipment such as load analyzers and chargers? These are all things that you need to consider when going with a re-builder. One thing you need you always remember, if you own a hybrid vehicle, you will eventually need a battery. Just as cars brake down, the failure rate for all batteries is always eventually 100%. Look, think, and know. With the right course of action you will be sure to have a great experience with owning a hybrid vehicle.