subject: Toyota and Daimler embrace Tesla's laptop battery packs [print this page] Toyota and Daimler embrace Tesla's laptop battery packs
Only a couple of years ago, major automakers scoffed at Tesla Motors. Make a powerplant by binding together thousands of Toshiba laptop batteries? Ridiculous, if not an invitation to thermal meltdown.
Now, the big guys are embracing Tesla's solution. Toyota, Smart car parent Daimler and BMW are turning to bundles of laptop batteries as a quick, cheap way to power electric cars, Bloomberg News reports.
No surprise why. Despite dire predictions, Tesla now has had hundreds of its electric roadsters on the road for more than year running just fine. So far, no mass reports of hot spots in batteries packs -- 6,831 individual cells bound together -- that could lead to fires or other problems.
In fact, the solution costs less than the sophisticated lithium-ion acer notebook battery packs developed by Nissan for the electric Leaf or General Motors for its extended-range electric Volt.
The car industry has been great for the laptop battery industry. It will more than triple sales to $60 billion in a decade, according to Sanyo Electric, the world's biggest maker. The economies of scale may drop prices on dell laptop battery
Tesla's power packs will be used in Daimler's electric Smarts and Mercedes-Benz A-class cars in Europe. Toyota will use Tesla's packs in an electric RAV4 in 2012. BMW leased 450 Minis powered by laptop cells.
Battery company has quickly grown to one of the top online Australian retailers of electronics accessories, offering generic product brands that provide the same quality as the big brand names but at half the price.
