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Old 06-22-2010, 10:31 PM   #5 (permalink)
RobertSmalls
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Nevyn View Post
If you over time slowly built up a supply of cylindrical Li-Ion cells from laptop batteries, would you be able to build a Li-Ion pack? Or, because of the difference in chemistry and charge method, is such a feat impossible?
These NiMH cells seem to last for a very long time. Maybe we can't keep refurbishing the same cells literally forever, but the rate at which bad cells develop will probably remain much slower than the rate at which Insights and Civic Hybrids are taken off the road.

But I'm not aware of any method for bringing life back to dead lithium batteries from laptops, cell phones, and iPods, none of which tend to last more than a few years. Not to mention the number of packs you'd need to equal the capacity of the Insight's stock battery. I think you would need to go with new lithium cells.

Replacing the stock battery pack with one of a different chemistry has been done, but it's far from easy. The vastly easier approach is to charge the stock battery pack while you're driving, through a DC/DC converter.
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