FEB 05

How do you improve on the quality of an electric vehicle like those offered by ZAP? One of the simpler ways is to introduce a new battery management system for lithium batteries, which can extend the car's range. That's from an announcement made recently by ZAP and electric car scientists at Lithium Balance in Copenhagen.

ZAP has been working with Lithium Balance since the beginning of the year on this new battery management system, which the company says will help their vehicles get up to 152 miles per charge. The Danish company is using two Xebra electric vehicles for testing of this new system, achieving in July a distance of around 100 miles per charge. ZAP says it has acquired the exclusive rights of this technology into electric vehicle development.

As for how this new system works its magic, ZAP says it is smaller and lighter, which helps to increase "the energy density by eight to ten times" versus batteries currently found in most electric autos. This system will also reportedly improve upon safety and reliability of larger lithium battery packs for automotive uses.

Via Press Release

Comments (3)

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50% not -> 500%. Wow!!
written by Hoch, February 06, 2008

The Zap Xebra range is 25 miles per charge. With the Lithium Balance BME battery they claim it will achieve 152 miles that's a 500% (multiply by 6) increase in range. Amazing! Thank you guys for this great site! :)

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Too bad about that build quality...
written by John, February 06, 2008

I was pretty excited about the Xebras until I sat in one. Ewww, ewww, ewww. The quality of construction is downright awful, the interiors incredibly sloppy, the materials cheap. They're the Yugo of electric cars.

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written by Jim, February 13, 2008

That certainly is good news. Hopefully these new batteries will be less affected by cold weather. The lead-acid battery packs used in other electric vehicles are extremely vulnerable to temperatures down in the high twenties and below - resulting in a range loss of 75 percent or more. When an EV has a range of 5 miles or so, it is really almost useless.

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