Lithion-Ion Batteries

[Stephen Kowski]

Originally Posted by artdutra04

Lithium Iron Phosphate chemistry shows potential, but is still too new and costly.

I find the cost concern here difficult to reconcile. Every year there are many teams with a double digit number of batteries housed in large rolling cabinets. They have them labeled as practice, competition, good, ok, bad etc.

It seems to me that teams have a large volume of batteries to counteract a few apparent problems:
1) the batteries maintain inconsistent charge levels
2) these batteries degrade quickly over time needing consistent replacement and
3) the batteries cannot cope with a large C ratings while charging or discharging which causes the electrode/cathode degradation and results in 1) and 2).

Personally, I would rather have 1 or 2 batteries that work reliably even if they cost more rather than 5-10 batteries I have to babysit. At the very minimum it would be nice to have an option, any option, because right now there is no alternative.