Buying the best electric car or motorcycle for your interests, the one that best suits your needs, can become a real headache. A river of power data, batteries, plugs, loads, autonomy… when all you want is for your vehicle to be used to move from one place to another. In any case, it is important that you know that not all batteries are the same, neither for your car nor for your electric motorcycle.
The batteries of your car or motorcycle are independent
In relation to electrified vehicles, they all have a battery that stores electrical energy and serves to power one or more electric motors. But as you also know, there are different types of battery for them and, among their differences, each one of them has a series of advantages, disadvantages and materials.
But this not only responds to cars, but also to electric motorcycles, which also have an important presence today. Therefore, with them we can say that this is an energy accumulator in which the electricity that will be transmitted to the alternating or direct current motor is stored.
However, it is much more than that: it is the element that gives it its sustainable entity, by making it independent of fossil fuels , and the core on which buyers’ concerns depend: its autonomy (the distance it can travel without needing to charge ), its loading time and its price.
What do we have with them
On average, batteries are estimated to support up to 3,000 full charge cycles. In this way, we could get the following idea to know how long a battery lasts: if it were emptied and refilled every day it would last more than eight years .
At this point, to doubt that an electric car battery is a staple would be strange. And it is that advances in this field mark the future of plug-in cars, something logical considering that the entire development process of an electric vehicle revolves around the battery. This is where we see the lithium ones as the main protagonists… but they also differ from each other.
All rechargeable batteries, like conventional ones, have a metal casing that encloses and protects its constituent elements. This coating contains inside a very long spiral that is made up of thin sheets very close to each other, made up of four elements , common in arrangement, although not in composition, to those of any other battery. We see this from the hand of the motorcycle manufacturer Yadea Global.
- A positive electrode , called the cathode .
- A negative electrode , the anode .
- A chemical solvent, called an electrolyte , among them.
- And a separator .
Advantages and disadvantages
Like any other element, lithium batteries offer a series of advantages over other types of battery. These are the most common:
- High energy density.
- Reduced weight.
- High voltage per cell.
- linear discharge.
- Very low self-discharge rate.
But they also have a series of disadvantages or inconveniences to take into account:
- Average life of lithium battery is about 500-1000 charge cycles.
- Shelf life of 2-3 years stored with 40% of its maximum charge.
- They support a limited number of loads between 300 and 500.
- Its manufacture is more expensive.
- Its performance at low temperatures is worse, reducing its duration by up to 25%.
These are the most common lithium battery types:
- Lithium-cobalt : These types of batteries are the most common in mobile phones and other small portable devices. They are made of lithium cobalt carbonate, have a cobalt oxide cathode, and use carbon graphite as the anode material. They stand out for their high specific energy.
- Lithium Polymer – Lithium polymer batteries store a lot of energy, are lightweight, and are made up of multiple rechargeable cells in parallel. They are usually available in a series of packs that increase the total available voltage.
- Lithium Iron Phosphate – These lithium iron phosphate batteries have low resistance, increased safety and thermal stability, and offer high durability and long cycle life. However, they have a lower voltage than other batteries, so they offer less power. They are the most common in electric motorcycles, although some cars also use them.
- Lithium-manganese oxide : these batteries stand out for their stability at high temperatures and for being safer. For this reason, they are used in medical equipment, power tools or bicycles.
- Lithium Metatitanate : Lithium titanate batteries allow fast recharge times, include nanotechnology, lower voltage and lower energy density. They are common in bicycles and electric cars, and have applications in the military and aerospace fields.
- Lithium-Nickel-Cobalt Aluminum Oxide : These types of batteries are becoming common in electric propulsion systems and in network storage. They stand out for offering a good useful life, although they are not as safe as other lithium batteries and still have a high price.
- Lithium Manganese Cobalt Oxide – Lastly, lithium manganese cobalt oxide batteries have a cathode made of nickel, manganese, and cobalt. They tend to have a high energy density or specific power, although not combined, they are also somewhat more expensive and are found in power tools and vehicle propulsion systems.