Stromer ST1 comes in both street and off-road versions.

Brammo has been strong competitor in previous TTXGP races.

Couple ride pair of Pedego electric-assist cruiser-style bicycles somewhere in southern California.

NEWS

TUE

25-Aug-2009

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Chemistry Change Makes Safer Electric Car Batteries

Argonne scientists discovered they could make a molecule based on boron and fluorine and add a tiny amount of it to each cell to control charging.

The powerful lithium-based batteries used in electric vehicle systems, laptops and cell phones are prone to overheating and even blowing up, but adding less than a gram of a new substance could keep both temperatures and costs down, federal researchers say.

The molecule, developed by researchers Khalil Amine and Zonghai Chen at Argonne National Laboratory, is being tested as an additive in the electrolyte of lithium batteries to keep cell voltage from going too high.

The batteries used in hybrid and electric vehicles typically consist of 200 to 400 small cells, strung together into one powerful whole. Individual cells sometimes overcharge, emitting heat when they reach too high a voltage and pushing neighboring cells past the breaking point to set off a runaway thermal reaction.

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