Youtube - Taxi Battery Teardown
 

The last minute of the vid has the results of testing the battery. 230k miles, 85% battery life remaining after 230k.

http://www.youtube.com/results?searc...ardown+battery

So this begs the question, are these things worth the little nickel and dime fixes needed to keep them going until "the wheels blow out"? Well, until the battery dies? I'm inclined to go for it and see just what this thing will do. Anyone else?

Couple questions:

Is the stress on an Atkinson Cycle motor less that an Otto? The fuel charge is depleted at bottom dead center vs Otto with combustion still occurring at BDC and the resulting stress on rod, main bearings and other components in the ICE.

At what point is the battery truly no longer useful? 50%, 33.3%, 25%? Do we know?

I have no reservations at 235k taking this thing to SoCal to visit the folks and siblings or to AZ to visit the sis or WA to visit the bro. Why is thing so stout?


As an aside, what are you all thinking of replacing your FEH with. We have been eyeballing a Mazda CX-5 pretty hard. Nice little rig that is...

Re: Youtube - Taxi Battery Teardown
 

Somewhere I figured out what proportion of the mileage savings of a hybrid is dependent on the battery capacity. Without looking it up, the situation is that a loss of 15% of capacity would only be 15% of, say, 45% ( = 6.75%) of the hybrid's advantages. Battery capacity loss does not affect the relatively small ICE operating on the Otto cycle, CVT or engine stop/start. Put another way, even without a hybrid battery, the car would still get superior mileage.

I've never heard of an FEH needing an engine replacement or serious work. Thousands of them in taxi use see over 300,000 miles, and there's on in the US with over 500,000 miles on it.

I expect that by the time our FEH needs replacing, there will be EV alternatives.

Re: Youtube - Taxi Battery Teardown
 

Only 13% of the battery capacity is needed for normal driving and normal mpg.
Only 20% of the battery capacity is needed for the extents of the bell curve...

It's true, we all carry around 80% more battery weight than we "need to".
But this fact is what makes it last an expected 15 years / 300,000 miles.

My battery is not at 100% and neither is yours.
But we won't see a MPG loss until it is more than 80% deteriorated.

Mine at 9.5 years and 170,000 miles gives the same performance as ever.
But it is showing age in the fact of internal resistance increasing and heat generation increasing. Any MPG loss will begin from the drag on engine to spin the air conditioning compressor to cool the battery. I'm getting the same watt-hours out but more energy is being lost to heat both charging and discharging... so the feel, the drivability is unchanged but the effieciency is getting gradually less with age. But a tiny amount so far.
John