First off, great site and great info! I am an EE, and I just built the Great Planes P-51 Mustang and after reading your site, am going to build the A123 battery pack for it.

Now for my main question. I am starting a new project converting a vehicle to an EV, and would love to hear your expert opinions on which batterys to use. I have read that A123s are being developed for EVs for some big companies already and I really like their safety and performance. I am sure they will cost more than the normal marine flooded batteries, but haven't looked to see how much more. Anyway, I look forward to hearing your opinions.

Also I will be keeping a record of my progress for the project on the blog http://advevprogress.blogspot.com/
Not much info there yet, but I welcome any comments and info people may add throughout the project!

Once again, I appreciate all the great info your site provides!

Ken Berck

This is the Official A123 Racing Support Forum and your question is

Seems to me their can only be one correct answer.

A123 cells.


They will cost a great deal more.
Example my field charging source is a pair of 125Ah (250Ah total) flooded deep cycle batteries. Cost me $145.

Similiar voltage and capacity with A123 cells would be min. of 324 cells at min. of $10 ea for a total of $3240. Cells would be even more expensive from most sources.


Charles

How would one go about charging and balancing all those cells practically? Do you think the performance would outweigh the costs?