What happens on August 24th?

Lithium Ion is lighter than NiMH, so I would expect little change where weight is a premium. NiMH is a safer battery, so entry level vehicles may expand it's use, and cheaper, so third world autos may expand as well.

 

no one makes li-on batteries in the whole world without chevron licensing?

 

I think you meant NiMh not li-ion.

 

yes, thanks!

 

Confusing question. I am quite sure that Toyota makes their own NiMh traction batteries - maybe with the blessing (for a fee!) by Chevron. Once the patent expires Chevron can no longer claim ownership of the design. Anyone can make them.
Yes, it is possible that some low end, low cost hybrids will use this chemistry, but in the long run some version (solid state?) of Li-Ion battery will take over. It has significantly better energy density/kg.

 

from what i have read in the past, toyota has only stuck with nimh for this long because they had a huge investment in them. we can certainly see that changing with gen 4.

 

li-on is coming on pretty strong. working well in tesla, bolt, volt, pip, prime, pacifica, leaf, et al.
not sure how well nimh would work in a plug in.

toyota even put one in the two eco, must be a good reason.

 

Toyota is probably the only car company paying less for NiMH than Li-ion, and they accomplished that by investing into the entire production chain starting with nickel mines. Nickel is rarer and more expensive than lithium. NiMH may have already reached their lowest production costs, while Li-ion is still improving.

Chevron's patent isn't on the battery chemistry. It is on the use of a large format battery for plug in cars. Toyota and others specifically sized their NiMH batteries in hybrids to be below that. The patent expiration means that NiMH could be used in plug ins, but I think cost will prevent it. There is also the question of NiMH lifespan in a BEV. The chemistry lasts so long in hybrids, because the management systems baby them. Doing so in a BEV would mean a lot of extra weight that is effectively dead weight.

The EV1 and other BEVs of that era had switched to NiMH, and it was a big improvement over lead acid. Some of them are still running around, but I have no idea how well the packs have aged. Most of them are in the mild climate of California, so data from them may not apply to other regions.

BASF did have a press release saying that they saw potential on improving the NiMH battery. If they have made progress, expect announcements soon.

 

What happened when the patents lapsed on Sony's Betamax?

 

Betamax actually stuck around in other markets after VHS won here. We were probably moving on to DVDs by the time either cassette's patents lasped.

I think Li-ion has too much of a head start over NiMH for plug ins to be considered outside of niche cases. Perhaps there will be an advancement to makes it attractive for plug ins, but other battery technologies are coming to market too, like the solid state ones.

 

anyone wana buy a bunch of video laser discs?
Cheap? Yea - so glad I didn't get burned by that fly-by-night fad

 

august 24th came and went...

 

And the sun still came up this morning.

 

wouldn't have minded a few clouds...

 

The primary reason you won't see NIMH EVs is low energy density compared to lithium. They just take up too much volume (space) in the car

 

We might see them in stationary storage.