Battery that can be part of the structure of a vehicle

profdant139,

There was a car call the "Gee Whiz" produced in India and sold in the UK which had a tubular frame--and inside were the batteries. Made by the Reva company.

I hope it works at some level. Going to be hard to get it into the new gigapress.

I can see why car manufacturers would like this -- it solves the "How much is it going to cost to replace the battery in 10 years" question because when the frame is the battery, the entire car is disposable, you have to buy a new one when the battery ages out.

I think the industry may well jump on this technology.. here is why.
Batteries have a "life span" none of them last forever. So you now have a built in clock to "Dead car" and if it's part of the frame. you need to get not just a new $7,000 (Pirus) battery but a whole new car.

Or they can make it modular so that the battery/framework can quickly and easily dropped out and replaced. Front wheel drive cars are designed such that you can drop the entire engine and transaxle out of the vehicle in a couple of hours for easy access/replacement.

When is the last time a major manufacturer designed a "disposable car" where one component failure is intentionally designed to render the car irreparable? Manufactures could have been doing this for decades but they know it won't work because customers won't come back.

Wasn't the early Vega designed as a throwaway? It had a no sleeve block that had a very finite lifespan. Sounds like disposable design to me as the motor replacement was more than the car was worth.

rlw999 wrote:
I can see why car manufacturers would like this -- it solves the "How much is it going to cost to replace the battery in 10 years" question because when the frame is the battery, the entire car is disposable, you have to buy a new one when the battery ages out.

most cars are build using subframs now days so they would just chage out a subframe. they would probably have the batteries aranged as a rear, mid and front subfram.

what it would allow is for a little less weight overall. if that subfram is the batery they dont have to build a extra fram thats strong enough to hold thoes batteries and a little more interior room.

Steve

wa8yxm wrote:
I think the industry may well jump on this technology.. here is why.
Batteries have a "life span" none of them last forever. So you now have a built in clock to "Dead car" and if it's part of the frame. you need to get not just a new $7,000 (Pirus) battery but a whole new car.

Why do people that know nothing about a Prius say the things they say? LOL. A Prius battery is less than $2,000.

https://parts.dublintoyota.com/p/Toyota__Prius/BATTERY-ASSEMBLY---HV-SUPPLY/63533084/G951047031.html?partner=googlebase_adwords&kwd=&origin=pla&partnerDevice=c&userLocation=9051682&gclid=Cj0KCQjwo-aCBhC-ARIsAAkNQisf1LS3A25fFI8FLWZFCTuWwTjT06hQTtP1Ap6HUhiGkm75R8aqqGYaAhLHEALw_wcB

I'm going to say it's a bad design. Today's battery packs can be salvaged and rebuilt, expanding their lives to....well, we don't know yet.

profdant139 wrote:
I stumbled upon this interesting article -- the researchers have developed a battery that can also serve as a structural member. Thus, the battery may no longer be a dead weight but instead is part of the vehicle. They don't mention RVs, but it seems like this product might fit our needs, if it ever pans out:

Massless or structural battery article

Just another possible development to watch!

Planned Obsolescence..

Full definition HERE

" What Is Planned Obsolescence?

Planned obsolescence describes a strategy of deliberately ensuring that the current version of a given product will become out of date or useless within a known time period. This proactive move guarantees that consumers will seek replacements in the future, thus bolstering demand.

Obsolescence can be achieved through introducing a superior replacement model, or by intentionally designing a product to cease proper function within a specific window. In either case, consumers will theoretically favor the next generational products over the old ones.

Important:
Planned obsolescence differs from perceived obsolescence, which is when designers make frequent stylistic changes to their products, due to the decrease in the perceived desirability of unfashionable items."

Ever hear of the "Centennial light"?

It is the longest continuously burning light bulb ever made.

Installed in 1901.. and is still burning, you can view a live webcam of the bulb.



LIVERMORE'S CENTENNIAL BULB

Was made by Shelby Electric Company.

They marketed it as the longest life bulb but that same strategy was the downfall of the company since the bulb lasted a long time, the customer base would not need to buy again for a long, long time..

So to combat this issue as the story goes, the light bulb manufacturers eventually got together and agreed to limit the life of the bulbs to 1000 hrs which meant the consumer would have to change bulbs every 40 days..

So, the Phoebus cartel was born..

See HERE

" Greater sums of money could be reaped, companies figured, by making bulbs disposable

The business model changed, however, as the light bulb customer base grew more mass-market. Greater sums of money could be reaped, companies figured, by making bulbs disposable and putting replacement costs onto customers. Thus was born the infamous “Phoebus cartel” in the 1920s, wherein representatives from top light bulb manufacturers worldwide, such as Germany’s Osram, the United Kingdom’s Associated Electrical Industries, and General Electric (GE) in the United States (via a British subsidiary), colluded to artificially reduce bulbs’ lifetimes to 1,000 hours. The details of the scam emerged decades later in governmental and journalistic investigations.

“This cartel is the most obvious example” of planned obsolescence’s origins “because those papers have been found,” says Giles Slade, author of the book Made to Break: Technology and Obsolescence in America, a history of the strategy and its consequences.

The practice cropped up in all sorts of other industries, too. For instance, competition between General Motors and Ford in the fledging 1920s auto market led the former to introduce the now-familiar model year changes in its vehicles. GM had pioneered a way to entice customers to splurge on the latest, greatest car, to satisfy themselves and impress those in their social circles. “It was a model for all industry,” says Slade.

Although the term “planned obsolescence” didn’t enter common usage until the 1950s, the strategy had by then permeated consumerist societies.

Alive and well

In various forms, from subtle to unsubtle, planned obsolescence still very much exists nowadays. From so-called contrived durability, where brittle parts give out, to having repairs cost more than replacement products, to aesthetic upgrades that frame older product versions as less stylish – goods makers have no shortage of ruses to keep opening customers’ wallets."

Yeah, "disposable cars", I am not into..