Lab works on batteries to help drivers kick gas habit

IDAHO FALLS – Researchers at the Idaho National Laboratory have already figured out how to make hybrid car batteries last more than 10 years – even under extreme cold and heat.

Now they just need a way to make them cheap.

The work is part of the Department of Energy’s $4 million FreedomCAR program, meant to help automakers develop more efficient gasoline and advanced hybrid vehicles and, eventually, cars that run on hydrogen.

For years, the lab’s primary work was running batteries for weeks, months or even years in controlled-environment boxes that could be kept at very cold temperatures until the batteries stopped working. The tests helped manufacturers know how safe the batteries were and how long their warranties should be.

“If we’re going to put them in cars, we have to make them safe – at least as safe as driving around above a tank of gas,” said chemist Tim Murphy, who runs the Energy Storage Technologies Laboratory.

One of Murphy’s recent projects was to test rechargeable batteries for gas-electric hybrids. The manufacturer’s goal was to find one that could last about 15 years – and the best one they had lasted only about two years.

“Now we’re over 10 years – we’re doing pretty good,” Murphy said. “We just haven’t figured out how to make them cheap.”

Automakers hope to get the cost of each battery down from about $2,000 to $500 so the cars can compete in price with gasoline vehicles. For instance, Murphy said, his team tested a Toyota Prius hybrid electric battery and found that each one cost more than $5,000 to build. That means Toyota is probably selling the $20,000 cars at a loss, he said.

The batteries are expensive because hybrids use exotic metal electrodes and solid polymers, instead of the relatively cheap acid solutions surrounding metal plates in most conventional batteries.