I know batteries are a big topic and I have a work colleague who has an interest in electric vehicles and raised the question why don't we use LiPo batteries in our bikes?

So I thought I would throw the question out there aimed at the engineers amongst us. On the surface they are smaller, lighter and have huge capacities and the price of the smaller ones appears comparable to traditional batteries. I believe they need a specific charger with a regulated output but it appears that could be wired in series between the alternator and battery.

So why don't we??

Phil, I think Bert wrote recently that our bike's charging systems are designed for lead acid wet cell batterias and not gell type, which apparently require different charging technology, so maybe that would also apply to the Lith Poly type ??
Dunno, all smoke and mirrors to me, I'm a mechanical type person, not really into the amp & ohms thing.

I think that it is a price thing. We have lot of industrial money invested in lead acid batteries and its manufacture. They are very cheap to make and anyone can do it. Li batteries are not so cheap and require sophisticated manufacturing facilities and exotic chemicals.

We are heading towards rechargeable Li in cars, but I think, that it will take hybrids to lead the way and make Li batteries cheaper. Also, we know that car makers have the new technology waiting in the wings, but will not introduce it until we have a disaster (fuel $$) or they are forced to do it (environmental zero emissions).

It is a bit like Nuclear vs Coal. Coal will finally kill the planet, but it is cheap, plentiful and we are currently using it. (insert your religious/environmental/political/scientific beliefs here)

The battery is really a collection of individual cells all having a fixed voltage. so to produce 6,12 or 24 volts you only need to increase the number of cells to suit. no reason why you can't do it with Li. As for the charging thing, it is simply a regulator change.

Hi Phil,
Simple answer because we don't need to for our application where we only start our bikes and run the bike at idle and at all other times run on the alternator, cheap is good. Now for hybrids or electric full time that's another story.
Regards,
K-BIKE