I've been reading about battery breakthroughs for decades. And I remember when the latest in battery tech was alkaline, then Ni-Cd, then Li-Ion, and now LiPo. All of those have ended up in consumer products.

[–] Spur4383@lemmy.world 21 points 4 months ago (2 children)

You skipped Ni-MH there, that was major for not having the memory problems of Ni-Cd. We still use those in AA and AAA rechargeable batteries.

[–] FreeLikeGNU@lemmy.world 13 points 4 months ago (2 children)

Ni-MH production for EVs was effectively shutdown by Texaco and later Chevron through patent acquisitions.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patent_encumbrance_of_large_automotive_NiMH_batteries

[–] gravitas_deficiency@sh.itjust.works 2 points 4 months ago

Holy shit. I had no idea.

Chevron is pretty fucking evil for a lot of reasons, but we’ll add this one to the pile, I guess.

[–] TheReturnOfPEB@reddthat.com 2 points 4 months ago

totally TIL worthy

[–] Fermion@feddit.nl 5 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago) (1 children)

Ni-MH ~~is~~ was also in a lot of hybrid cars.

[–] Pretzilla@lemmy.world 3 points 4 months ago (1 children)

Are they still making NiMH hybrid packs?

Lithium is far superior

[–] Fermion@feddit.nl 4 points 4 months ago

I don't know in general. I was recently shopping for a UX 250h and I know they only just switched to lithium for the 2025 model with the nx name change.

Toyota switched the camry hybrid from NiMH to lithium for the 2020 model year.

In my head I meant hybrid cars on the road, not necessarily in new production.

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