The new smart charger from Lithium Boost Technologies
Lithium Boost Technologies Inc., the leading provider of innovative Lithium-ion battery systems to power low speed electric vehicles (LSEV) has introduced enhanced and redesigned chargers to assure high performance and reliability.
Lithium Boost has developed the smart chargers in conjunction with innovative Battery Management System (BMS), based on its proprietary technology, in order to optimize the performance of lithium-ion cells targeted for use in low speed electric vehicles. The smart charging system consists of individual chargers, one for each lithium cell to assure balanced charging and completed-charge monitoring per cell. The BMS monitors the cell voltages through communication with the chargers and disables vehicle operations when any cell voltage remains too low for an extended period of time. When switched on, the BMS has an output wire that can provide up to 5Amps of power at the pack voltage for accessories, such as a DC to DC converter used for 12 volt lighting.
Lithium Boost smart chargers are now available in two sizes: 10Amps and 20Amps. Each individual charger delivers full current during most of the charge cycle, and tapers off to a trickle charge near the end of charge. The charger module accepts AC power in the range of 100-240 Volts, 50-60Hz. The 10Amp chargers set con¬sumes approximately 6.5Amps at 115Volts, and 3.2Amps at 230Volts, and the 20Amp set consumes 13Amps at 115Volts and 6.5Amps at 230Volts.
Comment: While lithium-ion batteries are still pricey compared to lead-acid batteries, they are slowly making in-roads into the STOV market. One example is the new lithium powered 2016 Ranger EV from Polaris. However, the price differential is still substantial and the price for lithium batteries needs to decrease substantially before they are more widely used in the STOV market. An additional obstacle is that the weight differential between lead-acid and lithium battery packs of similar power output is substantial. Therefore, the packs cannot be simply swapped out but the vehicles need to be re-engineered to accommodate the change in weight distribution and vehicle performance.