Q: How much does it cost to fully charge the battery?It depends on the electric rate in your area. In Colorado, the electric rate is an average of 10¢ per kilowatt hour (kwhr). The battery system consumes 5 kwhrs to charge fully, so it would cost 50¢ per full charge. In California, the average rate is 14¢ per kwhr, so a full charge costs 70¢.
Q: Where does the electricity come from?Electricity is produced from various sources. Even coal fired plants produce lower emissions than an equivalent amount of gasoline. The best case from an environmental standpoint is a vehicle charged from a solar array. This is “driving on the sun”. Regardless of how it is generated, all electricity is domestic, unlike most fossil fuel. Electric production is also getting cleaner due to new alternative production facilities—unlike fossil fuel, which is getting dirtier as oil companies tap less concentrated deposits of fuel farther offshore and deeper in the ground.
Q: What happens to the batteries when they get old and lose capacity?Over the course of months and years of charging and discharging, Lithium batteries lose capacity. Once the capacity is significantly diminished, the battery pack should be replaced. The used battery pack can either be used for a different purpose—like stationary storage —or it can be recycled. In the case of stationary storage, used batteries are installed in a large battery array managed by a utility like PG&E or Xcel Energy. The stationary power batteries do not need full capacity since weight versus storage capacity is not an issue with a large bank of batteries. Also, stationary storage only comes online during an outage or unexpected peak so it does not charge and discharge repeatedly like a vehicle battery.
Q: Where does the lithium for lithium batteries come from? Is it toxic?Bolivia and Argentina are currently the principal mining sources for Lithium. While corrosive, lithium is relatively safe to work with as compared to other battery materials or fossil fuels.
Q: How does converting my Prius to PHEV affect my carbon footprint?Using your lithium battery system daily is the best way to reduce your CO2 production. Using the battery twice a day by charging at work and at home minimizes your footprint even more. Charging twice a day replaces about 3/4 of a gallon of gasoline. 3/4 of a gallon makes about 10 lbs of c02 when burned in a vehicle. Commuting 5 days a week in a PHEV saves 50 lbs of CO2 a week. In a year, you could reduce about 2500 lbs of CO2 emissions from the air, that’s about the weight of your Prius in CO2, every year.
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