
Tesla Acquires Canadian Battery Specialist, Hibar Systems - reddotX
https://electricautonomy.ca/2019/10/04/tesla-acquires-canadian-battery-specialist-hibar-systems/
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gniv
This distributor’s page gives more color on Hibar’s business:
[http://www.unicontrols-asia.com/category/hibar-
pumps/](http://www.unicontrols-asia.com/category/hibar-pumps/)

In particular: "The pumps are used by battery manufacturers from all over the
world for filling batteries with electrolytes, and have set the global
standard in the battery industry."

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zackmorris
A few thoughts on this:

* There's a slight monopoly danger of having so many batteries manufactured from one source, although Tesla would be better than say, an oil company.

* Can we please get standard battery form factors, voltages and connectors: like AA, AAA, C, D, 9 volt, etc, but in a larger size similar to lantern batteries and car batteries?

* Can we please get batteries with built-in protection circuits? I want to wire them in series or parallel at any voltage and have them "just work" and never explode. Bonus: please do this with solar panels as well.

* Can we please get batteries with prepaid postage or a recycling refund (similar to aluminum cans) that can be taken to any post office, propane exchange or even gas station for recycling?

~~~
craigcabrey
> Can we please get standard battery form factors, voltages and connectors:
> like AA, AAA, C, D, 9 volt, etc, but in a larger size similar to lantern
> batteries and car batteries?

This exists already. 18650 is in widespread use and now 2170 is gaining
traction. Each cell is already a standard voltage, 4.2V at the top end, 2.75V
on the bottom end (or lower depending on whether you want to risk permanent
damage).

> Can we please get batteries with built-in protection circuits? I want to
> wire them in series or parallel at any voltage and have them "just work" and
> never explode. Bonus: please do this with solar panels as well.

These also already exist. Tesla will never use them because the BMS handles
that job, which is more effective and cheaper.

~~~
NotSammyHagar
Tesla has the built in protection circuits. The more important thing is on top
of that cool and heat batteries in extreme temps and when charging. That's why
teslas don't lose range, and most other batteries do. latest gen from germany
cars finally have cooling system, leaf still doesn't.

And connectors. There are multiple worldwide standards because companies keep
pushing their own for attempt at proprietary advantage. J1772 is the worldwide
standard for ac that everyone supports. It has a flaw of not going to high
enough power. Tesla is the only company that supports upto 80 amps 220v. Most
companies support much lower voltages, some barely 30 amps and 220 v. Current
gen tesla support 220v and 45 amps (can't remember the exact number). There
are multiple worldwide standards for high power dc. Chademo (Japanese
standard, doesn't go to high enough power, only like 50kw), leafs support
these in the us. ccs in europe is a successful cross company standard that
everyone uses, including tesla model 3 and later. So good job there. The us
stupidly has a different ccs plug. Not many cars support it.

Teslas own proprietary plug is better than all the standards, supports higher
power. Only just now are there cars on the new euro high power ccs plugs that
match and exceed tesla's powerful plug. My 2012 tesla model s car is basically
better than all existing competitors in range, ability to charge, etc. The
brand new cars from porsche (but you can't go out and buy one, coming soon
maybe, the taycan has a higher theoretical charging speed, they need to build
a charging network.

Tesla offered to share their plug tech to other companies if they agreed not
to sue each other, but no companies took them up on it.

~~~
Reason077
> _J1772 is the worldwide standard_

No, it's not. It's mostly just used in North America and Japan. The IEC 62196
"Type 2" connector is the standard in Europe and most of the rest of the
world. And outside of North America and Japan, Tesla use the standard Type 2
connector on their vehicles, not the proprietary Tesla connector.

North America certainly has a big problem with the lack of connector
standardisation, but J1772 is a big part of that problem, not the solution.

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jammygit
Ah, the dream of all Canadian companies: get acquired by a bigger American
one. I wish there were at least a few more Canadian mega corps to sell to.

If it had to be anyone though, glad it’s one of Musks moonshot companies. Uh,
not his literal moonshot, figure of speech!

~~~
empyrical
> Uh, not his literal moonshot, figure of speech!

Starship and its fins it uses for re-entry will need top of the line battery
tech. The prototype Starship uses Tesla batteries[1], wouldn't surprise me if
that continued to be the case

[1]
[https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1176586684751908872](https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1176586684751908872)

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founderling
I have two questions regarding batteries I often wonder about. Maybe the
wisdom of the HN crowd can answer one or both of them:

Is there a theoretical limit on how much energy a rechargeable battery of,
say, 1 kg mass can hold?

Can a rechargeable battery be discharged and recharged and afterwards be in
the same state it was before the cycle? Or is degradation inevitable? Again, I
am asking for the theoretical possibility. Not real life challenges to
implement it.

~~~
petra
The theoretical maximum is higher than gasoline(1700Wh/Kg[2]), and that's what
matters:

rechargable Li/CuCl2 could offer 1166.4 Wh/kg[1], while recyclable, non-
rechargeable aluminum-air could offer 5200Wh/Kg[1].

Some batteries may have 200K recharge cycles[3].

Innolith is talking about a battery with 50K recharge cycles[4], but for the
grid.

They also talk abuot building a 1000Wh/Kg battery for cars.

But who knows , they're a startup, so we'll need to wait and see.

And phinergy, another startup working on recyclable aluminum-air battery - is
planning to open a factory in India in 2020.

[1][https://electronics.stackexchange.com/questions/4328/whats-t...](https://electronics.stackexchange.com/questions/4328/whats-
the-highest-theoretical-energy-density-for-a-chemical-battery)

[2][https://phys.org/news/2018-10-catalyst-high-energy-
aluminum-...](https://phys.org/news/2018-10-catalyst-high-energy-aluminum-air-
batteries.html)

[3][https://www.pcmag.com/news/343967/researchers-stumble-
on-a-2...](https://www.pcmag.com/news/343967/researchers-stumble-
on-a-200-000-cycle-battery)

[4][https://www.pv-magazine.com/2018/10/10/innolith-launches-
inf...](https://www.pv-magazine.com/2018/10/10/innolith-launches-inflammable-
battery-with-50000-charging-cycles/)

~~~
gigatexal
Fascinating. I’m always intrigued in these style of answers. Where do super-
capacitors fit in this?

~~~
petra
>> Fascinating. I’m always intrigued in these style of answers.

Me too. Does anybody know a technology site/community, focusing on the
theoretical limits of what various technologies could do, and how do they work
, instead of the day to day news?

~~~
gigatexal
The stackoverflow family I’d sited is good for discussions like this and is
often nicer than the halo site when it comes to inclusion of questions (I use
SO everyday but trying to give back by answering a questions or even asking
one I have had not so great experiences). I really like the astronomy and
physics exchanges.

