Porsche 911 GT3, 911 GT 3 RS, and Boxster Spyder buyers will have the option of a lithium ion starter battery from next year.
The battery pack has the advantage of weighing just 6kg - 10kg less than a conventional lead battery. It is as long and wide as a standard battery, but 7cm lower.
The battery is delivered as a separate unit together with the car, and owners can switch between the two set-ups because the lithium ion unit will only work between 0 and 32 degrees centigrade.
Porsche says the lithium ion battery has many benefits over a standard lead unit, including allowing a significantly greater number of charging and discharging cycles, plus self-discharging less and having a longer service life.
No UK prices have been released yet, but the unit costs 1904 euros (£1720) including tax in Germany, or 2499 euros (£2258) including tax if it is retro-fitted.
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Re: Porsche offers li-ion battery pack
Some lithium-based rechargables are a bit picky about how you use them, and for a long and happy life need to be fairly carefully managed against overcharging, over-discharge, and cell balancing. However, the circuitry to do that is not terribly expensive. Frankly though I would not be mucking about with Li-Ion for this kind of application. LiFe is a more robust tyoe of high density lithium cell.
Re: Porsche offers li-ion battery pack
I assume the cost involved are not actually to do with battery itself but with the various electronic gubbins needed to charge the battery?? If my memory serves me correctly, it's not just a simple case of bunging in the charge as you do with a standard battery.
Re: Porsche offers li-ion battery pack
I was thinking that, will the prosche owner be out changing batteries in the winter? Or will porsche "offer" to change it for them (for £150)?