Braille Battery

[Xrain]

I just came across this battery company in my Racecar Engineering Magazine from this month.

http://www.braillebattery.com/index.php/

Their batteries are very pretty looking, all carbon fiber cases, great discharge rate (~50C continuous. ~55 Burst) As well as 2500 cycles at 80% DoD

But they seem to be very, very expensive. These batteries are used in formula 1, and other high end racing events as starting batteries.


Any thoughts on what kind of cells are in it? I'm guessing LiFePO4 because of the cycle life, But the discharge rates seem awfully high having a continuous rating even higher than A123's. (this was the battery I was looking at
http://www.braillebattery.com/index.php/batteries/490l/#)


The cycle life/discharge rate of the cells seems to vary depending on what model of battery...

They also seem to have invented their very own capacity rating system called "Lithium Amp-Hours" (LAH), But they generally show the standard Ah rating as well.

Thoughts?

edit: looking at the discharge rate they could be 26650 A123's, But the nominal voltage, and capacity doesn't quite add up. Granted I suppose they could be undervaluing their battery but that doesn't seem quite likely.

 

[theRealFury]

Looking at the tech spec on this battery i would put my money on LiFePo4... probably A123 but looks like they have a conservative BMS on there to only charge to ~3.4 per cell. Im guessing thats how they can claim 2500-5000 cycles if they only cycle the cells in the 30%-80% SOC range. Looking at wh/kg the whole kit is 62wh/kg so they are either seriously under rating the cells to gain life cycles or there is a crap load of dead weight with that battery such as the housing and BMS. Maybe my maths is wrong but at 2200 cranking amps and 44ah useable capacity that battery could discharge in 72 seconds.... that sounds beyond the range of A123 though?

 

[LockH]

(bump)

Braille is the official battery supplier of several, if not most, racing series around the world, including Indycars and NASCAR.

Seen here:
http://electrek.co/2016/05/19/tesla-model-s-lighter-battery-pack-pikes-peak-hill-climb/

Details are scarce at the moment but we understand that the lighter battery pack will have a significantly smaller capacity, since having a long driving range doesn’t really matter in racing (as long as the car passes the finishing line).

This article re Braille supplying a "lighter weight"/smaller battery for the Tesla Model S to compete at the Pikes Peak Hill Climb.