Aloha! I just got my new Apple batteries and chargers in today and thought I'd share (show-off really ) some pics of them along side my new eneloop and costco tones. I also added a DuraLoop and on both ends are the Apple chargers. I think I'm starting to like batteries more that torches because I can't seem to stop buying batteries.
Thanks. My nephew was here on leave and bought me this 40" Sony lcd tv and bluray player. My first ever lcd tv and after watching my first bluray movie, I had to re-watch all of my favorites. I've got lots of bluray movies to watch yet thanks to Netflix.
The world's only Eneloop powered car could be fun. The charger would be interesting though - something like 500V and crazy amps. It would likely be the same size as a small car.
The Volt uses AFAIR 8,200 18650s. 25,000 Eneloops ought to provide the same sort of performance. Except for the weight. An Eneloop weighs 27 grams so 25,000 of thyem is 1,500 pounds or about three quarters of a ton. You'd probably get a good price on them in lots of 25,000 though :)
From a UK supplier they want £210,000 for 100,000 eneloops so £52,500 for 25,000. Or about $84,000 for 25,000 of them. Add another $3,000 for the charger and probably another few thousand for the upgrading of your AC power.
I doubt the result would be all that practical but it sure would be a good excuse to buy a LOT of batteries. :)
Found out a weight for an 18650 - the Volt's battery pack weighs around 800lb or about half the Eneloop pack.
Im liking those eneloop tones and i can feel a purchase coming on unless of course somebody want's to start a group buy? £210,000 for 100,000 eneloops is a bargain!, (ill take 16)
If I didn't already own a lot of Eneloops I might be tempted even though they work out at £2.60 each and I can get white ones for under £2. I think my wallet is safe from these just now.
They already make a Sanyo Synergetic Hybrid Bicycle so the Eneloop car might already be in the works. It would be very interesting to see the specs on an Eneloop car.
Here are some numbers. The first are discharge numbers right out of the package, then the ICV and lastly the Break-in numbers. Batteries 5-8 should be done with their break-in in a few hours. I just started discharging 9-12 so those numbers and the break-in numbers will be a while. So far the numbers are comparable to eneloops but we'll have to see how they do in the long run.
I'm adding batteries 1-4 to my self-discharge test which I'll be checking weekly with my zts battery tester. I started my self-discharge test about 18 or so weeks ago with my original eneloops and powerex 2700's and have added several other brands and types of batteries through the weeks.
I like the Tones. The Apple batteries were a surprising decision by them. Given Apple's usual profit margins, it seems an odd choice to go into selling batteries and chargers rather than offering someone else's products at their store. I would have liked to have seen Apple introduce a charger with invidividual channels for the batteries. That seems like a gaping hole in most product lines out there.
The Prius uses NiMH batteries. I'm not sure li-ion batteries would deal with all of the cycles as well as quality NiMH's. It seems to try to avoid topping them off or letting them get too low, which is why they can guarantee the battery for 8 years. Chevy keeps the charge between 30 and 85% on its li-ion battery, so maybe that would work. I'm just thinking a typical li-ion laptop battery does well to last 4 years and I would think most people aren't cycling their laptop batteries on a daily basis (most of the time people just leave them plugged in).
So what to say in conclusion? Almost safe to say that the Apple cells used will actually Sanyo Eneloop HR-3UTG,a high-quality articles with low self discharge...
Edit:I bought this week a batch of new Eneloophere. It may be a good price to buy them on this side of the pond.
After Break-in mode in C9000: 2013 - 1991 - 1986 - 2000 mAh
And cheaper shipping than is usual within Europe. Looks like a good place to remember. I doubt the Apple ones will be sensibly priced here, Apple stuff often ends up costing more in pounds than it does in dollars. They didn't have any last weekend in my local Apple Store.
Definitely interesting, but I don't think they can support that the batteries are eneloops. They didn't even take apart a real eneloop to compare whether they are similar. All they did was say it was close to 2000mAh so it must be an eneloop.
Another test I'm thinking of doing is to do a full discharge on a couple Appleloops and a couple Eneloop tones, charge them in the new Apple charger and discharge them with the C9000 just to see how the total discharge numbers compare.
I've always thought that eneloops where the "Apple" of batteries, I think because of the quality and design of them.. So I wouldn't be surprised if Apple is selling eneloops with their own brand..
Some close-ups of the vents on the +ve caps and the shape of the bottom of the -ve cans could at least confirm whether or not they're coming off the same assembly line.
The visible tops of the vents around the button on the apple batteries seem too wide compared to the triangular notches on eneloops.