How many years will a NiMH battery last in automotive applications?
Advanced battery technologies are typically evaluated in terms of complete discharge cycles. A standard electric vehicle battery can be charged and discharged 1,000 times to 80% depth-of-discharge (DOD) equivalent to over 100,000 miles. Hybrid vehicle applications use batteries very differently. Typically, the emphasis is not on energy storage, but on power density. The battery is, generally, never fully charged or discharged in hybrid applications. NiMH batteries used in hybrid electric vehicle (HEV) applications can be cycled in shallow discharges hundreds of thousands of times and last over 200,000+ miles under a partial charge/discharge regime.
