RHOLAB Battery Starts 50,000-Mile Tests

The Foresight Vehicle-funded RHOLAB (Reliable, Highly Optimized Lead-Acid Battery) is about to start a 50,000-mile trial in a Honda Insight Hybrid at the Millbrook Proving Ground in the U.K.

Although it uses acid, there is no free liquid in the RHOLAB battery. Instead the acid is absorbed within a glasfibre separator and the individual cells are round, not square, and spirally wound like a Swiss roll.

Each 2V cell is fully sealed. Technically each of the battery’s four 36V modules needs only 18 cells. A 19th cell means that each cell in the 144V unit can be recharged in turn, even when the car is not being driven. An electronically-controlled battery management system, developed by Provector, based near Cambridge, Massachusetts, and the University of Warwick, keeps the battery in peak condition.