CR-Z lithium battery swap

[Purplegate]

Jason, first, may be I can point you here :

The I2 MIMA Thread!!!!!!

There is already some lesson learned. They would apply on the CR-Z as well.

You can also read the whole thread about MIMA on the Gen1 (sticky on the Gen1 section).

[dntower85]

Maybe in a few year down the road I'll consider a newer battery technology for my new CR-Z.

[Cobb]

Yeah, its pretty much identical except the crz has a higher speed setting for the battery pack blower. The crz leaves the engine rolling til you come to a complete stop when auto stop is used vs stopping the engine at 7mpg.

[Hybrid-Battery-Repair]

At 4.8 lbs each, you'd save 7 stick pairs which is 33.6 lbs but probably put about 16 lbs of lithium back in, so the net savings would be 16 lbs or 2 gallons of gas.

Originally Posted by MN Driver

You would save about 32 pounds(in 84 cells) and add plenty of cost to the car. Most of the weight is actually in the motor and control electronics that manage the power going through the motor and make sure the battery is healthy. To go along with that there is quite a bit of structure in the form of fairly dense plastics that are designed to keep the batteries safe in a crash as well.

I don't think that weight savings is a very good reason for switching out 32 pounds of NiMh with Lithium in this car. As mentioned above, without modifications(which don't yet exist for the Gen 2 Insight, Civic Hybrids, or CRZ), the extra capacity, if any, couldn't be used.