There are two types of hybrid car batteries which are commonly used in most of the hybrid cars on the market today. These two hybrid car batteries are nickel metal hydride and lithium ion battery. There are many reasons why nickel metal hydride and lithium ion was chosen as an alternative power for hybrid cars other than gasoline. See the top 10 reasons why these two types of batteries were chosen and the information for these batteries.

Hybrid car batteries have to be environmentally friendly, low environment impact, and the level of toxicity cannot be high. Here are the pros and cons of both nickel metal hydride and lithium ion batteries for hybrid cars.

Nickel-metal hydride batteries for hybrid cars

You can see some of the early hybrid cars were using nickel metal hydride like some Ford hybrid cars, Nissan hybrid cars, Toyota hybrid cars like second generation Toyota Prius, or Honda hybrid cars. However, lithium ion batteries could be the next generation for hybrid car batteries although nickel metal batteries are still prevalent and less toxic.

A sample of Nickel-metal hydride battery of Toyota NHW20 Prius, Japan. Image taken from Wikipedia.

Lithium-ion batteries for hybrid cars

In recent years, lithium ion batteries are important for hybrid cars because of its ability to store higher energy and able to move a heavy car further. Compare to nickel batteries, lithium ion batteries can hold more than twice as much as energy with the same amount of battery weight.

One of the major requirements for hybrid car batteries is the cost of the battery. Lithium ion battery is cheaper and easy to maintain. This has allowed Honda to reduce the 2011 Honda Civic hybrid price with the move from nickel batteries to lithium ion batteries.

The lifetime of hybrid car battery is also another concern. Hybrid car batteries are mostly designed to last for the lifetime of the vehicle, somewhere in between 150,000 miles and 250,000 miles. Some are probably live longer than that.

A sample of Lithium-ion battery used in Nissan Leaf. Image from Wikipedia.

While the automobile world moving to eco-friendly, battery toxicity is a huge concern. Eco-conscious drivers have move on to hybrid cars from conventional gasoline-powered cars. In conclusion, car makers are still playing an important role in developing the best hybrid car batteries with low toxicity, low cost, high performance, high storage, and most important, free-maintenance.