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      11-16-2012, 09:09 AM   #18
SamS
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Drives: Tesla M3 Perf + '18 X3 M40i
Join Date: Jul 2010
Location: Dallas, TX

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Quote:
Originally Posted by claykin View Post
Lifetime warranty? My guess is that will be finely worded so decay is considered normal wear and tear. LiOn and LiOn Phosphate cells can decay 10-20% per year, and heat over 100F means decay on the higher end of the scale. Hopefully they gel cooled (chemically cooled) them in addition to the fans BMW put back there.

It looks like the AH batteries are manufactured by A123Systems. The cells BMW uses are cylindrical cells, MADE IN CHINA.

And A123Systems filed for Ch11 bankruptcy. Lovely. Looks like Johnson Controls will take over. Hopefully that's for the better.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A123Systems
Yes, I'm sure the lifetime warranty makes mention of decay. I'm trying to get the exact verbiage. I saw that about A123, it's been getting a good bit of press.

Some of the things that would prevent an AH3 from being a "common sense" choice would be:

A) You plan on keeping the car 10+ years
B) Your negotiated price delta over a 335i is >$2K USD. With current promotions, it's only a $3K increase (officially). Seems like virtually all dealers would be more eager to give you an aggressive price on the AH3 vs a 335i/330d/335d, due to popularity of the petrol/diesel models vs. a "new" tech hybrid.
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