ecocars wrote:Interesting comment by you "Ni-Cads are very robust when they are working, where lithium needs constant baby-sitting."
I'm not sure I agree with that - my 106 has been the most maintenance free car of any sort I've owned since taken into regular use with a lithium pack at the start of the year. Done about 10k miles since then.
My garage feels that 'frost damage' has caused my rear pack to shatter (all the tops of the batterys where shattered )
Doubt it.
You get the tops shattering when the cells explode (a steam explosion I think) - this occurs when they have run out of electrolyte or run hard with an un-equalised pack at low state of charge. Or sometimes it just happens anyway with the 1999 cells.