.. yes.. we heard that all for the other cells too..
but for that there are the realworld-testings..
i know there are NiMh which REALY sux, and there are also great once..
you also canīt say Nimh is Nimh... that also another factor !
for the "cheapest bike"
i refer here to bikes like
Opti-bike, the Flyer-series, or the swizzbee (and not all that cheap china-bikes)
when somebody is able to pay 2000Euro+ for a bike,
i think he is maybe also willing to spend 100Euro more for a battery that will maybe last 3times as long as the 100 Euro cheaper onces..
on the long run he would even safe money
meahwhile there are also people reporting about over 400cycles with the A123.. but they have not stated if full-discharge/charge-cycles and on what currents..
every-day-flyer above has documented his use of the batts more clearly...
4% for nearly 200cycles is at least promising !
(there are many batts that will be already dead after 200cycles - think you would agree with that ?!? )
(for price again:
lets say 9euro for a single cell..
12s4p => 48cells => 430Euro ===> 9,2Ah => 3,4kg cell-weight => continous power 6000Watt, peak over 10000Watt
a charger can be done for 100Euro or less
a balancer for 60 Euro
or a all-in-one charger+balancer for less than 150Euro)
i think a good NiMh in that category would also be not much cheaper
but there will come more cells of that kind...
iam using Nicd/Nimh/Lipo for aoub 20years in the hobby now, followed all new development, saw many batts fail, and this realy has potential to be very long-lifing and durable from all i have seen for myself and at others