Electric Cars

Frontstep

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An electric motor is so much more responsive than waiting for all those gases to explode,
Generating Storing and carrying the KW's is the problem whoever cracks that will dwarf Apple etc almost instantly so retreat to your studies and workshops incalculable riches await.
 

LostKiwi

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Scaletrix upscaled - batteries not included. :)
 

turbopete

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when electric cars can cover 6-700 miles on a single charge and recharge anywhere with a socket in around 15 mins (which is the range I can get from my Mondeo and about the time it takes to refill an empty fuel tank) id be up for trying electric cars. till then, theyre not much use to me as there have been times ive needed that range and refill time.
 

Craiglxviii

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when electric cars can cover 6-700 miles on a single charge and recharge anywhere with a socket in around 15 mins (which is the range I can get from my Mondeo and about the time it takes to refill an empty fuel tank) id be up for trying electric cars. till then, theyre not much use to me as there have been times ive needed that range and refill time.

None yet, this is the point. But (from the last figures I've seen) 88% of drivers already have a lifestyle that would follow the use of 100-mile range EVs as is. City and urban drivers for example. Not that many people actually need or ever use >600 mile in a single fill range. I suspect what is happening here is an inherent selection bias- people on here have been able to pick and choose the cars they want that suit their lifestyle, thus most (but not all) have big, relatively powerful family-sized cars. That aspect of performance simply isn't met in the EV market for a number of reasons. So those people can see no need for current EVs due to their own requirements leading to big powerful long-ranged cars.

Take the driver of a Fiat 500, Mini, Clio, Aygo, something BB segment and who lives and works in a large town or city. Average European commute is 15km, that's 30km a day in a car with 150km range. There's a week's worth of driving to and from work, and that's why the 80 mile typical range figure came into play with the current generation of EVs... it can be conveniently packaged and fits in with the lifestyle of its target market.

Now the market is saying, we like these (EV sales are increasing fairly steadily) but we'd like more range & practicality. So the cars will get bigger and longer ranged; the next range bracket is 250 miles and we will see that in the next 2 years.

My concern is the battery cost paradigm, the cost: storage capacity ratio is very much non-linear, but I do not know where the exponential inflection point kicks in. Working on it though for open source literature :D

This is why I think that either the ICE: electric or fuel-cell hybrid will be the long-term future for powertrains. They both keep the battery bank scaled down to 30-40kW.h with the continued power generation capacity of existing types.
 

C350Carl

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If these high density super capacitors prove to really be 1000x better than current ones then I think the EV churn of cars may pick up pace from the manufacturer.

My concern with it all is the pollution involved in making the batteries. Yes the car themselves are Eco Friendly once built.

But I always hear about the environmental impact of the battery production being greater than that of an ICE vehicle. However i genuinely don't know if this is really the case. Especially as Tesla are investing heavily into a new Battery Production plant.
 

Craiglxviii

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If these high density super capacitors prove to really be 1000x better than current ones then I think the EV churn of cars may pick up pace from the manufacturer.

My concern with it all is the pollution involved in making the batteries. Yes the car themselves are Eco Friendly once built.

But I always hear about the environmental impact of the battery production being greater than that of an ICE vehicle. However i genuinely don't know if this is really the case. Especially as Tesla are investing heavily into a new Battery Production plant.

I've seen a battery plant, quite a big one as it happens. Environmental impact at plant is quite small, but it's a question of scalability- one needs a damn big plant volume wise to bring the environmental costs down to an acceptable level. Pfft Tesla this Tesla that- they're small players in real terms. It's what Toyota and Nissan are doing that will show the actual realities for man on the street...
 

Frontstep

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It does seem more sensible to have one power station than hundreds of thousands yet the storage of that power produced on board the car in a "chemical" format seems likely to pollute.

Perhaps we need a rethink on clockwork and compressed air.
 

Craiglxviii

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It does seem more sensible to have one power station than hundreds of thousands yet the storage of that power produced on board the car in a "chemical" format seems likely to pollute.

Perhaps we need a rethink on clockwork and compressed air.

Tata have built a compressed air powered car for the Indian urban market. A number of us discussed it at work and concluded that the first traffic accident would look like what happened at the end of Jaws, just bigger (yes that was just one full diver's tank exploding...)

Clockwork, how much energy do you want to contain in a spring?!? Massive structure required.

We could add flywheels too but then you get gyro precession issues.

We have the prime movers we have because they work. Electric cars via an all-nuclear grid would be good. No pollution there beyond some warm water...
 

Noelmc

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Many of the car makers are trying to be seen to use green energy to construct cars, Ford have wind turbines at Bridgend and Dagenham, and they talk about it powering the whole of the engine production. The BMW i3 we have on order is made in a green energy powered facility, and the i3 carbon fibre body cloth is made in a factory in the USA powered by hydro.
 

Craiglxviii

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Many of the car makers are trying to be seen to use green energy to construct cars, Ford have wind turbines at Bridgend and Dagenham, and they talk about it powering the whole of the engine production. The BMW i3 we have on order is made in a green energy powered facility, and the i3 carbon fibre body cloth is made in a factory in the USA powered by hydro.

I understand that 12% of Nissan Sunderland plant's energy needs are met by the (feckin' huge) on-site wind farm. It's not to put "green energy" into cars, it's because it's relatively cheap to do with Government grants...
 

Craiglxviii

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JBell

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I understand that 12% of Nissan Sunderland plant's energy needs are met by the (feckin' huge) on-site wind farm. It's not to put "green energy" into cars, it's because it's relatively cheap to do with Government grants...

Also keeps manufacturing costs down
 

Craiglxviii

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Also keeps manufacturing costs down

Everything is subordinate to the total delivered cost of the vehicle as it leaves the gates...
 

JBell

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Everything is subordinate to the total delivered cost of the vehicle as it leaves the gates...

I know, I specialise in Lean and Supply Chain recruitment
 

Craiglxviii

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turbopete

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My concern with it all is the pollution involved in making the batteries. Yes the car themselves are Eco Friendly once built.

QUOTE]

but are they? no one actually knows exactly where there power comes from (ie which power station) so it could be a huge dirty coal plant or some eco friendly wind farm somewhere.

as for the battery life and running costs, Nissan claimed, when they were launching the leaf, that the batteries (at a cost of £5k+ from memory) would need replaced something like every 5 years. now, taking the cost of fuel (and obviously its storage in the case of batteries) I did some pretty basic (I'm not a complicated sort of bloke) maths breaking it down to the costs for the average 10k miles per year car user and it worked out that at 40mpg there was still a slight cost advantage over a pre set cycle (Nissan were claiming you would be able to pay for an amount per week/month to 'hire' the batteries, so the cycle would be however long you kept the car under these circumstances) with a regular car, over the cost of running a Leaf, ignoring the range issues and time to recharge them.
then if I were to take into account the cost difference between the Leaf (they were claiming £20k to buy at the time) and its petrol/diesel equivalent (size wise) the Nissan Almera (or you could have gone for a focus, Astra or any competitor) with similar (according to the info I had at the time) for about £7k less. so poor range/recharge rates, £7k more to buy, daily running costs pretty much the same, ok regular engines need a service now and again (2-3 over 3 years) which WONT (unless its MB dealer prices) cost £7k between them. THAT is the main reason theyre not taking off as fast as they could.
 


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