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Electric Car Capable of 180mph
niclas_b writes "This electric car is pretty cool. It's not cheap and maybe not very practical. But very cool nevertheless." Might as well throw in a link to their homepage as well.
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1. How can 75PS make a car drive 311 km/h? (Specially with a weight of roundabout 3 tons)
2. How far will the car go when driving max speed of 311 km/h? (Does this mean driving 20 Minutes, and then the batteries are empty?)
Running Performance 14.5 sec. (0-400m)
A quarter mile in only 14.5 seconds? Or am I reading that wrong?
Max Speed 311.67 km/h
Top speed, 193 MPH
Gross weight 2980 kg
Gross weight, 6,569 pounds!!!!! WHAT! That's 3 tons!
There's gas powered cars that weigh 1/4th that, have 15 second quarter miles (400km), and a top speed of 150 MPH (241 km/h). Is this some kind of cruel joke? Can't they put that engine and battery into a smaller frame and get an electric car good enough to compete in an actual race? That thing looks like a long minivan... If there was a cheaper version, with a MUCH better shape, I'm sure alot of people would buy it.
How far will it go on $15 and 2 minutes per week of refueling labor?
It's cool that they put everything (motor / reduction / brakes) in the wheel, but i fail to see the point of it... to be honest:
the reason you buy high quality name brand wheels is because (beside the "looks cool" and "got $$ buring holes everywhere") it gives a lower up-sprung weight. which means that the car does much better in the ride quality, easier to tune the shocks / suspensions, etc. by the way, different brake rotors would allow the same thing -- but people usually go for bigger rotors for the stopping power, and try to make sure the wheel themselves are as light as possible.
this is kinda important when you want your car to be performance oriented, as these guys are certainly trying to demonstrate -- but this combination of technology will ultimately yield a car that "can go 180mph but the ride really suck", or "if you want reasonable ride quality, then our entire million(s) dollar technology won't work"... self-defeating by my standards, anyway. =)
gotta say, though... damn... 600kg of batteries; that's over 1300 lb. some small cars (say, lotus elise) weight about that much...
My life in the land of the rising sun.
And seriously, whats with the 8 wheel design?
To begin with, as the page explains, it means no dive or squat during braking or acceleration. It also means smooth cornering. It means, as your other respondent mentions, 8 motors with power evenly distributed to each wheel. It means that the car can lose wheels and continue to operate normally. It means the vehicle prototype can be adapted into limousines, trucks, buses, and other large vehicles.
Basically, it's completely kickass, and you call it "laughable" because it's not what you're used to. Good job, man.
Don't try that "protecting the children" shit you people use to keep the tits and bad words off my TV. --Seanbaby
Something like the Prius is showing a possible future. It's not selling that well as yet (relative to normal cars) but is at least quite practical.
What is needed are electric cars which can function almost as well as a normal car (in terms of range and speed). Until recently most alternative fuel cars had maximum speeds of about 40 mph and a range of about 50 miles before needing an hours charge. Unless cars like these are available very cheaply then how many people will buy them?
Something like the Prius has the best of both electric and petrol cars and represents the present and near future. This huge supercar thing represents, at best, something vaguely from the distant future.
I'm surprised that no-one has pointed out that one of these motors, kicking out around 75hp, would power a small family car just fine. Using only one motor and a transaxle would probably let you fill the existing engine compartment and fuel tank areas with NiMH batteries, giving a Ford Fiesta/Escort sized car (small/mid family car) with reasonable around-town performance. You could also stick the 75hp motor and batteries in a Nissan Micra-sized car, for a small car that goes like hell... The standard, non-cat, carbie Micras have about 55-60hp, and the new shape ones are all about 50-55hp. 75hp and *no* noxious emissions would be pretty damn useful in something that weighs 550kg wet.
Yes, it's a benefit. If you stop and think, I'm sure you can work out one or two reasons why.
Oh, hell, I'll give you some answers. One, if you live in the Third World you may be subject to violence on the streets (South Africa comes to mind). Two, if you are a police department, your vehicles may be subject to heavy punishment at times (riots and high-speed chases come to mind). Three, if you are a taxi or bus service you cannot afford costly breakdown times. Four, it may be desirable for many reasons to have broken wheels serviced professionally, in which case the car can be driven to a service center and user-replaceable parts can be kept to a minimum.
Just some reasons off the top of my head.
Don't try that "protecting the children" shit you people use to keep the tits and bad words off my TV. --Seanbaby
many car makers have quite a bit of money invested in the oil market
Last time I looked, most of GM and Ford's money was made on SUVs (high gas usage). When oil prices rise, sales fall, profits fall. Looks exactly the opposite to having money invested in the oil market. If they could get electric cars to really work, and make money, they would do it in a heartbeat.
If you think deeply enough, you will have no single direction for your outrage.
In my mind the practicality of these vehicles, independent of cost, revolves around the range versus recharge cycle. If it takes more than a few minutes to do a recharge, and the range is less than a thousand miles, then they're just not good enough for a general-purpose vehicle.
This is why hybrids are interesting ... recharge
cycle is a tank fill.
What I'm waiting for is someone to look at making a hybrid where the engine is always on, always producing power, but the generator is producing a bit more power than the thing normally will need and charging a capacitor stack rather than batteries. That gives you acceleration (for awhile) but is much lighter and cheaper than batteries and since the engine is operating efficiently all the time, and requires quite a bit less power than if it were producing motive power directly (eg a few hundred cc ought to do a pretty good job) it should still be more efficient.
jim frost
jimf@frostbytes.com
The electric is still more efficient according to studies done by tree huggers. It is probably more efficient to use gasoline according to a study done by auto manufacturers.
In reality, it is not exactly known. Some studies have come close to trying to calculate all the steps involved. One that I've read (i don't have the link) had many of the things to calculate. The only way we'll ever know is if we do a earth to car efficiency study. How much energy is expended pumping the oil or mining the coal? How much energy is spent transporting the oil/coal? How much energy is spent refining/generating the final fuel (petrol/electricity)? How much energy is lost transporting the fuel (tankers/transmission lines)? Finally how efficient is the vehicle at getting the available fuel to usable motion?
1) Electricity is almost always made with local coal/hydro/natural gas/sun/wind. Petrol has a large portion from countries that are unstable. Places I don't think the US should stick there long noses and risk my relatives going to war.
2) Generation of electricity has efficiencies based on economies of scale. Much of the really bad pollution is cleaned out. Power plants usually drop their output during the night to points that aren't as efficient. If timers, time of use meters, and other strategies are implemented, electric cars can recharge at night. This additional electric load can be used to keep the plants operating in their most efficient power range. IC engines don't have all those benefits of size. They need to be cheap and useful so some of the pollution is allowed. I think that the refining of oil to petrol is very efficient. They use many of the byproducts in other ways.
3) tankers on the road to transport fuel to the stations is hard on the roads, fairly dangerous, possible terrorist targets. Transmission lines are not lossless. I don't know the exact amount of power lost in the lines and the transformers. But it is fairly clean. Generating your own electricity from solar/wind/geothermal/hydro eliminates the losses in the lines since it doesn't have to go that far.
4) Pumping gas into your car is pretty efficient but the engine itself is very wasteful. So much heat is generated that cannot be used unless your in a cold climate and use the heater. Electric vehicles have inefficiencies from the battery charger (power factor/line losses), charging batteries produces some heat. Discharging batteries produces heat. The speed controller is generating heat and the motor is not 100% efficient (usually 80% - 95%). When stopped in traffic the electric vehicle produces no heat or anything. IC engines keep running even though they don't need too. Can you imagine all the fuel wasted sitting in rush hour traffic?
These are all factors to consider. Down sides of electric vehicles are generally the range and weight. But how often do you really need to travel over 60 miles non-stop? If you do then you shouldn't have an electric vehicle as your main source of transportation. I call electric vehicles a good second and third car. If used as a primary vehicle you should get friendly with your local auto rental for the longer trips that the EV can't make.
What really pisses me off is that more vehicles are hybrids. These would be a great help to the pollution problem. If every SUV, bus, car, minivan were hybrid. They still aren't ideal but they would be perfect as a primary vehicle with your second/third vehicle being all electric. Even better would be a plug in hybrid that could run all electric for short trips (store, work) and then when you need to go farther it can run in full hybrid mode.
I'll quit rambling now.