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.

Comments

Re:How is that useful?

[Osty]

Drinking and Driving still kills more people than speed.

Speed never killed anyone. It's how they decided to stop that caused the problem. <rimshot /> But seriously, most "speed-related deaths" statistics you'll find are artificially inflated. The way the statistics are counted is that if anybody involved was speeding (ie, going at least 1 mph over the limit), then it's categorized as speed-related. That's ignoring any of the true factors, like being alcohol-related, or caused by that little brat in the backseat that wouldn't sit down, or the driver was just an idiot (reading the morning paper while driving counts as idiocy).

Battery technology still a problem

[panurge]

The big problem I see is the availability of batteries. For instance, companies like Ovonics are supposedly commercialising NiMH (the technology BEFORE lithium.) I have been trying for two years to design a half way reasonable electric bicycle. I have a battery specification which is within the range of claimed traction battery designs in NiMH (12 or 13.2V, 5-60AH, 600W over 5 minutes and 400W average over discharge. Hardly rocket science.) Yet a battery of this spec is still not available on the commercial market except in limited series production to large customers. The obvious conclusion is that the technology isn't yet marketable. Which means that lithium ion has a chance when...2020? As for fuel cells, they have been a promising technology for the last 50 years plus, but the problems (world supply of platinum limited, high temperatures needed for high efficiencies, corrosive media, thermal management, carbon monoxide and dioxide poisoning, seem always on the verge of being solved but never getting there. And don't forget that unlike a battery, a fuel cell's output is limited by the membrane capacity: the ability to produce high peaks for short periods is missing. The last time I read an article on the future of fuel cells was the dead wood version of Scientific American in 1999. I'm not aware of any real breakthroughs since.

Meanwhile, the direct injection electronically controlled turbo diesel just goes on getting more and more efficient, and cleaner. And smaller. And lighter. And more reliable.