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230mph Electric Car

Posted by michael on from the never-know-what-hit-you dept.

An anonymous reader writes "It ain't cheap, but Hiroshi Shimizu has finally shown off his latest electric car 'Eliica'. It accelerates faster than a Porsche 911 Turbo, and will cruise for 200 miles on a one hour charge. Stories at drive.com.au, and an image video and tech video. Interestingly, Shimizu believes that the Japanese motor industry is deliberately ignoring his invention and instead focusing on complex hybrids, as a simple electric engine dramatically lowers the cost of manufacturing, and will lead to a flood of cheap, mass produced cars from Chinese factories." A UK auto site has a story as well, including a test drive.

5 of 768 comments (clear)

  1. Systemic Problems by Oculus+Habent · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Shimizu believes that the Japanese motor industry is deliberately ignoring his invention and instead focusing on complex hybrids

    Of course they are. Electric cars may be more efficient and cheaper to build, but you have to plug them in and wait. That's not acceptable, if only once every year when your friend/family member needs a ride.

    --
    That what was all this school was for... to teach us how to solve our own problems. -- janeowit
    1. Re:Systemic Problems by MKalus · · Score: 5, Interesting

      A couple of years ago somoene suggested a "Battery Exchange".

      Think of it like the Propane tanks you can exchange at the Home Depot or Supermarket. You just simply would drive up to the "gas station", the empty battery gets pulled out, and a charged one installed.

      Done, no muss, no fuss, no waiting.

      This would also make sure that you always have a working battery AND it could also lower the entry level as you wouldn't need to replace the battery pack every couple of months.

      --
      If you want to e-mail me, use my PGP Key.
    2. Re:Systemic Problems by Waffle+Iron · · Score: 5, Interesting
      The sensible thing would be to include built-in watt-hour meters on the batteries. You'd only pay for the amount of juice you actually consumed on that particular battery pack before you swapped it out. If you got an especially weak set of batteries, you would have to swap it out sooner, but you'd pay less for that swap.

      (Unless you're returning a rental car. Then they'd be sure to always bill you for a 100% charge at 5X the standard rate + 23% tax no matter what you actually used.)

  2. recharge time? by Almost_anonymous_cow · · Score: 5, Interesting

    The UK auto link in the submission text says recharge time is 10 hours not the 1 hour quoted above. So whos right?

  3. Re:It should be noted by lar1 · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Not only does the motor have "torque coming out the ass" even at 0 RPM, but its torque output is actually at its maximum at 0 RPM.

    In fact, the torque vs speed curve for a DC motor is a linear function that passes through the points (0 RPM, StallTorque) and (FreeSpeed, 0 ft-lb) where StallTorque is the maximum torque the motor can produce (the rotor is locked under load) and FreeSpeed is the speed of the rotor under no load.

    Also of interest is the fact that at either of the extremes, that is, at stall or at no load, the motor is actually performing no mechanical work, despite consuming a (potentially large) amount of electricity.

    At any rate, most performance EVs use AC drive systems. My '75 Rabbit conversion, however, uses a 20HP DC motor. And, yes, I can reach and maintain highway speeds (65-70 mph) in a reasonable amount of time.

    http://www.eaaev.org/ for some EV info.