Electric Cars as Fast as Ferraris

Ubergrunt writes "A Welsh engineering company has made a motor to be used on electric cars that will make them as fast as a Ferrari. "The motor is revolutionary in that it contains no bulky permanent magnets. Instead it relies on transmitting electric pulses across up to seven rotors, arranged in different phases. These are "fired up" in turn, much like the pistons of an internal combustion engine. There are no gears - the motor provides enough torque at one revolution per minute to put a vehicle into motion - and it spins at up to 2,500rpm. "Size for size, we can provide 400% more torque than any type of motor currently available," says managing director John Bryant."

Comments

Toyota hybrid news?

[islandrain]

Did you hear about the Toyota hybrid recall that kept stalling because its internal computer didn't know when to switch from electric to gas? Over 33 of them have been found at fault but almost 44,000 have been sold this year. That's not a recall, Ford is the king of recalls. Engine stalling vs. car blowing up. Your call.

Re:Gas turbines have this beat

[edremy]

But have really, really crappy efficiency in "real world" situations.

Case in point- the turbine powered M1 tank. Performs like a bat out of hell, at least as far as tanks go, but tanks spend a *lot* of time sitting around idling. I could idle my old M60 for an entire night and still have a nearly full tank in the morning. (In practice you usually run the engine for a short while to recharge batteries and shut down.)

Now try to do that with an M1- you'll be out of gas in a heartbeat. The problem is so severe that the M1A2 has a second mini-turbine engine just for idling so that it will only drain 3-5 gallons/hour.

Stop and go traffic with a turbine car will get you something that makes a Hummer limo look like a Prius.