Zero-60 in 3.1 Seconds, Batteries Included

FloatsomNJetsom writes "Popular Mechanics has a very cool video and report about test-driving Hybrid Technologies' L1X-75, a battery powered, 600-hp, carbon-fiber roadster that pulls zero-60 in about 3.1 seconds, and tops out at 175 mph. Of course, there are few creature comforts inside, but that's mainly because the car's 200 mile range is meant for the track, not the road. Nonetheless, Popular Mechanics takes the car for a spin up 10th Avenue in NYC. Oh, and the car recharges via a 110 outlet. They also test-drove Ford's HySeries Edge, a hydrogen fuel-cell powered, plug-in series hybrid that, unlike the L1X-75, is unfortunately at least 10 years away from production and nearly 100 mph slower."

Comments

Wrightspeed X1

[Anonymous Coward]

The Wrightspeed X1 goes from 0-60mph in 3.07 secs... Not much faster but certainly a cooler looking car. Not to mention that the X1 HAS turn signals..

More info at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wrightspeed_X1 and http://www.wrightspeed.com/x1.html

Re:quarter mile time?

[Anonymous Coward]

> Why do car manufacturers always quote 0-60 time when quarter mile is what everyone really cares about?

Because you can play games with gearing and traction to get a good 0-60 time. But 1/4 mile trap speed is hard to fake, and trap speed (even more than 1/4 mile E/T) correlates with how fast a car "feels" to drive in the real world or on a racetrack.

My car does about 11.7-8 @ 124 mph in the 1/4. I can pick up half a second of E/T just by going to sticky tires, but improving my trap speed is much harder. I've driven cars that are "as fast" as mine when you look at 0-60, but they don't feel anywhere near as fast in practice. Yeah, they'll keep up from 0-60 by dumping their clutch at high RPM. But coming out of a 40 mph turn on a track into a long 150 mph straight, I will totally obliterate them.
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Make electric cars cool

[Anonymous Coward]

Wired had an article a couple of years back about a guy that was making electric race cars. His whole philosophy was that to sell electric cars, you have to make them cool.

http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/7.03/drag_pr.ht ml

More info

[laing]

Some real specifications are here. It's not quite as fast as PM is claminig and it has only half the range.
No price mentioned other than "six figures".

Wrong.

[leoc]

When considering the full energy cycle of ICE cars vs EV's, EV's are more efficient by a fairly significant amount.

REFERENCE: http://www.evadc.org/pwrplnt.pdf

some context

[hc5duke]

• Ford Mustang GT = 4.9 seconds ($30k)
• Chevy Corvette Z06 = 3.4 seconds ($70k)
• Lambo Murciélago LP640 = 3.3 seconds ($300k)
• Enzo Ferrari = 3.14 seconds ($650k)
• Bugatti Veyron = 2.46 seconds ($1.5MM)

The Veyron is the so-called "most expensive production car", so 3.1 seconds would be considered very good. All speed numbers from Wikipedia. Anyone in the world can write anything they want about any subject -- so you know you are getting the best possible information.

Doesn't work, refer back to Newton, Faraday et al

[Flying pig]

No, you can't. You are talking utter nonsense, I'm afraid. First, you have to control all that current. It's no good having a huge knife switch with on and off positions. The arcing will destroy it instantly. You need a lot of control electronics to manage the power to the large brushless motor you will need, and you will need big gears and shafts to handle the torque. This adds weight, and also adds the need for ever more advanced cooling technology.

You also have to accelerate the batteries as well as the rest of the vehicle, and of course the more batteries you have, the greater the mass to be accelerated. In fact, it doesn't take a genius to see that once you reach a certain size the weight of the driver is hardly a factor and any increase in power will scale precisely with increase in mass, and hence acceleration will rapidly asymptote to a nearly constant value.

The only way you can really improve this is to either produce batteries and control electronics which can produce more power for a given mass, or improve the efficiency of the drive chain significantly. Modern brushless motors and FET controllers are better than the old systems but there is not a lot more to gain. Battery technology - minimising internal resistance, developing polarisation free chemistry, finding completely reversible cycles that can handle high oxidation rates - is the key to producing high acceleration electrical vehicles.

Unfortunately, such are engineering tradeoffs that long life and high discharge rate rarely go together, and these experimental vehicles seem largely to be about either getting publicity or bragging rights. One thing is certain: factor in the battery manufacture and recycling costs, and they are no solution to global warming. I believe there is a claim that, when total life cost is taken into account, even some small SUVs are actually lower energy impact than a Toyota Prius.

Wrong.

[leoc]

when total life cost is taken into account, even some small SUVs are actually lower energy impact than a Toyota Prius.

I've seen this claim before. If this is "for certain", then I suppose it should be easy for you to produce some actual evidence to back it up. And please, don't bother linking to this discredited study.

Re:Faster than jumping out of a plane

[Soulslayer]

Here's a video of it in action.

Electric Car Roundup

[Zobeid]

Many of these are more-or-less performance oriented vehicles. . .

Tesla Roadster: http://www.teslamotors.com/

Tango: http://www.commutercars.com/

UEV Spyder: http://www.universalelectricvehicle.com/spyder.htm l

Wrightspeed X1: http://www.wrightspeed.com/x1.html

ZAP-X: http://www.zapworld.com/ZAPWorld.aspx?id=4560

Silence: http://www.silenceinc.ca/accueilEN.htm

VentureOne: http://www.venturevehicles.com/

Phoenix SUT & SUV: http://www.phoenixmotorcars.com/