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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."
The Killacycle used to be powered by spiral-wound AGM cells, but the producer went out of business.
Since then, it was repowered with A123Systems' LiFePO4 cells. It now does 0-60 in 1.5 seconds and the quarter mile in 8.16.
Electrics need not be slow, and their range is growing by leaps and bounds. The ICE has received its terminal diagnosis; the future is electric.
Sustainability and energy independence essay
Yes, and in how many days to pass that much energy back into your car. Not exactly a candidate for a quick pit stop, unless they can swap the entire battery pack in 10 seconds.
"It's the height of ridiculousness to say for those 9 lines you get hundreds of millions."
Actually I'd rather know how it does 30-70 in gear, as that's the kind of acceleration I actually need - getting up to speed for joining a motorway. Blasting away from the lights is strictly for boy racers, and how fast my car does it is of no practical value to me.
When I can buy one of these for under $40K, call me. Until then, this is a neat idea which requires much more development before anyone will be interested.
I'm all for green power, green transport, et. al. But if it costs me more than my house, what's the point? Nobody will buy it because nobody can afford it, good intentions or not.
Now if all automakers would suddenly convert over to pure carbon-fiber bodies, CF production costs would (eventually) plummet to the point where it's the same cost (or cheaper) than steel. But that's not likely to happen anytime soon.
In the end they will lay their freedom at our feet and say to us, Make us your slaves, but feed us. - Fyodor Dostoyevsky
Ford as a nameplate will always be around, but the company/with factories will not. They've screwed the pooch, along with all the other auto execs in Detroit. They believed their own PR about the world never changing from big gas-fueled hot rods, and now they are toast. Chrysler is the first to go on the chopping block. There is no recovery plan, as they *have no cars* the new world market demands -- electric, non-polluting, cheap, very low margin. They still want to make Americamobiles. Their only chance is a government that wants to bail them out -- not impossible, considering the clout they wield over elections.
So, I'm a wierdo. But I did manage to find a wife who agrees with me on noise, so I'm not alone, just outnumbered.
Less glibly: I would love to be able to eliminate my motorcycle tailpipe and make it completely silent. I've heard that this would make me less safe, but I've noticed that when driving, I've never heard a motorcycle coming up behind me. Even the ones with loud pipes.
Regards,
Ross
He makes a clear point. Electric cars break the tie to any single fuel type. That means at any point the generation is cleaned up by adding renewables/nuclear even old electric on the road benefit.
You concentrate on the worse case scenario without even looking into it. You can look up carbon content per megajoule of energy today and do the comparison numbers.
You will still produce much less net emissions by using an electric car because of it's much higher efficiency.
Under no circumstance is an electric car producing more net emissions. This long tailpipe argument is an old unsupported red herring.
No, really!
electric cars don't need to shift gears.
Nor do internal combustion engine driven cars, with continuously variable transmission. Williams tested it in the early 90s - there's video of Coulthard accelerating from a standing start with the engine steady at peak revs the whole way, but it was banned by the FIA.
I use Friend/Foe + mod-point modifiers as a karma/reputation system.
Seven years ago I saw an electric bike built for an engineering student project with similar acceleration and very good handling. They pulled the motor out of a dead suzuki bike and replaced it with a batteries and an electric motor to give almost the same centre of mass (slightly lower) and set the gearing to give very good acceleration from 0-80kph and get there in a couple of seconds, faster acceleration than when the thing ran on petrol. It took off like a rocket and looked very impressive - which was the idea, something to show off at University open days. Due to a tight budget that is all it could do - the speed topped out at 80kph and it only had a 100km range.
Remember this is a student project with time and budget limits built out of a scapped bike with a chassis designed for a heavier motor and tank. The control system was the limiting factor in expense and performance back then - that has improved even if batteries still suck and cost a fortune.
No, the whole idea is to have all the pollution happen elsewhere - like at the top of a very tall stack instead of at ground level in the centre of a city. It's the same with hybrids - they are the solution to a city traffic problem and have a different transmission system that has benefit.
As for the SUV thing - yes you can cherry pick stuff and say that a one litre Suzuki Seirra is still an SUV but it all comes down to big heavy vehicles requiring more energy to move about whether they have a tonne of batteries or are just big to look impressive. A minivan with the aerodynamic properties of a brick can carry more people for far less energy than what I would normally call an SUV.
CVT's aren't so obscure. Everybody's doing them nowadays; off the top of my head I've seen them from Ford, Nissan, Audi, and Honda. The Audi A6 had a 5-speed auto, 6-speed manual, or CVT at one point (last I looked was at least a year or two ago) and the CVT gave the best 0-60 and gas mileage of the three. And without any shifting. No doubt, CVT is cool.
What I would really like to see is a diesel on a CVT. In a sports car. No, seriously...by modulating the transmission ratio rather than the throttle you'd have total access to that power and torque, which would be much higher pound-for-pound than a gas engine. Of course, it would be good to have diesel+cvt in normal passenger cars too (and hybrids...wtf? why aren't there diesel priuses!?) but I digress. Point is, diesel and CVT seem like a perfect match.
Given a choice between free speech and free beer, most people will take the beer.
I call your fake vehicle and raise you two real ones.
I remember reading in an automotive magazine recently about a British company modifying a Mini (the current design) to be powered by four powerful electric motors. The result was actually FASTER than the standard Mini, which shows that once we lick the battery storage problem electric cars won't be slow, that's to be sure. And since the electric motor is very compatible with computer controls it could mean built-in traction control and antilock braking all by controlling how each motor works.