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Progress On Electric Cars
Mike sends along a couple of items of interest to those anxiously awaiting the era of production electric vehicles. First, there's the upcoming Aero EV, which Shelby Supercars claims will charge in just 10 minutes and will be able to produce over 1,000 horsepower, powering the vehicle from 0-60 mph in less than 2.5 seconds. Then there's the announcement by Aptera of the first pre-production model of the Aptera 2e, which will have a top speed of 90 mph and go around 100 miles on a charge. This EV also features a strong and aerodynamic body, a lithium-based battery, front-wheel drive, and an improved door design. Release is planned by October of 2009.
What, no love for the Big 3? Lemme see here. We've got the range-extended Town & Country EV from Chrysler that will do 40 miles on a single charge, plus another 360 miles using a mixed gasoline-electric propulsion. They're also working on Dodge and Jeep vehicles with similar designs.
Ford used to have the market in a bag with their Ford Ranger EV pickup. Of course, they discontinued it in 2002. Now they're playing catch-up with the rest of the market. They are promising an electric vehicle by 2011, so there should be plenty of competition in late 2010/early 2011.
Speaking of competition, what discussion is complete without mentioning the Chevy Volt? Still the gold standard for the emerging industry, it will be anyone's guess if it lives up to the hype.
I rather like the look of this car, but I am concerned by a couple of issues. First up is the single back wheel. Won't that make the vehicle a rollover hazard? I presume the front wheels are extended to help mitigate this issue, but one good blowout looks like it could send that sucker fishtailing right into roll. (And for that matter, how servicable is that tire?)
My second issue is the power-train. Generally you want as much weight sprung as possible, and electric motors are heavy. Aptera seems to understand that as it appears there is an axel linkage on the front wheels. Presumably this is how power is transmitted. Is having that axel exposed going to cause any safety and reliability issues? I'm just imagining something flying off the road and getting wrapped around the the axel. Or in an accident, a pedestrian getting an appendage caught in there.
Or is this a rear-wheel drive vehicle? In which case, is that axel really necessary? Could'nt the steering be accomplished by swiveling independent pods rather than linking them?
Just my 0.005 cents worth after accounting for inflation. :-P
P.S. The Shelby looks pretty darn sweet! I'd never spend money to purchase a vehicle like that*, but I wouldn't mind taking her for a spin.
* Unless I had way too much!
Javascript + Nintendo DSi = DSiCade
Let's hope that SS's claims are true. This would eliminate the need for hydrogen cars as well (water vapor is another major greenhouse gas).
God forbid water vapor should be in the air!
:)
- 5 passenger
- mid size and safe
- 500km range
- a/c and heat
- charge up at home and work
- under $20,000
The Tesla and Aero are interesting, but waaaaaaaaay out of normal price range. And most of the other electric cars don't cut it. This is what I want, and probably what most consumers want:
1) A real sized car, not a tiny econobox with motorcycle-sized tires
2) Range of at least 100+ miles per charge (I am guessing 80% of people are within a 20 mile round trip to work, 90% within 30 miles, and 95% within 40 miles; so other than occasional, long road trips, that is a lot of coverage).
3) Ability to charge with regular home voltage/current (don't care if it takes several hours to charge overnight)
4) Real performance- at least as fast (accel & top speed) as a gas car (like a 3 liter V6, not a 2 liter 4cyl)
5) Features- full A/C, heat, heated seats, auto climate control, GPS, cruise, auto lights, auto windows, defroster, etc
6) Safety- comparable to a quality conventional car- crumple zones, airbags, seatbelt tensioners
7) Reasonable price- comparable to a quality conventional car, although many of us are willing to spend more for the advantage of electric... but not 50%+ more
When that happens, I am betting people will flock to them. Hybrids (plugin or not) are just too complicated; they have all the complexity of a gas engine (cooling, emissions control, transmission, lube, injection, etc) with all the added cost of electric (motors, batteries, charging systems).
Clearly, you have never lived in the southern states.
When Fascism comes to America, it will call itself Anti-Fascism, and tell you to give up your guns.
I do not understand why these cutting edge car designers can't make a conventional looking car (something as boring looking like a Corolla). Your friendly neighborhood soccer mom or PTA dad is not going to want get caught driving this.
I am not saying they should copy Corolla's body style but for heaven's sake, make something that looks like its meant for this planet. I am betting that these people probably spent a good deal of money on the shape designer. This car will appeal to teenage nerds, extreme yuppies and the Hollywood set. How many of them are there anyways ??
If they are really serious about addressing the actual gas problem, they should make something that looks a little more common (oh horrors !). This car looks like a rich man's gimmick. Don't be surprised if the middle class gives it a miss.
Humans aren't natural?
I presume a "yes." Things humans make aren't natural? What if a monkey learned to make something, would it be natural?
Obviously I have a point to make here. From the evolutionary standpoint that most say they hold, human machinery is just as natural as a monkey using a bone as a club (sorry, I just watched 2001: A Space Odyssey). It's time to define "nature" and why I don't get to be considered "natural." Which seems like it will be hard to do form the scientific/atheistic viewpoint. Even more so when people want to tell me that genetically modified stuff is just as natural as non GMO stuff... "natural" stuff. So on one hand, we can modify nature and be natural, and on the other hand we can't.
And yes, this is on topic, since "greenhouse gas emissions" implies that there are natural and unnatural things, and most of the time, "global warming" is linked to those horribly unnatural and wicked humans.
As opposed to whatever caused the last ice age when humans weren't around, I guess.
/me runs away from the flamebait mods, hehe
If you live in an apartment or in the city and have to park on the street, you really don't have a good way to plug a car in over night. I think I will patent a 'Charger Post'; insert credit card, open door and plug in car, lock door, next day insert card again to open door.
It's a fact overlooked by many.
They should keep overlooking it. H20 is a greenhouse gas, but it's close to saturated nearly everywhere on the planet already. If you put a little more in, it'll just rain out. In the places where it's not saturated (which is pretty much only near the poles), it'll freeze out.
Not a typewriter
You miss the point though.
If you really really need something that matches a gasoline car for a particular purpose like a ski trip to Tahoe, hire a car for the weekend.
For Mr and Mrs Smith going shopping or commuting, a short range electric car is sufficient.
Ideally there would be an associated enlargement of public transport, light rail and intercity rail to take away those medium range journeys.
It's a whole integrated solution not one thing to solve all problems.
There's no reason to think that things have fundamentally changed.
Actually, there is an amazing good reason to believe things have changed. All the previous spikes in gas prices have been caused by supply shocks. This means that various oil producing conglomerates have decided they would or could not provide the amount of oil because they didn't like the cost of it. This past years price shock was caused by a demand spike that could not be met. With the rapidly growing economies of China and India (~1/3 of the world's population) there are going to be more and more demand shocks on resources that have never been seen before. I'm not upset at China or anything but the game has changed with their growth and that means that there need to be real changes in how we view our resources.
"Educate the mind but never at the expense of the soul."~Blessed Basil Moreau
I would suggest keeping the battery pack warm using the same power source that is being used to charge the battery. Also, insulate the battery pack, since the batteries typically warm themselves as a result of being discharged, due to their own internal resistance.
This mainly becomes an issue if you park the car somewhere for a long time in a place that is cold, but there is no way to plug the car in. I suspect that parking garages would start offering electrical outlets for charging the parked vehicles. Smart grids would probably help with this, causing the car owner to be billed for the electricity used to charge and pre-warm the car (or credited, if the car contributed excess electricity to the grid during daytime peak hours in periods of relatively mild weather).
Similarly, the car interior could be pre-warmed (or pre-cooled in the summer) when plugged in.
Yesterday it worked; today it is not working; Windows is like that...
Nuclear power is an excellent idea.
I prefer fusion myself. Big 'ol billions of years of reliable fusion power plant... and our planet orbits it constantly.
Now we just need enough collectors, via solar panels and concentrating solar power plants, to use all that freely available power.
Uh, Linux geek since 1999.
.. how about progress on flying cars?!? am I right?
---- "Excuse me. Where's the children's gun section?"
I don't know why Ford never came out with this model!
Please name the ones that couldn't be replaced by nuclear power, or other alternative sources of electricity.
If the alternative was coal or no medical devices, no heat, no computers, no electricity, then yes, coal has saved far more lives.
But we can do cleaner today.
I don't read AC A human right
Lifespans are not getting longer due to coal.
Electricity can be made from CSP Thermal Solar and Wind
and if those run out the whole planet is dead anyways.
Coal is set to run out a lot sooner due to the rest of the world
ramping up use of it massively.
The coal producers in the US have nothing to fear of the US
getting off coal, China is building coal fired plants faster
than any 2 other countries on earth combined.
google "32 trillion offshore needs IRS attention"