UK Students Build Electric Car With 248-Mile Range

da_how writes "A group of students and graduates at Imperial College London have built an electric car with a massive range — 248+ miles on a charge at 'reasonable' highway speeds (60 mph). They did this by filling the car to the absolute max with as many lithium iron phosphate batteries as possible — 56 kWh — and designing a very efficient direct drive powertrain, about 90% batteries-to-wheels at highway speeds. The choice of vehicle is an interesting one: it's a converted Radical SR8 — a track racing car with a speed record on the Nurburgring. Not an obvious contender for an endurance vehicle (no windscreen either!) — but then they claim it's lightweight to start with, being constructed of steel space frame and glass fiber. Also, Radical is based in the UK and provided some help and sponsorship. The students plan to drive their 'SRZero' 15,000 miles down the Pan American Highway, beginning July 8 in Prudhoe Bay, Alaska, and ending up in Tierra Del Fuego three month later. That's about 60 charges."

Comments

What the article doesn't mention....

[Anonymous Coward]

One thing glaringly missing from the article is the cost of the battery pack. On the open market right now, 56kWh of LiFePO4 cells runs a bit over US$120,000.

All the way down?

[Dunbal]

15,000 miles down the Pan American Highway

      They should do a little more research, as I wish them luck getting across the Darien Gap. There IS no highway from Panama to Colombia - they'll have to take the ferry like everyone else.

Re:All the way down?

[phantomfive]

Apparently they did a bit of research; from the article:

UPDATE: 1:30 p.m. Eastern: As to the question some of you have about how the team will navigate the Darien Gap, it plans to ship the car around the gap, and they've met with ambassadors to Panama and Columbia to line up the required visas.

Seems like they wanted to take a summer trip and figured out a way to get someone else to pay for it. Not a bad deal.

Re:248 mile range? Big deal.

[hackerjoe]

248 miles is measured using the EPA test, which includes a lot of braking. On open highway alone, they'll do better. Besides, they might not get wonderful mileage in a pass, but with regenerative braking on the downhills, they won't be as affected by it as a gas powered car.

I just drove through the rockies in a second-gen Prius, and the regenerative braking seemed to do a pretty good job of smoothing out the consumption: I'd get worse consumption on the uphill and better on the downhill, and it seemed to average out to just the same as what I got on the flat; within 10% if you believe the meter in the car.

Re:Electric Hype

[DigiShaman]

Unfortunately, our nations (USA) power grid is sorely in need of an upgrade. I've read numerous times that even with an increase in nuclear, solar, and wind power, the means of distribution is very limited. Second goes for vehicles that will be recharging from said grid.

If there was ever a need to spend stimulus money on a project, it would be our nations infrastructure. Both at the state and federal level. But our politicians decided to fritter away funding in useless "make work" projects that doesn't provide a damn bit of investment.

Too late now to ask for another stimulus. Our nation shot that wad one too many times. Now, we really are stuck using oil for a very long time. At least, until our trillions of debt can get reduced. Fat chance, but I digress.

Solectria Sunrise had 370 mile/charge range

[Colin Smith]

With

NiMH batteries
Place for 4 occupants & a trunk for luggage
Crash tested

in 1996...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solectria_Sunrise