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How the World's Fastest Electric Car Is Pushing Wireless Charging Tech
An anonymous reader writes With the first ever season of Formula E revving up in China next month, it's clear there's more to electric cars than Tesla. But the race cars hitting the track in Beijing don't have anything on the speed of Drayson Racing Technology's Lola B12 69/EV, which holds the record for the world's fastest lightweight electric car, and which uses the kind of power technologies that could one day have applications off the track too—like charging your phone wirelessly.
Let's do the numbers: if you want this 30 kWh battery charged in one hour (you're in a race, remember?) you'll have to supply 30 kW. At an efficiency of 80% (TFA -- I know, I know) you're looking at losses of 30 * (1/.8 -1) kW = 30 * .25 kW = 7.5 kW. That's a friggin' garage heater!
I'd still go with a thick copper plug, really.
For $$$ amount of electricity lost buy using this method of charging a car would pay for a holiday after a decade. (25Kwh * 20%loss * 10c * 365days * 10years = $1825)
Why is plugging in a charger difficult? With my phone I'd say plug-in is more convenient because I don't have to worry about dedicating a flat surface for charging, the phone get plugged in and chucked wherever at whatever angle.
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London has installed wireless charging points at bus stops for its new hybrid bus fleet.
You act like there's no research papers on this subject. There have been tons, and the conclusions in each case are the same:
1) CO2 emissions would decline even on the US's current grid (which is, I should add, getting cleaner every year, while the amount of emissions associated with oil production keep rising)
2) On a generation basis, every region in the US has enough space capacity for a full switchover of the passenger fleet today, without any new plant construction, except the Pacific Northwest. Most charging is done at night when most power plants lie idle, but the Pacific Northwest is an exception because their heavy use of hydro means time of use isn't important, only net consumption.
3) The only thing that there's not enough of at present is simply local distribution capacity, to peoples' homes.
Of course, that's for a complete, instantaneous switchover, which is of course an impossiblity. Your average car is driven for about two decades before it goes to scrap, only a small fraction rotate out of service every year. And that's assuming that everyone bought EVs as replacement, which if course is an impossiblity because even if everyone was suddenly sold on the concept of EVs it'd take a decade or more to ramp up production to that level. And of course everyone is not suddenly sold on the concept of EVs. You're looking at maybe a 30-40 year transition time period here. If power companies can't keep up with a trend that's stretched out over the scale of several decades, they deserve to fail.
Could chocolate let me finish?
Our 2012 Nissan Leaf was purchased used from a rental fleet for $15,600 with 8,100 miles. After the down payment and at 2.4%, the monthly payments are ~ $245 per month. Electricity costs about $50 / month when the car "Trickle" charges at home nightly at 120V / 12A. Added together, we are looking at $295 per month for the first 60 months, followed by $50 per month after that. If the battery wears out before eight years, Nissan will replace it for free. After that, Nissan will offer a replacement battery for $5000 or less, and prices will continue to drop thanks to Tesla and Panasonic. There is virtually no maintenance besides rotating tires and filling windshield washer fluid.
Our 2004 SUV used to go through $60 per week in gasoline to make the same daily trip to work. Even though the SUV is paid for, the monthly cost is approximately ((52*$60) / 12) $260 not including repairs, oil changes, etc. We keep it for long trips, but it costs much more to operate than the Leaf.
Our Porsche has a really nice top end speed, so I'm told. It shows its true power between 3000 and 4000 RPM. However, from 0-30 MPH, where it counts in city driving, it can't come close to the accelleration of the Leaf. I have taken both up to 80 MPH, and the difference is in decibels.
Every person that I have had test drive the Leaf is blown away. My wife had a list of cars that she wanted to test drive, but after driving the Leaf she said, "I don't need to test drive anything else." In every respect except for range, the Leaf is a superior vehicle to anything that I have ever driven. Then again, the 2015 Leaf already has improved the range.
My advice, don't sell your ICE car, just garage it for the long trips. Use the Leaf for the daily commute.
Tesla superchargers charge at 120kW with a wired connection. 20kW is not fast enough to quickly charge an electric vehicle that has enough batteries to provide adequate range. Even the Fast DC chademo chargers for the leaf can charge at 50kW.
Fast wireless charging will never happen because wasting 10% of your power as heat under the vehicle will cause things to melt at high power rates.
We have the best government that money can buy.