Quote :

"if people want to charge them at home, they are going to charge them over many hours. Which, as a plug-in hybrid, is perfectly fine to leave it plugged in while you sleep."

Think outside the box a bit. There are plenty of other ways to get tons of electrons into a vehicle without being "disasterous to the production and distribution of electricity".

7/29/2008 10:08:28 AM

I may be guilty of being too conventional in my thinking, but the only way I could think of a very rapid battery recharge would either involve high-voltage transformers (which is an additional home expense), or at the very least, additional 220V outlets (which is still an expense to get installed - most folks only have 1-2 for their washer/dryer), or a process which would involve immense heat dissipation.

I mean, sure, there's a few things I could think of - a good inductor/capacitor setup could easily store up large amounts of voltage for a quick discharge. (All of this, though, is some additional infrastructure on the home end, however.) But I'd worry about the heat dissipated across the battery if you did that as rapidly as we're talking about - P = IV. I would think that this, aside from being a hazard, it would have a negative effect upon the life of the battery.

7/29/2008 10:54:06 AM

TroleTacks, there are, and I have no doubt that if electric fueling stations pop up they will be utilized. However, installing a half-ton capacitor bank in ones home does not sound worth it, since it would be easy to just let the damn thing charge naturally. While I'm sure some people drive home to spend five minutes charging their car before driving off again, the vast majority of people do not and will not. It is a hybrid for a reason, burn the damn gasoline. So I would never buy a battery that can charge in five minutes but weighs more, holds less energy, and will wear out sooner.

Now, if battery technology is surpassed by obsene-capacitor technology then sure, people will want to charge as fast as they can, but I believe utilities will insist on load levellers; for example, you hook up and then the utility varies the charge rate to be in-line with the power that is available without reverting to peaking stations. I think power companies would love this ability to choose when and where demand comes from, but it means you would probably never see a 5-minute charge between 9am and 9pm.

[Edited on July 29, 2008 at 11:43 AM. Reason : .,.]

7/29/2008 11:34:28 AM

doesn't a 40 mile range mean that it can travel 80 miles?

i know that's what "range" is for a boat

7/29/2008 5:00:13 PM

uhhh, no.

7/29/2008 5:03:17 PM

Quote :

"On the contrary, battery power-to-weight ratio (along with cost) is the limiting factor in electric vehicles today. Sure, electric motors can deliver plenty of power to the wheels, but supplying that motor with enough energy requires large, heavy battery clusters that force the manufacturer to make major design compromises. Compromises like not having any storage space. Or having to recharge the thing more than 8 hours. Or being so lightweight that you're guaranteed to die in a head-on collision with a real car."

Yes, that's all true, but the bit I was talking about was the fact that for a basic commuter vehicle, it's pretty unimportant. Power to weight mostly affects things like acceleration and top speed, you know.. performance shit. It's almost totally unimportant in a vehicle that really only needs to travel a short distance. My uncle owned an electric car that he drove to and from work about 10 years ago. It was a cheap, functional vehicle for his needs. He also had a van for packing up the kids and hauling to and from baseball practice, or for when his wife was running errands like grocery shopping. It didn't make much sense to spend money on a second family size vehicle when a cheap (even then I think he only paid about 10k for it) electric car worked perfectly for his 20 mile each way commute.

At this point electric cars aren't totally functional, but even now they can serve a distinct, useful purpose for individual transport or as the secondary car in a family.

7/29/2008 7:21:24 PM