PeakOil is You
Want to go fast and stick it to the oil monopolies?
by The_Toecutter » Tue 12 Jul 2005, 21:46:16
$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'I') wouldn't say that electric cars are the next muscle cars just yet. Electric powered vehicles have proven that they can go fast but we're still waiting for a economy version that everyone can use on a daily basis. We need something with more than just a bare bones race type of ev to go fast. Something like a 4 door sedan that is relatively sporty, practical for everyday use, cheap enough to afford, and offer good performance.
There's AC Propulsion's all-electric Honda Civic they built in the mid 1990s.
On lead acid batteries, 100 miles highway range, 0-60 mph in 6.2 seconds, 4-doors, air conditioning, heating, and all that, and in volume of 10,000 cars per year, it would only cost $20,000 sold at a profit. Hand made, it's $75,000. This was about 10 years ago. No major auto maker touched it. Porsche Boxter acceleration for Honda Civic money.
It's unfortunate that AC Propulsion lacks mass production capability.
$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'T')he only way so far to make a cheap EV, is using lead acid battery technology.
This is true, but not necessarily due to the costs of other cehmistries themselves. Who owns the patents and also production volume and the fact that the major auto makers refuse to touch EVs are the major factors. not the technology itself.
$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'W')hile it offers good amp draw with hawker, optima, exide and other top notch battery suppliers, it lacks enough capacity. I realize that not everyone drives more than 50 miles a day, but it would be more marketable if you only had to charge it once a week or so.
Those lead acid batteries can give a car 100 miles range with careful attention to aerodynamics. That's certainly marketable to many. The Wall Street Journal reported that the market for an affordable electric powered car that had at least 50 miles range was about 150,000 sales per year for the state of California alone.
$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'R')emember most of these owners of EV's are going to be those in Suburbia, not in the city, mostly because in the city you don't have many places to plug in. So if your driving from and to work from suburbia you will be using a large amount of your range. After a days commute and assuming you can't recharge at work you will have used most of your range and its time to go home to recharge in suburbia.
Personally, I'd like suburbia to go the way of the dinosaurs.
But, it wouldn't be that difficult to set up electric vehicle charging infrastructure, either. Look at what we spent in Iraq.
$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'O')ther battery technologies are available like nicad,nimh,nizn,li-ion,li-polymer,zinc air, but these are much more expensive and will add significant costs to the vehicles.
True, if the battery packs and batteries themselves are hand-assembled!
AC Propulsion quotes Lithium Ion in mass production for automotive application at $250/kWh. That would be a 30 kWh $7,500 pack that would last 200,000+ miles in life and give 150-200 miles range.
Stemple, ECD chairman quoted NiMH in volume for 20,000 cars per year at $150/kWh. A 30 kWh pack to give a car 150-200 miles range would cost $4,500 and last in excess of 250,000 miles with abuse, however, if cared for, in excess of 300,000 miles. 1,750 discharge cycles to 100%. BUT, Chevron Texaco bought the patent, refuses to offer the batteries for an affordable price, and charges thousands of dollars per kWh, hence the multi-thousand dollar price premiums on the hybrids that use them.
$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'L')ithium polymer would at this point in time, be the best option to go with as it has demonstrated it is safer than regular li-ion and that it can be shaped to fit in many different positions within a vehicle.
Positions don't matter so much. An engine block and all its ancillary components didn't need to be moldable, neither does a battery pack. What's neat about the batteries is, you can build the entire pack into the floor of the car for a center of gravity that anchors it to the ground.
$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'T')he most marketable vehicle for an EV at this point in time would then be a sporty 4 door sedan type of vehicle, lithium battery powered, and some sort of 230 KW + drive train, and 4 wheel drive and lightweight. This is where the market for cars is today.
230 kW is very sexy to someone like myself, but for a mass market EV, overkill. A 170 horsepower EV that weighs 3,200 pounds would have no problem doing 0-60 mph in the mid 6 second range and 1/4 mile in high 14 seconds range, on par with the new Mitsubishi Eclipse GT. Electric motors make peak torque at 0 rpm, and as a general rule, for acceleration performance, one electric horsepower will be worth about 1.3 gas car horsepower.
230 kW, or 310 horsepower, would take a 4,000 pound EV from 0-60 in under 5 seconds. That would knock the rest of the auto undustry off its feet would someone be both willing and capable of mass producing a car like that. The small businesses are willing but not capable, the big automakers are capable but not willing. Unfortunate, as the beginning of peak oil will cause 70s-era anemia in our cars all over again, perhaps eliminating them altogether in the long run.
$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'M')arketing for electric vehicles has also been almost non-existent,
