How fast do you want you EV to charge? 5 minutes?

[Fingolfin269]

Modular batteries then. Instead of driving up to a charging station and hooking up, the station has precharged batteries that you replace your drained batteries with. It could be an automated process like driving through a carwash.

Modular isn't the way to go. At least not yet.

 

[thescreensavers]

Modular batteries then. Instead of driving up to a charging station and hooking up, the station has precharged batteries that you replace your drained batteries with. It could be an automated process like driving through a carwash.

This. Electric cars are still far away from normal use imo. maybe in 2020

 

[Darwin333]

This. Electric cars are still far away from normal use imo. maybe in 2020

We could have the perfect EV tech today and we still would be far away from being able to put them into "normal use". The production side and the grid itself simply couldn't handle the huge increase in demand.

IMO, the production problem is relatively easy to solve but the grid problem is going to take a huge chunk of cash (trillions, not billions). Hell, fixing the grid alone would solve some of our supply issues as well as make things like distributed generation possible but we are kinda short a trillion bucks or so to do it.

 

[darkswordsman17]

Modular isn't the way to go. At least not yet.

I think actually a modular pack that you can drop into say the bed of a pickup would be great. A lot of people that own pickups are never actually hauling anything in the bed, so if they were able to have a large pack that you'd put in so that for normal driving they could function full EV, but then when you needed to haul anything you could remove it and use the gas engine.

 

[PlasmaBomb]

I read the Chevy Volt has a gas backup but doesn't go as far as the LEAF.

It's supposed to manage 40 miles on batteries alone, then can do a couple of hundred on "gas backup".

 

[Kwatt]

I'm cool with overnight. If I could buy an electric car for $10,000, that had a 100 mile range, and charged overnight, I'd get it. Double the range, I'd pay twice the price.

I want 100 miles @ 55 with AC/Heat (a true 100 miles). If I can get that I would go maybe $15,000 - $20,000 for a one lung go-kart size car (think Prius size). $25,000+ for a small SUV size or small pickup. Overnight charging is fine. NO HYBRIDS for me. I already have a infernal combustion engine vehicle.


I do not think there will be a viable EV until a way to tax them for road use is found. My state (GA) already has a additional fee for the license plate for EV's. But, the last time I checked no way to tax mileage.


...

 

[Jeff7]

Build them like electric toothbrushes. Your parking spots have the little electromagnetic thing that charges them when the car is around them.

Probably expensive, but I like my idea

People with pacemakers need not apply.

 

[bobdole369]

Fast charging hurts battery life, though.

Yup, really, really, really badly too.

However... one interesting concept is electrolyte change. Other than the obvious "you are handling corrosive and dangerous battery acid", I'm trying to find a downside.

 

[LTC8K6]

It's supposed to manage 40 miles on batteries alone, then can do a couple of hundred on "gas backup".

Yes. Should be about 400 total miles. The generator on the Volt powers the electric motor to move the car. It does not charge the battery past a minimum charge level. The only way to charge up the battery in the Volt is to plug it in.

Once you have done the 40 all electric miles, you are running on gasoline via the generator. The battery is kept at minimum charge only, and is only briefly used when extra power is needed, such as to climb a steep hill or to help briefly if you need max acceleration

To explain it further, if you ran the Volt to it's full range, starting with 40 all electric miles, and continuing until it ran out of fuel, when it quits running, the battery will still be in it's depleted state and unable to move the car.

 

[bobdole369]

It currently costs me ~ $0.15/mile to drive my car. The LEAF claims 70kwh to recharge for another 100 miles. That's $8.40/100 or $0.08 per mile at $0.12/kwh. I'd be paying the electric company instead of Big Oil, but since a good chunk of the power in SOFLA is gas turbine, I still pay Big Oil.

I drive the exact same route every day, about 16 miles, 12 of them on the freeway and just about no more. I would make a great candidate for current gen EV's.

I worry about the impact of all these batteries that are built in China.

 

[nageov3t]

the problem I see is that these cars would be great in urban areas where most trips are relatively short... except, in those same urban areas, almost no one has a garage and everyone has to deal with random street parking.

 

[OUCaptain]

The question is what kind of main will have to get the power company to install to supply the juice. I'm not in the mood to do the numbers, but charging a pack that big that quickly is going to pull some serious amps at 110 or even 220.

 

[Jeff7]

The question is what kind of main will have to get the power company to install to supply the juice. I'm not in the mood to do the numbers, but charging a pack that big that quickly is going to pull some serious amps at 110 or even 220.

And of course that'll mean that we'll need more power plants in order to serve our transportation needs.

But of course, power plants buy and burn fuel in bulk, and we all know the benefits of that. :awe:

 

[bobdole369]

The question is what kind of main will have to get the power company to install to supply the juice. I'm not in the mood to do the numbers, but charging a pack that big that quickly is going to pull some serious amps at 110 or even 220.

It's 40A at 220. So it'll be bigger than a stove outlet, maybe less than a welder. 8 hours gets you to 100%. This is the typical "home charge". The rapid charge is roughly twice that (same amps, 440 or 500V). but gets you there much quicker. I can't imagine its good for your batteries though, as others have mentioned.

 

[ShawnD1]

I imagine "hybrids" will be the norm for a few years yet. Not until battery technology, along with charging/swapping infrastructure matures some more.

Seems like pure electric would be the welfare version and hybrid would be the luxury version of future cars. The pure electric car can only go 100 miles but the hybrid will go 300 miles.

Just put a simple 8 HP snowblower or lawnmower engine in the car and you'll add an extra 100 miles. Whenever ya come to a stop, the car is still charging at a rate of 8 HP. That's actually a really high charge rate.
8 HP * 746 watts / 120 volts = equivalent of 49.7 amps at 120 volts

Would that be enough?

 

[bobdole369]

Would that be enough?

It's not quite that simple.

1. The charging isn't 100% efficient. In fact its likely less than 50% efficient at the 8 hour rate.

2. The 8HP motor won't be spinning a gen thats perfect at making power either. I'm not good at specifics, but in the marine world they say take the HP of the generator motor and divide it by 4 to get your stable generator power.

To account for this you likely need to quadruple the once small 8HP motor - to now at least 30HP - Now that motor is likely to actually charge at 50A/120.

Some rather confusing neat stuff is at:
http://www.diyelectriccar.com/forums/showthread.php?t=11709

 

[LTC8K6]

You'd also want your genset to run on something other than gasoline to keep from paying big oil, or Chavez, or the Saudis, etc.

So you'd maybe want it to run on nat gas or propane or ethanol, maybe biodiesel.