Effects of Electric Vehicles

[digifish]

I just noticed Chrysler announced it will launch an electric sports-car in 2010...

http://www.drive.com.au/Editorial/Ar...ID=57182&vf=12

"The all electric sports car, dubbed the Dodge EV, would have a continuous driving range of just 240 to 320 kilometres but would have enough power under the hood to go from zero to 100 kilometres per hour in less than five seconds."

Now that would be more than enough range and performance for me, but I expect this one will be mega $$$

Thing about electric is that once you have enough batteries getting extra performance is easy, and a lot cheaper than doing it with internal combustion engines (you have 1 moving part vs 100's ).

digifish.

[Black Nugget]

I am really hoping that bio-fuels take off. I have not done a massive amount of research in to it but I think there are some massive benefits to it.

Most existing cars can run on it
It can be grown by third world countries thus generating an economy for them
The courdroy wearing yoghurt knitting hand wringers always shriek about farmers growing the crops for bio fuel instead of food crops...but heres the thing with bio fuel, it can be made from plant waste...banana skins, corn husks, plant leaves and stalks.
It can also be made from algea grown on lakes...so a lake is built, algea is grown for fuel...water is used for plants and live stock.

I agree that biofuel is a really good solution however there are major regulatory problems. With developing countries taking up production we also get developing country laws. At current situation it would not be sustainable with massive environmental impacts, just look at the problems being caused by ethanol production on rainforrests.

If we could bring biofuel onto the world stage overseen by a powerful regulatory body i think we could have a real solution.

[Wraith]

All interesting guys...

There was another similar thread not long ago.

My preference goes to electric powered vehicles over any fossil or bio fuel for the future.

However there are many electric technologies out there and they have their disadvantages as already mentioned, my vote goes to the still 'not fully developed' hydrogen cell/electric powerplant route !

It offers the best of all Worlds, in terms of range/indurance, performance, zero impact on the enviroment as it has zero pollution output and a limitless supply of hydrogen means it'll never have a resource supply problem...

It's main problem at present is cost...however if adopted widely the costs would dramatically drop.

Full reasearch and use of this has been going on in Scandanavia - think it is - for quite a number of years now with outstanding results.

It does have other disadvatages, one being safety issues with the high pressure hydrogen fuel cells, but I'm sure future innovations and technology can solve these problems.

I do believe/predict electric powered vehicles of one sort or another will prevail over internal combustion powered vehicles in the future...

[digifish]

All interesting guys...

There was another similar thread not long ago.

...

I do believe/predict electric powered vehicles of one sort or another will prevail over internal combustion powered vehicles in the future...

There is also the added cost of maintenance of any internal combustion engine, an EV would just need a battery pack replaced every 5-10? years and the usual brake pads & rotors. So you do away with...

1. Oil changes (and the waste oil + filter)
2. Spark plugs
3. Air filters

If the braking system is regenerative you will also dramatically reduce

4. Pad and rotor replacement

An EV would be able to monitor the condition of all it's vital systems and let you know when and where trouble is developing. For example, if a motor is drawing more current than the rest (or out of spec) then you can be alerted. I can't help being skeptical about internal combustion, since there are huge vested interests in seeing it continue. Once battery cars are the norm, the barrier to entry as a car manufacturer also dramatically decreases, since the engine and drive-trains are one of the most technically difficult and costly parts to develop with new cars.

As we have all seen, electrical things are easy to mass-produce and so very cheap in the long-run.

digifish

[Wraith]

Correct ^^^^

With regards to hydrogen cell/electric power plants I've mentioned - there are NO BATTERIES !!!

So even less maintanance and far less weight to the vehicles, with the absence of heavy battery packs...

And they are more powerful and have far greater range than any battery powered electric vehicles, you would have no problems at all building a hydrogen cell/electric powered supercar 'today with current technology' that would match or beat any internal combustion powered vehicle in terms of performance, it would weight alot less and would produce ZERO emmisions !!!

If innovated and evolved further, IMHO they are the ultimate answer for the long term future...

[digifish]

...Ah you are talking about fuel-cell cars.

digifish

[Wraith]

...Ah you are talking about fuel-cell cars.

digifish

Yes, 'hydrogen fuel cell' delivers the fuel required for the production of electricity and that then powers the 'electric motor/s'

There's a wealth of information on it and how it all works and there's even some documentaries I've seen on SBS showing its progress in either Scandanavia or Iceland (can't remember exactly which Country it is) where they've had the entire Country' public transport grid on this technology for a number of years now and the rest of the World is taking notes...

[rjastra]

That Dodge EV is just another version of the electric Elise (Tesla) I think you will find

Manufacturers (except Honda and its Clarity) seem to be shying away from fuelcells. The technology itself is very expensive and the hydrogen infrastructure isn't really there yet.

In fact the Clarity is quite complex as it also has a lithium ion battery pack to suppliment the fuelcell. They aren't a simply machine by any stretch of the imagination

http://automobiles.honda.com/fcx-clarity/

[rjastra]

Yeah I don't think the Elise has to match all the safety regulations as it is a niche-built car. Never seen an NCAP figure for the Elise lol.

Its sold worldwide... and more importantly the USA. It passes all required crash tests in all countries

[bornwild]

No, see some cars are excluded from having to pass all tests and can still be sold...like for example, the Caterham...or Gallardo, Murcielago, Ferrari F430...etc.

Ah and electric motors need maintenance also...what happens when the coil goes balls up?