An electric car I could live with!

[cat0020]

Seems to me there is not much cargo/passenger/leg/head room in that Supercar..

[GasSavers_RoadWarrior]

Whereas a Ferrari Enzo Ferrari is ideal for helping your friends move furniture, fetching 8x4 sheets of plywood from home depot, getting 2 year old fruit trees from the garden center etc etc

[cat0020]

[JanGeo]

1000HP is about 300 volts at 2777 amps with a 90% efficient motor so it sounds about right but them batteries are gonna have to be really big to put out that kind of power for any amount of time so don't expect this to be REAL in the next year or two unless EEStore produces a supermegaultra cap. Can you say 833,333 watts? (1000*1.1*750) I don't think they can fit a battery that big in the body at small as what they are showing there plus the two 500HP motors and controllers.

[The Toecutter]

I doubt this is even a real car at this point...

Dump about $500k in components, and it may be possible, but as Jan Geo said about the battery, motors, and controllers...

The Cd of the gasoline model is unimpressive.

[ma4t]

While we might not be there yet, the technology has taken a substantial step forward in areas we might not think to look.
http://www.minit-charger.com/

M

[theholycow]

Interesting. How does it work? Their "How fast charging works" page just says to plug it in and come back in a few minutes, but I wonder how it actually works. Specifically, do you have to have a huge amount of power on tap, or does it store power in the charging station to be discharged into the batteries once someone plugs in?

[The Toecutter]

I haven't researched their "fast charging" scheme, but I do knoiw such fast charging is possible and has repeatedly been demonstrated nearly two decades ago by companies such as Aerovirnment and more recently today by Altair Nanotechnologies. Mitsubishi demonstrated an electric FTO concept early this decade that did more than 1,200 miles of driving within a 24 hour period using fast chargers.

NiMH batteries used in the EV1 were capable of a 30 minute recharge. With 130-150 miles range per charge on the highway, this would have been practical for long distance travel had an infrastructure using these chargers been built(it was going to be built in the 1990s by Southern California Edison until the oil lobbyists found a way to halt it). Charging currents under such a scenario will typically exceed 200A, and you will not be getting that from any household outlet. You basically will demand the entire output of a small power plant while charging; a large battery to act as a buffer for each "station" would be imperitative if grid collapse were to be avoided.

[JanGeo]

Originally Posted by ma4t

While we might not be there yet, the technology has taken a substantial step forward in areas we might not think to look.
http://www.minit-charger.com/

M

Yeah it looks like they have a rapid smart charger and you have to use it at any down time the lift truck is not being used during the day to charge up the electric lift truck. Instead of a single big charge they give it a quick boost before the battery gets too low. Any heat buildup is minimized because of the short duration at the higher rate. Looks like you could wear out the connectors more quickly because of the constant changing between the charger and the truck controller.

[GasSavers_BEEF]

their point is valid though. those batteries aren't cheap. you would have to buy a lot of connectors to equal the cost of one replacement battery.

toecutter,
I thought the current would have to be pretty high on them for such a quick charge. this could be something that could actually work though. the hardest part is to get enough people to buy into the idea. have a separate 200 amp feed to your home (in your garage) to charge the car. charge it at night away from peak hours and you are good. if you had to charge during the day, maybe bring down the power of the house to compensate for it. when I say bring down, I mean cut the power to the rest of the house but only for the 10-20 minutes of the charge.

there again, enough people would have to agree to do this before it could be a viable idea for a company. the price of the setup would have to also be considered when thinking of purchasing a car like that.