Electric car may surpass gasoline performance?

[emforty2]

an electric rail car=trolley=train will surpass anything out there in efficiency

so lets say everyone drives an electric car how are they gonna move on a congested freeway highway in rush hour ?

[etmax1]

Wheel in motor is the way to go, no diff and no gears at all. I smaller car would have 2 motors, a more powerful car 4. Chains are a bad idea, they are lossy, noisy and they stretch. There's a reason petrol cars have eliminated chains. Even a Kevlar belt system would be better than chains.

[eldictator1]

3 words....Graphene Super capacitors

[mechmusician]

Um..... why is this necessary? We have a 200 year supply of oil at least..... And until you can get the charge time down to what it takes to refill a gas car, this will never sell.

[tomviolin]

@mechmusician It's the economics. Gas prices are going up. It is getting more costly to get at the oil (just ask BP). Plus, worldwide demand is rising with countries like China and India developing at increasing rates. Eventually, sooner than later, an electric car will simply be cheaper to operate. Then you have increased efficiencies of only having emissions at the power plant instead of each car. Politics aside, follow the money. If EVs become much cheaper to operate than gas, EVs win.

[mechmusician]

@tomviolin Mark my words, that will NEVER happen. EV will never be cheaper than gas. The fuel may be, but nothing else will be. EV's require many precious metals and heavy batteries. And oil is not scarce. Peak oil is a fucking myth. Deep water drilling is around because of all the fucking enviro laws that pushed them that far off the coast. We have enough oil in Alaska alone on land to last 200 years.

[tomviolin]

@mechmusician We disagree.

[bannor99]

@mechmusician Alaska alone? Not a chance. Maybe, maybe if you added up all the proven reserves, technically recoverable resources and the speculative resources in all the United States, you might get 200 billion barrels. Even if you could recover every last drop ( which no-one thinks is feasible ) that would give you, at most, 30 years supply as the US devours 20 million barrels DAILY!

[mechmusician]

@bannor99 Yeah and I guarantee you that you got that information from some hippie environmental website that hates oil to begin with (even though it's powering their site). And even if their information was up-to-date and accurate, you're still not counting coal and natural gas. We could quite use liquid petroleum for transportation and processing, and power the entire country with natural gas and coal for hundreds more years.

[mechmusician]

@bannor99 Another premise all those doomsayers rely on is rapid population growth. That 30 years stat probably relies on population growing 300303030%. It's not happening. The population of the Earth is set to level off at around 9-12 billion by 2050. Not a big deal. Really chicken littles, calm down. There's nothing wrong with using petroleum, we're not running out, the world isn't ending, anthropogenic climate change is a fucking myth. Relax.

[bannor99]

@mechmusician I calculated it using the daily oil usage for the US from 2007; population didn't enter into it.

As for the rest, I personally hope you're right - but that's wishful thinking. The evidence, which is continually mounting, points to it becoming a real problem for us, by mid-century.

[tomviolin]

@mechmusician P.S.: Ultimately, if the car is cheaper enough, people will adapt their habits to deal with the longer charge times. People will endure annoyances for increased value/savings. (Think about this: when have you ever had to say "you're breaking up" on a land line?) Charging time can be fixed by having a 2nd set of batteries charging at home while you're out driving. Service stations could have (for a fee when you're in a hurry) pre-charged batteries you could swap for your dead ones.

[eldictator1]

@mechmusician Yes put your head in that saudi Arabian sand. Keep funding corrupt, terrorist funding, human rights abusing countries. Of course Oil always stays the same price and will never go up, and china and India will never need more oil for the 200million or so cars being bought in the next ten years

[bannor99]

@mechmusician You've never heard of Better Place?

[mechmusician]

Um..... why is this necessary? We have a 200 year supply of oil at least.....

[justgivemethetruth]

350 volts at 1000 amps .... wow! 350 Kilowatts! That's a lot of juice! Where is this energy going to come from?

[DanFrederiksen]

340kW will only blow 20 homes? quite a power supply they have. isn't it more like blowing 200 home sockets? in USA

[Wishpit]

What a waste of time, we're willing to make alterations, but not sacrifices.

Why don't we just learn how to build our lives around driving less, and for some perhaps not at all?

[derman077]

Fast charge has a way to go. Battery stations replace gas stations by 2020.

[DanFrederiksen]

the 2000kg car weight is bad. mass really influences energy consumption and thus range. especially city driving mass is the absolutely dominant energy consumer.

2000 is really bad.

the motor is too heavy as well. they should look into axial iron free neodym based motors.

the A123 cells are really good for high power but not so good for a marathon design such as they are going for. and if they are going for rapid recharge then why not live with a shorter range. like half.

that many batts cost

[BOGOTAROCKSTAR]

no more gas from BP

[rock3tcat]

@BOGOTAROCKSTAR

But we need it! Go BP!!! :D

[plasmatv]

The most tantalizing things about this project (car) are the capacity, range and above all, the potential (re)charging time. 10 minutes?...........dang, hurry up boys, roll'em out.

[eldictator1]

Great! no more rip off mechanics charging £300 to fit a new exhaust

[Omega3chimp]

so you cant have an electric car that runs acroos the country that sucks.

[tnguyen318]

I am not a fond of seeing electrical cords connected all over the place in public. It is like seeing a poor looking solar panel design. If the average person travels only 40 miles a day, they would have three days to charge their car at home on a 120 mile battery. So far in my opinion, it belongs out of public view and organized at a fueling station.

[derman077]

@tnguyen318 wireless charging mats. i think at stoplights also

[tnguyen318]

If "Wireless" Charging Mats are possible then it is excellent to use. The Question is how fast do they charge and how safe will they be?

[RStarga]

"May", "as much as", "could", ad nauseum.

Please leave the fake lead-in's to the champion's of false advertisement.

Car's like the NISSAN LEAF are powered by COAL/OIL Fossil fuels coming RIGHT from your local power plant...feel all warm and fuzzy now?

[papagamias]

@RStarga stop this stupid nonsense... Electricity IS freedom cos it gives you the freedom to chose your source... electricity is just an energy currency... you are not bound to oil

Even if electricity is generated all in oil units electric cars are better as they are much more energy efficient... they are above 80% efficient even in the most reckless driving... gasoline cars when you drive them even carefully are less than 30% energy efficient

[ArcadeGames]

I would like to see some self recharging cars, like using different ways to recharge the battery while you are moving and slowing down.

[subtheo]

Finally using a standard measurement system !

Thank you !

[furion7]

ending is good :D like everything is falling apart now.

[g1981c]

1000 amperes at 300 volts hmm. if i was working at that lab i would be seriously concerned about exploding batteries !

[dhymers]

only if you're a complete dumbass and manage to short out a pack. otherwise, you're fine.

[m31119]

So thats what a cell looks like. I thought it looked like some sort plastic film thing

[henrikchip]

flat lithium ion batteries > the cylindrical ones they are using.

The Cylindrical ones overheat alot easier. Nissan has already solved this problem.

[lavakava]

only problem is Li-ion used by the new nissan leaf require at least 30 minutes to charge from a recharging station (120V, 12A)...

tesla motors has a much better idea than either MIT or Nissan, with their swappable battery. 45 minute charge and 300 mile range tesla S sedan...that's a superb car...very classy, will go on sale for 50 grant (not too bad, because its a luxury car with handling equal to a bmw), and a top speed of 135 mph.

it kills the MIT project in all aspects!

[harrcohen]

Is Israel continuing with its electric car infrastructure rollout? Renault-Nissan is responsible for the car. A private corporation is focusing on infrastructure. The goal is 100,000 electric vehicles with swappable batteries on the roads in 2011 with thousands of charging stations.

I think the range is reduced to 150 mph which is about the length of the country.

[zeinbrug]

waht about idruim li-ion aloly  spiral cell battery.

[papagamias]

@lavakava 50 grant... but with minimal maintenance you will have it for 50 years and more than that... just imagine this...

[latitude500]

@lavakava

30 minute recharge isn't a problem at all. I have to sleep 8 hours to recharge, so my car is just going to set around for 8 hours doing nothing.

[Odziz]

Excellent report.

Way to go M.I.T!