Electric car may surpass gasoline performance?

By the third quarter of 2010, the MIT Electric Vehicle Team's goal is to build an all electric car with similar performance capabilities of gasoline-only counterparts. More videos at www.networkworld.tv

Category:

Science & Technology

Tags:

• electric car
• MIT
• technology
• auto
• green

[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!

[dhymers]

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

[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 ?

[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?

[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.

[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.

[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.

[bannor99]

@mechmusician You've never heard of Better Place?

[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!

[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.