Fully Electric Car available soon

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by Lotus and will do low flying. A saloon available in around 18 months time. Well by, by, internal combustion engine.

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Reply to
Doctor Drivel
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side of the pond we've had the C5 for years :-)

Reply to
John Stumbles

- Equiv to 135mpg

- 130mph

- 250 miles range (will be better when more improved batteries are out in a few years)

- 0-60 in 3 secs or so.

Designed, and funded, by IT people, NOT people in the automotive industry - they wouldn't touch them as their minds are stuck in the past. They got Lotus involved in the car body design and they will make the car too. This a mass production car, not a 2 a week job. They have even produced a patented charger.

A saloon is due in 18 months time. They predict the miles range will be even better as a new generation of batteries comes in. The man who designed the cars management system, the key to the whole thing which gives the range, developed circuitry to extend the life of laptops.

The company is based in Silicon Valley.

It seems like the EV is here now for good. I'll have to buy one.

Reply to
Doctor Drivel

Not all at once though.

If equiv to 135mpg and range 250 miles that suggests about $4 to recharge the battery. Assuming 15cents/kWh thats 26kWh stored energy.

As max power is 185kW which assume for 130mph, actual range approx 8.5 minutes or about 20 miles.

All assuming 100% efficiency which of course is crap. I am in UK so someone check my figures, but they don't stack up from where I am sitting.

Slurp

Reply to
Slurp

The 3.5 hour home charger needs a 70 Amp 220V supply.

70 * 220 * 3.5 / 1000 = 49 kWatt-hours so the stored energy must be quite a lot higher than 26kWH otherwise you'd be cooking the batteries + charger if you lost 23kWH in heat.
Reply to
John Stumbles

Without picking through your figures, you probably are right. Max speed is about power to drag. So going fast is very energy inefficient.

Picking through the specs, the vehicle weight is not quoted,and acceleration is power to weight - so that'll be another battery-eater.

So that 250 mile range probably requires gentle acceleration and moderate speed - but there are no concrete figures for the test conditions - so we don't know.

On the plus side it quotes 1000lb for the battery pack weight, and it sounds like it's using a single electric motor through a conventional powertrain. Lotus make a light car - so maybe around a ton kerbweight? And people from the electronics sector do know a few things about power management - they're used to doing everything possible to get the most out of a battery.

That many Li-ion cells must be a large proportion of the price - I wonder if you get good quality or even hand-matched cells? And how long before the battery pack has had enough and requires replacing?

Reply to
dom

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No vapourware here then? :-)

Reply to
John Stumbles

Apparently not. Do a Google of Tesla Motors. They are well funded and backed. The car is available in a few months time and made by Lotus. I doubt Lotus would get into Vapourware after the DeLorean fiasco. DeLoren wasn't actually vapourwarwe. They made 1000s of cars. Greed shut that outfit down.

This appears the first mass produced "modern" electric car. They were mass produced pre WW1. Battery technology is improving by the month without a doubt. A small Fiesta sized car designed for optimal usage and efficiency would be a great success. A car like this would never come from the traditional car industry. It had to be outsiders who look at it from a different angle and don't have their heads full yesterdays technology and ways. They want the status quo and keep selling us antiquated polluting crap.

Larger vehicles may have an onboard charger of a Stirling engine if needed. This could also do the a/c., heating and lighting to extend range for long tourers. A full EV would do 90% of people in car usage. It may do 100% if the advances keep on rolling.

Reply to
Doctor Drivel

Care to take a little bet of say 1000 quid that the saloon won't be on sale in 18 months time? And another that the price won't be anywhere near competitive in the UK with a diesel of equivalent performance?

Reply to
Dave Plowman (News)

In the same way as you bought a Prius? ;-)

Reply to
Dave Plowman (News)

Where are you going to do 130mph for 20 miles?

Efficiency overall charge to wheel should be around 90%.

I think you will find the range is cruising at 55mph, or 65mph, or an averaged cycle.

I also calculated about 30Kwh is what it takes to achieve this sort of performance.

Reply to
The Natural Philosopher

Indeed. All valid points.

the discharge rate is not excessive - anything over 20 minutes-to-flat is not a huge stress for a lithium cell, and that means they can be optimised for low self-discharge and decent cycle life. At least 100 cycles (20,000 miles) is EASILY obtained, and 500 cycles (100,000 miles) should be within reach. You wouldn't necessarily need hand matched cells. The way I'd do it is create plug in blocks each with a voltage/current/temperature monitor on them feeding a data bus, and switch em in and out as they got flat, or near overcharging, or too hot etc.

Then at service time, any substandard blocks get swapped out.

Reply to
The Natural Philosopher

I wouldn't bet the former, but would bet the latter. In bulk I could probably get lithium cells at 50c a watt-hour..that's around $15,000 for a 30KWh pack...

Reply to
The Natural Philosopher

This would be why Toyota have dropped the Stirling cycle engine on all their new designs after it proved so uneconomical in the Prius?

Reply to
Dave Plowman (News)

Then it should be a sure thing for dribble? I'm willing to take one or the other or both from him. Of course he'd never put his money where his gob is.

Indeed. And a tiny company just ain't going to sell at a loss - unlike Toyota, etc.

Everyone and his dog announce an electric car every few years as 'the technology is now here' Except that it's not, and is a long way off at an economic price to replace the IC engine. And of course domestic electricity isn't taxed unlike road fuels. So if it became the norm for road use the price advantage would soon disappear.

Reply to
Dave Plowman (News)

Sad isn't it. A hot day and I hope they took him to the beach. I hope he hasn't made his loafers dirty.

Reply to
Doctor Drivel

Sad isn't it. I hope medical science makes a breakthrough. Then the babbling will stop. So sad.

Reply to
Doctor Drivel

Yes, care. The care is not good enough for him. It is nice they let him near the Internet though. But they think this is doing him good - all it does is make him worse. Maybe more Omega 3 is what he needs.

Reply to
Doctor Drivel

It is sad. All this babbling drivel. These hot days make them this way. Very sad.

Reply to
Doctor Drivel

This car competes with the Porche types, outperforms them, is simpler and super quiet.......and is the same price.

Reply to
Doctor Drivel

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