A 21st century electric-car revival is under way. But the first challenge—building a cheap, safe, powerful battery—is the hardest
Posted 10.28.2008 at 4:15 pm
73 Comments
Battery Abuse: Two competing battery packs undergo longevity tests in GM's battery lab.: Courtesy General Motors
Right now, probably even as you read these words, some very ugly cars are relentlessly circling an eyes-only test track in Milford, Michigan. These are the Mali-Volts -- Chevy Malibus gutted and fitted with the Volt powertrain and covered with sensors and electrodes, like someone on a treadmill undergoing a cardiac stress test. Whether the Volt makes its November 2010 production deadline depends heavily on these cars. The Mali-Volts will show how the battery packs withstand the noise, vibration and harshness of being flogged on the track. Here, the final, crucial task of turning a collection of lab-developed parts into a marketable car has begun.
In early June, GM's Lutz described his first Mali-Volt test drive to the eco-news Web site Greenfuelsforecast.com as both thrilling and eerie. "It's like being in a conventional car at 70 miles an hour and coasting with no engine," he said. The batteries were performing well, he reported. Some of the welds that tie the individual battery cells together had failed, but that was expected; the team was increasingly confident. "The guys are now convinced that unless we have some sudden whoops! that we don't see, we're good for November 2010," he said.
If that "whoops!" does appear, it will most likely show up in longevity tests at GM's Warren battery lab. There, those celebrated first two battery packs have for nearly a year been subjected to the abuses of the pack cycler, a refrigerator-size device that tests cycle life -- how many times the battery can be discharged and charged again without deterioration. In two years on the cycler, engineers can put a battery through the equivalent of 150,000 real-world miles.
The other life-span-related variable, calendar life, is tougher to test. The only way to see how a battery ages over 10 years, really, is to make the battery, use it for 10 years, and see what happens. But if you have just two years -- as GM does -- the only option is to artificially accelerate the aging process by heating the batteries in a thermal chamber, a giant metal sauna where battery packs soak in a humid 185°F for months on end. At this rate, batteries from both A123 and CPI will have aged the equivalent of 10 years as of April 2010 -- a scant seven months before the Volt is supposed to go into production.
It's difficult to get specifics about how the batteries are holding up. Because of the Securities and Exchange Commission–mandated silent period that precedes its upcoming initial public offering, A123 declined to comment for this story. In July, Patil of CPI issued a vague declaration of confidence: "Today, a year after that initial award, we are marching right along the path without any showstoppers on the horizon."
Specifics aside, that note of confidence is growing. At breakfast the day before his speech at the Plug-In conference, Lauckner smiled mischievously, clearly relishing the thought of proving the Volt's many doubters wrong. All around him, the conversation was shifting from "if" to "when." "The window's closing on the skeptics," he said. "And the only thing that's going to be left at the end of the day is: Are we on time?"
The first architecturally correct Volt "mules" -- the test cars that look and handle like the finished product -- should hit the test tracks this month, right around the time the American electorate casts its vote between two presidential candidates who have both publicly endorsed the Volt and promised government incentives to help the car compete in the consumer marketplace.
But to reach the loftiest, longest-term goal -- a large-scale shift toward an electron-based economy -- batteries will someday need to beat oil on an even playing field, without help from government subsidies. They will need to be as powerful and cheap as the firmly entrenched fossil fuels they hope to replace. They will need to do a whole lot better, in other words, than the current target equation, which is, after all, still built around a 400-pound battery equaling a single gallon of gas.
"If somebody asked, 'What should the ideal goal be?'" Lauckner says, "the ideal goal will be to have the same energy density as gasoline or diesel fuel. That's where we'd say, OK, we've arrived."
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from Northfield, IL
Our company Micro Bubble Technologies Inc., www.microbubbletech.com has developed a new electrolyte and slight modification for lead acid batteries. We call it a CNT Battery. We have exhibited a 800% improvement in Reserve Capacity and a full charge time of 5-10 minutes. EG. we took a deep discharge marine battery that had a reserve capacity of 220 at 25 amps and a 10 hour recharge time.
After the modification and the addition of our new electrolyte the same battery exhibited 1,600 Reserve Capacity at 30 amps and a 5 minute recharge time. We performed over 1,000 full discharge and charge cycles to date without any lack of performance.
Modified batteries (13) will be employed in an electric car the Current (see web site under CNT-Battery). This car will go over 400 miles to a charge and a 5 minute recharge time.
Another important aspect to our technology is the fact that the CNT Battery will sell for 1/10 the cost of a similar lithium battery.
Michael Siegel
President
Micro Bubble Technologies Inc.
Some form of "competition" wouldn't hurt eh? (^_^)
It's best for us consumers to have lots of choices and the best pick that suits us from among those available choices.
Btw, I read somewhere that an American company is in the process of building infrastructure in Australia for the recharging stations for these types of electric cars powered mostly by "green" sources. Next up... for Americans - hopefully? Then next... for all of us around the globe?
This reminds me of the movie albeit for its title only - "Electric Dreams"... but the movie doesn't have anything to do with electric cars but the theme song is quite nice and I remember it quite well after all these years .... "...We'll always be together, together in electric dreams..."
But we're all awake now and it's not a dream anymore... hehehe. Gratz to everyone and let the battery / electric car race begin... "waits enthusiastically for further developments..."
Power is Everything...
Soon, we'll introduce another source of energy which will lasts for more than a year or decade without recharging...
Totally safe...NOT even a fuel cell or hydrogen stuffs...
Environmentally friendly...
Above all, its affordable ;)
from las vegas, Nevada
GM is full of it. Even if you exclude the EV1, what about the t-zero and the Kaz? It is funny that they never talk about a car that had, in 1998 drove from southern California to Las Vegas Nevada on a single charge all the while getting there with a reserve of about 30 miles. The technology has been around for a viable EV for over a decade, the thing that has killed these projects have been lobbyist for the petroleum conglomerates. You don't have to believe me look for yourself. ANYONE who says the tech is not there is either ill informed or has a differing agenda.
Hey Guys and Gals,
Maybe we're thinking of this based solely on the power output of the batteries. One big constraint is how much "juice" does the car use in making it run... which puts a constraint on how many batteries that will be used for this electric car, which leads to designing more batteries to become more efficient....
Just a crazy idea.. what if we viewed it from another angle... the car would be needing lots of power from the batteries because it's so heavy that in order for it to move and keep on moving...it would drain the batteries power after a short amount of time has passed..
Anyways, I've read somewhere of a material made with nanotechnology which they call buckypaper. It's supposed to be stronger than steel and weighs far, far less than steel - stronger but lightweight. Maybe you could use this material for the car's chassis and body... thus making the car less, less heavier... thus reducing the need for a huge amount of power to be supplied by the batteries in order for it to move and keep on moving... I know this sounds crazy but... they call it buckypaper for some weird reason and they have lots of possible uses for it in the future. Why not try it out now... with an "electric" car....sounds crazy right?
But that doesn't mean that we should stop research and development on developing the best batteries out there...still has to improve on lots of areas for them batteries...
Kindly research the possible use of "buckypaper" for this please. Paralleled with R&D for the batteries, the car would hopefully be better than your "steel-gasoline/diesel" car...
Many people bring up these semi-mysterious diabolical 'oil industry lobbyists' as the enemy of the electric car. While the oil industry certainly has trillions of $ at stake and wields enormous power, there is one group with even more to lose, wields even more power. That's the US treasury department. Why? Because regardless of what country the oil is coming from or where it is going, it is ALL traded in US$. So before you can buy oil, you have to buy US$. Increased global demand for oil = increased demand for dollars.
That means that regardless of all other economic factors, the treasury department can create massive amounts of money with relatively little effect on currency values (I say relatively, compared to what would happen if another country tried to do the same thing).
That is how the government funds its massive budget deficits.
That is why US taxes are some of the lowest in the world.
That is what is paying for the massive US military ($515,000,000,000/year).
This also accounts for about 4% GDP.
My point? Balancing the Federal budget and starting to pay down the debt is crucial to weaning ourselves off a petro-economy. Running deficits only increases our reliance on oil. If the demand for oil goes away, so does the demand for US$, and so the government can no longer fund its deficits by printing money without massive currency devaluation. But if there is no deficit, we'll be able to weather the stormy economic transition away from oil.
Well, why bother using batteries to get 20 to 45 miles of transportation and at very high costs and limited recharging capacity....when you can use low cost technology as being developed and put into service in India of high pressure air...
That's right, use high pressure air, contained in a carbon fiber tank with 340 liters of air at 4350 PSI...
Rather than being limited to 25 to 35 miles, and limited recharging, you could have a reasonable range of 125 miles per fill up and save thousands of dollars over the expensive battery technology and I might also mention it wouldn't catch on fire...as a battery might...
Add to this the use of light, inflatable cars such as from XP Vehicles, such as the Whisper car that weighs just 480 and could travel 400 or more miles at 65 mph on a single charge, and the car is essentially an air bag, made from the same material used for the landing airbags of NASA's Mars Probes...
Sounds good to me...
I think our Congressmen must spend too much time with their female adjutants and not enough time reading Popular Science or Popular Mechanics, because these two magazines have clearly shown the way out of our energy problems, and yet those folks in Washington have yet to see the light...
What is their problem?
let not forget about the tesla roadster. 250 miles to a full charge. they should have made an economy version rather than a sports car. but at 100k thats not bad. charges in the amount of time it takes your cell phone too.
Ugh, I cant believe what weve done to get ourselves into this power struggle.
No1 ever thought about wat would happen in the years to come when they made cars so inefficient.
But i guess they r starting to see the problems with present designs and we r finally thinking about the future.
So yea....................^.-
-THE KID
The CNT battery sounds incredible. I noticed that a patent was issued for a CNT battery in March 2006 with similar specs to CNT battery of Micro Bubble Technologies.
When will this battery be available and at what cost....
If the cost is only double that of an unmodified lead acid battery but has 8 times the capacity and recharges in 5 minutes ....that would be a Major breakthrough in electrical storage costs
The website for the electric vehicle "the current" ...soon to be released makes no mention of the CNT battery and only mentions a lithium battery or a Nilar which I belive is a nickel metal hydrite battery......
Henry Ford could have built an electric car. Electric vehicles were in production at the time he came out with the assembly line Model T.
Go visit some of your rural museums, where actual vehicles of this period are on display, or ask Jay Leno.
Had the lid not been closed on the electric car, what would one hundred years of innovation have done by this time (2008)?
Nikolai Tesla must be rolling over in his grave.
Is it just me, or is the power cord coming out of the gas pump nozzle backward? I realize it's a metaphore, but if the gas nozzle represents the power source, shouldn't the female end of the cord be sticking out of the end of it?
The way it is in the picture, it looks like the car would be delivering power to the gas pump -- or to the power grid.
Or did I miss something?
Agree about lack of competition and lack of comparisons listed in this article - no context given - just a list of names, no specifics and mostly a GM tech-ad-vertisement. Poor job popsci. The article should have been titled "Power Struggle GM style"
Maybe popsci needs to review buyers guides like the new Plug-in Electric/Hybrid Buyers guide to see what consumers can order today from http://update-electric-cars-today.com
Learned how these "Battery Powered" vehicles run and how they are inefficient as of now. But how much electricity does it take to charge one of these "Volt" and it would be a necessity for local places to offer "charge stops" where you would have you pay to charge like you would pay at a pump. I would image these big batteries could have a tendency to have bad cells and such. It seams pricey but a good step up from straight gas.
Learned how beneficial battery powered vechiles are. I think that electrical power will go way better than gas powered because it produces less pollution and is way cheaper.
The thought of electric powered cars is kind of smart but what about the idea of cars that might get over heated an may blow up. The sound of having no gas cars sounds great because gas prices has sky rocketed and are ruining our economy leading us into a recession. Money is a huge importance right now in the world and if we think about it how much cheaper would this be. I like the idea of having electric powered cars but by reading the article it lets us know that regardless its still going to take a lot to get these cars up an going let alone thinking about how long these cars are capable of running. Electric cars "sound" like a good idea but should be further more researched!
I have learned alot about this article with this kind of technology we do alot better for the enviroment and save tons of money people spend on gas. Its cheap and affordable. Their would be flukes in this though like all great things that are new. Places to charge up that would be alot of problems. How long and of course they would try to make money off charging, how long or even how much your car needs.
My opinion is I will stay with my gas its efficient and reliable you dont know how some of these are going to react in other seasonal enviroment. And I dont htink itll work but if it does work it will end really quick.
The use of electrical batteries will be more beneficial to the environment. But at the same time, the price just to charge your car for about an hour for the day will be equivalent to the gas prices we pay now, if not more at that. In the article it states that a fully charged car will only last for 48 miles before having to be charged again. I feel electricity is a better method for the concerns of the environment but not the best method for safety, size and price.
I learned that the EV1 was the electric car that GM launched in 1996 and that they then had to destroy it.
I think if they can figure out a way to make these batteries less expensive and to last at least 5 years this would be a great step for us in the United States. I think that in time they are more than capable of accomplishing this.
Ive learned in this article just how hard it is to make an electric car. I say today there are so many things you can do with technoligy and you think it would be easy. Untill you try to make your thoughts come to be thats when you relize its not as easy as it seems. Mabey its just me but thats how I see it.
In my opinion, untill you get a better battery, The goerment would have to set up eletric outlets similar to parking meters in parking lots to make them succesful. That would reqiure tons of money and constuction that I dont see in the near future so keep up on that battery.
i think that this is a good idea......i think this because we would save on a lot of money tring to put gas in the car wen we can use electricity too.....thats pretty neat if u ask me!!!!!! the only thing that might be a huge downfall is how expensive it might be but other than that this is a great idea!!!!
I learned that cars that will use batteries will be very expensive.
My opinion is that it is a good idea to try to get rid of using gas for cars because of how bad it is for the enviroment but if we do that we have to be able to afford it.
I learned that there about 95% to see an electric car on the market in about one year.
I think that this is a very good idea and the authorities should help them achieve their wonderful goal and try to make it cheap and make it last a long time.
i learned that gm is going to come out with the first baterrie operated vehcile.
the teams goal is to make the car cheap and affordable with out losing qulaity of the car.
i belive that they can do it as long as they keep trying.
I learned that this car will take out carbon emmissions.
I think there goal is to make a car that is cheap and also does'nt hurt the environment. I think they can acheive this without loseing the quality of the car.
I learned that this car will take out carbon emmissions.
I think there goal is to make a car that is cheap and also does'nt hurt the environment. I think they can acheive this without loseing the quality of the car.
I think that in this modern day we do need to find a way to stray away. Natural resources are runing out fast and electricity is a man made source of power so it only makes sense to power a vehicle by that. If we can make a gallon of gas last over 100 mpg everyone will save money, natural resource usage will greatly be reduced. i learned that it is possible to power a vehicle off electricity. also the teams goal is to make a car that can go 150 miles on 1 gallon of gas. i think they can reach that goal. in this day we have the technology to do anything.
i learned that cars as we know it re going to be changed into electric powered cars instead of gas to save money and time. The teams goal is to make travel more convenient for everyboidy and i think they will acieve it
I think electric cars are a great idea but some of the technology to make an electric car that is cheap, has long range and has the preformance of a gasoline car is nor there yet. Until technology catches up I think that air powered cars are currently the best bet. Air technology is already here compressors are simple and not teribly expensive also advanced research into nanotechnology and complex physics and chemistry is not required to design an air powered car. One big thing is that air is clean, nonexplosive and Clean to produce.
the volt car is going to improve the economical aspect of the world and help the enviroment. However its unsettling to know that this tested battery can not run for long periods of time. 79% of Americans may drive less than 40 miles, but theres 22% unaccounted for. Also, what of the truck drivers who drive the furthest? will techonogly be able to cope with this without running the battery done. trucks are our biggest gasoline user, as are busses. So what about them? It sounds like a great idea, and it might work out in the future, but I dont know how that will effect the traffic and flow of the economy if its not everyone in use. what would happen if there was a power out and therefor no way to charge the cars?
-six
the volt car is going to improve the economical aspect of the world and help the enviroment. However its unsettling to know that this tested battery can not run for long periods of time. 79% of Americans may drive less than 40 miles, but theres 22% unaccounted for. Also, what of the truck drivers who drive the furthest? will techonogly be able to cope with this without running the battery done. trucks are our biggest gasoline user, as are busses. So what about them? It sounds like a great idea, and it might work out in the future, but I dont know how that will effect the traffic and flow of the economy if its not everyone in use. what would happen if there was a power out and therefor no way to charge the cars?
-six
Something new that I learned is that Lithium-Ion batteries are lighter and more energy dense than the last few generations od batteries used in the indusrty. The team's goal is to have the Volt on the market in November of 2010. I don't tink the team will be able to reach it. I think this because of all the kinks that still remain in the plan.
I have learned that there is some people who are trying to make a big difference in the world, by making some electrical cars that can be charged just like cellphones.
The team's goal is to create some electrical cars, that will decrease the carbone dioxide on the air (pollution), but they need some powerful electrical battery that can power up the cars, make it faster, more durable (hours/days) and most of all more safe (protection from overheat).
i think that they can reach there goal if they don't give up; and it will help the population a lot if they achieve it, by saving money and by decreasing the pollution
i learned that the battery may one day be better than the gasoline powewred cars that we have today. there goal is to have the same density and power of gasoline cars but in a battery
I learned that in 1996 Gm made an electric car (EV1) that failed and cost them nearly 1 billion dollars. Lithium batteries are light and energy dense but when overheated, have a bad thermal reaction that can lead to "thermal runaway". To test batteries they place them in a thermal chamber to see how well they'll work in about 10 years. They hope to reLEAse the new car by November of 2010. In my opinion i think it's a great idea that thier conducting all these expeirments to better our economy.
One thing that I have taken from this is that there actually is a fighting chance of electric power replacing gas and oil. This teams goal is to build a cheap, safe, powerful battery that will power the car. I can say yes I think the team will create a battery that will power the Volt. But for how long will it power it for, and how far the battery can take the car?
One thing that I have learned from this article about the new car that GM is supposed to come out with, which is the volt is that the battery will run almost 40 miles before running out of the juice to power this battery or car. I think that the teams goal is to find a way to power a car for a cheaper amount than cars are being powered today. I think that the team will not be able to do this because people will not buy this car because of what happened with the Hybird. This is all of my opions of this article.
Even with the battery in the car they still have to use gasoline for the Volt..but it is good and helps the environment more.
I think they will make their goal but it wont happen fo awhile. Maybe 10 years or 5 years
After reading this article i learned that we as Americans burn around 390 million gallons of gas everyday, which is 20 pounds of CO2 into the air!
my opinion of this article is that it is very informative and interesting.
in the above article i have learned that scientists go through a lot to make the world more efficient. They are going through great struggles to make electical cars and are taking many many years to assure that it will be a good, well working car.
The goal of the team is to make an electric car with the same energy density as gasoline or diesel fuel.
i think that with enough research, and hard work they will reach their goal easily.
I learned that americans burn 390 million gallsons of gas each day. That pumps carbon dioxide in to the air.
I think the teams goal is to make a hybrid car that the mostly on electricty and not gasoline.
I learned that these people are striving to help the economy by building an electric powered car. I believe the teams goal is to actually acomplish the electirc car to help the American people save money on gas. They also want to make this car affordable for the people who simply can't afford an expensive car.
I learned that a high percentage of americans drive less than 40 miles a day, making it unlikley to use the gas back-up on the hybrid cars.
The goal is to find a way to make a battery that is affordable and light weight.
The goal is to eventually rid out all gas powered vehicles by using electric- solar powered vehicles.
I believe that one day this will happen. The world is so deep in economic struggle and in such a hectic mess with global warming becoming such an issue, that this HAS to work. Technology has increased in so many ways the past years and i believe that this goal will, one day, be reached. We've already come so far.
i learned that it takes alot of effort to create a new car.
GM's goal is to make a more energy profcient vehicle by 2010. i think they will suceed because it seems like they have put a lot of thought into this car and are putting a lot of effort into making it and making it right.
i learned that americans burn 390 million gallons of gasoline every day each of which pumps 20 pounds of carbon dioxide into the air. I think that this car would be a good thing because it would make the air less polluted and would make it cheaper for everyone to drive. We also have to think about how much this car would cost because what if most people cant afford it than no one will buy it Also think about how much its going to cost to make it. Overall though i think that it is a great idea.
I still don't get it. What will the Chevy Volt have that many hybrids and all-electric vehicles don't already? And why is it taking GM so much time and money when there are already small companies converting hybrids to run on batteries alone and other companies like Tesla producing performance sports cars that can go 200 miles on a charge. If you ask me, GM is still suffering from the only-if-it-was-invented-here mentality and it is crazy to sell a car in California that can withstand a Michigan winter. Just like our power will eventually come from many different renewable and non-renewable sources, depending on where we live, cars should do the same. Millions of cars in the southern states have never seen a snowflake or sub-freezing temperatures and never will. Those market differences should be recognized in establishing design criteria if battery and hybrid vehicles are ever going to gain widespread consumer acceptance.
I learnd that 78% of people in the U.S drive less than 40 miles a day.
The teams goal is to make traveling easier and cheaper.
I think they will succeed at it once they sort out all of the problems that are/will happen/ing
I learned alot about cars in general, because it was never a strong suit of mine.
I believe the article should not be used for educational purposes because if you didn't understand the concept before the article would just confuse you insted of educating you...And if the article WAS used for the purpose of education it should be an advanced article insted of a beginner article.
I dont think they are going to suceed in the making of this car because if people were really wanting an electric car there would be lots of them running around out on the streets. Yes people were complaining about gas prices bein so high but now they are down. I would never drive an electric, I love my car and the power it has, no electric car will ever keep up with my honda! Im planning on sticking with my honda for a long time!
NO THANKS I WILL STICK WITH MY HONDA!!!!
from Amanda, Ohio
I learned that electric is a good way to go but will make it hard if you have to charge every 50 miles.
I think that the ideal of electric cars is a good ideal but the vehicles themselve are just to inefficient. the ideal of hydro powered cars is a good ideal but havent got it engineered right. the way to solve the fuel problem rate now is to use bio-diesel it is efficient and you can refine used vegetable oil in your own garage so you never have to go to a gas station. Also the new study using ecoli to make bio-diesel will make the food prices cheaper because less bio diesel will be made with corn or soybeans.
one thing i learned was that 20 tons of carbonamishion is amited each year.my openyun on this artical is that it will be good for the invironment and will save from fuel costs
I learned that electric cars are so hard to make, but will be a great advance and use of technology once achieved.
I think that their goal is a great idea, and also a great way to get off of foreign oil dependencies and to gain a reliance on America instead of other countries. It will great American jobs and will help America be independent once again.
My one concern would be that electricity prices, whether using nuclear energy, coal, etc., that those prices would rise.
Electric cars will have to advance the length it can run on a charge, or else it definately will not do good with traveling families.
I still this the Prius is great, low gas costs, and still great gas milage of 44 mpg. I do not care for GMs dependency length.
Battery powered cars seem ideal but impossible to make. Its hard to produce such a large battery with not even much energy and people don't want such an expensive inconvenience to deal with.
I think one day they can make it more effective, maybe in some years.
I learned that The battery for the chevy volt weighs in at 400 lbs
I think that the goal of this article is to inform people about an energy crisis and also to tell about the movement to make a bette electric powerd car wich helps the enviornment by not using gas wich emits carbon monoxide wich in turn hurts the enviornment.
their goal is to have most cars to change from gas to electric, soon cars will have cheap batterey, that is also safe to replace the price of gasoline.
What about Air Conditioning, Heating, CD/DVD, GPS, and all the other stuff that gets plugged in for power in the car?
I don't know about everywhere, but here, we are stop and go, top speed 7 mpg in gridlock, in 90-degree weather for at least an hour each way.
This means 40 miles means diddly.
How long will this car run like this keeping the interior of the car about 75-degrees, charging my cell phone while I talk and listen to car stereo music and the GPS tells me to turn right up ahead? Will it make a 10-mile commute that takes an hour in this weather?
The articles NEVER mention this.
I can tell you, people will NOT buy a car without Air Conditioning down here in New Orleans Metro Area.
This artical said that "Americans burn 390 million gallons of gasoline every day, each of which pumps 20 pounds of carbon dioxide into the air," which is very harmful to the environment.
I think the electric powered car is somewhat good idea. Only somewhat, because there are always those few problems that may arise in the making of this hybrid car. Yes, the gas prices are high, well not now because of the election, but when people do start using the hybrid wouldn't that make our electric bill go up?
Morethanlikely the prices of electicity won't rise to the amount it takes to fill the tank but eventually it may...
You never know! But yes overall this is a great idea.
I feel that this article informed me greatly on the advancements in alternative fuel. Although the electric car is a more exspensive alternative, I feel it is well worth it. A couple extra dollars to help save our enviroment and keep it clean, is a great investment.
I learned that electric cars need more work and that it would just be better to stick with gas powered cars. It would be better to stick with gas powered cars because having to recharge your car every 50 miles would get annoying unless you drive less then 50 miles a day. i would rather just be able to drive as far as i want without having to worry about how far i can make it before my car runs out of charge. Then have to worry about where im gonna recharge it if it does run out before i get to where im going.
I learned that if you have an electric car you have to charge it every 50 miles. i also learned that a lot of people dont drive more then 50 miles in a day so for the people that drive less then 50 miles having an electric car probably wouldnt be so bad. though for me i think that sticking with my gas powered car would be better because i was homeschooled for a while and have friends all over ohio so i would probably drive more then 50 miles in one day and that would be a pain trying to figure out where i would recharge my car.
I learned that if you have an electric car you have to charge it every 50 miles. i also learned that a lot of people dont drive more then 50 miles in a day so for the people that drive less then 50 miles having an electric car probably wouldnt be so bad. though for me i think that sticking with my gas powered car would be better because i was homeschooled for a while and have friends all over ohio so i would probably drive more then 50 miles in one day and that would be a pain trying to figure out where i would recharge my car.
Reading this article has showed me that electric cars are not going to be a reality for the average person for quite some time. Assuming that one was able to afford one, and the battery, there would still be the problem of the short distance you get out of the battery before it needs charging again. While the article says that most people drive less than 50 miles a day, what would you do on the days when you had extra errands to run? You can’t have a car that only suits your needs some of the time. You would also have to make sure that your car has a safe place to charge while you are away. If, everyday, you went in to work and your car had been unplugged or someone has cut the wires when you returned there would be no point in having an electric car, you would just be wasting your money fixing it over and over and never get to drive it. For now, people should stick to trying to conserve gas while more research is done on electric cars.
i have learned that americans use up to 390 gallons of gas a day, we dont conserve it enough and that most americans dont even drive 50 miles a day and the car that only needs charged has to be charged every 50 miles so it would be good for those americans . i personally drive alot, i have family and friends all over so i dont kno if this car would be right for me.
i see where it comes in to play how we need to save on gas and that the next alternative is to go electric just to save on gas, but the price will still be up take in consider that if it uses a battery that you will have to pay for that and gas and if it plugs into the outlet that your electric will go up.I mean its a good idea to get started.
in the above article i have learned that scientists go through a lot to make the world better for use. They are going through great struggles to make electical cars and are taking many many years to assure that it will be a good, well working car.
The goal of the team is to make an electric car with the same energy density as gasoline or diesel fuel.
i think that with enough research, and hard work they will reach their goal easily.
I learned that the new companies are trying to save The U.S. money and hat if we did have these cars we wouldnt have to use gas at all because most only drive 40 miles a day. The goal may come true in the next few years.
i learned that the Volt's battery will have to carry a 10-year, 150,000-mile warranty, which is awesome because if anything goes with the car, you're set for a decade (:
i think that this idea of a car is great because it will save alot of money that you'd be spending on gas, and it will also help out the enviorment as well.
I learned that the electric battery powered car, is hard to make cause the power cost is too expensive and they are trying to find a cheaper way to help economy.
I think the team working on this car is eventually going to find a solution like half water and electric or some mix to complete goal.
As stated by several rational readers before, the nation's power grid is totally incapable of supporting an electric car for even 1/10th of the drivers. If the "5 minute charge, 10x capacity" lead batteries actually happen, we will fry every fuse in the power grid the first night trying to put 400 miles worth of electricity into a car in 5 minutes.
Here is a question for PopSci that needs to be addressed in an upcoming issue: Has anyone heard how heating and air conditioning will be addressed in electric vehicles or how the use of such accessories would affect the mileage? I am fairly electronically and mechanically savvy and I see a problem here that I don't recall anyone ever mentioning.
The "micro bubble" technology mentioned in an earlier post, IF it truly exists, will make the CAR practical. If 10% of us plugged in and tried to gobble up 400 miles worth of electricity in 5 minutes, we would pop every breaker and fuse in the power grid. There is no forseeable technology to deliver that much power that quickly from any source. You would have to be talking about THOUSANDS of amps!! The average house uses less than 200!
Lastly, a question: How are we heating and air conditioning these vehicles? Does anyone know? I never hear that mentioned.
Ok, Ok, OK - Mr Siegel2. Isn't your Carbon Nano Tube (CNT) electrolyte produced by growing the carbon tubes from petroleum derivative feedstock? Don't try to save the world using oil. Oil is evil.
What all of you are missing is OBAMA. He has "vowed" to bankrupt the coal industry and force electricity prices to skyrocket. Are you hearing the words coming out of his mouth?
"Hope and Change" baby, "hope and change".
i think that this idea of a car is great because it will save alot of money that you'd be spending on gas, and it will also help out the enviorment as well.
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