"Boozer" the Electric Car Smashes Distance Record, Driving 1,000 Miles on a Single Charge

Make it look normal? Easy! Change your definition of "normal"!

very nice. to bad evs will never catch on here. atleast until they can haul a sizeable payload at 70 mph for 350 miles on a charge. where i live only a complete idiot would consider any electric vehicle. gravel roads w potholes big enough to bottom-out a midsized truck. how do they handle in extreme heat like we had this year? 30 days at 100+degrees? and weeks of subzero temps? how does running the ac/heater affect the performance? we have 3 pickup trucks and we use them daily. all of our neighbors have trucks as well.

Hey beefymclovin. Dont worry man we'll get there. EV's still got a ways to go before they can completely replace the combustion engine. But I truly believe that by 2025 EV's will be dominant in the market place. First off its only a matter of time before theres a major breakthrough in battery technology. Ever heard of super capacitors? Look it up on wikipedia. Electric vehicles are the future.

Also we are going to power our future through solar power. Utilizing nanotech we will cover every square inch of every surface (say your vehicle) will solar cells. So your entire car will be one big solar panel essentially. Solar power and EV's. A match made in heaven. Or hell you be the judge.

The Singularity is Near.

And a single charge takes how long?

Right...thank you...bring on the hydrogen fuel cells.

Ray is correct--energy is going to be scavenged from many sources. In addition to solar power, piezo-electric transducers can be embeded in tires to translate their normal flexing into electricity which can be stored in ultracapacitors to assist the in-wheel motors during acceleration, the biggest drain on battery life.

I've heard suggestions of induction chargers built into roadways, solar chargers as road surfaces and piezo chargers in roadbeds. How many will work out? Who knows but, as Wernher von Braun said, "I have learned to use the word 'impossible' with the greatest caution."

@beefymclovin,

"i live only a complete idiot would consider any electric vehicle. gravel roads w potholes big enough to bottom-out a midsized truck."

Where do you live? Somalia?

See, where I live, instead of spending $100 a week on gas for a huge truck to drive on gravel roads and through huge potholes I just pay ~$38 a week of taxes and get butter smooth roads, clean drinking water, police protection, recreational areas, street lighting, trash collection, and dozens of other services.

;)

@ b.v. close, the backwoods of arkansas. deep in the ozark mountains. our water is cleaner than city water could ever be, we have a well. the police arnt needed much here but we do need them to come pick up the bodies when some fool attempts robbery while high on meth. we have skys so clear the stars light the way. we recycle almost everything. its a healthy life. not for most people.

i think i already know the answer to this, but is the 1013 miles city or highway? bcuz, they can't call it a "commuter vehicle" until they test how many miles it can go while it stops at red lights, stop signs, and/or pulls over for an emergency vehicle.

I read about the Nissan Leaf on Popular Mechanics' website. The writer parked it with 16 miles of charge left on it, and plugged it in. The car indicated that it was charging properly. The next day when he unplugged it, it still only had 16 miles of charge left on it and he ended up stranded on the side of the road.
Sounds fantastic to me! Funny, when I spend 3 minutes putting 10 gallons of gasoline into my Toyota Echo, I can drive away with confidence that those 10 gallons will propel me at least 400 miles.
There's a reason that EV's haven't caught on in the 110 years or so that they've been on the road - they just don't work.

Wow DainBramage... Really? This is what past "experts" have said about similar subjects:

What can be more palpably absurd than the prospect held out of locomotives traveling twice as fast as stagecoaches?
- The Quarterly Review, England (March 1825)

The abolishment of pain in surgery is a chimera. It is absurd to go on seeking it. . . . Knife and pain are two words in surgery that must forever be associated in the consciousness of the patient.
- Dr. Alfred Velpeau (1839) French surgeon

Men might as well project a voyage to the Moon as attempt to employ steam navigation against the stormy North Atlantic Ocean.
- Dr. Dionysus Lardner (1838) Professor of Natural Philosophy and Astronomy, University College, London

There is no more pleasant fiction than that technical change is the product of the matchless ingenuity of the small man. Unhappily, it is a fiction.... Most of the cheap and simple inventions have, to put it bluntly, been made.
John Kenneth Galbraith, recipient of the Presidential Medal of Freedom from Bill Clinton, in his book, American Capitalism, 1952

The foolish idea of shooting at the moon is an example of the absurd length to which vicious specialization will carry scientists working in thought-tight compartments.
- A.W. Bickerton (1926) Professor of Physics and Chemistry, Canterbury College, New Zealand

[W]hen the Paris Exhibition closes electric light will close with it and no more be heard of.
- Erasmus Wilson (1878) Professor at Oxford University

Well informed people know it is impossible to transmit the voice over wires and that were it possible to do so, the thing would be of no practical value.
- Editorial in the Boston Post (1865)

That the automobile has practically reached the limit of its development is suggested by the fact that during the past year no improvements of a radical nature have been introduced.
- Scientific American, Jan. 2, 1909

Heavier-than-air flying machines are impossible.
- Lord Kelvin, ca. 1895, British mathematician and physicist

Radio has no future
- Lord Kelvin, ca. 1897.

There is not the slightest indication that [nuclear energy] will ever be obtainable. It would mean that the atom would have to be shattered at will.
- Albert Einstein, 1932.

There is no need for any individual to have a computer in their home.
- Ken Olson, 1977, President, Digital Equipment Corp.

I think there is a world market for maybe five computers.
- Thomas Watson, chairman of IBM, 1943.

While it may take a little longer than you have the vision or patience for, it will happen. Electric vehicles of all types will eventually rule the day because they have to. Eventually we will run out of oil if we don't blow ourselves up or drown in a sea of melting ice first. My hope is that it happens soon enough that oil will cease to be a viable commodity... I'm a dreamer, I know.

As much as I would love to see an energy dense battery, I doubt we ever will. Diesel has 36 times the amount of energy per unit of volume than a Lithium Ion battery.

True we are running out of petroleum, but we can make diesel with algae bioreactors easily and it doesn't depend on rare elements such as lithium which is a limited resource.

See the energy densities for yourself:
http://wiki.xtronics.com/index.php/Energy_density

This chart does not have the Lithium Cobalt though. I would be interested in seeing its density.

It's a little weird looking but that's still pretty amazing

@jeffjohnvol,

Electric motors are much more efficient than combustion... so you do not actually use all of that energy in diesel/gasoline for going forward. Most of it is wasted as heat.

it does't take gas to recharge a eectric car just another electric car. just like a hybrid's gas engine recharges the electric side a electric electric can do. I have 1 in my grarge and it works great.runs 1000s miles even at full speed.I also have a genrator that runs on batterys that puts out 2000 wats contuious.

I have to add that I did this about 3 years ago and still can't get anything going. I have 30+ years tool&die making cnn opp.programer can make anything I want to but making people beleive in me is the hardest thing of all.

@ jet1--

Read what you wrote. It's nearly impossible to figure out what you're trying to say... your thoughts are scrambled and it leads anyone to suspect you have no idea what you're talking about. Show what you posted to anyone... some stranger, at a car parts counter, for instance, and ask them if they understand what your statement means-- don't tell them you wrote it. You won't find ANYONE that can understand what you wrote.

It's hard to tell, but in your first comment, it seems like you're trying to say that you converted a car to run on electricity, and that you have some kind of generator on it that allows it to run like a perpetual motion machine. If that's what you're saying, you're delusional, and everyone will avoid you. You cannot drive for thousands of miles without a source of energy-- either gasoline, or hydrogen, or a charged battery, or diesel, or maybe solar (very, very slowly)-- but you are either lying to yourself or trying to lie to everyone else if that's what you are claiming. You can make all the fantastic claims possible, but there's no way you'd ever be able to back them up in front of anyone with an engineering degree to see where you're making a mistake, or committing outright fraud. If you really think you can prove it, you'll find huge cash offers to anyone that can show they can run a device without putting any energy into it-- not because they think anyone can actually do it, but because if they offer you a million dollars, they can be sure you'll never succeed. They are making such offers to keep people such as yourself from deluding anyone, and attracting gullible would-be investors.

You may be skilled enough to make a wide variety of simple parts on lathes and milling machines, but that's a lot different than being able to invent and build a complex patentable device.

Before you do anything else, learn to spell, and to use proper grammar, and to write proper sentences. Good luck.

@ Dain Bramage:

You are like so many others confidently claiming EVs will never work, even though there are already countless thousands of us already that have EVs and hybrids that ARE working, are giving us quiet, clean, exhilarating performance, and will never be satisfied with anything less. We are impatient for the day that those smelly, inefficient, noisy, and high-maintenance ICE cars are just as quaint as the horses and buggies that preceded them.

I spent an hour trying to find anything close to the anecdote relating to the Leaf you mentioned in Popular Mechanics, and it appears, like I see so often, there was no such story in PM. You made up a fictitious story, perhaps, or someone else did? And even if someone did post such a comment, it does not mean that any such thing ever happened... it frankly sounds preposterous... besides, it's overwhelmingly obvious that the vast majority of Leaf owners have had nothing but praise for them, and that's what really counts-- they are very popular and trouble-free.

Sure, EVs are not perfect! So what?!? They are in their infancy... their motors are matured, the electronics they run on are well on their way, and finally, billions of dollars a year are being spent by universities, labs and car makers worldwide, working feverishly on any one of several avenues to batteries that will grant us the performance we need to make EVs mainstream.

Anyone such as yourself can sit back and make bold brassy claims that one thing or another won't ever work... there are countless, pompous do-nothings such as yourself that will forever be nameless for your empty, baseless predictions. It's the Edisons, Teslas, Fords, Werner von Brauns and da Vincis that will be remembered and revered, for their willingness to confront obstacles to worthy goals, and for devising ways to evade and/or disable them.

We MUST find alternatives to the terrible machines we drive today that you are so obsessed with... petroleum will not last forever, and any ICE is inherently grossly inefficient for a variety of reasons. Electric vehicles only need a single moving part-- not even a reverse gear to back up-- no mufflers and air filters and oil filters and catalytic converters and other parts that just compound the engine's inefficiencies-- EVs need NOTHING to clean them up. And they do not need a massively inefficient logistical system of tanker trucks, dispatchers, mechanics and support staff to supply that fuel. EVs by contrast get their quiet, efficient electrons delivered automatically via grid lines.

Don't try to claim that EVs will overload the grid-- it takes electric energy to turn petroleum into gasoline, and guess what: a EV can drive farther on the electricity needed to process a gallon of gasoline than an ICE car can drive on that same fuel.

EVs are not practical for everyone! So what? I'm not trying to force you to drive one. EVs ARE practical and economical for a large segment of our society, and those of us that do buy them (or convert our ICE cars to EVs) will be the early adopters that prime the pump... as time goes on, the tech will mature, economies of scale will take effect, and EVs will become more and more affordable and usable for more and more people. Eventually, there will be no point for anyone to drive an ICE car any more.

No one can admire you for your lack of vision. Go ahead: scream and cuss and deny and cry, stomp your feet and threaten to hold your breath until you turn blue. But regardless of how threatened you feel by change, there's nothing you can do to stop the inevitable.

@ Jaballo:

On the surface, any hydrogen vehicle sounds wonderfully attractive, but if you check you'll see that way back in the '70's they were saying hydrogen was just 20 years away, and they're still saying that. There are an overwhelming number of problems that would have to be overcome for hydrogen to be practical... if you check, you'll see I left several comments on PS detailing those obstacles. There's like a dozen or so very serious problems, and even if you find answers for all but one of them, that one problem can still keep HFCs from going mainstream. For instance, even if you found a way to make hydrogen inexpensively, and you could make storage containers inexpensively to handle the thousands of pounds of pressure and cryonic temperatures needed, we cannot store hydrogen anywhere near as easily as gasoline, or distribute it as easily as grid electricity-- hydrogen fueling stations will have to be hardened against terrorists, they will be obscenely expensive, and cost a trillion dollars or so to implement across the country. Who will want to build a hydrogen fueling infrastructure until they have HFC drivers to sell them to? And who will be willing to buy a fuel cell vehicle unless there is a vast fuel infrastructure to keep it running?

EVs have no such problems. Even with extended charge times, we can charge our cars very inexpensively at night, and have a full battery in the morning. It does not matter if that does not work for everyone... lots of people have lifestyles that can accommodate such a routine and will be eager to be drive such trouble-free cars; once batteries have matured to greatly extend their driving range and reduce the charge time, EVs will increase dramatically in popularity. Every day, more high-speed EV charging stations are being installed, batteries are improving, and our highways are becoming quieter and cleaner with more and more hybrids and EVs.

You can be the cheerleader for HFCs, if you like, but even the big companies that were enthusiastic about them for decades have have grown weary of the challenges, and have largely disbanded their hydrogen operations in favor of EVs and battery tech.

personally, i HATE electric cars, i love and will always side with fuel, may it be rocket fuel or gas, but it looks cool.

@corski67 I love your quotes. Do you have a source for them. They tell the story on their own.

It seems to me that altho it takes elec. to make gas, it also takes gas to make elec. to charge the EV. All in all how much does it cost to recharge an EV compared to a gallon of gas to run an ICE for the same distance? Consider the cost of the elec. it takes to make the gas and the gas to make the elec. and the cost of the actual charging of the EV vechicle.
Just a thought.

Is Tesla Motors upset? I see a rival....