Driven: The All-Electric Rolls Royce 102EX

i think hydrogen fuel cells are the way to go. That is, of course, after we get all the fun we can out of a Bugatti Veyron 16.4 SS

-Knock knock
-Who's there?
-The Doctor.
-Doctor Who?
-Yes

Glad to see Rolls taking the step, even surpassing Mercedes which has a production electric-version of the S-class that they failed to upcycle to the Maybach line before Rolls/BMW came out with an ultra-luxe EV.

Sorry to see the author doesn't realize that "aspiration" in reference to cars is the same as it is in living creatures: how they breathe. That said, electric engines don't breathe. Combustion engines however, do, and can either do so passively (normal) or with forced air (turbo or supercharged, with some being able to do both).

@ scientific anomaly

Hydrogen is just another means of storing energy, like a battery. To get hydrogen "fuel" we have to use energy to liberate it from compounds (which isn't 100% efficient) then burn it to use that stored energy, which isn't 100% efficient. Then use that energy in some form of propulsion, ICE or direct drive electric motors, neither of which are 100% efficient. The EFFICIENCIES that are required to make hydrogen more competitive than charging up a battery (two orders of magnitude away from use, opposed to 3 for hydrogen) haven't been achieved yet. Which is why the conversation about hydrogen powered vehicles has all but vanished.

the conversation in the scientific community regarding hydrogen isn't dead. You can make solar cells that produce hydrogen, also hydrogen can be converted right to electricity in a fuel cell. The way I see it you have one loss of energy and that is in the fuel cell. The main problem is price, and also hydrogen storage, there is not a lot of potential energy stored in hydrogen gas so you need alot of it.

You don't need to store hydrogen, just produce it on demand. Hydrogen can and is stored within water anyway. Most people don't really think about it much (hydrolysis) and seem to jump straight to the super explosive cylinder of compressed hydrogen gas idea. Which is not a good method of using hydrogen in vehicles (an explosion would likely be capable of blowing up a small building LOL).

At present people are already using this method of hydrogen extraction to get up to %30 fuel savings in existing fuel cars, its just not commercially adopted because it does require custom car-mods of engines, and often only works best with the older carburettor based ignition systems.

The point is that if a vehicle was 'made' to use it, it would work well. Using Solar panels to produce the electricity needed for conversion would be a good idea indeed. Not too sure on the mileage you get from a tank of water but I say it be comparative to electric vehicles.

The main reason such ideas have not been pushed is because in the end, hydrogen based cars don't really hold much for fuel companies profit margins etc... Lets face it, you wouldn't even need to use a service station again. Whereas with electric cars they are looking for ways to keep the energy bills flowing.

You can't currently make a solar cell that returns the amount of energy that was used to create it. To further reduce it's return would be to waste it on creating hydrogen. Creating hydrogen still means one needs more than simple water. It needs some material like platinum to assist. There isn't enough in the world to supply even a days worth of auto fuel.

To create electricity at some place you still waste energy. This car is a neat car but it still uses a LOT of energy. The power station creates pollution to include things like mercury and radioactive waste even if burning fossil fuels.

Unless you can create a photocell that isn't based on silicon or a way to create hydrogen directly from sun without a catalyst then your best best is to reduce use. Lighter cars and more efficient use.

Productive is a combination of efficiency and being effective. While this car is all effective and oh so BLING BLING, I am lost to any time of efficiency.

It's just a rich man's toy, snore, zzzzzz.

Platinum? lol seriously. Many metals can act as catalyst and there is no short supply of metals. Making it sound like premium platinum is needed is another method of downing the conventional method of producing hydrogen.

I have tested with simple aluminium plates and had some pretty good results, and the metal can still be recycled at the end. Solar energy is free and by no means do we need to have a direct solar to energy conversion system at all!! Hell if you used solar energy as the base activator for the process it still resolves the issue.

People who argue else-wise are completely avoiding the obvious fact that solar energy is a free energy we can use for any process regardless of the waste within that process as the input energy is .. .... free. thank you sol

The end is near,imagine just ten years from now when the last production gasoline powered car is manufactured by Rolls/Maserati, yes the two companies merged it was the last hold out for gas powered automobiles, the 2021 Ghost. Not to be ironic but a homage to the original Ghost from over a century ago. Picture a Aston Martin Lagonda for the 21 century.

I think exotic advance spring technology should be developed.

I drive my car home. I plug it in. It winds up my power reservoir, be it electric, air, fly wheel, capacitive or some other storage system other than carbon fuel.
Oh yes, winding up a spring would be good too. ;)

.............................
Science sees no further than what it can sense.
Religion sees beyond the senses.

http://solarbus.org/documents/pvpayback.pdf

you might want to give that a read jefro, energy payback is at most 4 years for a solar panel, 2 years for some. The funny thing is that study was published in 2000, if you know anything of the solar industry the change from 2000 to 2011 is like going from those bicycles with huge front wheels to a new carbon fiber high end bike. I'm talking about the industry not necessarily the technology, but the tech has come a long way too.

side-note
oil and coal energy all came from the sun, once that runs out it is only logical that we will look to the sun again for our needs. The earth gets plenty of EM energy on a daily basis, all we have to do is tap into it.

Sweet ride. It must be nice. It's great to see even high class luxury cars are coming to age and more fuel efficient. Can't wait to see the whole world on board with electric cars and power charging post at every parking spot.

This concept won't see the light of the day. Rolls rolled this out to avoid penalties for producing too much carbon in their cars. The electric could have cost less than the naturally aspirated version because of the tax on the gas guzzler. But for now it is officially cancelled:

autoblog.com/2012/05/21/remember-the-electric-rolls-royce-phantom-forget-it/