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I get irrationally angry whenever people start on how Hydrogen will save us, its the worst of both worlds. Hydrogen is currently generated from fossil fuels & if you filled your car up on Friday, the tank would be approx 2/3 full when you go to drive to work on Monday. Boiling off is a bitch. Combine that with the rather poor volumetric fuel consumption required to maintain 'adequate' power & I can't see why people want to see it in cars. Battery-wise I like the idea of the redox liquid batteries, they have their issues (I think energy density?) but the only standard required is fluid type & connection. Bill by volume as per petrol & the French supermini can use the same refuelling station as the German van.
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Jan 19, 2012 21:53
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MadScientistWorking posted:None of the idiotic infrastructure is needed in comparison to electric vehicles. As it stands all gas stations are pretty much good to go for hydrogen fuel cars because cars sort of run on the same fuel that hydrogen fuel cells can. When most people refer to hydrogen fuel cells they refer to the fact that you are burning hydrogen but in the end it really doesn't matter where the hydrogen comes from. I kind of see your point but in reality to outfit a petrol station to supply Hydrogen requires every single piece of equipment be replaced with the H2 equivalent. You can't store H2 in metal tanks, it'll need new pumps & plumbing, there will also be some refrigeration or boil-off provision. The only thing a petrol station has that H2 needs is a forecourt & a register. I agree there needs to be major infrastructure changes to supply electrics, (battery swap stations or redox exchange stations or just plain old jumper-cables-to-the-transformer stations) just as for H2, the only benefit is H2 will be delivered by truck, electrics need a not-insignificant grid tie. The fun catch 22 is until there is a big enough requirement for either there won't be the supply. Yay. Anyway, I'm eager to see who comes out next with a mainstream electric vehicle, the Renault offerings look promising.
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Jan 21, 2012 23:15
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Not having an automatic oh-poo poo-total-battery-saving-mode is a terrible oversight with those consequences. Having it text the gently caress out of you as a panic warning would also be useful.
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Feb 24, 2012 19:33
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Elephanthead posted:Dead maintenance workers are bad press. When our plant started making hybrids everyone who might come near a car with a battery had to take training on how to safely deal with the hv system, I still have the handbook somewhere. There are areas of the plant where the cleaners are allowed in but the MD isn't 
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Feb 25, 2012 17:13
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If nothing goes wrong we might see these in 5 years, but absolutely no guarantee. By see I mean hear a rumour they might bo into the next ev to be developed, which unfortunately means another 5 years. Battery tech development & uptake is frustratingly slow.
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Mar 2, 2012 12:25
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Ability to run it for 10 years without maintenance, not be 100% more expensive than an ICE truck, charge time under 10 minutes. Seriously though, there are a couple of electric vans available in the uk & for a business running a set delivery route with a known distance, the ability to charge up overnight & the tax breaks based on CO2 emissions make them at least break even, just with a larger initial purchase price. Bear in mind the uk used to be a leader in electric vehicles, we had 60,000 electric milk delivery trucks at one point 
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Mar 3, 2012 09:48
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roomforthetuna posted:Which is funny because fuel in the UK costs a shitload more than it does in the US too, and even with tax breaks and the practicality criteria bent to fit to vehicle it's still only coming out at "at least break even". :/ Yup, thats the problem with dropping an additional £15k consumable component into a £15k product.
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Mar 3, 2012 23:57
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As lexus are Toyota I'll speak from a Toyota viewpoint - the Prius & associated technology keeps the battery within a 60-95% window at all times & it will go through a charge/discharge "cycle" every time you hoof it or use the brakes. This is the same behaviour you'll see in just about any hybrid so he was talking bullshit. Don't believe a single thing a salesman tells you, ever. Edit: there are test mules & NY taxi prius that have well over 250k miles on the original batteries so I wouldn't worry about it too much. cakesmith handyman fucked around with this message at 17:36 on Mar 25, 2012 |
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Mar 25, 2012 17:32
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oxbrain posted:Using a gas engine to run a 9x% efficient generator to power a 9x% efficient motor is silly when you can power the wheels directly. Not if your overall efficiency rises due to running the ICE tuned for this load & rpm. Also, continue running the ICE / generator when you're in stop/go & dumping the excess power into batteries, pulling it back when you hoof it.
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Feb 16, 2013 21:20
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IOwnCalculus posted:You'd be considered a lunatic for wanting to offer multiple grades (let alone diesel), "I purpose either of these two fuels, one of which is more energy-dense and doesn't easily ignite outside of the engine. okay so it requires a more complicated higher compression engine and loves to absorb water but hey whatever" Biodiesel doesn't sound bad in comparison.
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Feb 2, 2015 08:12
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When the battery gets low it tases you unconscious, drives to a supercharger, charges up, drives back to where you were then wakes you up and pretends nothing happened.
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Mar 18, 2015 20:17
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Mr.Radar posted:I don't see how the prices of lithium batteries won't drop significantly if the world supply of them triples. As long as the world's supply of lithium keeps up..
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Apr 20, 2015 21:31
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ilkhan posted:And I know in my circle there is about 50% of us waiting on the 3 as a first electric car in the next 5-6 years. Don't write off how big of a change it will be to bring that kind of range, performance, and name brand to the mostly affordable $35-40k bracket. If the rumored next gen leaf has a 240 mile range for $40k, would you consider that?
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Jun 24, 2015 18:42
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I'd bet that magically the EV's on sale have special dealer discounts applied, then the prices are quietly dropped to counter it.
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Jul 11, 2015 18:22
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MattD1zzl3 posted:You joke, but it would be as simple as a big vinyl sticker saying "This dog is air conditioned." on each back window. On the face of it, and im sure there is a subtlety i am missing; i support window smashing laws. If it saves 2 dogs and kills 200 windows its worth it. Glass is not alive. Vinyl is a terrible idea, because it doesn't show that the temperature is acceptable or not. Or that you forgot to turn it on.
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Jul 25, 2015 15:08
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Anyone know anything about EV conversions? I realised my budget and desires match up with a converted ICE car better than what's out there right now (especially budget). Are lithium batteries getting more readily available and affordable?
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Aug 6, 2015 19:20
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Ola posted:They are hard to get in usable car size unless you get one out of a Leaf or something. I've seen people do Powerwall-like setups in mountain cabins with Leaf packs that have been removed from the car, so you can definitely get them. But buying a new car size battery pack from a big wholesale supplier like A123 is impossible (liability issues) or at best uselessly expensive (cheaper to buy a used EV and pull out the pack). There are probably tons of smaller companies selling small to medium packs though. Here is an Austrian company which sells lithium packs for boat conversions, http://www.aquawatt.at/ A 16 kWh pack, which is 2/3rds of a Leaf capacity, is over $16K...and I guess it doesn't include the controller and charger. Well I did the obvious thing and googled and looks like I could get a 60Ah 96v LiFePO pack for about £3000, which with a 15/30kw AC motor kit comes in at about £8k total. Doable and a fun project in the right car.
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Aug 6, 2015 20:01
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Ola posted:That's under 6 kWh, so 1/4 of a Leaf. Austin Healey electric hill climber would be very cool. So £12k for a pack the size of the leafs, better than £16k for 2/3rds. Still doable, though at the point of the being better off buying a used leaf.
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Aug 6, 2015 20:54
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Ola posted:You won't have to. While it will degrade over time, it will last the lifetime of the car - 10-15 years. A Leaf has a 8 year / 100k mile warranty on the battery, Tesla has 8 years unlimited mileage. It compares well with a gas drivetrain which can also be pretty tired after 100,000 miles. What dictates the lifetime of the car here? Because it seems it's the battery in your example. I have 2 13 year old ICE cars and neither is approaching the end of its, even though one has 195k miles on it. Friends and workmate drive 3ish year old ex lease cars, most are delivered with 100k miles on then and the steering and suspension, drivetrain etc feel like new. If given the minimum of care a leaf will look and feel pretty drat good in 10 years, it won't have rusted away and if the suspension feels mushy that's because bushes are a wear item, replace them and the car feels new again. But it'll have a 30 mile range.
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Sep 13, 2015 16:07
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Mortanis posted:For pure hybrids are Priuses better than the alternatives? My Leaf's lease is up in 7 months and I'm debating options and all the talk of hybrids has me wondering. Is Prius still top of the hill, or do alternatives like the Accord hybrid have compelling enough features and lifetime in them to look at them? The prius is long proven and are everywhere, the volt is apparently pretty good. Unless you needed something very specific that neither offered I would stick with those two.
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Sep 22, 2015 18:30
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MAD crash
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Oct 15, 2015 19:36
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Ola posted:As we head into the age of the internet of lovely things, I feel strongly that cars need less computers, not more. About the Leaf charging thing, is it possible to have a timed electric plug? Like the ones that people use for switching lights on and off so it looks like they're home to burglars? It's possible and a very simple feature, but not one that's been implemented in this case. If it starts charging as soon as it sees power you could buy a timer and find a relay that'll switch the multiple kw required by the charger, nothing particularly difficult really, but not the sort of thing you'll pick up at home depot.
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Nov 24, 2015 22:06
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Mange Mite posted:Hell, even little UI things like how the rear view camera behaves differently from the other panels is confusing as hell and has distracted me pretty dangerously while driving. For those of us without a spaceship could you explain the different behaviors please?
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Nov 25, 2015 13:40
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ExecuDork posted:What is it about a drag co-efficient of 0.24 that's so hard to get past? The only cars noticeably better are essentially prototypes. Are the engineers running into fundamental limits of painted-metal-in-air? It's an annoying function of needing to fit humans inside comfortably.
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Dec 2, 2015 22:31
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And an electric up. The E-up. Literally a Yorkshire greeting
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Dec 7, 2015 08:26
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Mange Mite posted:Even regular cars haven't required giant grilles to supply the radiator for like 30 years. Look on a modern car and usually most of the grille opening is solid plastic with a fake mesh pattern on top and just a small slot for actual air (and even then most of the air comes from the lower intake). Apparently car co execs think people like giant grilles though. Check out the Toyota Miria and the press chaff about its looks, the gigantic front intakes are to suck in oxygen for the fuel cell. Uh huh. I'm sure top fuel dragsters wouldn't suffer from smaller intakes than that.
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Feb 5, 2016 12:30
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