Posted on 01/03/2012 11:21:53 AM PST by jazusamo
They should have used their brains and either installed a rooftop mounted generator or one in a small trailer, turn the car into a diesel/electric. Generator charges while it drives.
You nailed it. I haven't followed the Leaf, I've been following GM and the Volt and they've misrepresented many things. Looks light Nissan is doing the same with the Leaf.
Aw come on, a little convenience to too much to sacrifice in order to “save the earth?”
LOL!
180 miles, six hours.
W
O
W
Shoulda brought the soap box derby car along as a back up.
Doing some quick energy calcs, they used a total of 101 KWh for the trip assuming a full 24 KWh charge at the start and 80% charges en route. Gasoline has a combustion energy of about 33.4 KWh per gallon. This results in an equivalent of 59 MPG for this trip. Anybody know how much energy it takes to turn X tons of coal into 1 KWh stored in a battery? Bet it’s a good bit more than it takes to turn oil into gasoline at the pump.
Thinking back, I had a ‘89 Jetta diesel back in the 90’s that I bought for less than 3 grand. It got 50 MPG with my foot on the floor all the time. I could drive it 750 miles without refilling.
Now if only there was a way to charge the batteries while driving. Hmmm.
Give the guy a break! He’s from Knoxville and more than likely a Tenn. grad.
Yep, all the items you listed suck the battery down faster, some of them much faster.
I doubt we’ll ever see 480 volt service in residential areas but in the Western states I’ve always found that 240 volt is standard, don’t know about the rest of the country.
Not an expert in all battery types.
Most batteries at 35F will put out only about 65% of the power they will at 80F.
Which in an electric car means ~65 mile range instead of 100.
Assuming you don’t run the heater, which isn’t likely at 35F.
Hey, I have an idea... Put another battery pack on a trailer, and tow it behind the Leaf! :D
12 gallons?
That’s basically what the Chevy Volt does. It has a 1.4? liter gas engine that runs a generator to recharge the battery after the first 35 or so miles.
The initial cost of the vehicle is out of sight and it has to use premium fuel so you’re not saving a bunch of money.
Example: An alkaline powered flashlight will gradually dim as it powers down.
A lithium will continue to operate then simply power out.
Ergo lithium flashlights operate better in cold weather...just bring extra batteries.
And yes...I'm in the box with this. I just don't know the technology behind long lasting rechargeable lithium batteries.
in the midwest, 220 single phase is fairly common in OLD houses, and is easy to upgrade to in newer houses that lack it. But 240 3 phase is very rare for residential. Even in commercial buildings it is not standard. In fact, most areas don’t even have 240 3 phase on the pole. It would cost 20,000 dollars to get your electric company to run the wires to the utility poles and to your meter. Then figure on another 10 grand minimum to have an electrician wire up your circuit breaker and run the conduit and wire to outlets.
And 480 3 phase? forget it.
All of the factors you list of course affect the drain on the battery. My point was that cool/cold temperatures also affect the capacity of the battery.
The equivalent of a smaller fuel tank in a gas-powered car, so that when the temp is 35 your tank only holds 8 gallons instead of 12.
BTW, you forgot by far the larger energy drain. Hills. Pushing a car up a steep hill takes a LOT of juice. East TN, as I recall, is fairly hilly.
The wife’s car is not an electric - it is a 454 chevy with a 38-gallon tank.
The darn thing lies to me - it tells me we are on “E” when it gets down to twelve gallons.
Wow. My ‘95 Dodge Ram would only be about half empty at 12 gallons.
coal is cheap.
there are 14,000 BTUs per lob of coal. figure about 15 to 20 cents per million BTUs. A coal power plant is about 85% efficient. That’s about as far as I can get. I don’t know the conversion from BTUs to KWh off hand. Figure about 50% line losses in the power lines.
Doing the math, you will find that an electric vehicle is amazingly efficient. But what you are not accounting for is the waste heat off a gasoline engine that is used to heat the car in winter. That 35% efficient gasoline car goes up in efficiency in the winter if you count the free heat, and the efficiency of electric cars goes down even if you don’t heat the car interior.
My 2001 F250 beer-can snow-plow also holds 38 gallons.
I don’t really care, when it snows. Other than that, it sits in the driveway.
It reliably gets 12 MPG, unless you tow something. Then it gets bad.
The Chevy Volt does much better as you never have to turn on the heater, you just keep replacing the burned-up back seats.
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