One Gallon – the Achilles’ Heel of Electric Cars

Red State ^ | 2-19-12 | Brookhaven

[Army Air Corps]

Ping.

[ClearCase_guy]

I read somewhere that in 1910 there was an electric car with a range of 30 miles or so on a single charge. Here we are 100 years later and not a whole lot has changed.

I see a world in which the Left has us all drive golf carts to the train station, we commute to central workhouses, and no one needs a vehicle with serious range. Who needs freedom?

[chris_bdba]

I view all of the new electrics and hybrids as the Gremlin.Pacer, and Vega of the 1970’s.How many of those do you still see on the road?

[mountainlion]

I was talking to a guy that said that it would take 1200 pounds of lead acid batteries to equal 10 gallons of gas.

[steve8714]

The world I see has our academic and bureaucratic masters living in the shiny city, while we labor ceaselessly below.

[I see my hands]

This was known by the developers before the electric cars were put into production. The cars are performing at 100% of what was expected. The problem is the ignorance, then, and the passivity, now, of the American people.

[Paladin2]

http://green.autoblog.com/2008/02/07/zap-alias-will-revive-detroit-electric-brand/

[the OlLine Rebel]

‘The best electric vehicle available only holds the energy equivalent of one gallon of gasoline—one gallon.

‘This might still be workable, if you could refill the “electric gas tank” in just a few minutes. Unfortunately, it takes at least 8 hours to fully recharge the batteries in the Volt. A drive from Atlanta to Birmingham (about 150 miles) takes about three hours (I drive slow and like to make a couple of stops along the way). If I tried to make that trip in the Chevy Volt, it would take about 50 hours, because I would have to make five 8-hour stops to recharge the battery. ‘

This is why, in reality, “efficient cars” are NOT efficient at all. They are wasteful extravagance (without anything pretty or exciting about them).

[steelyourfaith]

Thanx for the ping Army Air Corps !

 

Beam me to Planet Gore !

[July4]

“I’ve heard that new super batteries are just around the corner.”

Yeah, they’ve been just around the corner for 40 years.

[July4]

We drove experimental electric cars decades ago, and here's a dirty little secret: miles per charge will be seriously dependent on the terrain in which you drive. Your electric vehicle used in a coastal town might do OK, but in even slightly hilly country, that cute little electric car will be a a sterling under-performer.

[FreedomPoster]

>>“I’ve heard that new super batteries are just around the corner.”

>>Yeah, they’ve been just around the corner for 40 years.

Same thing for solar photovoltaic panels that are cost-effective vs. conventional electrical generation.

[Yo-Yo]

Just a tad disingenuous, since your car's engine can't use braking to put gasoline back into the tank.

[Lx]

Interesting article and has a lot of truths but this is wrong:

This might still be workable, if you could refill the “electric gas tank” in just a few minutes. Unfortunately, it takes at least 8 hours to fully recharge the batteries in the Volt. A drive from Atlanta to Birmingham (about 150 miles) takes about three hours (I drive slow and like to make a couple of stops along the way). If I tried to make that trip in the Chevy Volt, it would take about 50 hours, because I would have to make five 8-hour stops to recharge the battery.

The Volt has IC engine as well. As Chevy presented it, they made it sound like a diesel electric locomotive (or a Tiger tank) where the IC engine drives a generator that drives the electric motor that turns the wheels so he doesn't have to re-charge five times, it just switches to the IC engine when the batteries die (it also charges the batteries) but it still only get 28 MPG.

Chevy also pulled a fast one, if you know how a planetary gear works, if you look at the way the Volt's IC engine is connected to generator and drive train, it cheats around 70MPh and the IC engine drives the wheels directly so it's not really like a diesel electric.

Larger image, click on the small one.

[FastCoyote]

There’s something I like to call “physics” and “chemistry” that puts limits on battery technology.

[jonrick46]

The used Chevy Volt market may have some unexpected problems. Buying a used Chevy Volt may also include the cost of a new battery. These batteries are warranted to 150,000 miles. That’s probably the projected lifespan of the battery. The battery replacement cost? $10,000. Ouch!

At $10,000 one could buy one hell of a lot of gasoline!

[Lx]

The best car I’ve had in my lifetime was a 1972 Chevy Vega GT. It taught me how to wrench on top of the fact that I was born with instinctual mechanical skills no one could touch which allowed me to go everywhere if I fixed someone’s car or motorcycle in Jr High.

It was the fastest car in school and it had the 2300CC engine in it, with modifications of course. I still had to change the head gasket at least ten times and I had a sleeved and milled block and milled head. I don’t know what genius thought it was wise to have an aluminum block and an iron head. Even using the special Fel Pro gasket it would blow a gasket but since the block was sleeved, the water didn’t destroy the aluminum-silicon stock cylinder bores.

I thought the the ‘72 was a good looking car; it looked like a small Camero if you cut the front bumper like a Z28.

[Jim Noble]

This might still be workable, if you could refill the “electric gas tank” in just a few minutes. Unfortunately, it takes at least 8 hours to fully recharge the batteries in the Volt.

And how much energy needs to be generated to charge that battery? And how is it generated?

[tickedoffnow]

The generally accepted range of a Volt is 375 miles (caveat’s not withstanding).

The author supposedly could drive to his destination and back on a single tank of gas, and a full charge.