Posted on 06/22/2013 1:33:56 PM PDT by SeekAndFind
The US spec Ariel Atom is built about 45 minutes away from me. They’re right by VIR, an excellent road race track that snakes in and out of the VA/NC border, near Danville.
You can rent one and take it out on VIR, by the way.
http://www.arielatom.com/drive_an_atom.php
The battery is kept within a certain temp range when the car is plugged in, and when the car is being driven. It is either heated or cooled, as necessary. Enough heat is generated by the motor and electric components to keep the battery coolant warm on a cold day.
This is true for most electric cars, with the Nissan Leaf being one exception. Which is why the Leaf has serious range variations. It has no temperature control system for it’s battery pack, except for a small fan.
Thus the recommendation to keep the cars plugged in whenever possible to allow certain systems to remain powered and functional without draining the battery pack.
This also allows the car’s interior to be warmed up or cooled down before you get in.
You still have range affects from temperature variations, but they aren’t nearly as bad as you’d think on the better engineered cars. Unless you leave them unplugged in the winter overnight...
Absolutely. From the Daily Beast, of all places:
"State and federal regulations provide manufacturers with lucrative tax credits when they manufacture and sell zero-emission vehicles. And rather than build green cars themselves to meet mandates, some manufacturers simply purchase credits from companies that make zero-emission vehicles—like Tesla. In the first quarter, Tesla said sales of such credits amounted to $68 million, or 12 percent of revenue."
Tesla's "profit" for the same period was $11 million. In other words, without its bogus carbon sales revenue the company would have posted a $56 million loss.
:)
Thank you for the link, I have a friend that will definitely be very interested in that.
I’ve thought of doing it myself. For people from away, there are trackside villas available for rent also. Drive right out onto the track in the morning, assuming there’s no event going on that day. They do have some major 24 hour races from time to time. I’d probably like the historical vehicle races and rallies more myself. I see the cars on trailers headed there past here spne weekends.
That sounds really great.
We don’t have anything like that here in MA.
Back in the 60’s and 70’s there were a lot of local speedways around here but not anymore.
the lawyers and insurance companies saw to that.
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