Electric cars, motorbikes and boats

[anotherkiwi]

A thread for chatting about electrically powered vehicles other than bicycles.

A couple of links for starters:

https://newatlas.com/silence-s01-electric-scooter/58519/

Twizy tuning - http://forum.evowners.com/t/new-intelligent-power-box-for-twizy/188 and a range extender battery https://www.twizy-forum.de/Alternativ-Akku

 

[Zlatan]

Brilliant idea..
Following on from Danidl suggesting battery exchange sysyem to get quick turn around...
How many batteries would need to be in circulation to guarantee a full battery for every car that needed one??? 5 times the number of cars in circulation???
There then appears a volume problem even if its acceptable to have so many spare batteries (and would you store Leaf or Lexus size batteries) Roughly speaking batteries best battery at moment needs 11 times the volume to store same energy as diesel. (eg 1 litre of diesel would need around an 11 litre volume battery) Could facilities cope? Would having all these batteries not be equally bad to environment as running ICE.
Dont think it could work on a large scale.
IMHO we, d be better looking into running ICE on hydrogen... then adapt current system..

 

[anotherkiwi]

Brilliant idea..
Following on from Danidl suggesting battery exchange sysyem to get quick turn around...
How many batteries would need to be in circulation to guarantee a full battery for every car that needed one??? 5 times the number of cars in circulation???
There then appears a volume problem even if its acceptable to have so many spare batteries (and would you store Leaf or Lexus size batteries) Roughly speaking batteries best battery at moment needs 11 times the volume to store same energy as diesel. (eg 1 litre of diesel would need around an 11 litre volume battery) Could facilities cope? Would having all these batteries not be equally bad to environment as running ICE.
Dont think it could work on a large scale.
IMHO we, d be better looking into running ICE on hydrogen... then adapt current system..

I can see it working as a "premium" service but face it most people don't need this service. I was chatting with a mate yesterday about his neighbours Tesla. The guy told him as long as there is a charging slot in a Tesla supercharger station there is no problem - 30 minutes charge (the time for a coffee and loo stop) and you are off again for another +250 km. The problem is infrastructure - not enough superchargers installed yet. But that problem is easier to solve than battery storage as you say.

Did you see the Spanish scooters battery above? Brilliant design!

 

[Danidl]

As I said on the other thread the battery shape is very much a vhs betamax dilemma. Other than the prices are much higher it is no different than Kosangas Butane Cylinders,or the practice of bringing the wet battery to the bicycle shop in 1930s for the radio.
However if those supercapacitors work out ,then that is a alternative solution.
There are plenty of other safe alternatives ..including liquidified air , which could be pumped into a fuel tank . . The expansion of the gas driving tge motor.

 

[flecc]

However if those supercapacitors work out ,then that is a alternative solution.

I'm afraid supercapacitors wonder anouncements are like those for battery advances. Not 1 in 1000 worth anything. The only thing that counts is working prototypes and there's not a hint of any.

There are plenty of other safe alternatives ..including liquidified air , which could be pumped into a fuel tank . . The expansion of the gas driving the motor.

The French have already done this, but it doesn't seem to have come to anything - Information link

Indian motor company Tata in a deal with the French company have announced they will launch an air powered car in 2020. I really can't see this technology getting close to what i.c. and even e-cars can do already in terms of performance and range.

Maybe best suited to town cars.
.

 

[flecc]

I was chatting with a mate yesterday about his neighbours Tesla. The guy told him as long as there is a charging slot in a Tesla supercharger station there is no problem - 30 minutes charge (the time for a coffee and loo stop) and you are off again for another +250 km.

Trouble is how long will the hugely expensive battery last with that ultra fast charging? Nissan have been at this game longer than most and are now hitting this problem, batteries regularly rapid charged failing to reach warranty life. Potentially very expensive for them. Their newest model which I have won't accept multiple rapid charges during a run, after the first the charges slow right down. Some seem to think this a fault or to do with no temperature control, but since they've admitted the problem of rapid charges I see this as a deliberate way of designing in protection.
.

 

[Danidl]

I'm afraid supercapacitors wonder anouncements are like those for battery advances. Not 1 in 1000 worth anything. The only thing that counts is working prototypes and there's not a hint of any.



The French have already done this, but it doesn't seem to have come to anything - Information link

Indian motor company Tata in a deal with the French company have announced they will launch an air powered car in 2020. I really can't see this technology getting close to what i.c. and even e-cars can do already in terms of performance and range.

Maybe best suited to town cars.
.

The liquid air brings the power density up a sufficient amount...I was surprised also.,and certainly saw them as an alternative to the smelly motorbikes in Saigon. The value of cyrogenic is that it scales wonderfully. .you need double the capacity,? increase the height of the walls ,or the diameter by 1.4.

 

[flecc]

The online magazine drivingelectric.com from Dennis Publishing has now gone into print with a magazine every quarter, available at W H Smiths for £5 an issue,

Meanwhile you can access most of it's content from this link
and its tabs.
.

 

[anotherkiwi]

I just saw a truck load of Model 3's go by on the motorway! Heading for Spain.

Interesting program on TV a couple of days ago - obviously paid for by the German car industry and they are scared silly of Tesla. They spent a whole 10 minutes poo-pooing and saying how irrelevant Tesla is. In my mind if a company and its products are irrelevant you don't need to spend so much time saying so.

They are right in saying that the "real" danger comes from China: they know how to build stuff, quality is on the rise, they have a huge internal market and they don't have over 100 years of car building tradition to hold them back from revolutionary new ideas.

 

[anotherkiwi]

Skoda is showing an electric moped at the Geneva car show:

https://electrek.co/2019/03/05/skodas-electric-two-wheeler-klement/

And Morgan becomes Italian...