Electric Vehicles (Cars, Planes, and Ships)

A thread to discuss electric vehicles and hybrid technology. No politics, please.

Technology, commercial aspects and marketing are all on-topic.

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• Companies (e.g. Tesla Inc.) are only on-topic when discussing their electric vehicle products and research, not their wider activities. The exception is when those wider activities directly impact (or are impacted by) their other business areas - e.g. if electric vehicle development is cut back due to losses in another part of the business.

• Technology that's not directly related to electric vehicles (e.g. general battery research) is off-topic unless you're discussing how it might be used for vehicles.

• If we're talking about individuals here, that should only be because they've said or done something directly relevant to the topic. Specifically, posts about Tesla do not automatically need to mention Elon Musk. And Musk's views, politics and personal life are firmly off-topic unless you can somehow show that they're relevant to electric cars.

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(Mod edited to replace original post)

Edited by Mrph1 on Mar 29th 2024 at 4:14:39 PM

I'm baaaaaaack

...I'm not sure what you want to discuss.

Fight smart, not fair.

For the cars and the discussion to be more lively there needs to be more dedicated infrastructure, such as charging stations in car parks and similar.

By the powers invested in me by tabloid-reading imbeciles, I pronounce you guilty of paedophilia!

When they can make good electric cars that aren't tiny and are good looking, I'll be interested. So far, I haven't seen even a partially electric car that meets both of those requirements...

I am now known as Flyboy.

Tesla Motors and their Tesla Roadster and more to the point, the Tesla Model S, a full sized battery powered sedan.

So, what do I win?

A point my mom brought up was, judging by how much one's electric bill spikes in the summer due to use of air conditioning, how insane would one's electric bill be if you are charging your all-electric car at home?

Still substantially less than the cost of buying enough gasoline to go that distance.

Roadster is small. American standard of big/small car for the win.

(If other people in other countries consider that to be a large car, that's their choice, but I do not, personally).

Model S is nice, though. Score one for Tesla.

I am now known as Flyboy.

Well, the commercials say there will be charging stations. Or that they're being built? So I don't know if this is going to be a "charge at your own home" kind of thing. I don't know.

I don't mind a tiny car, as the one I drive now is small. But I'm not going to be getting one until I can buy a used one, since that's generally what's going to be within my cash range. It's also probably going to take a while before this catches on in Texas.

I think you still can charge at home. The idea of a charging station is supposed to be to charge the car faster than normal wall outlets can.

Hmm... Well, I guess I just need to get a better explanation for that. But clearly some infrastructure needs to be built for the electric cars.

Sidenote; small or not, those Tesla cars look pretty freakin' sweet.

I'm waiting on an electric that does 300+ miles on a single charge without gas.

Also, I'm curious of the possibility of putting magnetic dynamos inside the wheel rims to where the car can keep charging itself so long as the wheels are in motion. (Augmentative power source only. Laws of physics prevent it from being a perpetual motion system.)

"Allah may guide their bullets, but Jesus helps those who aim down the sights."

Wow, that's possible?

^ Simple magnetic induction. I'm honestly curious why nobody in engineering has ever thought of that idea.

"Allah may guide their bullets, but Jesus helps those who aim down the sights."

Probably some engineering issue with it, since if it was that simple they'd likely have done it already.

Or the car companies are colluding with the power companies to increase our energy bills

I am now known as Flyboy.

^ It took 40+ years to implement a new shooter (flip up dual type *

to be precise) for WD-40. Simple answers are often the most forgotten.

edited 12th Oct '11 5:26:19 PM by MajorTom

"Allah may guide their bullets, but Jesus helps those who aim down the sights."

It's also possible that Toyota patented it since I think they use something to that effect on the Prius.

Well, the glue to make sticky notes floated around for years. *shrug* If it's actually a feasible idea to do this for cars, someone will implement it at some point. I think right now they want to prove that electric cars are buildable, marketable, and then make them affordable for the general public.

If it moves and it's not supposed to, apply duct tape. If it doesn't move and it's supposed to, apply WD-40.

Therefore, we must supply WD-40 to car owners. When the car runs out of gas, judicious application of the WD-40 to the wheels will cause the car to move, thus allowing further travel.

GENIUS!

I am now known as Flyboy.

^ ...make more sense if you sprayed into your intake to help those pistons move up and down real fast, since they obviously got stuck or something...

Electric cars, if they're plug-in models, will need to either rely on charging stations or have reeeeeeeally long cords so that home-owners can plug them in overnight. I'd be for one, if I could get a long enough cord to reach all the way from my second-story apartment to my stall, a good 100-feet from my door. It would also have to survive getting run over, as the stall is on the opposite side of the parking strip than the building.

And since I'm relying on 4.30 premium fuel in a sports car that gets maybe 17 miles per the gallon, I can afford to cough up the money for eectricity, with the bundles of money I'd be bound to save by not shovelling fuel into a black hole of a gas tank.

Happiness is zero-gee with a sinus cold.

I'd expect outlets, if not charging stations, to become common in parking garages Eventually. You could have em coin operated even. it's supposed to be about $1.50 to charge a Volt over night, so you could make somthing like $1 dollar for an hour of charging, make a profit and make easy recharge for the electrics.

Personally, I like the Volt the most right now. You can run off of electric until you need gas, so your not limited by charging stations. Best of both worlds!

I'm baaaaaaack

Hey, they do have the BMW ActiveE these days, and it's a 1-Series with an electric drivetrain and it's being used to collect data to help develop the i3 and i8. What's not to like?

"Hipsters: the most dangerous gang in the US." - Pacific Mackerel

That does look like a decent one, and 100 mile range is nothing to make fun of. It looks like a good model. I still like the volt though. Until theres a very fast charge station, much longer range, or battery swaping it will always have a leg over the compition with the generator.

One EV I kinda get a kick outta is the Smart ev. Electric, 100 mile range, and you can park it sideways!

edited 12th Oct '11 7:00:58 PM by Joesolo

I'm baaaaaaack

If I could choose a car without having to worry about prices, I'd get a Tesla roadster. Electric motor = incredibly high torque = fantastic acceleration. Pull away from anyone at a stoplight, even a Porche/Corvette/Camaro/pretty much anything, in almost total silence. (although if it's something fast like that, they'll be able to catch up to you eventually)

The term for recouping energy from the brake action is called "regenerative breaking" and it already exists.

Putting actual magnet dynamos inside the wheels would just increase the amount of energy necessary to spin the wheels.

Not really sure which one Tom was talking about.

Look, you can't make me speak in a logical, coherent, intelligent bananna.

Such a system would only work if it operated at >100% efficiency, making it an 'over-unity device'.

Not exactly an engineering issue.

Those dynamos aren't (can't be) 100% efficient at transferring the energy they pick up from the wheels back into the battery. The energy driving the wheels comes from the battery itself and whatever energy you 'tap' from the wheels can't be used to propel the car. Ergo, one introduces another source of loss in the system.

Even perfectly efficient, one would simply be shuffling energy around without contributing to locomotion, at a net effect of zero. Another component that can break.

You can do that, regenerative braking, that is. For example, flywheels have been used to great effect in city-buses.

edited 12th Oct '11 7:50:46 PM by GreatLich