| 17:09 |
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this is the same Genetically Modified that are being overtaken in sales by a Japanese competitor in their own/home market where gas guzzlers have been king and they are seriously in debt is it not ?!
...and how long does it take to get a new concept to PA...and how long has this vehicle been in design ?
I think there might be a lot of ex GeneticallyModified employees with placards standing on Detroit/Chicago street corners any time soon wondering where all the jobs have gone.
IMHO and DYOR
Flaming awful if you ask me
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| 16:07 |
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| 15:47 |
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Walked past a bloke this morning welding too close to a brand new lead acid battery for a tractor. He was shaking and the battery was unrecognisable.( he is also a bit of a numpty as it is the second time he has done it now). But you have one of those in your car already.
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| 14:53 |
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Naughty batteries NEVER explode or catch fire Billy P. The manufacturers euphemism is they “vent: with flame”. Always in lower case and a very small font.
Oh, how much more benign that is.
BRB
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| 14:23 |
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| 14:02 |
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| 14:00 |
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http://www.independent.co.uk/news/business/analysis-and-features/gm-looks-to-an-electric-avenue-874877.html
Article on GM's plug-in Chevy Volt car, an electric/petrol hybrid, which can run for 40 miles without fuel and only has a small petrol engine for use on longer journeys.
Quotes:
What is in doubt is whether GM and its rivals can make an electric car at a cost anyone in the world would be willing to pay, and whether the battery technology is safe and reliable enough.
Taking the battery issues first, there has been a good deal of caution on display this week at the Plug-In 2008 conference in San Jose for car manufacturers, investors and government regulators. The successful development of electric vehicles hinges on making lithium-ion batteries, of the kind used in laptops, effective as a replacement for the bigger and less powerful nickel-metal hybrid batteries currently on the road.
Although the technology shows great promise, discussion panellist said, battery makers worldwide still are grappling with the impact recharging can have on battery life, and keeping the batteries cool. One sceptic, former General Motors chief executive Bob Stempel, likes to say lithium-ion batteries are prone to being "naughty" – by which he means exploding.
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| 13:48 |
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I do not understand some characteristics of the GM Volt car.
It runs for 50 miles on batteries. Assuming it is a small car, then one can reasonably guess that it would do 65 mpg if running on a petrol engine.
At 50mph, this equates to an electrical output of about 15kW. So the batteries must have a capacity of at least 15kWH, i.e. about 8 times that of the Prius.
Batteries are relatively expensive, so to keep costs down I would expect them to be NiMH or Lead acid, rather than Lithium. These will therefore be fairly heavy, reducing the car's efficiency.
After 50 miles, the 'small' engine kicks in, charging the batteries and propelling the car. If it is to have any performance worth considering, the engine will need to generate at least 25hp average, and 50hp max. at the wheels, while recharging the batteries at the same time. If recharging to full capacity takes, say, two hours, this will add about 10hp to the average engine output to wheels - i.e. 40%.
So I conclude that the Volt is designed primarily for short journeys (<50 miles), and that battery charging is meant to take place at home, overnight.
All in all it sounds expensive, and a poor compromise, even at £20k rather than £33k. It is inefficient at all ranges, carrying around either an engine (<50 miles) or batteries (>50 miles), and may well be underpowered when running on the 'small' IC engine.
I may be wrong about the batteries though - if they are Lithium (and cheap), this will reduce the weight. Any views?
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| 13:19 |
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| 12:00 |
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I have just read an article suggesting that GM is considering building a hybrid car at Ellesmere Port, small biofuel engine and lithium-ion batteries, expected to go into production in 2010. The expected price of this modernistic vehicle is circa £33k. I just wonder who they think are their market, perhaps Guardian reading, highly salaried civil servants? If you can pay £33k for a car I shouldn't think you are too worried about the price of fuel. They might get a slice of the pious Prius market, but that must be fairly small to begin with and, I don't think any sales reps are using the Prius yet. I think Tata have got it right, a cheap car that goes a long way on a gallon of widely available fuel will sell in substantial volume. Perhaps GM are just up to some sort of window dressing exercise?
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| 02:43 |
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Yes, it's me. My English is not very good. I am bringing with "Google translation." Do you work at Torotrak? Hard to reach these people. If so, what do you think of the Myo-T?
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| 00:15 |
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Hi glennjan,
I should have included this, it is a perfect example of an electric motor benefiting from gearing, from some of the initial research that was done by hykinesys for F1 KERS, which is shown in Figure 9:-
http://www.hykinesys.com/KineticEnergyStorage5.pdf
You will see the motor has the revolutions multiplied by gearing to charge the flywheel (as would the TRK/Xtrac CVT).
TRK's C-IVT would suit an electric motor.
Regards
tt
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| Tue 23:52 |
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Hi glennjan,
The short answer is yes, an electric motor benefits from gears just like other motors.
For example the Telsa electric car is having a 2-speed transmission installed when they can get one strong enough to cope with the electric motor. The issue with electric motors is that they produce 100% of their torque at zero mph. That puts a maximum load on the transmission at every vehicle launch.
An ideal transmission for an electric vehicle would need a launch control system that could absorb the power and feed it gradually through the drivetrain, the same as a clutch does, without burning out.
Electric vehicles currently make up 0.1% of the market place in the UK.
Regards
tt
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| Tue 22:35 |
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| Tue 19:13 |
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| Tue 19:09 |
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| Tue 19:06 |
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| Tue 18:41 |
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| Tue 18:35 |
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From the autosport article:
"The perception of KERS is very simple, but the execution is incredibly difficult and the road car applications are completely different from a race car. Whereas the motor, the control unit, the battery, and the basic concept is similar, the actual sophistication and needs of a road car are completely different from what we are having to develop in Formula One. So there is a big difference"
~~~
This, I think, is the key factor with KERS: it's being pushed into F1 for road-car marketing reasons. It's not really wanted in F1.
Given a free choice I'm sure the F1 engineers would far prefer a purely mechanical flywheel solution. ie without the complications of batteries.
StonyB
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| Tue 17:17 |
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Is the mechanical version undergoing trials or is it too much to ask that the veil of secrecy is lifted a little so that the rival system (ours, I assume) is shown to be superior.
Of course, if it is not superior and he problems are worse, then the balckout should remain, preferably, err..... infinitely.
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