Re: Serial Electric Hybrid (Re: The Financial Crisis is much worse than you think....)

Lawrence Watt-Evans wrote:
On Fri, 07 Nov 2008 22:48:01 -0500, "Sea Wasp (Ryk E. Spoor)"
<seawasp@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

Mark_Reichert@xxxxxxxxxxx wrote:
On Nov 6, 2:01 pm, "Sea Wasp (Ryk E. Spoor)"
<seaw...@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Scott Lurndal wrote:
Lawrence Watt-Evans <l...@xxxxxxx> writes:
Are you familiar with the Chevy Volt hybrid, scheduled for 2010?
Forty miles on a charge, with a gas engine when that runs out. Not
exactly a highway cruiser, but a damn good solution for commuters, and
that's where most gas goes -- commuting.
Or the Aptera, 140 mile range per charge, 300 mpg in the hybrid version.
Ford just showed a 400BHP electric F-150 with 100 mile range (40kw battery).
And I'll be impressed when I can refill them at my local pump station
in the 2 minutes it takes to refuel my Subaru. Shorter cruise range,
hours to recharge, etc., these are major barriers. Yes, I commute short
distances a lot, but I don't want to have to have an entirely different
system just to be able to go to Boston or Cape Cod or wherever.
You are aware that the Chevy Volt is a serial electric hybrid, do you
not?
And? I don't see anything in there that addresses the basic flaws/problems in the technology. Just what looks to me to be a rather clumsy patch. 45 kW-h of electricity (in their example). I run down after X miles (my current car has about a 340 mile range, and I often come close to that range in various circumstances, and they're not offering that range) and I need to continue on; let's say I want to recharge in 2 minutes, like I can with my gas car. That's 1/30th of an hour, so I need a flow of 1.35 MW for two minutes.

Got your flux capacitor and Mr. Fusion handy?

No, but I've got a gasoline engine I can run the other 300 miles on.

Again, that doesn't impress me. You have increased the complexity of the system (of necessity; if I have a gas engine to run the car with, that's an ordinary car; if I have that AND an electric system...), used up the carrying capacity of the car to haul around the batteries, etc., for a pretty questionable benefit in the long run. The gas-powered WITHOUT electric car will have more carrying capacity and range. The pure electric car won't have the range, but will at least not be hauling around the spare gasoline engine.

And of course if a LOT of people start using electric cars, where does the electricity come from? The grids in many places are ALREADY near capacity, and now you want to take many more kilowatts per driving household? OUCH!

Electric cars, right now, are like biodiesel cars; cute little stunts, but only practical on small scales or for particular markets. Without some major changes in either technology or resources, they're not going to be effective replacements for the real thing.


--
Sea Wasp
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Live Journal: http://seawasp.livejournal.com
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