All-Electric (Racing) Cars without Batteries?

July 28th, 2011 by Breath on the Wind

New technical specifications for Formula 1 racing state:

“5.19 Electric mode :

The car must be run in electric mode (no ignition and no fuel supply to the engine) at all times when being driven in the pit lane.”

Electric is gaining popularity at the race tracks.

Two companies, Drayson Racing Technologies and HaloIPT are working together to offer completely electric vehicles. The cars may have some batteries but they would be substantially smaller than expected. The power to propel the vehicles would instead come from transmitters buried in the track! Electricity would be transmitted to the vehicles wirelessly.

This is a similar technology to what you might find in a battery-powered electric toothbrush with its wireless charging station. Recent advancements have allowed more efficiency — a greater distance between transmitter and receiver, with more misalignment.

HaloIPT has a vision of future wireless vehicles that would permit electric cars to have unlimited range and no waiting for a vehicle to charge. Similar systems have been tested in several countries for buses already. In the US, the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) has a study that suggests that electrified roadways are the cheapest path forward for EV adoption. Many technologies are tested on the racetrack before they become mainstream — this may be one of them.

Source: Electric Vehicle News

Additional Reading:

Photo via diskychick

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Tags: Formula 1, racing, wireless, wireless charging, wireless electric vehicles

About the Author

Breath on the Wind We share this World; its past, present resources and our combined future. With every aspiration, the very molecules we use for life are passed to others through time and space so that each of us may be considered a Breath on the Wind. This part of the world's consciousness lives in NYC; has worked in law, research, construction, engineering; has traveled, often drawn to Asia; writes on Energy and Electric Vehicle issues and looks forward to all your comments. "If you would persuade, you must appeal to interest rather than intellect." -- Benjamin Franklin

Anonymous

Right. You use ultracapacitors and inductive charging. . .
- BreathontheWind
  
  This is one way (of about 5 ways) to produce wireless energy transfer. Other methods include: directed microwaves, lasers, tuned induction and most recently simply energy picked out of the airwaves (presently for small devices) Even sound and solar radiation is “wireless energy transfer.”
douglas prince

Tom – Yup, another dumbass idea gets a byline.
- BreathontheWind
  
  In the early to mid 1900’s the US had the world’s largest network of street cars. (Some smart person will relate the story of what happened.) These were electric vehicles that used transmitted power. Subways use a similar system. Many communities have studied the economic advantages and are returning to these systems although now wireless technology will probably be more in evidence. For most of the last 120 years this has not been considered a “dumb” technology.
Tom

WoW! Oversize slotcars
- BreathontheWind
  
  If you didn’t manage to get past the picture, you guessed it (the photo is of a slot car track.) I didn’t get into the various technologies of wireless energy transfer in the article. All of them are … well wireless and slot cars use an actual connection like subways and trams. All of these technologies have a certain freedom from batteries. While electricity excels at being transmitted storage is not as easy. This is an essential advantage of an EV that doesn’t rely on storage.