Comments on: Not Pretty, but This EV Can Go Over 200 Miles on 1 Charge

By: Zachary Shahan

Zachary Shahan — Tue, 17 Apr 2012 10:22:00 +0000

the vast majority of our readers are in the U.S. and it’s not that hard to use google to convert. just type “200 mph to kmh” and you have your answer. that said, we could do that for you a bit more maybe.

By: Zachary Shahan

Zachary Shahan — Tue, 17 Apr 2012 10:16:00 +0000

on the importance of image: it certainly isn’t a factor for many of us who primarily care about performance, but i think most people care about image a ton, so that’s why i think it’s important a vehicle look attractive

By: Zachary Shahan

Zachary Shahan — Tue, 17 Apr 2012 10:16:00 +0000

yes, very true.

By: Zachary Shahan

Zachary Shahan — Tue, 17 Apr 2012 10:15:00 +0000

By: Zachary Shahan

Zachary Shahan — Tue, 17 Apr 2012 10:15:00 +0000

By: Zachary Shahan

Zachary Shahan — Tue, 17 Apr 2012 10:14:00 +0000

thanks, those images do make it look much nicer! maybe a follow-up post is in order.

on the importance of image: it certainly isn’t a factor for many who care about performance a lot, but i think most people care about image a ton, so that’s why i think it’s important a vehicle look attractive

By: Zachary Shahan

Zachary Shahan — Tue, 17 Apr 2012 10:03:00 +0000

By: Tom G.

Tom G. — Mon, 16 Apr 2012 17:11:00 +0000

I copied the following information from “The Energy Blog” which just started posting information again after a couple of years vacation. As we can see for a mainstream vehicle like a Chevy Malibu @ 50 mph it takes about 9.425 kW. Times 2 that means it would take about 19 kW for 100 miles give or take. Also at the end of the chart the following paragraph show the importance of speed/drag/aerodynamics. Enjoy the posting.
Tom G.

“Our test subject for this week will be My Late Model Chevy Malibu, a mid-sized four passenger sedan. It weighs 3,460 pounds, has a frontal area of 24.1 square feet, and a Coefficient of Drag of .37, Totally Mainstream. To simplify the math, I didn’t do any. I used this calculator: http://ecomodder.com/forum/tool-aero-rolling-resistance.php.

Here is a summary of the results. Remember this is for a steady speed!

Speed Horsepower Watts BTU/min
35 mph 6.15 4586 261
40 mph 7.94 5920 337
50 mph 12.64 9425 536
55 mph 15.66 11677 664
60 mph 19.17 14295 813
65 mph 23.23 17322 985
70 mph 27.87 20782 1182
80 mph 39.12 29171 1660

Aerodynamic drag is the largest force opposing your movement at any reasonable speed. That drag increases with the square of the speed. Doubling the speed creates four times as much drag. But, interestingly, power requirements increase at the cube of the speed. So that doubled speed will take eight times as much power.”

By: Tom G.

Tom G. — Mon, 16 Apr 2012 13:57:00 +0000

Neil
Thank you for the feedback and I looked at the provided links. This type of vehicle would certainly work for some of the time AND give me so needed exercise.
However living in the desert southwest it is quite common to see temperature of 100-115 F during the day. Even the evenings can be warm at 85-95 F. And to complicate matters even more, it can freeze here in the winter months. In other words, we are either boiling or freezing to death but the desert has it’s own beauty and we love it.

I will however take a serious look at the links and vehicles as an experimental test bed for some type of hybrid or electric drive system. Thanks again.

By: Cosmic Energy

Cosmic Energy — Mon, 16 Apr 2012 07:47:00 +0000

UGLY, UGLY, UGLY… When it comes to this kind of ugliness… I would not buy it because it is so ugly. Now if they made it look like a race car, I would certainly buy it. If they could make this car look exactly like the Ford ZX2… I would

By: Neil Blanchard

Neil Blanchard — Mon, 16 Apr 2012 02:52:00 +0000

Tom, you should look into getting a velomobile. Possibly with electric assist, or just pedal it.

http://bluevelo.com/
http://en.velomobiel.nl/

Velomobiles give you higher efficiency than a bicycle because of the greatly improved aerodynamics, and they protect you from the weather, too.

Neil

By: Neil Blanchard

Neil Blanchard — Mon, 16 Apr 2012 02:45:00 +0000

The Leaf motor uses no rare earths. And the name is a misnomer — they are not rare and actually are plentiful. What is hard is separating them.

We use a LOT of rare earths in cell phones, computers, etc. We need to learn how to recycle these. So, if you are worried about rare earths, then don’t buy any cell phones or computers.

Neil

By: Eletruk

Eletruk — Mon, 16 Apr 2012 01:19:00 +0000

First off, you are vastly underestimating the price of the battery. A hundred mile battery would need about 25KWh of energy (averaging 250 Wh/mile) meaning 25 1KWh batteries (12v times 80 AHr) which currently cost about $600 each for a total of $15000. Even if you aren’t talking Lithium, and price Lead Acid, it might be about 1/2 that or still $7000.
This is the real reason Electric cars are expensive.

By: Stan

Stan — Sun, 15 Apr 2012 21:06:00 +0000

You know what? There is basically NO reason for an elecrtic vehicle to cost what they do. That rediculous battery “tether” is beyond a white elephant already…BESIDES depleting rare earths being as bad as fracking.
Look, even a college physics or engineering student can figure out THIS one………a battery on a CART, in your garage, or small storage shed, you wheel it over the the rear hatch that even an idiot could design, you press the button, and the spent battery IN the car is pulled onto the cart. Then, the OTHER battery, is installed into the car by the same conveyer running the other way.
And NO, this set up won’t work for most tight metros, people without the ability to have a garage or shed…..bla bla bla….ok, so let’s just not let ANYONE have this kind of car….so everyone is equal….after all, what good would 100 million $21,995 electric cars with an extra $3000 battery and a $750 cart do for the envirnment anyway?

By: electric38

electric38 — Sun, 15 Apr 2012 20:57:00 +0000

Price? Have they aligned with a solar PV company? Is the battery easily changed out? Is it (battery) placed where an inductive solar PV charger would work? If it is not spewing carbon monoxide and noise pollution, looks won’t matter as much. Infinite MPG (via solar) would be beautiful.

By: S Muller

S Muller — Sun, 15 Apr 2012 19:01:00 +0000

Speak for yourself. This car looks hot. I believe you were just trying to use the word faux-futurism in a sentence. Triple word score though. Anyways, Il’ll buy one asap.

By: Len Levine

Len Levine — Sun, 15 Apr 2012 18:10:00 +0000

You’re missing the point of whether the car is beautiful, ugly, whatever. No one in their right mind cares what it looks like, provided:
1. It’s cheap
2. It gets lots of miles per gallon of gas
3. It’s safe
4. It’s easy to drive and park
5. It’s cheap to repair
6. It’s range is enough to cover short trips and not worry about running out of gas

By: Tom G.

Tom G. — Sun, 15 Apr 2012 18:06:00 +0000

Trust:

I can only assume by your comment that you either live outside of the United States [US] and feel somewhat frustrated because the US has not yet fully adopted the metric system or you DO live in the US and find converting stuff a minor pain in the butt.

It either case I am somewhat in the same boat so to speak. Highway signs are still mostly in MPH but do list metric values in small letters. Go to a Dr. office and they speak in centimeters or millimeters. Look on almost any box, carton or package and you can find the equivalent metric measurements. If I go work one of my vehicles I better have a set of both kinds of tools.

The transition is slow but it is happening. While the transition will certainly simplify international trade and streamline some activities I would list it as priority number 98 out of about 100. Things I feel are of much higher priority are:
1. Clean air and water or global warming which to me are the same thing.
2. More efficient heating and cooling systems.
3. Lighter and more fuel efficient vehicles.
4. Feeding all the people on this planet
5. The elimination of all coal powered generating units, and the list goes on and on.

Someday the US will be metric. However I will not live long enough to see that day. Of course I ASSUME [love that word] we don’t kill ourselves before the process is completed.

The reason for this posting? Had some time to kill before starting a DVD movie for my grand-kids.

By: Trust

Trust — Sun, 15 Apr 2012 16:58:00 +0000

just a hint: mph is understood well in the USA. All other countries in the
whole wide world are metric and to mutiply by 5 and divide by 8 to convert, is a bit af a pain.

By: Tom G.

Tom G. — Sun, 15 Apr 2012 16:03:00 +0000

WOW – lots of comments on this story. Way to go Zachary.

O.K. where to start. I don’t think the car is ugly. BUT it is not the most attractive design in the world either, LOL. My personal preference in a small vehicle is something like the “MIT City Car” which in my not so humble opinion looks pretty hot for a small two passenger vehicle. A car the size of the City Car would cover about 95% of my driving needs if it had a 40-60 mile range. And it certainly doesn’t have to have 4 wheel steering or a lifting body to save parking space for more vehicles. We are not talking Europe, downtown L.A. or N.Y. City – we are talking small town USA in my case, LOL.

I like both the Volt and the Leaf BUT they are far too expensive for what I need a vehicle to do so I think a lot of vehicle manufacturers are missing the boat. I need a vehicle to run to Ace or the Home Depot for a few screws or a couple of gallons of house paint. I need a vehicle to take the wife to a local restaurant or movie theater. I need a vehicle to run to the grocery store, dentist or the Dr.s office. I DO NOT NEED a vehicle with 100-200 miles of range for these tasks. I also don’t need a 4 passenger vehicle any of these trips. If I wanted to take a lengthy trip I could easily use one of my other vehicles or just RENT one for the trip.

So in summary, this vehicle, the Volt and Leaf can fit the needs of many people but they don’t come close to meeting my needs. I don’t need to spend $25,000 – $40,000 for a 4/5 passenger vehicle for the type of driving I do. That is where I believe our electric vehicle strategy has gone wrong. I also don’t need a 100 mile range to travel 12 miles to work either [25 R/T]. We need the mass adoption of small electric or hybrid vehicles instead of trying to build a one size fits all vehicle.