How the World's Fastest Electric Car Is Pushing Wireless Charging Tech 49
An anonymous reader writes With the first ever season of Formula E revving up in China next month, it's clear there's more to electric cars than Tesla. But the race cars hitting the track in Beijing don't have anything on the speed of Drayson Racing Technology's Lola B12 69/EV, which holds the record for the world's fastest lightweight electric car, and which uses the kind of power technologies that could one day have applications off the track too—like charging your phone wirelessly.
Re: Quite warm beneath the car, right? (Score:4, Interesting)
Is replacing the batteries illegal during a race? If not, why not just do that? Tesla previewed fast battery exchange a year ago as a model for fueling stations.
Re:Quite warm beneath the car, right? (Score:4, Interesting)
Quite warm, yes! It's already quite warm under may car, where the battery is, when charging it with 22 kW over a good ol' copper thick copper wire. At this charging rate, the cooling fans and the car's AC automatically jump in to cool the cells.
Although I never tried it, I could also charge at 44 kW... that's sure going to produce a lot of heat.
Now I imagine doing so at 80% transfer efficiency. I am convinced heat would be a major issue; It's not yet a technical issue, but definitely a comfort issue. Furthermore, paying now about 0.28€/kWh, I wouldn't be happy to lose 20% of it to melt the snow on the road. That's only good for Quebec, where I used to pay under 0.04$/kWh.
Re: Quite warm beneath the car, right? (Score:4, Interesting)
That's what I was thinking too. Just set up pit stops and the design the cars so that the battery can be popped out and replaced just like the tires. Maybe have pit stops like oil change garages with dug-outs that the car can drive over, with the guys under the car pulling and replacing the battery at the same time the guy up top is replacing the tires. Easy peasy.
Our Three Cars (Score:3, Interesting)
Our 2012 Nissan Leaf was purchased used from a rental fleet for $15,600 with 8,100 miles. After the down payment and at 2.4%, the monthly payments are ~ $245 per month. Electricity costs about $50 / month when the car "Trickle" charges at home nightly at 120V / 12A. Added together, we are looking at $295 per month for the first 60 months, followed by $50 per month after that. If the battery wears out before eight years, Nissan will replace it for free. After that, Nissan will offer a replacement battery for $5000 or less, and prices will continue to drop thanks to Tesla and Panasonic. There is virtually no maintenance besides rotating tires and filling windshield washer fluid.
Our 2004 SUV used to go through $60 per week in gasoline to make the same daily trip to work. Even though the SUV is paid for, the monthly cost is approximately ((52*$60) / 12) $260 not including repairs, oil changes, etc. We keep it for long trips, but it costs much more to operate than the Leaf.
Our Porsche has a really nice top end speed, so I'm told. It shows its true power between 3000 and 4000 RPM. However, from 0-30 MPH, where it counts in city driving, it can't come close to the accelleration of the Leaf. I have taken both up to 80 MPH, and the difference is in decibels.
Every person that I have had test drive the Leaf is blown away. My wife had a list of cars that she wanted to test drive, but after driving the Leaf she said, "I don't need to test drive anything else." In every respect except for range, the Leaf is a superior vehicle to anything that I have ever driven. Then again, the 2015 Leaf already has improved the range.
My advice, don't sell your ICE car, just garage it for the long trips. Use the Leaf for the daily commute.