UK Students Build Electric Car With 248-Mile Range 192
da_how writes "A group of students and graduates at Imperial College London have built an electric car with a massive range — 248+ miles on a charge at 'reasonable' highway speeds (60 mph). They did this by filling the car to the absolute max with as many lithium iron phosphate batteries as possible — 56 kWh — and designing a very efficient direct drive powertrain, about 90% batteries-to-wheels at highway speeds. The choice of vehicle is an interesting one: it's a converted Radical SR8 — a track racing car with a speed record on the Nurburgring. Not an obvious contender for an endurance vehicle (no windscreen either!) — but then they claim it's lightweight to start with, being constructed of steel space frame and glass fiber. Also, Radical is based in the UK and provided some help and sponsorship. The students plan to drive their 'SRZero' 15,000 miles down the Pan American Highway, beginning July 8 in Prudhoe Bay, Alaska, and ending up in Tierra Del Fuego three month later. That's about 60 charges."
What the article doesn't mention.... (Score:5, Informative)
All the way down? (Score:4, Informative)
15,000 miles down the Pan American Highway
They should do a little more research, as I wish them luck getting across the Darien Gap. There IS no highway from Panama to Colombia - they'll have to take the ferry like everyone else.
pan american highway (Score:3, Informative)
down the Pan American Highway, beginning July 8 in Prudhoe Bay, Alaska, and ending up in Tierra Del Fuego three month later. That's about 60 charges
Heh.....it's also not connected completely (need to take a ferry for part of it), and it is dangerous. For example, on the stretch between Guatemala and El Salvador, you will frequently find highway robbers. And of course, like any highway, there are traffic jams. So....that 60 charges is going to grow. If it can find a place to charge....some of those countries have 110 volt outlets.
But whatever, don't let all this discourage them. I'd love to read their trip report.
Re:So instead of a monster gas tank (Score:2, Informative)
In Germany (and probably most of Europe) we use wires hung above the tracks, not a third rail.
Re:All the way down? (Score:4, Informative)
UPDATE: 1:30 p.m. Eastern: As to the question some of you have about how the team will navigate the Darien Gap, it plans to ship the car around the gap, and they've met with ambassadors to Panama and Columbia to line up the required visas.
Seems like they wanted to take a summer trip and figured out a way to get someone else to pay for it. Not a bad deal.
Re:Range hasn't been a problem for years (Score:2, Informative)
no, recharge times are not really a issue. but you have to realize that you use a electric car differently then a gas powered one.
you charge it at home at night, and its full in the morning, every morning. most people could do a week on a single nights charge.
that one time a year(if that) where you have to go further then the cars range you can always borrow or rent a gas powered car (or even take the train or something)
the one thing holding electric back is purchases price. the lithium batteries are expensive (all the rest is cheaper)
Re:248 mile range? Big deal. (Score:4, Informative)
248 miles is measured using the EPA test, which includes a lot of braking. On open highway alone, they'll do better. Besides, they might not get wonderful mileage in a pass, but with regenerative braking on the downhills, they won't be as affected by it as a gas powered car.
I just drove through the rockies in a second-gen Prius, and the regenerative braking seemed to do a pretty good job of smoothing out the consumption: I'd get worse consumption on the uphill and better on the downhill, and it seemed to average out to just the same as what I got on the flat; within 10% if you believe the meter in the car.
Re:Electric Hype (Score:3, Informative)
Re:All the way down? (Score:3, Informative)
Ferry routes which are part of a longer highway route as often referred to as part of the highway - "sea highways" or "virtual highways" are common terms.
Comment removed (Score:4, Informative)
Re:So instead of a monster gas tank (Score:3, Informative)
MARTA, the public transit light rail in Atlanta uses a 3rd rail.
Re:248 mile range? Big deal. (Score:2, Informative)
Solectria Sunrise had 370 mile/charge range (Score:4, Informative)
With
NiMH batteries
Place for 4 occupants & a trunk for luggage
Crash tested
in 1996...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solectria_Sunrise [wikipedia.org]
Re:248 mile range? Big deal. (Score:3, Informative)
These graphs might interest you: http://www.teslamotors.com/blog4/?p=70 [teslamotors.com]
In particular, take a look at the range graph.
Re:Electric Hype (Score:1, Informative)
Solar!!!
impressive enough (Score:3, Informative)
I'm glad you are not impressed, as this car works less well than your homebrew electric car, but it's impressive enough.
FTA, the engineering was getting a 90% efficiency on the power transfer from battery to wheel on the highway. That it gets almost the range of a commercial effort with cash...
Re:What the article doesn't mention.... (Score:2, Informative)
Really? Because, it looks like anyone in the US could get 195 3.2V 90Ah lithium iron phosphate cells for $35 100 + S&H. That seems to be about 56 kWh.
http://www.electricmotodepot.com/products/Thunder-Sky-Batteries-3.2V-90Ah.html [electricmotodepot.com]
They can be had cheaper on online auction sites. But, take that for what it's worth.
For the pedantic folks out there: I'm well aware it's not as simple to design a pack as to just slap an arbitrary bunch of cells together, thanks. I'm just pointing out the capacity.
Re:248 mile range? Big deal. (Score:3, Informative)
Non-hybrids already do that too. When going uphill, the vehicle will obviously use more fuel. Going downhill, the vehicle will use less fuel due to gravity assist. Also the fuel injectors shut off when the throttle isn't pressed, thus using no fuel.
Re:So instead of a monster gas tank (Score:3, Informative)
One gallon of gasoline has 115000 BTU of usable energy. One KWH has 3413 BTU of usable energy. Thus one gallon of gasoline has 33.69KWH of energy. Therefore the 56KWH battery pack has 1.6 gallons of gasoline and can push the vehicle at 60MPH for 248 miles. That means the two engine EV car gets 155 MPG. Oh damn you're right, who'd ever want to drive something that gets 155 MPG at highway speeds! What a worthless hunk of junk! I'd rather go drive in my gas powered car that gets 150mph on the highway ... oh wait, they don't make one of those.
Now tell me which car are you driving that gets you 248 miles on 3 gallons of gasoline. Because I want to buy one. That would mean my car could go more than 1500miles on a tank of gas. I know, I get about 300. Why I could go anywhere in the US one one tank of gas (18 US Gal), from where I live, for $48 in my car at $3/g ($72 @ $4), or on a trip to New Orleans and back (I spent $350 in gas on my last trip there).
This car's battery pack is equal to about 12 gallons of gas in my car. Sure there are cars out now that are about double what I get, making it about 6-8 gallons best case scenario for gas. Your 3 gallon estimate is just bunk.
Lastly, a full tank of gasoline is about 150-200 kilos. So you have some valid points. Batteries are definitely heaver and they don't weigh any less when discharged, not like an empty gas tank. However gasoline has greater volume than batteries, and gas engines also take up more volume. Also, the electric motors are about 500 kilos less in weight than gas engine. So they added weight in batteries and reduced weight in engine. This car as a gas powered with a full tank would be heavier than the electric version, and about the same empty. So this race car has room for two passengers, and not much else. A lot like a corvette. Sure they used a high tech frame and lightweight body, but they could have made a custom bodyshell that had room for cargo, like the corvette. The batteries are about 3x heavier than gas and of about equal volume.
My source on those energy numbers came from those dummies over at Oak Ridge [ornl.gov] so they probably haven't got a clue about energy.