On 21 May 2014 at 19:33, Geoff Pullinger via EV wrote: > In order that we may get around the whole 'new battery technology' > vaporware issue ( and get some decent power for ev's ) we need something > that is not a battery. I don't know what that would be but the whole idea > of storing electricity in some chemical and then extracting it again seems > to generate more problems and less batteries.
I know just what you're looking for. It has a specific energy of 12,700 wh/kg, almost 50 times as much as the best lithium ion secondary battery. It's called gasoline. What, you're looking for something to store electricity? Then you're probably a fuel cell fan. Now with hydrogen you're looking at a SE of around 40,000 wh/kg! Of course it takes at least 80 kWh of electricity to make and store that 40 kWh, but who's counting? And if you make it from natural gas, you produce more CO2 than you would by burning an equivalent-energy amount of gasoline - but, again, who's counting? Here's the thing. Right now, the ICEV is about where home audio playback was in 1980. Back then we had evolved recording and playback of a crude mechanical recording medium - the vinyl record - to a stunning level of refinement. Then digital media (CDs) came along. They replaced the mechanical complexity of the phono cartridge, arm, and turntable with electronic complexity in integrated circuits - a much more robust model. Aside from a small number of diehard vinyl fans, hardly anyone has looked back since. The EV is a similar step forward. The most complex EV drive is mechanically far simpler than an ICE, especially an ICE with an automatic transmission. In fact, the only reason that normal people can afford these incredibly complex ICEVs is that mass production has fully commodified both the system and its many thousands of tiny, high-precision components. Batteries, on the other hand, are wonderfully simple devices. While I don't entirely agree with the way Tesla has gone with their batteries - they've given up some of the battery's simplicity - they've done a fine job of building on commodified lithium laptop batteries, and they've created an EV with extraordinary - almost unexpected - public acceptance. Fuel cells are not simple devices, nor are they a consumer commodity. You don't find fuel cells in ANY consumer device, period (unless you count the tiny zinc-air batteries in hearing aids). Putting FCs in vehicles would merely introduce a different kind of complexity in place of the ICE's complexity. As I see it, this would effectively push us back to the first third of the 20th century in terms of the evolution of vehicles as commodified products. IMO, that is simply not going to work in 21st century markets. David Roden EVDL Administrator http://www.evdl.org/ _______________________________________________ UNSUBSCRIBE: http://www.evdl.org/help/index.html#usub http://lists.evdl.org/listinfo.cgi/ev-evdl.org For EV drag racing discussion, please use NEDRA (http://groups.yahoo.com/group/NEDRA)
