I watched a towing shootout between the F150 and Hummer EV's. They made the point that the F150 had a battery that held the energy equivalent of about 4 gallons of gasoline, which goes a long way towards explaining why these vehicles do so abysmally in these tests.
That 4 gallons can be had for under $20, right now. I also noticed that they had to do a partial recharge of the F150 in order to finish the 170-mile (total) towing test. I think I saw that they were charged around $20 for this --- MORE than the equivalent gasoline would have cost, and it took over a half hour to accomplish. Now, it's not like they have to have a 35-gallon (equivalent) energy store to match my current trucks. Roughly only 1/3 of fuel results in useful work. The other 2/3 are lost as waste heat, via exhaust and through the cooling system. In theory an EV could get away with maybe a 12-gallon (equivalent) energy store, so maybe 3x the battery that the F150 had. This would cost 3x too, of course, and be 3x as hazardous since you can't extinguish lithium battery fires. And recharge time would be dreadful. These things are still toys, only suitable for well-defined commuting. Not work. -- Jim _______________________________________ http://www.okiebenz.com To search list archives http://www.okiebenz.com/archive/ To Unsubscribe or change delivery options go to: http://mail.okiebenz.com/mailman/listinfo/mercedes_okiebenz.com
