and you are makeing a big assumption. that everyone would do a full charge everytime. do people fill the tank every time? so for ten cents on your order, or maybe even free, mcdonalds will charge your car as you go through the drive through. 2 minutes of charging, last you a couple hours driving.
On Tue, 29 Mar 2005 16:30:32 -0500, Jed Rothwell <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > I wrote: > > That's pretty hot, but with a good radiator and exhaust fan it would not > vaporize the battery or cause a fire. With a lead-acid battery, which is 70% > efficient, it would produce 200 or 300 kW, which *would* cause a fire. > I should have said: "If a lead acid battery could recharge this quickly it > *would* cause a fire." > > > He would have to pull into a Dunkin' Donuts store and use their friendly > customer "emergency charge slot" which would take 15 or 20 minutes for a > partial recharge (say, 20 kW), and cost him $5. > As I said earlier, it is much easier to set up a low-capacity or emergency > charge station than a gasoline station. You can put small electric car > charge stations in parking lots anywhere. A few Atlanta malls already have > some, in fact. Stores were people are likely to stop along the way to work > anyway, such as Dunkin' Donuts, will probably offer a few. A Dunkin' Donuts > might even have a 2-car BBB, which would allow a person to recharge in six > minutes. This calls for much less infrastructure than today's gas station. > Safety and equipment maintenance would be a much smaller problem. Judging by > the size of the bank of batteries needed in today's electric automobiles, > and taking into account the fact that the new Toshiba battery is smaller and > lighter, a 2-car BBB would be a box roughly the size of household external > air-conditioner unit, or a kitchen stove. It would not be huge or expensive. > > If gasoline goes up to $4 or $5 per gallon, you will see this kind of thing > implemented with lightning speed -- much faster than anyone has predicted or > imagined lately. By comparison, consider how long it took to equip nearly > every city, town and highway in the US with gasoline stations. That > transition occurred from 1908 to 1925 -- 17 years -- and it was not done in > response to a dire national emergency. > > - Jed > -- "Monsieur l'abbé, I detest what you write, but I would give my life to make it possible for you to continue to write" Voltaire
