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10 years ago electric and hybrid cars would make people giggle at their very mention. Yet these prototypes were not one thing short of the humane splendor paving the way for what is soon to become the future of road transport. Electric vehicles are not a fashion trend, they represent the next revolution in automobile technology. It’s not so hard to see why there is such a hype with regards to electric cars. Here are numerous of the points: Electric motors by design are much more effective than Internal Combustion Engines (ICE). They achieve efficiencies of well over 90% equated to an intermediate of 20% for ICE. This translates into dandier economical incentive since electric motors intermediate 6Km/Kwh (Kilometer per Kilowatt-hour of energy) equated to 2.5Km/Kwh for ICE running on petrol. Efficiency with ICE is a big problem as there is not much scope for improvement. You see, in physics the laws of thermodynamics come into play theoretically limiting the efficacy of these designs to when it comes to 40%. Next is the fact that electric motors are competent to deliver full torque at get started up, that is at zero Revolutions Per Minute (RPM) which means you get much more power from the beginning itself. ICE nonetheless are dissimilar because they may only achieve their full torque within a sure range of RPM, which is why you have to shift gears when you’ve reached that optimal RPM range. Thus the Tesla roadster, a completely electric sports car may achieve 0-60mph in well underneath 4 seconds, and that’s with only regarding 250 horsepower (hp). For a similar performance with ICE cars, you would be looking at 500hp cars or more. However the reason why you don’t see electric cars everyplace yet is because there are areas which have to be improved. Perhaps the biggest shortcoming of electric cars is it is power source. Conventional ICE burn petrol which itself is very energy dense, meaning it holds a lot of energy, so to speak. As such the energy density of petrol is regarding 13Kwh/Kg (Kilowatt-hour per kilogram) or 8.9Kwh/L(Kilowatt-hour/Litre). Electric cars presently rely on lithium ion batteries with an energy density of 0.2Kwh/Kg with a lot of of them even attaining 0.4Kwh/Kg. Still, nevertheless that is rather low. All this translates into having to carry a heavy load of batteries so that these electric cars may have a reasonable range. The Tesla roadster for example lately managed to finish the 500km landmark on a single charge. With a 53Kwh battery pack which weighs almost a thousand pounds, that’s an efficacy of 9.5Km/Kwh! The second problem with the battery technology is it is charging time. On a home power outlet, a typical connection of 240 volts at 13 ampere (amp) would take over 17 hours to charge a 53Kwh battery pack. With it is high power connector kit of 70amp though, this may fall down to 3 hours. Future models are expected to have a 45 minutes quick charge. A third problem is the life cycle of the batteries which have a fixed charging cycle. However you may suppose these shortcomings to decrease rapidly in the future with investments in technologies such as lithium-air batteries with capacities of up to 5Kwh/Kg. Big companies such as IBM, Bosch and Panasonic are at the edge of the future battery technologies. Convenience is another vantage when it comes to electric cars. In our society today, electricity is the universal form of energy. You may charge your car from so a good deal of outlets, at home, at charging stations, at work or even at the neighbors’ if you dare. No need to queue at petrol stations. The bonus is that electricity costs only 12 cents/Kwh so basically you’re looking at a full charge for underneath $7. Compare that to filling up your fuel tank at regarding $40 or more. Electric cars have zero emissions. They have no air intake or exhaust. It is true that the electricity used most likely comes from coal fired power plants but the problem is the way of generating electricity in general, which has other alternatives. So not only electric cars do not pollute the air, they also reduce noise pollution. They are so silent that a lot of authorities are thinking of solutions to warn the visually impaired people who rely to a considerable degree on their hearing to move around. A couple of weeks ago, I was looking at a top gear episode where the presenters had taken their cars to the Andes and at that altitude engine performance dropped significantly since there was less oxygen in the air. I recognise it wouldn’t be reasonable if I mention such a circumstance as an vantage of the electric car, since realistically such situations seldom occur. But that surely points out that ICE need adequate levels of oxygen to function, electric cars don’t. The technology of electric vehicles keeps on improving. For example, Michelin’s Active Wheel System, fundamentally in wheel motors, are littler electric motors found inside the wheels and each of them are competent to generate power independently. This is unfeigned 4 x 4 power. They are comparatively light regarding 42 Kg each eliminating the need for a heavy front engine, an empty space which may be use to improve safety for frontal impacts. The reduction in weight further increments safety in terms of braking distance. Lastly with only a few moving constituents with electric motors, maintenance is less of a problem since there is less wear and tear, not to mention clogs and fuel deposits that occur with typical ICE. Forget regarding those dreaded general oil changes. Forget regarding those black molecules deposits beneath the bonnet. There is a buzzing ebullience for electric vehicles not only from the buyer market but also from the manufacturers. The most successful car makers know where the future lies, consequently why Toyota’s best retail hybrid- Prius (over 2 million of them around) is making the headlines while General Motors have scheduled production of the Chevrolet Volt within a year from now. Nissan and Renault are expected to follow suit. Analysts on the other hand estimate that by 2020 10% of all new sales will be electric doubling by 2030. However other experts such as Professor Kevin Morley, former Managing Director of Rover are more optimistic putting the market percentage of electric cars amid 30-40% by 2020. I personally portion his optimism, altho to a great deal of persons this figure might seem unrealistically high. So next time you see an electric car, just do not forget what you are genuinely looking at is plainly a outstanding piece of technology and you may suppose to see a lot of them in the near future. |
Tag Archives: Prius - Page 2
Electric Cars Are The Future Of Personal Transport Guess Why?
Posted by Greg Mitchell
on August 27, 2011
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