On this page:
Basic Technical Information,
Battery - Bottleneck?,
Hybrid ./. Hybrid,
Hybrid Schematics,
Basic Technical Information
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The first electric cars were built between 1832 and 1837 (>history), 50 years before petrol powered cars appeared such as the Benz Patent Motorwagon patented 1885.Till 1897 when the muffler (Percy) was invented electric cars were considered superior due to the silent nature of electric motors compared to the terrible noise a combustion engine produced.
For that time being combustion engine driven cars had 2 major advantages a) long range and b) far lower weight of petrol compared to batteries.
But in 1993 at the IAA in Frankfurt a car concept was presented by ECO technologies based on an electric-hybrid 4 wheel drive controlled by a patented computerised semiconductor unit with 80 kW (135 Horsepower). This concept in combination with an improved battery technology containing a fuel-cell or a small fast turning combustion engine for generating electricity paved the way for introducing electric, or electric hybrid cars to the idea of mass production.
Please note that this concept was not the usual fig leaf concept with a mechanical clutch controlled combination of a big combustion engine and a tiny electric motor sharing the wheels. Only electric motors are driving the wheels, and the a fuel cell or a on board combustion engine driven generator would be connected via a cable electrically only. Electric motors can deliver a high torque at low revolutions electric cars do not require a complex drive train and transmission as internal combustion powered cars.
It also is a myth kept going be the car industry that electric cars are slow, small and weak. Venturi Fétish's electric accelerates from 0-100 km/h in 4.0 seconds reaching a top speed of around 210 km/h. A 400km range on battery is reached by other concepts. Impulse charging concepts (Austria) can reduce charging times drastically.
It is not easy to compare "fuel efficiency" of pure electric driven cars, but some press reports give it better than 1.8 L/100 km.
These last facts are killing already one of the above mentioned 2 major advantages a) long range
The second one of a far lower weight is a question of time to design more efficient electric storage (batteries). But in combination with new frame technologies such as Aluminium space-frames battery weights can be equally compensated, and electric cars with the same weight of today's common petrol cars can be achieved.
Battery, The Bottleneck?
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New battery technologies become visible at the horizon such as the "Nuclear Battery" or more accurate: the beta voltaic battery.
The University of Rochester reports that a newly designed beta voltaic battery can run for ten years and is already ten times more powerful than any other previously designed beta voltaic batteries. The Process uses beta electron emissions that occur when a neutron decays into a proton which causes a forward bias in the semiconductor.
Quote:"Scientists Invent 30 Year Continuous Power Laptop Battery!
Your next laptop could have a continuous power battery that lasts for 30 years without a single recharge thanks to work being funded by the U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory."
One day those batteries might be powerful enough to run an electric car - years and years without recharge.
Combustion engine driven cars with the need to get petrol every 400 km would be found only in museums and historical collections.
It can be taken for granted that this development will not take the time it was necessary spending for developing modern combustion engines.
Concepts of changing batteries rather then recharging them, seem to point to the right direction.
Hybrid ./. Hybrid
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As above mentioned some "fig leaf" hybrids are already mass produced or on the way some car producers take care that the powerful part of the car is the combustion engine using the e-motor for the "weak" tasks of driving. Usually one will find extensive featuring the power of the combustion engine, but hardly any information about the electrical part of the drive. And as the concepts are based on petrol car chassis the battery is placed taking comfort and parts of the trunk away - very tempting to by one!
As crude-oil-fuel becomes extincted and prices will high-rock the only future pointing care concept can be the one which is not using a combustion facility at all. Even hydrogen driven cars make little sense - why first using electricity to produce hydrogen to then burn it in a combustion engine driven car? Even fuel is produced based on growing plants or waste-gas it still has to be burned up producing CO2 gases. The Swiss model is one of the ideas to create direct electrical energy from the sun light be solar panels on a house roof which is fed into the mains - using the mains as storage - and the to re-charge the electric vehicle back from the mains.
Only "real" hybrid with 4 wheels exclusively powered by electric motors is able to use all these possibilities to be fed with energy - even petrol using an on-board generator, whilst the "false" hybrid concept never can run without the fed of petrol. Documented by the fact that most of these hybrid cars would not even provide an electrical plug for being re-charge at the mains.
Cars fitting into the category of "false" hybrid concepts are the Toyota Prius, Lexus Hybrid, Honda Civic Hybrid, Nissan Altima Hybrid,
Here some "real" future oriented electric hybrids whereby the wheels are exclusively electric powered:
Mitsubishi CT Hybrid Concept, with four electric motors, one for every wheel supported by a 50 kW/67 horsepower 1.0 litre, 3-cylinder petrol engine placed behind the rear seats. The batteries provide 50 kW for a total peak power of 100 kW. The lithium ion batteries are placed under the floor in the front (where batteries should be), leaving space above for luggage.
This "real" computer controlled hybrid concept provides all-wheel drive, without the expensive and heavy transmission and drive shafts required by conventional four wheel drive systems.
GM Volt - range of about 56 km given by a lithium ion battery pack. Mostly re-charged using a wall outlet, but if one gets stuck there is an on-board gas motor generator for charge up the batteries enhancing the range to that of any petrol car. This car is therefore prepared for "Green City Wall" concepts.
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But to change the attitude of the society towards the idea of using electricity to power a vehicle, any concept which states "electric" in the concept is a help,
"fig-leaf" or "senseful"!