Electric Car Prospects Stall, Awaiting Promised Battery Improvements

Forbes ^ | Neil Winton

[Hojczyk]

The U.S. was supposed to have one million plug-in vehicles on the road by 2015, but at the end of last year this had only reached about 290,000. Germany might be embarrassed to be reminded that its target is one million plug-ins by 2020, but a barely measurable 14,000 have so far been sold there.

MIT’s Sadoway said battery development has been disappointingly slow, and this will hurt sales of electric cars generally. “Development (of lithium-ion batteries) is not going to be significant enough to change the price performance ratio for it to have an impact on auto sales predictions.

These numbers are so low because it will still make more sense to have an internal combustion engine in 2025 using fossil fuel,” said in an interview. Sadoway said battery prospects haven’t been helped by the price of oil falling to unpredicted low levels. And technically, battery success depended on the amount of energy you could put in, and how long it took before it began to fade or weaken, and the overall cost of ownership.

[Da Coyote]

Followed shortly by promised power grid improvements.

Not.

[CMailBag]

“”The U.S. was supposed to have one million plug-in vehicles on the road by 2015””
According to BIGEARS

[central_va]

And technically, battery success depended on the amount of energy you could put in, and how long it took before it began to fade or weaken, and the overall cost of ownership.

The author missed the mark. The problem with batteries is not the charge or the cars range, IT IS THAT IT TAKES A RIDICULOUS AMOUNT OF TIME TO RECHARGE.

I would trade range for fast recharge time any day of the week.

[Navy Patriot]

The race to barbarism, go USA!

[snoringbear]

“I would trade range for fast recharge time any day of the week. “

What’s your definition of fast recharge?

[Cobra64]

PEople forget that batteries lose their charge just sitting, doing nothing.

[2ndDivisionVet]

So you’re saying that the Germans are smarter than we are? I already knew that.

[Dr. Bogus Pachysandra]

“I would trade range for fast recharge time any day of the week. “

Could charging time be reduced by using a super capacitor in the charging array? Or is it beyond conventional batteries ability to charge that quickly?

[central_va]

I think it is a voltage issue. To recharge fast you need really high voltages which are unsafe to deal with.

[central_va]

It takes 10 minutes to fill up my car. I see no need to expect a battery recharge to take longer. Otherwise is is not as good.

[Cobra64]

Y'all can keep those Prius thingies the gays in San Francisco drive. I'll take a Vette, .

https://youtu.be/NuDZZAvI3W4

[drbuzzard]

Actually while that is certainly a huge issue as well, it’s all about energy density where batteries fail the most. I really get the feeling that if you try to increase energy density too much in a battery, you’ll end up with a fire as you will have way to much of an energy slope for a nice slow battery reaction.

[Dr. Bogus Pachysandra]

Well,,,, are the voltages unsafe to deal with in a car wreak?

[central_va]

If it only takes 5-10 minutes to recharge AND if the range was just reasonable I’d be happy. Even if it only went 100 miles I’d be OK with that if recharge was 10 minutes.

[central_va]

A battery pack is 1000 times safer than a gasoline fuel tank.

[Dr. Bogus Pachysandra]

When I work on a tube guitar amp, the first thing I do is drain the power caps, so they don’t kill me. Is this a concern to rescue workers?

[catnipman]

Production of a powerful, energy-dense, rechargeable battery is essentially impossible because there are NO rechargeable batteries in nature, living or otherwise: all dynamic entities in nature consume fuel to produce the energy needed for their operation (also inherently producing substantial useless waste heat in the process) until no more fuel is available, at which point the dynamic operations cease.

And because no rechargeable batteries exist in nature, we are unable to make good ones, since all we do is discover that which already exists. We’ve been working on batteries for several hundred years now and are only marginally ahead of the original lead-acid battery.

[Gideon7]

The following is graphic from the US Energy Information Administration. It shows the percent of inputs into the power grid relative to the outputs:

Note how 25% is wasted in power-line transmission and conversion loses, and how 40% is used up in generating the electricity at the powerplant in the first place.

Thus for every unit of natural gas, solar, or whatever fed into the system, less than half of it is available to feed into your electric car.

Then factor in the cost in the manufacturing resources and energy required to build these big Li-Ion car batteries (which wear out after a few years).

The bottom line is that electric-powered vehicles are one of the most resource-intensive and energy-expensive methods that you can pick for use in personal transportation.

[Jonty30]

A hydrogen tank is a 1000 times safer than a battery pack.