A person from an exurb could barely make it to work and home with stops at the store, the doctor and the kids play without getting close to a dead battery.
How long must he charge to get an effective round trip in? How much will his electric bill be spiked while owning this coal fired automobile?
Also how effective are they in a cold weather climate? How do they operate in real World subfreezing temperatures for two months straight in the winter in Fargo or Minneapolis?
These cars are cool. It is nice that someone made an effective vehicle that can be relatively reliable for those with the funds and the time to recharge every night. The are a long way from replacing or even competing with a vehicle that gets 350+ miles to a tank and can be refueled and on it's way again in ten minutes or less.
These cars are cool. It is nice that someone made an effective vehicle that can be relatively reliable for those with the funds and the time to recharge every night. The are a long way from replacing or even competing with a vehicle that gets 350+ miles to a tank and can be refueled and on it’s way again in ten minutes or less.
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Researchers developing cheap, better-performing lithium-ion batteries
3 hours ago
http://phys.org/news/2014-03-cheap-better-performing-lithium-ion-batteries.html
Researchers at the USC Viterbi School of Engineering have improved the performance and capacity of lithium batteries by developing better-performing, cheaper materials for use in anodes and cathodes (negative and positive electrodes, respectively).
The USC Viterbi team developed a cost-effective (and therefore commercially viable) silicon anode with a stable capacity above 1100 mAh/g for extended 600 cycles, making their anode nearly three times more powerful and longer lasting than a typical commercial anode.
“Our method of producing nanoporous silicon anodes is low-cost and scalable for mass production in industrial manufacturing, which makes silicon a promising anode material for the next generation of lithium-ion batteries,” said Zhou. “We believe it is the most promising approach to applying silicon anodes in lithium-ion batteries to improve capacity and performance.”