Posted on 12/14/2013 3:59:04 PM PST by chiller
Engineering breakthroughs like the Tesla Model S may be burning up the electric car market (figuratively and literally), but they’re leaving drivers cold and under-powered in the face of Old Man Winter.
Cold temperatures have adverse effects on batteries, slowing down the incoming and outgoing flow of energy and inevitably losing some in the process. The 250-mile average range of an electric car in normal climate conditions can see its performance reduced by 70-miles on a single charge in average winter conditions. The colder it gets, the shorter than range.
Not only that, the average winter driver tends to turn up the heat — a function that also puts a draw on the battery uncommon during other seasons.
(Excerpt) Read more at dailycaller.com ...
The dreaded Gibbs-Helmholtz equation strikes again.
I oppose electric cars because they leave people vulnerable in critical emergencies every time.
They’re ok for 2-3 mile trips, but nothing else.
Your war against oil is insane.
Football games.
Well said!
I completely agree that electric cars are crap, but I have noticed something of redeeming value in hybrids...minus the huge battery pack.
Your jihad to keep funding America’s enemies with American dollars is insane.
I have had my Model S for almost a year without ever being left stranded.
I start every day with about 270 miles worth of range after unplugging my car in the garage.
I usually drive 40-60 miles per day.
I took a trip from Los Angels to Vancouver(about 1300 miles one way) using Tesla’s supercharger network without any additional charge other than the price of the car. If I had purchased a Cadillac CTS-V it would have cost about $600 for gas.
You obviously love your subsidized life.
I daily fight against your ideology.
FreeRepublic is dedicated to fighting your ideology.
But hybrids cannot function without the battery pack.
The $10,000 tune-up.
I am somewhat of an automotive luddite, I hate ABS, TPMS, a PCM, COPs, remote locking, burglar alarms, and most other black boxes and hyper-engineered doo-dads that make modern cars expensive and flakey. I think they had it about right with OBDII and crank-fire ignition.
I don't even like automatic transmissions, especially computer shifted ones....which brings me to my point.
Imagine a "hybrid" with just two big batteries, like those found on a tractor-trailer rig.
As a byproduct of their misguided thinking, what the engineers have done is replaced the transmission with a simple, fool-proof, relatively inexpensive electric motor...properly sized per vehicle, it could easily never wear out.
The hybrid then would be using much the same technology as a locomotive. A small displacement turbo engine, the same type of speed controller, and a couple of batteries to smooth things out when it starts from a dead stop....
You might not even need the batteries, just one to start the engine.
It sounds like an automotive mad-scientist experiment once these things hit the junkyards needing battery packs.
And I guess my main point is....maybe they could.
If they were diesels they would be able to idle efficiently, and then the electric drive would effectively be the transmission in an efficient car, but the recovery of braking energy is where Toyota gets its milage.
I think that is more of a theory than a practice, unless they use capacitors or some other method to store it. Batteries can't accept all that charge unless maybe you were going down a mountain.
Once, before hybrids, they were working with a flywheel concept, where the flywheel ran in a vacuum at kitchen blender-like RPMs, It had a motor/generator attached through a gearbox and when you put on the "brakes" by reversing the drive motor/generators, it would rev up the flywheel.
Then when you accelerated, the flywheel would become a generator and provide acceleration. They would have you either plug it in overnight to keep the flywheel running, or have it on a timer so it would be ready to go to work in the morning.
The flywheel/gas engine hybrid would be a pretty good experiment too, except the flywheel motor/generator is a little above the pay grade of your average automotive mad-scientist.
ROTFLMAO .My life is not subsidized I pay waaaay more in Federal and State income taxes than I receive in benefits.
Every person that buys a gas powered car buys it from a company receiving corporate welfare. From bailouts to loans to tax breaks to build factories.
Free Republic is not dedicated to a jihad to weaken America and strengthen America’s enemies which you have evidently joined whole heartedly.
You are a web of subsidy.
An Obama Zombie
Bet you use Progressive insurance too.
Its the motor.
Are you a Wahabi or Shia?
Member of the Revolutionary Guard or Al Qaeda ?
That is the only possible explanation.
I think there are long heating tapes that you can run along or wrap around your plumbing pipes, and plug in, to prevent pipes freezing.
Yes, I just thought the roof cables might be a little better suited. And fiberglass insulation.
Waste? What'd you expect, it's from Government Motors.
Thanks for reminding us of yet another one of O'Bomber's failures.
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