Aiming for 1000 miles per charge; EV market research for potential new OEM

sfjamrock said:

@samwichse its just a goal, I'm well aware of the limitation of both energy harvesting and batteries, but if Elon Muck can say he expect a EV to get to 700 miles per charge by 2020 then me wishing for 1000 miles per charge shouldn't be that big of a stretch.

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I foolishly completed your survey. Elon Musk can expect a 700 mile range car by 2020 because he knows that he already has a 300 mile range car and there are a couple of battery changes that should give a doubling in capacity in that time. No magic needed.

sfjamrock said:

However right now my biggest focus is understand how EV DIY hobbies view renewable. Right now almost every commercial EV has rengen brakes and now prototype of cars with solar roofs are being designed by big car manufactures.

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Regen brakes are a no brainer. They pretty much get that with almost no extra effort. Solar roofs are invariably used only to top up the 12 volt lead acid battery and run a fan to exchange the hot interior air with outside air. Nothing to do directly with range.

sfjamrock said:

My questions have to do with less about their current capabilities and more on do people in the EV DIY space even bother to test them in there builds.

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You don't need to test anything because for all known cases it doesn't work to increase range in any usable way. For example, solar cells on my car would let me drive from 10 am to around 2 pm without any batteries in the car at a speed of perhaps 2 mph. That would be a free 8 miles of driving. This is around $0.20 of electricity. At $0.20 saved per day it will take a very long time to pay for the solar panels and the electronics necessary to use the panels power. Wind has limitations such that it is completely impractical.

sfjamrock said:

I hope that clarify my intentions a bit.

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Please do so. From what I can come up with you think you have some secret idea to make one of these practical. I can almost guarantee that your ideas are not new. Just read through the over unity thread. If you have something new I would be pleased to evaluate it.

sfjamrock said:

Thanks for your response but before we start down a negative path please read this article.

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I have read about the Phinergy battery. It is not at all clear how much a recharge will cost or what the device itself is capable of. The production of aluminum is extremely energy intensive and it could cost many times the wh/mile of the EV to turn the aluminum hydroxide back into aluminum. Unless you get almost all the watts out you put in you are better off with just charging your Lithium batteries. I would love to read details on power output and recharge efficiency but they don't seem to be revealing any of that. Based on the hybrid battery comment I will guess that the peak power is not all that great so you need something that can produce acceleration power and then recharge from the aluminum air battery during lower power times.

sfjamrock said:

There are plenty of ways look at this issue, my intention is to discover who has done what, what's this group view on the idea of 1000 miles per charge car and would they test it in there own build if the option was available.

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I drove 960 miles in one day just a few weeks ago. Took 14 hours so I averaged almost 69 mph. My preference is doing about half that as a reasonable distance and a 30 minute stop every couple of hours is not at all unreasonable. We just don't need vehicles that can go 1000 miles non stop. To do so isn't good for you. My EV does 60 miles. It could be recharged in about 30 minutes. Completely useless for road trips. Completely wonderful for driving around town. We can already build cars with enough range. And they can be recharged fully in under 30 minutes if you have a big enough connection to the grid. Without a major effort by someone other than Tesla we are limited to using a Tesla for road trips if we want a pure EV.

sfjamrock said:

I can pick apart tech too, that easy but we all know its easy to criticize new ideas but its hard to validate them. There are plenty of ways to work with batteries to extend range as is highlighted in the article, I want to do the same thing with renewable that all.

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So what are your ideas?

It is impractical to use wind when you are moving.

If we could reach 100% efficiency with solar cells you would still need 180 sq feet to go 60 mph down the highway from 10 am to 2 pm only. Since we are only at 20% efficiency for cells that are affordable we need 900 sq feet of panels for a small sports car. That would be barely enough to do 240 miles in a day.

I wouldn't consider the aluminum air battery a renewable but lets consider it.

I bet the aluminum air battery is no better than 20% energy efficient when you convert the aluminum hydroxide back to the aluminum used in the battery. If your electricity is nearly free that might work out. But at 20% efficiency that would mean 4500 sq feet of panels to give you that same 240 miles of range when you convert the aluminum hydroxide back to aluminum.

I know a pretty smart guy who is trying to harvest some of the energy lost in the suspension. He thinks he can get a thousand watts recovered from driving over rough roads. It is a neat idea although I can't imagine it being practical unless built into a LOT of vehicles to bring the price down.