[V8] electric cars

[John Bysinger]

I have been looking to join the electric car "hacker garage" ranks for a
while now.  I bought a '69 triumph spitfire at one point intending to use it
for the project, but metal cancer was too far along in that car and plans
changed.  My wife thinks I'm nuts, but I have this oddball idea of
converting the V8 once the gas mill gives up the ghost.  I doubt I ever
will, but it's fun to think about.  V8's sure to have a heck of a lot of
room for batteries though.

-John
'90V8Q

On Mon, Aug 3, 2009 at 1:28 PM, Mike Arman <Armanmik at earthlink.net> wrote:

>
>
> Its coming . . .
>
> We are going to see electric cars soon, not hybrids like the Volt or the
> Pious, but 100% electric
> cars, battery powered, just like a four-wheeled laptop.
>
>
> Doesn't scare me in the least, as a long-time Audi owner I have gotten
> pretty good at
> troubleshooting and fixing balky automotive electrical systems ;-)
>
>
>
> Nissan plans to make the rather pretentiously named "Leaf" (cue
> green-gasm), but despite the dumb
> name, it is actually a pretty usable vehicle. They're talking about 2
> million of them a year. Top
> speed will get you arrested in most states, and range is 100 miles between
> recharges. Quite frankly,
> that range covers 95% of the driving I do, and I have the V8Q if I need to
> go further. Cost expected
> to be comparable to present cars.
>
>
> All the other car companies are jumping on the bandwagon too. We are going
> to see some SERIOUS
> competition for range, there is a LOT of money at stake here. Battery
> technology is advancing
> rapidly (like any technology that you pour money into), and I'd wager that
> inside of five years,
> we'll be able to buy an all-electric car with equivalent range,
> performance, and price as a Ford
> Escort or Hyundai or similar. Nothing spectacular, but a 100% electrical
> replacement for the average
> gas powered econobox.
>
> Remember that MOST people aren't interested in cars, they just want to get
> somewhere (and back) for
> the least amount of fuss and lowest cost. We're the strange ones here, who
> in their right mind would
> put up with the consummate weirdness and expense of the V8Q unless it was a
> fetish object?
>
>
> Advantages of the electric car are legion - obviously, no gasoline.
> Electricity comes from the local
> utility company, which is A) regulated by the state PSC or equivalent, so
> no $4.00 a gallon
> surprises based on commodity futures or other manipulation (but remember
> Enron), and B) while power
> plants do emit pollutants, it is much easier to control them at one
> central, professionally
> monitored and run location than at 20,000,000 end users (the cars). We may
> find ourselves back in
> the nuclear power plant business after all.
>
> The vehicles themselves are FAR simpler - no engine, smog controls, OBD-II,
> ECU, MAF, catalytic
> converter, exhaust system, muffler, fuel tank, fuel pump, fuel injection,
> oil and filter changes
> (which are another prime source of pollution), no more tuneups, no oxygen
> sensors, no heavy,
> complicated, expensive and unreliable transmissions (maybe a differential),
> no spark plugs, no
> radiator, no water pump, no serpentine belts, rollers, tensioners,
> alternators, and on and on and on.
>
> The only significant problem right now is battery capacity (range) and
> expense. Hybrids such as the
> Pious and the Volt have auxiliary gasoline engines (with the attendant
> complexity and expense)
> simply because current batteries are inadequate - but that is changing and
> it is changing rapidly.
> These hybrids are a dead end - once we have adequate battery capacity, the
> game is over for them.
>
>
> An electric car is a simple machine: A four wheeled box with brakes, a
> battery, an electric motor
> and associated controllers, and creature comforts.
>
> Since the battery capacity is limited, the various power consumers need to
> be optimized. No more
> incandescent headlights - so all LEDs or HID or compact fluorescents. (I
> have a dozen light fixtures
> in my hangar, each one takes two bulbs. If I use 24 75 watt bulbs, that's
> 1,800 watts an hour, 15
> amps draw at 120 volts. If I use 24 CFLs, they are 18 watts each, or 432
> watts, or 3.6 amps - just
> over 1/5th the current for the same amount of light.)
>
> Car entertainment systems draw next to nothing unless someone goes berserk,
> call it an amp or two.
>
> Air conditioning does take some power, and it is difficult to sell a car
> without A/C - impossible in
> Florida and Texas. Small motor driving a high efficiency compressor might
> work, someone has
> developed a SONIC compressor with no moving parts at all, that might work
> better.
>
> Heat is also a power hog - while a resistance space heater will do the job,
> you'll kill the battery
> trying to stay warm. Possibly a heat exchanger on the electric motor? Maybe
> even better insulation
> in the car, just like we now do in houses?
>
> The motor controller is interesting - all solid state, one module. I can
> already buy solid state
> relays that will switch 220 volts at 15 amps (3,300 watts, 4.4 hp) for a
> $20 bill, they are the size
> of a deck of cards. The capacity of those is going up and the price is
> coming down.
>
> Electric cars are now at the point where computers were just after the
> TRS-80 and the Apple II were
> announced - they have moved out of the hacker's garages and are just
> entering the mainstream.
> Remember that computers cost $2,000 back then, and the market was small.
> Cars cost ten times that
> and the market is HUGE - tell me about all the R&D money that is going to
> be POURED into electric
> cars by the major car companies and some governments now that they are
> beginning to be mainstream -
> it is going to be HUGE, and whoever gets it figured out best (and first) is
> going to make Bill Gates
> look like an absolute pauper.
>
> Now - when can I buy an all-electric Audi A5 Cabrio for the same money as
> the gasoline model, and
> with the same performance? I'm thinking it may be sooner than we expect -
> five or ten years and the
> gasoline automobile will be a curiosity as in "People actually drove those
> things?"
>
> Best Regards,
>
> Mike Arman
> V8Q (looking more and more like a dinosaur, big, fast, expensive, belongs
> in a museum because the
> CLIMATE CHANGED!)
>
>
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-- 
-john at bysinger.net