Electric cars certainly can
look nice and promise big things, but the ones we can actually buy today rarely top 50 miles of range. Those promised for the next few years probably won't break 100, and they're not going to find wide success until things get a lot better in that department. That's the initiative of IBM's Battery 500 Project, bringing together a number of the brightest minds in anode/cathode tech to boost battery storage density by a factor of 10. The focus is on lithium-air technology, which uses nanoscale semiconductors and an open design relying on the air around us for collecting positive ions. About 40 brains are involved in the project at this point, and we think their work is of vital importance. So, if you would, please stop posting funny things on the internet until they've come up with a solution. We'd like them to be able to focus completely without any LOLcat distractions.
[Via
Slashdot]
posted Oct 2nd 2009 9:31AM
One word.
Bikes.
Dumb Word. No one is going to bike 500 miles in one day.
IBM is playing catch-up. Toyota has already achieved 10x range increase using silicone nano-tubes:
http://www.treehugger.com/files/2009/09/silicon-nanotubes-anodes-boost-lithium-ion-battery-capacity-10x.php
Your Kung Fu is weak. Bikes suck in the rain, are of limited range, can't carry coworkers, can't carry more than a few items, don't have heaters or air conditioners, etc, etc, etc. Now go back and have some more tofu.
wont the model s have a range of like 200-300 miles??
Yeah i sort of resent the top range of 50 miles... especially considering that you can't buy a fully electric car with a range < 50 miles. Homebuilt cars obviously suck because the general public doesn't typically build their own battery packs...
The Model S has a range from 160 to optional 320 mile ranges and the mitsubitshi imev has a range of 120. In fact most of the EVs being announced have a range of AT LEAST 100 miles. The idiot who wrote this piece is junk and kinda corny, especially the "LOLcat".
@polo
Can you tell me where I can buy a Model S today. Could have sworn it was a 2011 model...
@Bob
Maybe you missed this part: "Those promised for the next few years probably won't break 100". Last I checked 2011 is in the next few years and even the lowest range Model S will get 160miles, and there are several other EVs coming out in the next few years that also top over 100miles. Whoever wrote that write-up has no idea what they're talking about.
@bob
Polo is right. Even the nissan leaf which is going up for preorder here has a 100 mile range. And that supposed to be cheep. The Aptera 2e is also a 100 mile range. I think this article is bias based on the same misinformation that you've been given
Actually, Polo is pretty much on-the-money when you consider reality instead of market blurbs. The only real electric car today (Tesla) claims about 200 mile range, but that takes a $40k battery that a less high-end vehicle can't afford. A 200 mile range under ideal conditions, and the fact that the consequences of making a "gas guage" mistake means you have to be towed, means that the range people will comfortable driving is about 1/2 to 2/3 of the advertised number. That works out to about 100 to 140 miles on a Tesla, and probably 50 to 75 miles for any electric car that costs less than $50k. I don't mean to say that's horrible. it would be perfectly adequate for 6 out of 7 days that I drive. But you can't directly compare electric mileage to gas mileage until consumers are just a sure about how many miles they have left as they are when using gas.
That scale is freaking sweet. I wonder if it can be modded to read out oz's, specifically. You know, for research.
finally battery technology is going forward once more, i feared it had stagnated and were never going to get more than 3 days of battery life out of my iphone or more than 2 hours out of my laptop. Oh extra range for electric vehicles would be awesome, but think of how long tiny MID's of the future will last with better batteries
"...We'd like them to be able to focus completely without any LOLcat distractions."
Request denied;
http://icanhascheezburger.com/2008/11/14/funny-pictures-i-take-over-nao/
Muahahahahahahaha *rubs hands together* No batteries will be created THIS day.
http://community.livejournal.com/lolscience
Damnit!!! You've thwarted me from doing my Spanish homework yet again...
Why not have removable batteries with a standard form factor? Then, all you do when you're running out of juice, is get to the "Battery station™", pay for the electricity, and swap it for a charged one... The process can even be mechanised if the create a full on battery and dock standard.
@ictiosapiens: Google "Project Better Place"
Exactly. At least the interface needs to be standardized. Otherwise when this new battery technology goes to market your existing EVs will not be able to use it.
Cool video of battery swapping station here:
http://www.wired.com/autopia/2009/05/better-place/
Silly Goober! There's no room for logic in this greed filled world!
trading one form of pollution for another. Genius.
Steven: Do your homework. All Project Better Place charge points and swap stations are powered exclusively by solar and wind farms owned by partner corporations.
'open design relying on the air around us for collecting positive ions. '
if they take all the positive ions will we be stuck w/ all this negative ions?? isn't that like polluting????
Isn't a build-up of negative ions what causes lightning? I wonder if giant lightning storms could cause global warming.
I'm seriously wondering the same thing.. anyone smart enough to answer that question? goooogle...
the positive ions are going to be release in some way its one big cycle. ions aren't finite you cant use them all they are being created all the time
@BladeSling
What would Nikola Tesla do if he were here right now?
He'd build a giant coil or two!
Cause that's what Nikola Tesla would do!
Somebody find me the ghost of Nikola Tesla...I'm sure he would have the answer.
Ok, I'm getting serious here; how much are they going to "charge" us for that technology?
its IBM so don't expect it to be cheap. But luckily, since IBM is so huge the chances of an oil company buying out the tech is really small. Hopefully IBM will license the tech(likely) instead of producing it themselves. I'm waiting for the 25k electric car, hopefully this will make it happen. I should be able to atleast get an android phone that runs for more then 1 day.
I see what you did there.
This is all well and good, but it seems completely ridiculous that all these newly-announced projects weren't started decades ago. Current efficacy sucks because of a seeming total lack of innovation for years as we drilled more fuel, even with the oil embargo fiasco warning us.
It's mind-numbing to think that nearly all the other technology is ready to go, only batteries are so damned inefficient that electric cars are still a nonstarter.
The technology was developed a long time ago, but oil companies just keep buying patents.
If only there were some way to 'regulate' the industry, like if we had regulators or something.
we coulda started this years ago if it wasn't for all the fake hype about hydrogen. The oil companies have got the industry to waste 30 years working on hydrogen and all we've got from it are million-dollar prototypes on $600 leases. Its all a scam to soak up research funds that could've went toward EVs with 1,000mile ranges and it worked pretty well up until the oil companies got greedy last year. Now, all bets are off.
We've been hearing about carbon nanotube technology for over 3 years, and about 10 different iterations of lithium technology for ages. We finally see Lithium Polymer slowly coming out but frankly all these evolutionary and revolutionary battery technologies seem to be released at glacier speeds. I'd like to see a major step forward within the next 2 years - not 10, not 20 but 2 years.
yes sir.
I auto-tuned this article at http://apps.facebook.com/iamtpainjukebox/?id=159216&sg=120480
Enjoy!
actually "bikes" is a pretty good word...think of it, already a 1000 watts electric engine kit for a bike is about 200$, and if those air batteries are cheap and are small in volume it would make a perfect cheap transportation solution.....and plus you wont need a licence or pay insurance
...but then of course the technology is needed more in cars.
$200 electric bike kits?
Got any more info on that?
I think that we should all really analyze the true merits of electric vehicles, rather than just considering all efforts in that direction morally superior. Battery technology is not there yet for a real replacement of internal combustion engines, and I do not think that is because of any conspiracy. It is just a hard problem to solve, and electric vehicles may not be the answer in the end because of the batteries. They are expensive, do not last very long compared to a standard car engine, and are environmentally tricky to dispose of. Combine that with all of the cost and energy used to produce electric vehicles, and I am unconvinced of ev as it stand now. Maybe natural gas cars or hydraulic hybrids are a better long term replacement. We need to let things play out and see.
On an individual basis, I think you can do much more to help the environment by riding your bike or taking the bus when you can, or just group trips and keep your tires aired up. A little more waste not want not attitude might prove to be greener than blind devotion to new green technology.
I think that we should all really analyze the true merits of electric vehicles, rather than just considering all efforts in that direction morally superior; battery technology is not there yet for a real replacement of internal combustion engines, and I do not think that is because of any conspiracy. It is just a hard problem to solve, and electric vehicles may not be the answer in the end because of the batteries. They are expensive, do not last very long compared to a standard car engine, and are environmentally tricky to dispose of.
Combine that with all of the cost and energy used to produce electric vehicles, and I am unconvinced of EV as it stand now. Maybe natural gas cars or hydraulic hybrids are a better long term replacement. We need to let things play out and see.
On an individual basis, I think you can do much more to help the environment by riding your bike or taking the bus when you can, or just group trips and keep your tires aired up. A little more waste not want not attitude might prove to be greener than blind devotion to new green technology.
How much is a g? Unless I'm buying coke, I have no reference to these g weights...
LOLcat