Recent Comments:
Toshiba dramatically increases energy density of Li-ion battery {Engadget}
Apr 16th 2009 4:14AM Tangents.
Nice to see so many people *manipulating* the figures to suit their argument.
So lets go back to basics, and stick to the article, shall we.
The energy density (Wh/kg) is the core of this article.
The figure quoted for this battery is "as high as 100Wh/kg", so we'll just call it 100Wh/kg, which is the same as 0.1KWh/Kg.
With me so far.
The figures I located for the energy density of gasoline and diesel respectively were 12.7KWh/Kg and 11.6KWh/Kg.
Now, when I went to school, if you divided 12.7 and 11.6 by 0.1, you get 127 and 116.
At no point in this article are the relative *merits* of either stored electrical energy, gasoline or diesel mentioned.
However, unless I'm much mistaken, as you use up the energy stored in a cell, it does NOT get any lighter, unlike using up stored gasoline/diesel. Therefore the vehicle ICE vehicle gets lighter as it travels, unlike the electric vehicle.
And no, I haven't forgotten that you still have to transport gas/diesel to the filling station. But you also have to transport electricity to a recharge point.
So, back to my point.
Yes, advances are being made in cell technology.
Yes, this is a good thing.
And yes, eventually, electric vehicles will be viable.
But not yet.
So can we all chill the hysteria. There's a LONG way to go yet.
Example;
The Chevy Volt was being featured on the BBC news here last night.
40 mile(ish) range, with backup generator (petrol/gasoline driven).
Price- £30,000 (or thereabouts)
UK Gov talking up a £5K 'grant' to encourage people to go to EV's
Still leaves you having to find £25K, plus the installation of a recharge point at home.
And if you use it to commute to work, how do you recharge it when you get there so you can get home without having to use the generator?
How do you convince your employer to install charge points?
Then again, at £30K a pop, how many people are realistically going to be able to afford to buy one?
How long is it going to take before you begin to make back the up-front difference?
Many people have compared the development of viable, mass market EV's to the development of the first viable mass market ICE vehicles. There is one major difference.
When the first mass produced cars came along, they only had the horse to contend with. It wasn't too difficult to produce something cheaply, reasonably reliably, and plentiful enough to displace the horse.
EV's on the other hand, are going to have to displace the now ubiquitous ICE. And the massive support infrastructure that now exists for them. That will need to be replaced too.
As I said. There's still a LONG way to go.
Toshiba dramatically increases energy density of Li-ion battery {Engadget}
Apr 15th 2009 10:57AM It would help if you READ my point.
This is about storage.
Or are you literally too much of a Dummy to comprehend the difference.
Toshiba dramatically increases energy density of Li-ion battery {Engadget}
Apr 15th 2009 10:43AM "can you recharge diesel"
Yup. And gasoline.
It's called a "Filling Station"!
Or don't you have those out your way?
Re-filling a tank is just the same as re-charging a battery of cells. You still require an energy source to have something to transfer to your storage media (cells/fuel tank).
How you obtain that *energy* and how efficiently you use it is a whole different argument.
As you can see from the figures, even if you can achieve 100WH/kg from a cell, that's still 116/127 times LESS than the equivalent diesel/gasoline.
When cells get to around 5-10KWh/Kg, then you might be in business.
Going to have to keep working on it though.
Toshiba dramatically increases energy density of Li-ion battery {Engadget}
Apr 15th 2009 10:32AM gasoline;
12700 Wh/Kg
Toshiba dramatically increases energy density of Li-ion battery {Engadget}
Apr 15th 2009 10:29AM Diesel has an energy density of around 11600Wh/Kg
(http://hypertextbook.com/facts/2006/TatyanaNektalova.shtml)
Quite a way to go guys!
War on buttons extends to automotive front with Chrysler's iPhone-like dashboard {Engadget}
Apr 15th 2009 9:15AM If you look at the windscreen (windshield in US), it looks like the pedestrian he's hit flying over the roof!
War on buttons extends to automotive front with Chrysler's iPhone-like dashboard {Engadget}
Apr 15th 2009 8:49AM Spot on!
War on buttons extends to automotive front with Chrysler's iPhone-like dashboard {Engadget}
Apr 15th 2009 8:49AM "Passengers send music requests"??
When I'm driving, it's MY choice of music.
Or silence.
Like it, or lump it.
I'm driving, I'm in charge of the vehicle.
War on buttons extends to automotive front with Chrysler's iPhone-like dashboard {Engadget}
Apr 15th 2009 8:45AM NO!!
Just NO!!
This is not innovation. It's just plain stupid.
The only 'innovation' required in car controls is a simple system that resets ALL the lights back to OFF when the car is stopped and turned off. That way, all the dipshits who don't know how to turn their friggin fog lights off for days after any fog won't look like such dipshits.
And the rest of us, who are intelligent enough to operate a simple (inexpensive!!) switch, will be able to see without being blinded by fog lights left on when its NOT FOGGY!!
Dell Studio One 19 unboxed, found less attractive than Facebook photo {Engadget}
Mar 19th 2009 6:00AM White 'system' with a black keyboard & mouse!
Did they just throw in whichever one of either they had in stock.
Ruins any chance (if that's even possible) of this looking even remotely stylish
