[LINK] Electric vehicles and generation

[rchirgwin at ozemail.com.au]

Thanks for the numbers and the reference, Geoffrey. Also, thanks all 
Linkers for the debate...

Food for thought; and while electric doesn't yet need to be 100% 
replacement for petrol, the day will come... Individual transport isn't 
insoluble, since in a low-petroleum world, we can revert to things like 
trains. But I suspect that cities would have much more trouble 
adjusting, since (for example) food distribution is very petroleum-centric.

RC
Geoffrey Ramadan wrote:

> The key issue for electric vehicles is "power density" of the Battery.
>
> To give you an idea of the challenge for electric vehicles.
>
> Petrol has a "Energy Density" of 13,200 W-hr/kg
>
> Lead-acid  is only 22 W-hr/kg
> Nickel-cadmium (Ni-Cd) 44 W-hr/kg
> Silver-Zinc(Ag-Zn)  110 W-hr/kg
> Magnesium hydride with Ni catalyst (Mg-H (Ni))  2300 W-hr/kg
>
> Source: http://www.energyadvocate.com/fw64.htm
>
> Geoffrey Ramadan B.E.(Elec)
> Chairman, Automatic Data Capture Association (www.adca.com.au)
> and
> Managing Director, Unique Micro Design (www.adca.com.au)
>
>
> Karl Auer wrote:
>
>> On Sun, 2006-07-23 at 14:03 +1000, rchirgwin at ozemail.com.au wrote:
>>  
>>
>>> So: can the car be light enough to use little enough electricity to 
>>> be practical, cheap, cover long distances, and be rechargeable from 
>>> an accessible source?
>>>     
>>
>>
>> The questions have too many assumptions in them.
>>
>> It does have to be practical - but just for some useful purpose, not
>> necessarily as a complete replacement for current cars.
>>
>> It does have to be cheap - but overall, not necessarily just in direct
>> saleyard price terms. I can see governments subsidising this sort of
>> vehicle pretty soon, not just the purchase price, but things like
>> parking, tolls etc too.
>>
>> It doesn't necessarily have to cover long distances at all. Most
>> people's needs are well covered by a range of only 20km a day or so. It
>> might make economic sense to have a small electrical or hybrid runabout
>> for the 80% of trips that are close to home, and keep a "real" car in
>> reserve for long distances.
>>
>> Regards, K.
>>
>>   
>
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