Is Edison2 Against The Electric Car?
Saturday, January 30, 2010 at 11:53AMSometimes we may come across as anti electric car. We are not. We are in favor of basics. We believe in less is more, because less has a lower footprint in carbon, cost and maintenance. The opportunity we are focused on is that of simplicity. There is a cost to everything. Today every car has features which some of us will never use but that still have a cost. There is a material cost and a fuel cost; it is not uncommon for cars to carry around 200 lbs in wiring.
Today we face limited natural resources and widespread environmental challenges. In a time of crisis you stock up on the basics. You get what you know you need. Cars with looming energy supply problems are no different. It is in this context that we have distilled our car to the absolute minimum and end up with a very light and safe car. It is the basics that make it possible to get good performance from a one or two cylinder engine. When you make changes of the scale we are embracing then suddenly every part become smaller: smaller in weight, smaller in production time and smaller in cost.
Think about it. For a car our size you can get an engine and transmission that might cost $3000, lasts for decades, can be worked on by any mechanic – in a car that gets 100mpg, without issues of range. So the idea of spending $6000 or more for a battery pack with a life that is, at most, just half the life of the car…
It is our opinion that there is a need for the simple car – the back to basics car. A car built of fewer materials. A car that is less expensive to build, to buy and to run. A car that is not for everyone but that may just be for a very large number of people who want to save money, or maybe help save the planet.
Reader Comments (5)
You guys are doing perfectly fine, and have confidence that many of us car customers understand and embrace your logic. I for one, am looking forward to seeing your design succeed. Bravo, guys.
You folks have this right.
Just think, go a step further and really fix the aerocynamics. And make it half as wide as a big car, not wider than an SUV. Yes, a special wheel system is needed.
With your capabilities along with some of the Miastrada type approach the use of oil and the CO2 emissions for personal transportation could both be cut by 80% to 90%.
Then we can fix the big trucks.
Take another look at www.miastrada.com and let me know what you think at jim@miastrada.com.
I assume you folks realize that the way the PAXprize rates mileage for electric cars gives the electrics, such as Aptera now is, a three to one advantage. I have campaigned with them for well over a year to get them to account for the power plant that has to be the heat engine. They still insist that electricity is a fuel, and many agree. But if it is about the physics, this is dead wrong. The X folks say that the emissions competition will remedy the otherwise defective (my word) physics, but when the fact is recognized that the marginal response by the power suppliers will be to burn coal, the benefits for CO2 reduction also go away. Still, the shift from oil to coal is a benefit to the USA for energy independence.
Since you are planning to carry your own heat engine, that is going to be a serious disadvantage to overcome.
This comment relates to several of your topics:
A very big advantage of the hybrid as implemented by the Prius is that it enables engine efficiencies in the 36% to 38% range, according to Argonne Nat. Lab measurements. These measurement results are a little hard to dig out of their publications which are more oriented toward promoting the battery add-on systems to make these into plug-ins.
Small diesels that are available (16 hp in my case) would be great if they emitted less NOx. Getting these light weight, production machines under control for emissions would be a big plus for Kubota and Yanmar. Curiously, Cummins makes a diesel-electric generator for RV use, but buys the diesel engines from Kubota - - yes, I said Cummins!!
I meant to include the following link in my last. It shows the Prius engine efficiencies in one set of conditions. Look at the cyan curve on Fig. 9.
http://www.transportation.anl.gov/pdfs/HV/457.pdf