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Topic: Things to come....
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Steve Klare
Film Guy
Posts: 7016
From: Long Island, NY, USA
Registered: Jun 2003
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posted August 09, 2012 10:02 AM
-and I recall hearing in the '70s we'd all be wearing clothing made out of aluminum foil and commuting to jobs on the moon by 2001!
If they really make an electric car work well it will be great: gobs of torque, simple mechanics, quiet operation. The whole thing has always been the battery.
About 15 years ago I was working for a power supply manufacturer, and we took on a custom DC-DC converter to stand in for the alternator in Ford's EV-Ranger pickup. It took the 400V traction voltage and stepped it down to 13.5V for the usual car stuff: headlights, radio, wipers...etc.
One day I was out in Dearborn and I asked the engineer I was working with if I could see one of the trucks, not expecting he would hand me the keys to one.
It operated exactly like a regular car with an automatic: you twist the key in the "ignition" switch, take a "gear selector" and put it in "D" and off you go!
It was nice to drive, the only whacky thing about it was if you accelerated and then took your foot off the "gas". it went dead silent, and your gasoline accustomed brain told you you'd "stalled".
That one got up close to 100 miles between charges, much less in Michigan winters when the battery efficiency fell and you had to snap on the 5,000 Watt cabin heater.
-------------------- All I ask is a wide screen and a projector to light her by...
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Steve Klare
Film Guy
Posts: 7016
From: Long Island, NY, USA
Registered: Jun 2003
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posted August 09, 2012 03:39 PM
Hey Graham,
Yes, batteries are better now, and a lot of research is being done too. It's a hot topic where I work now.
Nope: this was basically a standard Ford mini-pickup with internal combustion components gone and an electric drive train subbed in place. It had a special suspension and low rolling resistance tires.
Here is a view under the hood:
EV Ranger Under The Hood
That's no "engine" under there but various electronic modules for power handling (the big one is the traction inverter). My (welllll..."our" -I only managed the program in production!) module is the smaller one in the middle of the picture, the one that looks like a bread pan turned on its side with a cooling hose running to it.
There is a working radiator behind the grille. All it does is provide cooling water for the electronics.
The motor is back under the cargo bed right next to the rear axle.
The batteries were scads of 8V cells placed in series in a huge case that hung underneath the chassis.
I bet when they were thinking of somebody to run this thing in the factory after R&D had their fun, they said to themselves "Steve loves cars!", but it was a major pain working to auto industry quality standards. Every time somebody sneezed committees had to be formed to generate reams of paperwork. Even after our tens of thousands of units we expected to build turned into about 1,500, Ford notified us we had to maintain production readiness for spares for 7 years. I can just imagine the day all that otherwise useless stuff was shoveled into a skip and sent for scrap!
-these were my brief days in the Auto Industry! It was about the coolest thing I ever worked on, but there were days I had more fun at the dentist!
I expected guys in dark glasses, leather jackets and racing helmets and all I got was auditors and committees!
-------------------- All I ask is a wide screen and a projector to light her by...
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Hugh Thompson Scott
Film God
Posts: 3063
From: Gt. Clifton,Cumbria,England
Registered: Jan 2012
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posted August 10, 2012 05:29 AM
I don't see the day when the combustion engine will give way to battery power,batterries haven't the power or the range of the petrol engine, besides the people in the oil industry will just buy up any threat to them.In the UK we get all this talk of battery powered vehicles,and we are a small country,so to equip every petrol station with power points for recharging would not be cost effective, coupled with the inevitable queues at these places for folks recharging is not feasible.There was an idea that cars could recharge from a line placed in the road or when parked at designated parking areas,again the cost is prohibitive. There again,where's all this electricity coming from? It's a lot like the sci-fi future we were sold in the '60s,a long time coming.
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Hugh Thompson Scott
Film God
Posts: 3063
From: Gt. Clifton,Cumbria,England
Registered: Jan 2012
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posted August 11, 2012 02:36 AM
Like I asked before Graham,where is all this electricity coming from It all sounds very enviromentaly friendly,but the pollution is still there one way or another,either in the manufacture of the vehicles inc batteries or in the power to keep them going.There is no such thing as a quick fix,the best anyone could hope for is an efficient public transport such as a return to the tram in the cities to relieve traffic congestion.It's all a bit of an hypocrasy really,governments talk of global warming etc,but that doesn't stop them waging wars when it suits,as though devastation doesn't count.Much like the useless wind turbines that generate less than one percent of the UKs electricity,but the pollution they were supposed to offset has already been done in their manufacture.As they say in Yorkshire "You don't get 'owt for 'nowt".
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Steve Klare
Film Guy
Posts: 7016
From: Long Island, NY, USA
Registered: Jun 2003
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posted August 11, 2012 03:01 PM
Actually I have a gas powered chainsaw**, and given the once or twice a year I use it the complexity of it makes it a pain.
I'm considering ditching it in favor of an electric.
On the other hand if I was using it daily I'd never go that way.
**For the record, you should never admit owning a chainsaw, because when you do every friend you have will wind up needing a tree cut down. Frankly I think my family bought it for me for similar reasons! (Just in case any of you do need a tree whacked down, it's currently not operational!)
As far as cars go, it pays to remember they come in all sizes to do many jobs. My wife drives a minivan. It hauls all the vacation stuff and the groceries and such. I drive a little hatchback. It rarely carries more than myself and my carpool. The second role is where I see electrics working better.
We have these little "Smart" cars running around which are basically two seats, an engine and a roof: good for getting to work or the station, but absolutely deadly for a couple of hours in the saddle. These could be electrics.
I read an article recently that said EV's may need to be fitted with some sort of loudspeaker and "car sound". It seems their silence allows them to sneak up on people and could be a hazard to pedestrians. I'd choose a soundtrack like a Porsche or a Shelby Cobra in that case.
-------------------- All I ask is a wide screen and a projector to light her by...
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