"Take This Car and Plug It" - IEEE Spectrum July 05 - Ogre on the cover

[Coastie for Truth]

Very Interesting Article by Willie Jones on the various "do it yourself" modifications to Priuses - charge the batteries from either the internal combustion engine (as now), or - with the flick of a switch and a plug into the grid - rechargeable from the grid.

Very interesting discussion of how much battery range (in terms of kilometers between charges) results in how much of a reduction in gasoline burned. The article states that a 32 kilometer (20 miles) battery range would cut gasoline consumption by 50%. The article says that future Li-Ion batteries would increase that range even more.

Some discussion of making the battery "big enough" for normal daily shopping, errands, neighborhood commuting, etc.

Good article - but in the password and user id protected portion of www.ieee.org/

Well written and provocative.

[dcfirefighter]

1. Well friend, i'd like to have one.

what's the current electric-only range on new Prius's (Prii?)

What's the miles per $ at $.09/kW-h?

At 60 mpg and $2.35/gal it's 25.5 miles / dollar. (less a little for less engine wear).

[Coastie for Truth]

2. I can't get a good read.

Don't know what it is from a fully charged battery to a fully discharged battery - with the internal combustion engine off. I have hear 2 miles to about 12-20 miles.

A lot of it depends on the terrain - the microprocessor is highly terrain sensitive.

Also depends on braking - since braking recharges the battery.

The various "pure electrics" (GM-EV1, GM-EV2, Toyota RAV4-EV, etc.) hade about 40-80 miles of range - with massive batteries.

The "magic" may be Lithium Ion batteries.

[phantom power]

5. Did the old electrics use Lith-ion or NiMH?

Cuz if they were getting, say, 80 miles out of NiMH, they could get more like 250 miles out of lith-ion.

[Massacure]

9. Lithium is rather rare.

You couldn't make batteries for every car in the world with it.

[phantom power]

10. yes, that's a shame.

It would be nice if they came up with a substitute technology with similar performance, without the material limitations. It would change the entire playing field for electric vehicles.

[Viking12]

6. Just curious. Do you really pay $.09/kw-hr?

[dcfirefighter]

7. I hadn't checked in more than a year.

I pay ~$0.109 / kW-hr. I guess i had 9 cents in my head from something else.

[Viking12]

11. Wow! I guess I didn't realize how good I have it here.

Basic Rates here (northeast WI) are $.0635/kw-hr. I enrolled in a renewable energy program so I voluntarily pay an extra $.02/kw-hr bringing my cost to $.0835. Taxes and fees not included.

[dcfirefighter]

12. Are you getting cheap canadian hydro?

Also, depending on your utility laws, you may find that different states make up the difference in varying other charges...In maryladn, PEPCO, (my electric utility) doesn't charge much of a monthly connection fee.

I like this method, as expensive electricity tends to enforce conservation.

OTOH, natural gas is pretty cheap here, but has a significant monthly connection fee.

[Viking12]

13. No hydro.

We have a community operated utility running a 24MW coal plant and they purchase windpower from larger Wisconsin electric providers. Our monthly connection fee is only $5.00 which adds ~$.005 to the $/kw-hr.

[suneel112]

3. Very Interesting...

...In fact, I am conceptualizing one right now. It will be able to go for 100 miles on one charge and is perfect for the average commuter. Of course, I am not even CLOSE to building it, just drawing on paper (not even CAD yet).

Electricity is also great because it allows you to do lots of things that are not possible with an internal combustion engine. I do not like to say much about my designs (I still have the childish imagination that they may make me money), but I will say that weight is very important. I will also say that FIRST Robotics gave me the tools to even imagine such a vehicle, which is basically a big, powerful, fine-controlled robot.

[Strelnikov_]

4. Links To Full Article

.pdf
http://www.calcars.org/takethiscarandplugit.pdf

.html
http://www.spectrum.ieee.org/WEBONLY/resource/jul05/0705ncar.html

[NNadir]

8. I think I'll try this if my business plan works out as I hope.

This sounds like the sort of thing with which I'd love to play.

In my case, living in New Jersey, I'd be able to say I had a nuclear powered car. Knowing what I know, I'd only charge it at night though.