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Old 03-25-2019, 11:20 PM
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Sik Srt-6
Sik Srt-6 is offline
Join Date: Apr 2010
Location: Bradford, Ontario, Canada
Age: 36
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Default Re: Winter and electric cars don't mix

Even with the battery limitation when cold, the range will still suffice for most peoples round trip drive to and from work. I can still agree that as of right now for those of us in northern climates there is still room for improvement, but a Bolt, Leaf or Model 3 would be a fantastic 2nd car for a family. Having been involved in Lithium battery and electrical storage technology for the past 9 years on a professional level, the leaps and bounds of innovation, capacity, and C rating has been very impressive to me. Especially since i saw it evolve from the Hobby RC industry when i was a kid.

Tesla just announced their V2 superchargers, and anyone who can understand the amount of current/charging wattage going on here with these things, its highly impressive. 145 kW charge rate is some serious **** IMO, and having batteries that can handle those insane C ratings, while also having peak mah capacity per cell, and some sustainable cycle life there is some serious chemical engineering and design going on. I find if funny how people freak out over lithium battery fires lately, the batteries are leaps and bounds safer then they were a decade ago. Heck back in the early 2000's if you just sneezed beside a charging lipo pack, the dam thing would burn your house down in spite lol.

Its not just about the cars IMO. the storage tech is the big deal that a lot of people overlook. Any company can make a car like tesla with the range and performance ratings that they are delivering, the limiting factor is the battery storage tech & energy density. Those AC motors are nothing super special, yea the power electronics have been developing as higher current rated IGBT's and thermal performance have improved over the past 10 years. If the EV1 has lithums instead of dinosaur Lead Acids, it would of been the "paradigm shift" in transportation, but due to shitty lead acids, it tainted the market and customer perception for a decade. The science of efficient "electricity" storage is a big deal, and will eventually affect all aspects of our day to day life. The ability to safely and efficiently store electrical energy opens up alot of big doors for sustainability down the road. Especially when folks want "sacrifice free" off grid fully sustainable home electrical systems. Its a big deal up here, especially in cottage country where the hydro utility will charge 50-75k just to bring hydro onto your lot. With alot of land space, a large solar system tied with a wind generator system and proper battery storage system for around 60-75K, you will never have to pay another hydro bill. And things get better the more south you go.


What really burns my *** is how "hydrogen" cars are still touted and appear out of the blue moon still, even recently. Hydrogen fuel cells have their applications, but putting them in a car is by far one of the most "mentally defective" ideals out there. The tech will never reduce in price and cells will always be $300+k and oh look, -0c, it wont work!. And trying to put that tech into a "low cost" application and into a market that cannot support a $200,000 "economy" commuter car. All for what, faster "fill up times" compared to a battery electric, another few years and we will have cells capable of full charges in under 30 min.
Dont for one second believe that hydrogen cars are the future. From an engineering and packaging standpoint they are purely a horse and pony show, you thought electric car fires were fun.. lol
 

Last edited by Sik Srt-6; 03-25-2019 at 11:35 PM.