Aluminum Ion battery

[Henning]

Most vehicles are set to get 250-400 miles on a tank. P/U Trucks are set to go 250 miles with Max design load, my 97 Cummins Dodge would run 635 miles light at 70, and 275 towing a 42' high cap fifth wheel doing 65.

 

[jesse]

My old truck in college went 4 hours home on the interstate with 1/8 of its 15 gallon tank left. My Ranger now also has a 15 gallon tank, and I didn't stop that often pulling a 5x12 trailer with my woodworking equipment and wood loaded in it. Really, 2.5 hours is almost no range at all. My Ranger will go round trip to the Atlanta airport, 90 minutes each way, on 3/4 tank. What kind of dinosaur truck do you drive???

To quick charge a dozen cars at the same time, the gas station will need to upgrade its electric service. For every station in town to do so, the power company will need to upgrade its distribution system and generating capacity. All power companies will need to do this, as electricity must be made.

You will not be permitted to complain about the increased truck & train traffic going to the power plants, nor increased power plant exhaust. Electric cars only move the exhaust from your car to the power plant, but also increases the amount lost in distribution.

But who am I to pee on your dreams of utopia with flashes of reality? Electric cars will obviously eliminate our reliance an fossil fuel, and air pollution will cease immediately. We will thrive on solar and wind power while tearing down all dams to free the rivers, and nuclear power plants will be shuttered and turned into museums of How Stupid We Used to Be. Extinct animals will revive, and raccoons will no longer eat the food my wife sets iut for the local abandoned cats.

15 gallons / 2.6 hrs = 5.79 gallons per hour. 75 mph / 5.79 gallons = 13 mpg which is exactly what my 2001 4x4 Lariat V8 F150 will do at 75 mph. You can get 15-16 mpg if you slow down to about 60 mph but the interstate rolls at 75 so I do too.

My old truck in college went 4 hours home on the interstate with 1/8 of its 15 gallon tank left.

YGTBSM. Do you even realize what you wrote? 15 gallons / 8 is 1.875 gallons of gas.

You're telling me your truck went 4 hours on 1.875 gallons of gas at interstate speeds? lol I'll cut you some slack and say you were at 65 mph. 4 hours * 65 means you went 260 miles on 1.875 gallons. 260 miles / 1.875 is 138 miles per gallon. Are you seriously telling me your truck went 138 miles per gallon?

 

[Hank S]

15 gallons / 2.6 hrs = 5.79 gallons per hour. 75 mph / 5.79 gallons = 13 mpg which is exactly what my 2001 4x4 Lariat V8 F150 will do at 75 mph. You can get 15-16 mpg if you slow down to about 60 mph but the interstate rolls at 75 so I do too.


YGTBSM. Do you even realize what you wrote? 15 gallons / 8 is 1.875 gallons of gas.

You're telling me your truck went 4 hours on 1.875 gallons of gas at interstate speeds? lol I'll cut you some slack and say you were at 65 mph. 4 hours * 65 means you went 260 miles on 1.875 gallons. 260 miles / 1.875 is 138 miles per gallon. Are you seriously telling me your truck went 138 miles per gallon?

Read it again: after driving 4 hours, I had 1/8 tank left. So yeah, I went 200+ miles at 62 mph, plus kept up with traffic across Atlanta at speeds > 70, on 13 gallons. Memory says it got 16-18 mpg (250, 1 barrel, 3 on the tree).

 

[Tom-D]

My Newmar Mountain Aire Motorhome weighs 28,300 pounds empty, loaded about 30,000. and gets 10.75MPG, goes 1500 miles on a tank of #2 diesel.
I set the cruise control at 60-65, place the transmission on economy and let the computer drive it. When you stop to fill up at $4.50 per gallon (last year), it's about $550 bucks to fill.

So try to do that with a battery.

 

[Henning]

My Newmar Mountain Aire Motorhome weighs 28,300 pounds empty, loaded about 30,000. and gets 10.75MPG, goes 1500 miles on a tank of #2 diesel.
I set the cruise control at 60-65, place the transmission on economy and let the computer drive it. When you stop to fill up at $4.50 per gallon (last year), it's about $550 bucks to fill.

So try to do that with a battery.

With a motor home I would do it with a hydrogen fuel cell (possibly NG if the SOFCs get a bit smaller), and take a long hot shower with the fuel I used at the end of the day, and have another hot shower in the morning with the evening and overnight electricy. Oh yeah, the waste heat produced would also run your refrigeration and A/C.

 

[JoseCuervo]

A) never seen anyone spill gas while filling up a car. Gas can? Yes. Car? No.



B) too many stops, not acceptable to me, therefore not acceptable to all. Suspect I am not alone here, families are now spread all across the country.



I'm not saying this isn't a good idea, or that it's not sustainable for some folks. After all, some people in big cities don't have cars at all. But this will never take even half of the market.



Another problem: you are hit in an intersection, breaking open a battery / body panel beside your leg. What happens to you from the battery? What happens to the rescuers who trybt get you out from between several intact batteries? Suppose a broken battery is on top of you?

You have never had a gas tank splash back on you?

Never had gas drain out of the hose when you put it back in the pump?


You must be a magician with the gas hose.

And what is your big hurry in life that 5 minutes every 200 miles is not acceptable? And, given the other 90% of your recharging would be in your garage, your time savings with electrical would make it far more "acceptable" to you.


As for the rest of the nonsense on the battery and the wreck, etc.... Have you ever seen a car with a gas tank rupture ? That fire stuff seems pretty bad.

 

[JoseCuervo]

I really believe that a battery breakthru will quickly obsolete the IC engine for cars. I haven't seen that we are there yet, but Tesla does look interesting albeit ridiculously expensive. This technology (aluminum) looks interesting, but the power density isn't even close to lithium. Presently if you have a 400 lb lithium battery in your car now, you will need up to a 2,400 lb aluminum battery to go the same distance. It's not there.

I had the opportunity to drive a Tesla over the holidays, a few months back. What an amazing machine. The acceleration was truly something I had never felt before.

The lack of noise/vibration was amazing.

Don't know if Elon Musk ends up being the long term winner, but he certainly opened my eyes to driving and WANTING to own an electric car.

 

[Henning]

I had the opportunity to drive a Tesla over the holidays, a few months back. What an amazing machine. The acceleration was truly something I had never felt before.

The lack of noise/vibration was amazing.

Don't know if Elon Musk ends up being the long term winner, but he certainly opened my eyes to driving and WANTING to own an electric car.

Elon Musk put all his patents into the public domain and pledges help to any program that wants to develope them and compete. Considering where that goes, Musk can't not win unless nobody takes him up on it.

 

[Checkout_my_Six]

I can tell you've never developed anything.

btw.....I got a charge outta that.

 

[Hank S]

As for the rest of the nonsense on the battery and the wreck, etc.... Have you ever seen a car with a gas tank rupture ? That fire stuff seems pretty bad.

Tell that to the fire departments. Toyota had to develop procedures for them to use in Prius wrecks, and those batteries are under the seats. They cant just start cutting on one like a non electric car. Battery and cable location, condition and damage are very important to them, it can cause additional injury to occupants and hurt the rescuers. Very few wrecks end in fire, except in Hollywood, although gas spills are common.

Not ready for prime time. The 200 mile range is an improvement; when it approximates that of a real car, with similar fill up times, I'll think about it. Right now, they are toys, good for riding around town and being seen. I'm into practically, not "statements," I'll pass on these.

 

[jesse]

Tell that to the fire departments. Toyota had to develop procedures for them to use in Prius wrecks, and those batteries are under the seats. They cant just start cutting on one like a non electric car. Battery and cable location, condition and damage are very important to them, it can cause additional injury to occupants and hurt the rescuers. Very few wrecks end in fire, except in Hollywood, although gas spills are common.

Not ready for prime time. The 200 mile range is an improvement; when it approximates that of a real car, with similar fill up times, I'll think about it. Right now, they are toys, good for riding around town and being seen. I'm into practically, not "statements," I'll pass on these.

Something like a Chevy Volt would work very well for 90% of my driving, it'd be a rare occasion, that I would actually need the gas capability it has.

Problem is the purchase cost of such a thing isn't cheap and I can buy a LOT of gas for the difference between one of the new electric cars and my 98 Honda Accord.

I'm sure I'll end up with something electric eventually and I'll keep something gas as well. I have a Ford F150 but I don't drive it everyday because it's a waste of gas. Sure I could afford to, but why waste the gas? I drive it when I need to haul something.