Please permit me to be specific: Suppose an electric car on earth needs one HP to drive efficiently. The same electric motor on moon would probably need much lesser HP, say ΒΌ HP to drive said vehicle on moon with the same efficiency (because gravity on moon is much less).
Is this right or wrong?
Jsaldea 12
11.13.09
misunderstand the idea of "efficiency"
Gravity has very little to do with it.
efficiency = useful work / total work
heat engines can only produce a fraction of the mechanical energy for useful work as they consume in heat energy to operate. that is called one of the laws of thermodynamics
electrical motors use electric energy very well. BUT they heat up which is waste and the generator that made the electricity was wasteful
Hi,
Is there a different between the two or they are the same type of car? Because when I google, I got hybrid electric car.
Thanks!
Most hybrid cars run on gasoline and electricity. The car runs on the electric motor while doing low speed and/or short-trip driving or when the car reaches cruising speed and the full power of the gasoline engine is not needed. The gasoline engine runs whenever more power is needed (e.g. running on the highway or merging in to traffic) or when the batteries need to be charged. In circumstances where an extreme amount of power is needed, like when going up steep hills, the gasoline and electric motors will work together.
On the other hand, electric cars have to be plugged in between trips and they run solely on batteries and an electric engine.
I am researching the Zenn electric car and how it effects the environment for a school project on Climate Change. I need some pros and cons on the car, but the company website for it does not share anything. It would also be great if you would give your own personal thoughts on the Zenn as well. Thanks.
The Zenn Motor company is a Canadian company that was producing a NEV (neighborhood electric vehicle.) A nev is typically a small, light, often open, electric vehicle similar to what you might see around a golf course, hotels, a campus or a corporation. There has been some push to market them for private use in enclosed communities and due to recent NEV laws use them on roads where the speed limit is less than 35mph.
The Zenn NEV is an enclosed vehicle, but shares with others far less demanding road worthy tests. The Zenn NEV was a vehicle prepared for the later insertion of an Eesu (electrical energy storage unit) made by EEStor a privately held Texas Company. Presumably with the better power source the NEV could be upgraded to a fully road worthy vehicle. Zenn has private sources of information and based upon the information it has received it has bought about a 10% stake in EEStor and has exclusive rights to market the Eesu in 4 wheeled vehicles.
But more recently it has decided to shift its goal from producing vehicles to just preparing a power train based upon the Eesu. This would be marketed to other manufacturers of electric vehicles. And most importantly to your question, this makes any vehicle produced by Zenn Motors an orphan.
Between being a less substantial car with presumably a lower lifetime and a vehicle that is being abandoned by its manufacturer I wonder about it’s life expectancy. Our environment has seen other examples of a throw away technology with bottles, cans, plastic bags. Useful life expectancy has a clear impact on how many will have to be produced and how often they will be replaced. In general an electric vehicle with it’s few moving parts might be expected to last a very long time. Energy and environmental costs can then be amortized over a longer period. This may be less so with a Nev and a vehicle with less support.
The countering argument is that NEV use is an alternative to using a less environmentally friendly vehicle. If the vehicle is operated at lower speeds and less frequently if may still last a long time and avoid an energy and environmental cost of replacement.
In general, any electric vehicle is going to be operationally better for the environment than using an equally sized ICE (internal combustion engine) vehicle simply because it may be up to 5 times more efficient and produces no operational pollution.
Why is so hard to make a fully electric car?
We have the technology to make rockets that launch people into space, submarines miles into the ocean,bionic prosthetic arms and legs that move but we can’t make a car an electric car?
We used to have appliances and baby swings that you would turn a knob and would run without batteries. Why can’t we use something like that but on a grand scale? Or batteries that self charge with the friction or traction created?
There is a lot of waste, whenever energy is converted from one form to another. a vehicle that burns the fuel directly has the advantage of fewer conversions, so it actually uses less fuel. If we were to power a lot of cars with batteries, we’d need a lot more generators, and the cost would go up. The link below discusses the waste at each stage of the conversion to battery (& hydrogen) power.
I guess I am not green enough to understand–the purpose of the electric car is to make the world a better place. Would getting a car that runs all on electricity cost you a lot for your electricity bill? I didn’t know if it was something you had to plug in, like an electric golf cart. In the end, wouldn’t you pay more for electricity then gas. Explain.
It would increase your electric bill, and it would decrease your gasoline bill by even more.
Electric cars cost 2-3 cents per mile to recharge. A 30 mpg gas car costs 10 cents per mile if gasoline is $3/gallon.
That’s pretty easy math.
I guess I am not green enough to understand–the purpose of the electric car is to make the world a better place. Would getting a car that runs all on electricity cost you a lot for your electricity bill? I didn’t know if it was something you had to plug in, like an electric golf cart. In the end, wouldn’t you pay more for electricity then gas. Explain.
It would increase your electric bill, and it would decrease your gasoline bill by even more.
Electric cars cost 2-3 cents per mile to recharge. A 30 mpg gas car costs 10 cents per mile if gasoline is $3/gallon.
That’s pretty easy math.
My daughter wants to drive her little electric car along the beach but I’m worried it’ll just get stuck and bogged down, anyone with any past experience?
it probably will in the soft sand and if you drive it on the wet hard sand you risk rust getting into the workings and stuffing it up all together. you would have to carry it too the wet sand and that could get heavy if you have to carry the child too.
Would you be more likely to date a guy with a gasoline muscle car or a small electric car?
"Eighty percent of American car buyers would find someone with the latest model fuel-efficient car more interesting to talk to at a party than someone with the latest model sports car."
The concept of using electricity to power cars have been around for almost two centuries. The first electric car (really a carriage) was built by Robert Anderson of Scotland somewhere in the 1830s. If the idea to use electricity to power cars goes this far back, how come the idea never became very popular?
It is/was a querk of human nature and lack of a better energy storage system. Internal Combusion Engines seem to promise more but have always been far less efficient.1
There are several developments along the way that made improvements but in a big way electric cars have caught on. Every time you ride an electrified train, subway, bus, trolley or tram you are riding an electric vehicle built on that technology. Hybrid vehicles have as their base an electric vehicle which due to regenerative breaking is more than 50% of the vehicle.
What hasn’t caught on is an independent vehicle except for hybrid electric trains and the newer hybrid cars. For an electric vehicle the holy grail is a independent generator like a fuel cell (or photovoltaic cells or a "flux capacitor") or a better storage like batteries or flywheel storage.2 While the first rechargable battery, the lead acid battery was invented in 1859(3) its use has limiations in electric vehicles. My current favorite is the potential of a series hybrid with an ICE genset trailer or a permanent magnet flywheel/electric motor (but only as a concept.) Capacitor batteries also instantly seem to be just around the corner. The past and current drawback of the electric vehicle is expense and distance due to electrical storage.
100 years of the internal combustion engine has also helped to develop a pattern that will now have to be copied or altered by electric vehicles. Either one seems difficult. Given the choice between what they need long term and what they want in the short term most will choose what they want.
What people need is a less costly, more efficient vehicle that will be adaquate for their daily commute. This may be a more expensive vehicle up front but cheaper over it’s life that may have to be augmented for the 10 to 20% of the time some people need to travel longer distances. What people want is a vehicle that is cheaper up front even if operating costs and maintenance are more expensive. And they want a vehicle for any eventuality.
This is especially true where desires are inflated by advertising. Fears and insecurity can be played upon in advertising until most people are purchasing suited for more costly, unusual or unlikely circumstances. (The SUV is not going to improve your driving skills to avoid accidents, your not going to buy lasting happiness with the flash red muscle car, the powerful motorcycle between the legs is no subsitute.)
Also from the manufacturers point of view it is easier to make money off a product that wears out than from one that keeps on running. An electric vehicle has fewer moving parts and is far more efficient. This translates to less wear and maintenance and potentially fewer turnover of vehicles ie less money to be made on replacement vehicles and supplying parts for old ones. Dispite any other suggestions corporations exist to make money not to provide instruments of happiness. Advertising and supply will be aimed to that goal.
Is it possible to convert a 1960s-1970s Combi van (more commonly known as a hippie van) to an electric car? and how much would it cost? Please only post if you know the answer. 10 points best answer. thanks.
It is possible to convert any vehicle to run on electric. There are a couple of factors that dictate success. First is the weight and second is performance. You can build an EV that can blow everyone off of the road with speed and acceleration but can only go 5 miles. Or you can build one that tops out at 35 MPH but goes 200 miles on a charge. The more weight you have to move the bigger the energy requirements which equals more battery capacity.
As for cost you have to answer questions like:
How fast do I need to go? More speed = more dollars
How far do I need to go? More distance = more dollars
Do want the best parts for the best performance or just get by parts?
There are a several shops out there making a profitable living at it.
You can find more help at http://www.evalbum.com/build and http://austinev.org/evinfo/build/eva-selectingavehicle.html