Shame about the ban on battery swapping as there would be a serious potential for advancements in the tech involved. How they can say it is more dangerous than pumping highly volatile fuel at enormous transfer rates (very high pressure) is a puzzle. Perhaps they will change their minds in due course.
Can't say I'll be a huge fan of the 'sport' but you can't ignore the significance to EV development generally, having such a powerful technology driver (and all that money and entrepreneurial energy) behind it. And then there is the educational benefit. At least the noise from the F-E cars won't upset anywhere near as many local residents as F1 does... Lets hope it takes off! MW On 12 Sep 2013, at 11:32, brucedp5 wrote: > > > Formula E to use Qualcomm technologies in electric cars > > http://sidepodcast.com/post/bernie-batman-and-battery-powered-racing > Bernie, Batman and battery-powered racing An introduction to Formula E and > its Formula One connections > by Ross Ringham 5 September 2013 > > [image / Formula E Holdings > http://a.sidepodcast.com/content/2013/09/formula-e-prototype-berlin.jpg > Formula E Prototype car takes to the streets of Berlin - Di Grassi takes in > the sights and sounds of Berlin > ] > > Formula E, the FIA’s new all-electric, open-wheel racing series, has begun > to generate (pun only slightly intended) genuine interest from all corners. > Formula 1 devotees are beginning to pay attention too, which is not as > surprising as it may at first seem. > Formula E Prototype car takes to the streets of BerlinDi Grassi takes in the > sights and sounds of Berlin > > ... > > Battery technology is expected to be the limiting factor. Battery swaps were > ruled out early on by the FIA for safety reasons. > > Instead, each driver will have two cars: car A to be driven for about 25 > minutes, returned to the pits and recharged for 25 minutes while car B is > being ragged around the track, and then car A picked up again for the final > sprint. It’s clumsy but it’s a start. > > Recharging will be tough too. For a start, recharging big batteries fast > requires portable heavy duty machinery that doesn’t yet exist. Then there’s > the fact that cities will need to beef up their power supply and > distribution infrastructure or risk blacking out entire districts. Then > there are the limitations of the batteries themselves, which physically > can’t be charged too fast. > ... _______________________________________________ UNSUBSCRIBE: http://www.evdl.org/help/index.html#usub http://lists.evdl.org/listinfo.cgi/ev-evdl.org For EV drag racing discussion, please use NEDRA (http://groups.yahoo.com/group/NEDRA)
