I was looking at real world data:

Nissan Leaf Battery Pack Weight: 660lbs
Nissan Leaf Range: 100mi
6.6 lbs/mi

WRX (similar weight) MPG: 20. Gasoline weighs about 7 lbs/gal
0.35 lbs/mi

0.35 / 6.6 = .05

5%


-------------------------------------------------------
There are only three sports: bullfighting, motor racing and mountaineering; all 
the rest are merely games. - Ernest Hemingway



On Sep 29, 2011, at 10:35 PM, Dennis Hale wrote:

> Math [the engineer's kind, not from Gore or the newspapers]:
> Gasoline is 47mj/kg
> LiH batteries .4mj/kg and you cannot use more than 85% and recharge well. I 
> think 1% is a generous number.
> Packaging the batteries is difficult. The higher efficiency ones require 
> their own heating and cooling systems. The final weights are not given. Crash 
> damage, and defense also is a big unknown. Look up the toxicity of Any 
> hydride. Typically fatal in the PPB range. They block your hemoglobin and you 
> suffocate immediately and there is no cure or defense. Where's the concern 
> over that?
> Rare earth magnets to improve motors are great, efficiencies are above IC 
> engines, but all of the refineries are in China. Oh, they are refining 
> tailings from Alaska Ti mines where our greenies have prevented further 
> refineries to be built.
>  
> Dennis Hale
> From: Russ <[email protected]>
> To: Miata Power List <[email protected]>
> Sent: Thursday, September 29, 2011 9:45 PM
> Subject: Re: Miata electric conversion
> 
> If you do the math, you'll find you're off by a factor of 5: it's more like 
> 5%. But when you compensate for the weight of the other gas related items: 
> fuel pump, filter, larger tranny, heavier engine, etc., the battery's 
> energy/weight improves.
> 
> 
> ---------------------------------------------------------
> Democracy: Freedom for the Majority.
> Liberty: Freedom for All.
> 
> 
> 
> On Sep 29, 2011, at 6:13 PM, Dennis Hale wrote:
> 
>> We had a leading edge battery development company in the next town over. It 
>> went to Mexico under NAFTA. All the 'Mericans were fired. Starting with the 
>> engineers. I have the shop tables and some of the maintenance goodies in my 
>> shop now. If those promised batteries were going to happen as the 
>> politicians have planned, it wouldn't have all been given away. I hope those 
>> politicians are at least greedy enough to understand this. Oh, and NOTHING 
>> further has happened in Mexico. No surprise there, right?
>> In the end, NO batteries have been developed that hold even 1% as much 
>> energy by weight or volume as gasoline. This is NOT going to change soon no 
>> matter how many nonengineering types wish it so. Also, a battery is just an 
>> energy storage device, not an energy source. A cell phone is a way lighter 
>> mass than a person to haul around. Golf carts are about as big as batteries 
>> really are effective for. There are some forklifts and of course locomotives 
>> that run electrics, but they are far from what a Miata is, and they are not 
>> new or magic.
>> During the Carter scare my buddy and I converted a VW to electric power. We 
>> bolted a forklift motor to the transaxle and filled it up with car batteries 
>> until the tires wanted to burst. It sort of ran for about 30 miles, then 
>> needed a couple of days to recharge and was great fun for about a week. We 
>> pretended that we would stick a portable generator in the car to charge the 
>> batteries. Hey, we were 30 years ahead of that! Maybe better yet a third 
>> motor of some sort would be good! Haw about a jet powered freeway merge 
>> system? Then we were back to our "horse and buggy" real cars. Can you show 
>> any real effort on your behalf to justify this lecture/ debate? 
>> Batteries and steam were more popular than gasoline until Mr Ford made it 
>> far otherwise [in spite of very little infrastructure to source gasoline], 
>> not a good debate point for you maybe to cite Ford.
>> Maybe we all ought to pray for Doc Brown's Mr Fusion box. And Unicorns.
>>  
>> Dennis Hale
>> From: Donni Howell <[email protected]>
>> To: Dennis Hale <[email protected]>
>> Cc: "[email protected]" <[email protected]>
>> Sent: Thursday, September 29, 2011 11:34 AM
>> Subject: Re: Miata electric conversion
>> 
>> I wish we had email records from back when the "horseless carriage" was 
>> introduced. I'm sure many considered it stupid, since most people that could 
>> afford them probably already had horses. Why bother changing anything, ever?
>> 
>> There will be battery technology innovation that makes it more viable, and 
>> there will be a Henry Ford (more likely a corporation of one sort or another 
>> of course) that can make it all affordable. I heart the internal combustion 
>> engine and it's glorious symphony of mechanical and combustion noises and 
>> complexity; but it isn't infinitely sustainable. It won't disappear from the 
>> earth for a good while yet, but it will be replaced over time just like all 
>> technological marvels.
>> 
>> You don't have to embrace it, but change is the only thing you can count on 
>> to stay the same.
>> 
>> On Thu, Sep 29, 2011 at 1:40 PM, Dennis Hale <[email protected]> wrote:
>> Will it be so fuzzy happy after "they" figure out that you owe $2500 a year 
>> in "fair" road maintenance tax you're not paying at the pump? Will "they" 
>> just add road tax to all electrical bills? And when "they" delete the $7500 
>> subsidy to the folks rich enough to play the electric game will it still be 
>> so good to putt along in the truck lanes in a heavy short range sled? Is 
>> this the Miata list or the Toyota Pious list?
>> Dennis Hale
>> From: Brian Pifer <[email protected]>
>> To: Larry Alster <[email protected]>
>> Cc: "[email protected]" <[email protected]>; "[email protected]" 
>> <[email protected]>
>> Sent: Thursday, September 29, 2011 10:14 AM
>> 
>> Subject: RE: Miata electric conversion
>> 
>> I don’t normally chime in because others have more knowledge and are faster 
>> than I.  But I take issue with your assertion that “battery electric cars 
>> are still a stupid idea.”
>>  
>> Yes, they have drawbacks (limited range & higher initial cost), but they 
>> also have advantages (lower operating cost & less foreign oil dependence).  
>> Current electric cars are not for everyone and you really need a second 
>> “long distance” car for road trips. 
>>  
>> 
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>> 
>> 
>> 
>> -- 
>> "It is rightly acknowledged that people of faith have no monopoly of 
>> virtue..."
>> -Queen Elizabeth II
>> 
>> 
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