On Dec 29, 2006, at 4:35 AM, Bob Sullivan wrote: > I've met your car in person and think it is pretty neat. > The only think that I can imagine is exotic about it is the batteries. > I was just inquiring if you knew how exotic or not they were.
The battery pack is essentially an assembly of high-quality NiMH cells. This web page and several others has some more information about it: http://www.elecdesign.com/Articles/ArticleID/4332/4332.html They keep improving the battery technology, but I don't know that I'd call it particularly exotic. Automakers rarely use basic technology that is not warrantiable by being at the bleeding edge. > For the past 30 years, various incarnations of the electric car have > been discussed. The issue has always been energy density & power to > weight ratios for the batteries. Sometimes very exotic materials were > used to meet requirements, without much thought of pollution. What was very exotic in the past has become de rigeur nowadays. NiMH didn't exist thirty years ago and would have been considered very exotic, nowadays you can buy NiMH batteries the size of an AA cell with 2600mAh capacity for $10 a set. Is it still exotic? What is exotic about the Hybrid Synergy Drive, really, is the power flow and integration of the control system. There is no transmission as you would find in a conventional ICE powered automobile. Instead, it uses the ICE with a pair of electric motors coupled through a planetary gearset. The control system is what makes it work to deliver power as if it had a constantly variable transmission, by applying torque and direction of the three interlocked traction/ generating motors as appropriate to the demands of the moment, dynamically. This kind of system was not practical before solid state, cheap sensors and high-speed control logic became inexpensive enough to mass produce, reliable enough to become the bases for an automotive drive system. Godfrey -- PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List PDML@pdml.net http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net
