[EVDL] EVLN: i3 EV zippy, thrifty, an environmentalist's dream
http://timesfreepress.com/news/2014/sep/27/bmw-i3-zippy-and-thrifty/ TEST DRIVE: BMW i3: zippy and thrifty September 27th, 2014 by Mark Kennedy [image http://media.timesfreepress.com/img/photos/2014/09/26/0927_WEB_c_Test_Drive_t618.JPG The new BMW i3 electric vehicle is said to save owners about $9,000 in fuel costs in the first five years of ownership. Photo by Mark Kennedy. ] Remember back in 2000 how the Toyota Prius [hev] was something of an odd duck? It was hard to know what to make of the Japanese gas-electric hybrid and its otherworldly (for the time) fuel efficiency. In 2000, Toyota sold about 5,000 of the funky Priuses here in the states. Today, the Prius is a solidly mainstream automobile selling about 140,000 units a year in the United States alone. Meanwhile, I have a premonition that today's new wave of plug-in electric cars, such as groundbreaking Tesla Model S and the cute-as-a-button BMW i3, may represent the world's next red-hot automotive segment. This week I drove the 2014 BMW i3, a zippy little electric car that, to the naked eye, could be mistaken for the offspring of a VW Beetle and a golf cart. But the i3 is much more than a novelty product. It's a world class EV with solid driving dynamics and a host of earth-friendly design elements. Descriptions of the i3 include adjectives you don't often associate with automobiles: words like sustainable, emissions-free and silent. Some people may see the i3 and think green. Others look at its 137 MPGe city rating and see greenbacks. By the way, that 137 MPGe rating means its efficiency is the equivalent of getting 137 miles per gallon of gasoline. Not too shabby, huh? Here's an interesting fact: Were you to buy an i3 and drive it for 10 years as a daily commuter, you'd save approximately $18,000 in fuel costs over the average new car, the government estimates. The i3 is said to be the most energy-efficient car sold in America today. Its range between electric charges is about 80 miles, which can be lengthened to about 150 miles with an optional range extender ($3,950) -- an on-board gasoline-powered motorcycle engine that recharges the drive battery. Our test car this week, a 2014 i3 provided by BMW of Chattanooga, comes in Mega World trim and stickers for $48,895. Before any options, the i3 starts at about $42,000. STYLING AND COMFORT For those used to BMW's elegantly sporty styling, the i3 is a bit of a departure. Proportioned like the city car it is, the i3 has a blunt nose, a two-tone paint job, and body lines that take a moment for the brain to process. For example, the doors open and shut in clam-shell fashion -- the rear-seat doors open from front to back instead of from back to front. The window line dips sharply below the back seats to improve rear-passenger vision. The overall design is eye-catching. On our test-drive on Highway 153, several rubber-neckers attached to our left-rear blind spot to check out the i3. You could almost see their jaws drop when we goosed the electric motor and the little hatch-back shot ahead like some sort of Star Wars go-cart. The combination of a black hood, a black lift-gate and darkly tinted windows give the i3 the appearance of wearing a large, black belt. Narrow wheels help eliminate rolling resistance and contribute to the i3's astonishing fuel efficiency. Inside, the i3 is an environmentalist's dream. Portions of the dash and door panels are made of recycled materials. Weight is reduced by combining a welded-aluminum chassis with many carbon-fiber body parts. If you haven't noticed, carbon fiber, the super light-weight composite material, is the gold-leaf of the 21st century car-maker's craft. On most new cars the carbon-fiber accents are fake. Not so on the i3. Seats are firm and supportive and sight lines are generous. The dash architecture is full of peaks and valleys with two display screens for gauges and telematics functions. If you go out for a test drive, BMW Chattanooga tech specialist Aaron Gentry will be happy to show you the ropes. The i3 comes in three trim levels: Mega World, Gia World and Terra World. Our Mega World (base) trim test car is painted Capparis White and Frozen Black on the outside with Carum Spice Gray seats inside. The main options on our test car were 20-inch sport wheels ($1,300), heated front seats ($350), DC fast charging connections ($700), and a Harman Kardon premium sound system ($800). The $2,500 Driving Assist Package combines navigation with a few other tech features such as a BMW online apps package. DRIVING AND COMFORT You might assume that a car with this much fuel-efficiency would be rather dull in the driving department. But you would be wrong. The i3 can go from zero to 60 miles per hour in 6.5 seconds -- for those of you from the muscle car-generation (like me) that's the same as a 1970 Ford Mustang Boss 302. My favorite i3 performance spec, though, is the time it takes to go from 30 mph to 50 mph -- a mere 2.3 seconds. That's
[EVDL] EVLN: Sakti3 $100pkWh packs for 200mi range EVs
Sakti3 is emerging from GM's shadow
http://www.greencarreports.com/news/1094668_sakti3-battery-firm-key-to-gm-200-mile-electric-car-100-per-kwh-by-end-of-decade
Sakti3 Battery Firm: Key To GM 200-Mile Electric Car, $100 Per kWh By End Of
Decade?
By John Voelcker Sep 29, 2014
[image
http://images.thecarconnection.com/med/volt-battery-pack_100226596_m.jpg
Volt pih Battery Pack
]
By all indications, there will be an all-electric 2017 Chevrolet Sonic EV
for which General Motors is targeting a range of 200 miles.
And one of the keys to achieving such a range from a compact car will be a
more energy-dense battery than those used today.
One contender is clearly LG Chem, which now provides cells for both the
Chevy Volt range-extended electric car and the Chevrolet Spark EV electric
minicar, a compliance car sold only in a few states.
But there's another company that might possibly provide cells for
longer-range GM electric cars: Sakti3, the secretive startup founded in 2008
by former University of Michigan engineering professor Ann Marie Sastry.
It's one of two startup battery companies that received investments from GM
Ventures, the company's venture-capital arm.
The other company, Envia, has received more media attention, largely because
it has apparently failed to deliver on its promise of a cheaper cell with
greater energy density.
In fact, Sakti3 got its GM investment in September 2010, a couple of months
before Envia, which received its funding in January 2011.
Now Sakti3 is starting to emerge from the shadows.
It's worth reading Fortune magazine's profile of Sakti3 as a company, which
delves into the battery chemistry and the substantial challenges it still
faces.
(The company's name comes from the word sakti, which means power in
Sanskrit, plus the atomic number of the element lithium, which is 3.)
In August, Sastry said the company's solid-state cell was close to doubling
the energy density of today's lithium-ion cell chemistries, at just
one-fifth of their cost.
That would, the company suggested, lead to a battery cost of just $100 per
kilowatt-hour by the end of the current decade.
For perspective, that's less than half the cost projected by Frost
Sullivan, among other industry analysts.
Such a price would make electric cars with battery packs of 50 to 100 kWh
hugely more affordable.
That would come just when tougher fuel-economy and carbon-emission rules in
North America, Europe, and Asia will have ramped up significantly--raising
the cost and complexity of gasoline- and diesel-powered vehicles.
The proof will be in the pudding, and GM will only comment on its battery
suppliers for future products when it's ready.
Sakti3 still faces huge challenges, the biggest of which is the cost of
manufacturing and the yield it’s going to get, according to Kevin See, a
Lux Research analyst quoted by Fortune.
It’s great to demonstrate a small battery in the lab, See said, but
making batteries bigger and making a lot of them is not trivial.
But Sakti3 appears to be one to watch--and will likely receive far more
attention in future than it has thus far.
[© greencarreports.com]
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http://www.baynews9.com/content/news/baynews9/news/article.html/content/news/articles/bn9/2014/9/29/students_not_enough_.html
Students complain Not enough EVSE @USF CA
http://www.dispatch.com/content/stories/business/2014/09/28/tesla-time.html
$60 Tesla logo'd dog leash
http://evfleetworld.co.uk/news/2014/Sep/Electric-vehicle-fleet-to-help-Eurotunnel-cut-CO2/0438016481
More EVSE to support Eurotunnel's CO2-cutting EV-fleet expansion
+
EVLN: i3 EV zippy, thrifty, an environmentalist's dream
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[EVDL] EVLN: EV Fleet's Condor Electric Truck Revolution
http://wfae.org/post/charlotte-company-hopes-lead-electric-truck-revolution Charlotte Company Hopes To Lead Electric Truck Revolution By Ben Bradford September 29, 2014 [audio http://cpa.ds.npr.org/wfae/audio/2014/09/092614EVBB2.mp3 images http://mediad.publicbroadcasting.net/p/wfae/files/201409/Condor.jpg A prototype of EV Fleet's Condor, which the company demonstrated during a demo day. The truck bed's paint will match the rest of the car in final versions, the company says. Credit Ben Bradford / WFAE http://mediad.publicbroadcasting.net/p/wfae/files/201409/e-ride.jpg UNC Charlotte is also considering the smaller e-ride, a low-speed vehicle--certified to drive speeds up to 35 mph--to replace some of its Ford Rangers. Credit e-ride http://mediad.publicbroadcasting.net/p/wfae/files/201409/Condor_Prep.jpg EV Fleet mechanics work to prepare the truck for its demo. The space under the hood serves as a trunk. Credit Ben Bradford / WFAE ] Electric cars were largely novelties until Tesla introduced its Roadster in 2008. Now, a few small start-ups are trying to repeat Tesla’s success in another sector of the electric vehicle industry. They’re building trucks, hoping to sell them en masse to government and business fleets. Inside a warehouse at Reventure Park on the edge of Charlotte, mechanics tighten bolts and glue insulation on a shiny blue pickup truck. They are putting the finishing touches on the Condor, getting it ready for its debut to possible buyers. The all-electric truck features smooth lines and no grill, to cut down on drag. While running on electricity may not be odd for a car these days, trucks need more power for hauling and no standard electric truck option exists in the U.S. Brooks Agnew founded EV Fleet to create one. “This is the first fully designed from the ground up electric truck, and it is very quick,” Agnew says “I mean really quick, like sports car quick, and it’s able to go over 100 miles on a charge and carry weight.” The idea, Agnew says, is to compete to replace the very popular, but decommissioned Ford Ranger in public and private fleets. It would be easy to dismiss the lofty claims. Among other things, Agnew has spent years trying to organize an expedition to the North Pole to see if the earth is hollow. And, EV Fleet has had several iterations under different names. But, Agnew has decades of automotive experience, and, most of all, the truck works, zipping smoothly around South End all day during its demo. Several fleet managers attended the demo and had positive reviews. “I've done some research into it. As far as I can tell the truck looks pretty solid, and that’s why we’re looking into it,” says Chris Facente, who manages UNC Charlotte’s more than 400 vehicles. Other representatives attended from the state, the City of Charlotte, and Duke Energy. Facente already has about 100 electric vehicles in his fleet—mostly the low-speed, golf-cart sized GEMs, which staff use to travel the campus and carry very light deliveries. “The novelty’s really going out of the electric vehicle. It’s going to be here to stay in the right applications,” Facente says. He says it makes sense to use them, but only for jobs they have the power to do, without worry the battery will run out. “When they used to build cars they used to have to build a vehicle that could survive in Anchorage, Alaska and Death Valley, California. And now things are going more toward a specialty,” Facente says. The university will soon need to replace its aging Ford Rangers, but that is a big step up for electric technology. There are a few options: the Condor, a converted full-size truck from Utah-based VIA Motors, or perhaps Minnesota-based e-ride’s low-speed vehicle, which looks like a cross between a Jeep and a golf cart. Last week, Facente test drove an e-ride around campus, and he plans to try the Condor this week. Or, he could stick with a gas or diesel Ford F150, which would certainly be safer than buying a $50,000 truck from EV-Fleet’s 13-man shop. “The concern would be parts replacement more than anything. Will this truck have enough parts where I can get parts?” Facente says. If the company goes out of business, so do their custom parts. Add to that, most public organizations buy from government-approved vendors, which makes it tough for newcomers to break in. “I’d be lying if I were to say that it’s not difficult,” says Sean Flaherty, a senior planner at the Centralina Clean Fuels Coalition, a government-sponsored non-profit that works with fleets to incorporate alternative vehicles. “The big guys have been doing this for a long time. They have the distribution; they have the supply chain in place.” Electric cars are a growing part of vehicle fleets—Charlotte began buying Nissan Leafs and Chevy Volts two years ago, but those are products of the major automakers. Some corporations like Staples and FedEx have converted some of their delivery trucks, but overall electrics make up an
[EVDL] EVLN: Wrightspeed drive trains for large heavy inefficient vehicles
http://www.fastcoexist.com/3036122/why-one-of-teslas-co-founders-now-works-on-garbage-trucks-instead-of-cars Why One Of Tesla's Co-Founders Now Works On Garbage Trucks Instead Of Cars by Adele Peters September 29, 2014 [images http://g.fastcompany.net/multisite_files/fastcompany/imagecache/slideshow_large/slideshow/2014/09/3036122-slide-s-1-why-one-of-teslas-co-founders-now-works-on-garbage-truc.jpg When Tesla co-founder Ian Wright left the company just a year after it launched, he argued that electric technology was too expensive for a typical car buyer. http://b.fastcompany.net/multisite_files/fastcompany/imagecache/slideshow_large/slideshow/2014/09/3036122-slide-s-2-why-one-of-teslas-co-founders-now-works-on-garbage-truc.jpg More than a decade later, electric and hybrid cars still only make up about half a percent of the total market in the U.S., but Wright is working on something that he says makes sense now: Converting gas-guzzling delivery and garbage trucks to electricity. ] A garbage truck usually gets less than three miles per gallon and might cost $60,000 a year to fuel. Wrightspeed, the startup Wright founded to manufacture the new electric powertrains for trucks, also wants to help shift the country's fleet of delivery vehicles. FedEx has just ordered 25 of the new powertrains to begin to retrofit its fleet. Ian Wright thinks electric garbage trucks and delivery vehicles are the key to cutting down on greenhouse gas emissions. When Tesla co-founder Ian Wright left the company just a year after it launched, he argued that electric technology was too expensive for a typical car buyer. More than a decade later, electric and hybrid cars still only make up about half a percent of the total market in the U.S., and companies like Tesla are still struggling to bring the cost of batteries down. But Wright is working on something that he says makes sense now: Converting gas-guzzling delivery and garbage trucks to electricity. The thing about electric drive technology is it's very efficient ... but it's not cheap, Wright says. So you've got to think about who's going to pay the extra cost of these things. If you think about that hard enough, you realize that doing little city cars is the wrong end of things--they don’t burn enough fuel. Maybe 200 gallons a year. You can't save enough money on that no matter what you do. You could save all of that and it's not enough money to pay for the upgrade. A garbage truck, on the other hand, usually gets less than three miles per gallon and might cost $60,000 a year to fuel. Switching to a range-extended electric powertrain--which generates electricity from braking and an onboard turbine, and stores extra energy from the grid in a battery--can easily save enough money to pay back the cost of the new system within a few years. Wrightspeed, the startup Wright founded to manufacture the new electric powertrains for trucks, also wants to help shift the country's fleet of delivery vehicles. FedEx has just ordered 25 of the new powertrains to begin to retrofit its fleet. Because the technology goes inside old trucks, FedEx can more than double fuel efficiency, and more than halve CO2 emissions, without getting rid of its current stock of vehicles. Since the trucks start and stop hundreds of times in a day, braking is an effective way to generate power. But the trucks also rely on a natural gas generator, which Wright explains is actually cleaner than charging a purely electric vehicle from the grid in most places. People intuitively think that nothing's cleaner than an EV because there's no tailpipe emissions, but of course the energy's coming from power stations, he says. In the U.S., there's quite a bit of coal. With our system...it's actually cleaner if you don't plug in. For something like a garbage truck, the technology can save 95% of NOx emissions, around 78% of particulates, and 58% of CO2. More pragmatically, it can save companies an enormous amount of money--meaning that it's more likely than something like a luxury car to be widely adopted quickly, and have a significant impact on pollution. The thing about this is the economics of it, Wright says. The systems are not cheap, but we save enough fuel and enough maintenance that they pay for themselves in a short enough time that it becomes a no brainer. A CFO will look at this and say, 'Yeah, there's a short enough payback, and we're going to save so much money after that--and take away our emissions problems off the table. Then it becomes a compelling thing. [© 2014 Mansueto Ventures] ... http://www.xconomy.com/san-francisco/2014/10/03/why-this-tesla-motors-co-founder-loves-electric-garbage-trucks/ Why This Tesla Motors Co-founder Loves Electric Garbage Trucks Martin LaMonica 10/3/14 For EVLN posts use: http://www.evdl.org/archive/index.html#nabble+template%2FNamlServlet.jtp%3Fmacro%3Dsearch_page%26node%3D413529%26query%3Devln%26sort%3Ddate
[EVDL] DC-DC Cooling
I think I'm going to have to figure out how to water cool my DC-DC. I built this one using 4 Vicor 20A bricks to get a 80A capable unit. It all fits on the back of a 6 square 2 thick heatsink with a 6 fan on it. I'm noticing that when I'm running 40A continuous load, the output starts becoming erratic. Ther fan on the heatsink doesn't seem to be enough when I'm drawing a lot of 12V power. (blower, lights, brakes, etc..) -- Try my Sensible Email package! https://sourceforge.net/projects/sensibleemail/ ___ 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)
Re: [EVDL] DC-DC Cooling
Have you measured the temp on any of the units? It is possible that one of the bricks is not behaving. Failing that, you might want to redo the heatsink with some serious extruded aluminum. Cheers! On 10/6/14, 4:21 PM, John Lussmyer via EV wrote: I think I'm going to have to figure out how to water cool my DC-DC. I built this one using 4 Vicor 20A bricks to get a 80A capable unit. It all fits on the back of a 6 square 2 thick heatsink with a 6 fan on it. I'm noticing that when I'm running 40A continuous load, the output starts becoming erratic. Ther fan on the heatsink doesn't seem to be enough when I'm drawing a lot of 12V power. (blower, lights, brakes, etc..) -- Try my Sensible Email package! https://sourceforge.net/projects/sensibleemail/ ___ 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) ___ 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)
Re: [EVDL] DC-DC Cooling
On Mon, Oct 6, 2014 at 7:21 PM, John Lussmyer via EV ev@lists.evdl.org wrote: I think I'm going to have to figure out how to water cool my DC-DC. I built this one using 4 Vicor 20A bricks to get a 80A capable unit. It all fits on the back of a 6 square 2 thick heatsink with a 6 fan on it. I'm noticing that when I'm running 40A continuous load, the output starts becoming erratic. Ther fan on the heatsink doesn't seem to be enough when I'm drawing a lot of 12V power. (blower, lights, brakes, etc..) I used a Vicor Megamod on one side of a 1/16 aluminum sheet and a Batmod with a simple control circuit cookbooked from the Vicor app notes on another sheet on the other side. In between I had a triple ro w of 1/8 copper tubing doing a serpentine thing between the two . Inlets and outlets were done with a little 3-into-1 collector into some 3/8 copper tubing. Everthing was JB Welded together. With 1/8 standoffs around judiciously placed screws, it all remained very flat and sturdy. Very compact for its power. It wasn't a quick build, but fairly straightforward. Unfortunately I never ran it at the loads you're pulling, but if that's a concern you could go up in size. You probably have room for that in your truck. I didn't in my car. Chris -- next part -- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://lists.evdl.org/private.cgi/ev-evdl.org/attachments/20141006/43b464f5/attachment.htm ___ 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)
Re: [EVDL] DC-DC Cooling
On 6 Oct 2014 at 16:21, John Lussmyer via EV wrote: The fan on the heatsink doesn't seem to be enough when I'm drawing a lot of 12V power. (blower, lights, brakes, etc..) I'm not an engineer, but I think one of the problems with using multiple DC:DC converters is balancing the load. You might try putting a (good sized) ammeter on each individual Vicor to see whether they're playing nice, or whether maybe one is trying to handle too much of the current. Just a thought. David Roden - Akron, Ohio, USA EVDL Administrator = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = EVDL Information: http://www.evdl.org/help/ = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = Note: mail sent to evpost and etpost addresses will not reach me. To send a private message, please obtain my email address from the webpage http://www.evdl.org/help/ . = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = ___ 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)
