----- Original Message ---- From: "Keith Nagel" > Currently I'm paying 16 cents/KWH for electricity. How far can I be gettin' on that? Probably not as far as the old dead dinosaur. I expect the break even point is much lower than 18O mpg.
OK, Keith . A figure of 30 kilowatts is often used as an adequate power for normal driving. With electricity at $ .16 / kwh you could drive for an hour at top speed for less than $6, using electricity, if the motor/battery combo is ~88 % efficient. Caveat: the average for this may be below 88%, depending on whose figures you use... BUT there are bona fide small electric motors (CISIRO) which get over 98% efficiency and batteries which are over 90% - giving a net of 88%. Why not use the best available if you are going for operating economy and not lowest capital cost? With gasoline having an energy content of 114,000 btu/gallon and an ICE engine having an efficiency of ~25% you are getting about 28,000 btu equivalent or 16.4 kwh for your same $6. Therefore even at 16 cents, to get the same 30 kwh equivalent from a gasoline powered automobile, it would seem to cost nearly twice as much with gas at $3 gallon, which it will be this summer, without some kind of voodoo economics at work. At the current price of $57 per barrel gasoline "ought" to cost over $3 now. Jones BTW It is generally accepted that the CSIRO Electric Machines motor is the most efficient small motor design (98.4% at max rpm). CSIRO, an Australian non-profit, no longer manufactures the Solar Powered Electric Vehicle Motor, for which it was designed. Anyone is free to use the information on this site to design their own motor. http://www.tip.csiro.au/Machines/success/sc.html http://www.aurorasolarcar.com/solartech/motor.html The problem is that the NIB magnets are expensive... but not too bad compared to gasoline at 3 bucks....
