Jones Beene wrote: > Alternate subject line: "Volt gets shocked"
> http://www.huliq.com/3169/70554/byd-launch-all-electric-car-h2-2009 > Thanks; WFM. Cool story. Quick excerpt: > This F3DM hybrid combines hybrid and electric vehicle systems, with a > 110km pure EV range. BYD said they can be recharged to 50% of > capacity in just 10 minutes. Say what?? 10 minutes?? How you do that, pull up at a local ConEdison substation and hook into a bus bar? Let's see how plausible it is to provide the power needed to charge it that fast. Range 110 km. 50% charge => 50 km. Let's say that's at 20 hp draw from the motor, traveling at 45 mph (which is kind of the standard speed for finding mileage IIRC). At 20 hp from the motor, you're drawing about 15 kW from the batteries. At 45 mph = 72 kph, 50 km gives us a drive time of 0.7 hours, or a total power consumption of just over 10 kWH. Recharging in 10 minutes, or 1/6 hour, implies a recharge rate of about 60 kW. At 230 volts that would be 260 amps. OK, that's not as bad as I expected -- it could be done on residential power, at least in some places, and if you could pull it directly off the pole out at the street -- but it's still out of reach of the average Joe's house wiring, which can typically deliver no more than 200 amps total at the fuse box. Of course I didn't include the inefficiencies, if any, which may result from hitting the battery pack with a very fast charge.
