Journal zogger's Journal: Chrysler EV newzz 13
Chrysler will be offering an EV version of their Fiat 500 small car next year. The gas version is on track for the end of this year to be sold in the US. Both will be made in Mexico. They also announced a drop in plans for a hybrid pickup.
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSN2219887120100322
heh (Score:1)
On an auto newzz blog I read, someone commented that in a few years when all these EV's come out and start hitting the roads that it'll be commonplace to see one on the side of the road. Because its owner forgot to plug it in the night before, and because their tiny ranges will be easy to accidently bump into. And for those who fail to get off the road before electron exhaustion, I might have to install a cowcatcher sort of a device on the front of my good old-fashioned dino-powered madmaxmobile (or my gaso
Re: (Score:2)
Despite the downfalls EVs are really the future. Just look at engine complexities in internal combustion engines. Compare that to the simple electric motor with one moving part, the shaft. Once they figure out a way to extend range (and this will happen) and a way to quickly charge, perhaps using super capacitors, they will easily be a suitable replacement for gasoline dinosaurs. Electricity is everywhere there is people, whereas sometimes it can be hard to find a gas station. Would you miss changing your o
Re: (Score:1)
Mfr specified oil change intervals with pure synthetic are now up to 15K miles, which means only once a year for most people. And we've had 100K mile spark plugs for a while now, which means never being replaced for most people. Cars are a breeze to maintain nowadays, and it's performance tires that are short-lived and need frequent rotation that effectively define the service intervals. The instant torque of electric motors means we'll burn thru these even faster!
only until they break (Score:1)
Breeze to maintain until they do break. Then it is a nightmare, even with an obd 2 reader. You'll get just enough information off those things to narrow it down between thousands of dollars of repairs this way..or maybe it is over there..or over here, and these parts outfits won't take back electric/computerized parts. Go to the dealer and they want more to change a couple gaskets, say the intake and heads, etc, then what a full replacement spare engine for just a slightly older ride costs.
No thanks, modern
Re: (Score:1)
I wonder if today's engine complexity is how we got greater reliability, or if that would've followed anyways. For example, tune-ups used to be part of maintenance you had to do, but those days are long gone. But if we were still using simple points and distributors and carbs, could we have advanced them to the precision and tech, whilst keeping them simple, to achieve today's efficiency and reliability? I don't know about that.
some yes, some no (Score:1)
They have had to go more complex to get similar to mid 80s mileage on cars because of all the dang stuff they haul around in cars now, the bloat. I mean some is nice, airbags work, but heated DVD equipped sensurround cupholders are bloat. bloat all over cars now. Power everything. laser computer controlled active suspensions. all sorts stuff that might be nce, but isn't strictly required either for a "good enough" ride. And it all costs beaucoup big whopper dineros once it starts to bust.
They had to make c
Re: (Score:1)
BTW, I really enjoy your thoughts and your writing style -- you're pretty funny!
Esp. funny knowing you had a Bundymobile [tvacres.com]!
I can't figure where all the extra weight in cars is coming from. I drove a couple of hand-me-down Chevrolet Caprices to start out with, a '79 and an '84, and those suckers were right around 2 tons supposedly. Long, wide, huge cars with cast iron engines and stamped steel wheels and power everything. And lots of sound deadening material. It's hard to believe that today with aluminum block
Re: (Score:1)
hehehehehehhe bundymobile hehehehe man I liked that show....the article is correct though, that's a duster.
I think with a five speed manual (mine was a three speed slusher) and cutting two or three cylinders out of the slant six you could have a decent commuter car (downsized in actual size). The only thing I didn't like about the engine was the low placement of the distributor, got wet and borked too easy if you had to go through a big puddle. That was really the only problem with it I ever encountered. So
Re: (Score:2)
It's often occurred to me that any given electric car could take advantage of one of the *BIG* downsides of a steel-and-plastic vehicle for recharging: Thermocouples. You can *easily*, even on a cloudy day, build a 40-50 degree difference (at this rate, doesn't matter C or F) between the inside of a parked car and the outside. Such a device should be able to move you to the next quick-battery-replacement station in a few hours.
Of course, that would require manufacturers actually follow standards for batt
Re: (Score:2)
"Thermocouples. You can *easily*, even on a cloudy day, build a 40-50 degree difference (at this rate, doesn't matter C or F) between the inside of a parked car and the outside."
Only so long as there is no thermal conduction between the two, like, say, a thermocouple.
Once you start moving the heat from inside to outside the temperature difference will go down.
Moreover, the efficiency of thermocouples is very low - they don't begin to approach thermodynamic limits (about 10% of thermodynamic limits), and wit
Re: (Score:2)
The answer to efficiency is to use a lot of them. And in the case of cooling the passenger compartment on a hot day- isn't that a side benefit?
PV (Score:1)
Cheaper to just have a few solar PV panels on the roof and have them trickle charge the battery, or with a temp sensor run a small vent fan for the interior cooling parked in the sun.
Want to know what I use to keep the interior cool? Cheap cardboard and busted speakers for the magnets
I get waxed paper cardboard, of a size to fold out and cover the windshield, with some flaps on the roof. Stick cheap busted speakers up there to stick the flaps down so it doesn't blow away. The magnetism goes right through th
Re: (Score:2)
OK, let me lay it out for you a bit better.
1) Thermocouples are nothing more than a heat engine, and are limited by the same rules of thermodynamics.
2) The "hot" side of this heat engine is the interior of the car.
3) The hot side is fed by sunlight, at a maximum power of roughly 1kW/(m^2), and that's assuming a surface normal to the incident sunlight.
4) The area of the interior projected to the normal of the sunlight on a car is roughly 2m*2m, or 4m^2. That gives you a maximum input power to the system of 4