PA has especially a lot to lose with the worst total gas tax in the country at $0.52 per gallon. Even at that rate an electric vehicle owner would still save money per mile. But, to your point they may raise the tax to the point you were typically spending to drive a mile. It will be interesting to see how they spin that they still need emission sticker revenue.
For the most part you need a garage and a second car so you’re not giving anything up. The plus is you spend less money per mile, no need to wait at a gas station, have instant torque, and you spend less on emission stickers, brakes, and oil changes. Notice I left out anything about saving the planet. To me the wrong marketing strategy. If you want to produce less CO2 walk to a grave yard with a shovel.
Still haven’t made it through the whole video. But, I did get to the point where he says he finds nothing revolutionary with the new cells as far as energy density.
His charging method is all messed up, and he doesn’t even notice. He’s got a 1.2V drop @10A of which 0.1V is over the shunt, the rest must be leads and contact resistance (a magnet? Why?).
Because otherwise, he could just have let his PSU do the CC/CV thing without constantly bumping the voltage up and down (and no, you can not move the CC/CV point around with a fixed CC/CV scheme, it’s determined BY THE CELL). Yes he’d still have to compensate for the shunt at the end of CC but that’s it.
I hope the man is not an EE because that would be shameful.
I believe the reason he adjusts his PSU voltage is because he needs to keep a constant current. If from the get go he sets it to 4.2V, he will exceed the CC amount by far and damage the cell. So he sets it at let’s say 3.8V and keeps on rising it to 4.2V in order to keep the current constant at the proper C rate. The shunt and ohmic losses do not matter. Because once the PSU is set at 4.2V and the cell voltage approaches it, the shunt and ohmic losses can reduce the current fed to the cell (which is a good thing), while it will never reduce the end voltage of 4.2V.
For Lion, once you are above 4V, you cannot charge it at the continuous C charge rate. You must reduce the rate or you will damage the cell. At 4.15V, it would be an error to charge it faster than 0.2A, for example, as it can create dendrites.
Of course if the resistance in series (shunt plus losses) is high, then in order to reach the CC rate, he may have to increase the PSU voltage ABOVE 4.2 to get the desired current. But once the cell voltage approaches 4.2V, he needs to reduce the voltage from 5V (for example) to 4.2V. It appears he is doing the right thing.
Wait…did I read it cost less to drive an electric car?
Quick, tell me how much it costs to replace a battery. No “it will cost” in the future, right now, how much?
A BMW dealer had an electric Smart car. $8,000 for a 2015 car that cost $33,000
I asked the Benz dealer how much it would cost to change the battery. All I got in response was a huge run around and no quote. The service manager who I know since ’95 says about $17,000.
Here is an example….Two year old car…original price over $32k……asking $11.8. It will probably go for $10K……………Two thirds of the price lost in three years.
Battery replacement, unless under warranty, just isn’t done. It would be much like comparing it to the likelihood you would buy a brand new motor and transmission. Unlike a cell phone, ev batteries are designed to last quite a long time. What is to be expected is there will be a loss in capacity. In such small production run cars the battery is the limiting factor part. If a manufacturer made 10,000 battery packs its going to try to build a car around nearly every one of them. They would keep a few for warranty purposes and the other cars would simply be totaled over being repaired.
Large incentives drastically effect resale value as well as peoples apprehension of the unknown. Which is partially the case in your example. But, there is also that the Smart is not a good looking car, has never sold well in any of its variants, and is completely out of place in the states where larger suv and crossovers are favored.
The efficiency improvements in gasoline engines are slowing. If you live in colder climates the wasted heat can be used but it is mostly pushed out the tailpipe. In contrast, an electric motor is several magnitudes more efficient. This is why you can drive several miles on a kilowatt. The encouraging part is while gasoline efficiency has stalled, ev are steadily getting better and cheaper. Actually, there are many innovations in the works that will revolutionize how we get around. Torque vectoring seems very interesting.
Electric vehicles are in the early stages of technology adoption. There not a one size fits all solution, but they do offer many advantages that a gasoline car could never attain. And things will change rapidly as the technology improves and people adopt them.
Electric vehicles have been around longer that gasoline powered ones. It will be a while before they’re practical here in northern New England and similar places. I’d sure like an electric on/off road motorcycle though.
The 2019 Zero SR/F is a new entry into the electric motorcycle world. I don’t see any 0-60 times but with a 140 ft lb of instant torque and a weight of 498 lbs I’m sure it would be fun. But, definitely a premium price at $19,000.