Electric Car Drives 375 Miles at 55 mph, Recharges In 6 Minutes

[grahamhgreen]

Source: All Cars Electric

A German-based company has changed all that with a new vehicle capable of driving up to 375 miles at moderate highway speeds.
That’s roughly the equivalent of driving from Santa Barbara, CA to the Hoover Dam, without a recharge.

It doesn’t end there. The company responsible for the battery pack, DBM Energy, claims a battery pack efficiency of 97 percent and a recharge time of around 6 minutes when charged from a direct current source.

........

Don’t think for a second that this is a one-off battery pack. DBM’s battery technology, called KOLIBRI AlphaPolymer, is already in use in the unglamorous role of warehouses, where forklift trucks running on the same battery pack are capable of 28 hours of continuous operation before recharging is required.

We’re always a little cautious of battery technologies offering ultra-fast recharge and a magnitude of range improvement on other battery chemistry types, but everything we’ve seen and heard from DBM Energy thus far points to a battery technology we’re all keen to watch.

Read more: http://www.allcarselectric.com/blog/1050863_electric-car-drives-375-miles-at-55-mph-recharges-in-6-minutes

[Occulus]

1. Well, that's pretty cool, isn't it? nt/

[TheWraith]

2. When they allow an independent organization to test it, then I'll believe them.

But their claims are way too damn good to be true, leading me to believe that they aren't.

[Posteritatis]

3. Yep. (nt)

[PoliticAverse]

6. Add me to the skeptics list. n/t

[FSogol]

16. Same here. 6 minutes? Sure. n/t

[hlthe2b]

20. Add me to the "hopeful" list...

I refuse to be cynical about the future of green energy. It is too important. That said, I am cautiously optimistic this or some other group will make a breakthrough.

[littlewolf]

27. me too

I mean I don't care if it is 6 hours recharge .... you are not going to drive it cross country ... (well I am not anyway ... I will be using the
F150 crewcab .... )
but as a going to work car ... running to the store .... here and there stuff .... any and all of that .... I would buy it if it got that kind of
milage at that speed on a charge .....

[kristopher]

7. This demonstration is proof of their claim - that is sort of the point of doing it.

One of the goal of the "German National development planning team for electric mobility" was an electric vehicle that could go 185 miles by 2015. These folks have doubled the range 5 years ahead of the goal.

Since they did it and their claim is that they did it, what else are you wanting proof of?

I think they are just a flash in the pan myself, I'm betting this accomplishment isn't going to stand long at all.

[muriel_volestrangler]

9. There's German Economic Ministry funding in this

http://www.dw-world.de/dw/article/0,,6150836,00.html

I think this is true. There may be other aspects that are still a problem (I wonder if charging the batteries that fast has any effect on the battery life, for instance), but this is not some scam.

[sofa king]

40. Electric car ranges have been doubling every few years from 100 miles... to 100 miles.

[boppers]

4. Impressive, but no mention of cost, risk, etc.

We have pretty amazing rockets that don't use fossil fuels, have ranges that take us to the moon... but they cost a fair bit.

[avaistheone1]

19. I am surprised the cost was left out of the article.

At least an estimated cost would have been helpful.

[gateley]

5. If they can do this, why can't we? Or rather, why HAVEN'T we? Maybe it's

not perfect, but it's far more than we have on the boards at the moment. Except for Tesla. :)

[ejpoeta]

10. i can't help but think that as long as the EVs only go 50 miles on a charge

then they won't be very attractive to people.

[madokie]

11. Thats the deal I'm sure

car companies are in bed with the oilie bastids and have been for a long long time

[ejpoeta]

12. i think it has more to do with something addressed in 'who killed the electric car'

maintenance. there is little maintenance required for EVs. there is A LOT of maintenance required for gas and diesel vehicles. and that costs a lot and they make a lot.

[madokie]

14. That too

[KansDem]

15. I saw that movie...

The mechanic said of the electric car that all he does for "routine maintenance" is fill the washer fluid and rotate the tires.

Then GM destroyed all the cars...

[Kalyke]

18. Not to mention that they're simply not attractive.

With very, very, very few exception(s), most EVs are ugly, ugly cars. Many people won't split with several thousands of dollars to drive something they wouldn't be buried it.

[Glassunion]

22. No kidding. Look at it in the article..

It's a damn Audi, but it looks like a design that KIA tossed in the garbage.

The looks are mostly body panels. WTF?

[lumberjack_jeff]

23. The main problem isn't the conspiracy, the main problem is engineering.

Batteries won't carry as much energy as a tank of liquid fuel.

[ejpoeta]

24. how many miles did the ones in california get. how about that tesla.

i am not sure, but i bet they could do better than 50 mpc. i understand that it wouldn't be perfect. the gas engine has had a hundred years to be developed to what it is today. but i have no doubts they could do better than what they have now. and eventually they will. i was hoping that the US could be the ones with the EVs. when you think of hybrid you think of toyota. GM or Ford or Dodge could be the ones for EV.

[lumberjack_jeff]

28. Don't get me wrong. I want EV technology to progress.

But there's a big engineering advantage to liquid fuels.

1 gallon of diesel has 38kwh of energy. That's 560wh/pound. A golf cart battery will hold 16wh/pound. Lithium Ion hold something like 100wh/pound.

The Tesla costs $110,000 because it uses the best available battery technology in the lightest possible chassis. And it only carries two.

[ejpoeta]

32. i understand. and i am hopeful that the technology will develop

but i know it will take some time. i just don't think companies like the status quo and don't have a real incentive to change things. especially when americans are gas hogs who like engines with POWER. uggh. it's going to take another gas hike that gets people to their knees to even think about it. i mean, look. they are back buying suvs and trucks again. talk about short term memory. i remember when people were crying when the gas got to $3/gal. it's there now and no crying. part of me wants to see gas prices go up, but that will hurt families. but it seems to be the only way to get them to WANT something else.

[Tesha]

36. In some ways, there's no technology to develop.

For some very basic electrochemical reasons, LiIon batteries are quite
likely to either *BE* the pinnacle of chemical battery technology or
very close to it in (terms of power-per-pound). Hydrogen fuel cells
can do better if we ever figure out how to store the hydrogen, but
they won't be orders-of-magnitude better than LiIon.

The real technology that might make fast-"charge" EVs work is
either battery-swapping (with some sort of standardized battery
packs) or "flow batteries" where one replaces liquid reactants.

But in terms of sheer energy density, no battery will ever store
more watts/pound than good old gasoline.

Tesha

[JCMach1]

8. All the car companies are working on this

[Scuba]

13. And why is it not American? Because we used our R&D dollars instead...

... to give hundreds of billions of dollars in tax breaks to the most profitable industry in the history of commerce.

[Uncle Joe]

17. Kicked and recommended.

Thanks for the thread, grahamhgreen.:thumbsup:

[lumberjack_jeff]

21. My bullshit meter is beeping.

A battery which can accept a charge 60x it's normal discharge rate is unprecedented.

An efficient car requires 250wh/mile. So let's assume that the car requires 94kwh to make the 375 mile trip. To put that energy back into the battery in 6 minutes requires a charge rate of 940kw/h. At 240v, that would be 940000/240 or 3916 amps.

The only way they could do that is by having a charged, extremely high voltage ultracapacitor waiting; ready to dump that energy into the battery pack, but you still have to consider the rate at which a battery can accept input, and at some point you have to reduce the voltage to that of the battery pack, which means HUGE cables to handle the amperage.

[SidDithers]

25. +1...

Good post. Energy is energy, regardless of the source or how it's converted into work. I'm not as skeptical of the 375 mile range as I am of the 6 minute charge.

Sid

[grahamhgreen]

35. I searched around and found someone who was also

skeptical.

He says, "Although there is plenty to be skeptical about in this story, the record run did bring out some rather credible support. For instance, the vehicle was funded with support from the German Economy Ministry and German Utility, lekker Energie. At the finish line, Andreas Goerdeler of the German Economy Ministry. reportedly said, "This is a great success, we are in a fierce global competition and this proves that we (Germany) are technological leaders.""


http://www.plugincars.com/claiming-battery-breakthrough-electric-audi-drives-375-miles-55-mph-without-recharging-99966.html

[Tesha]

38. The last time I saw this talked about here...

...I went off and investigated what sort of connectors could be used
to couple that sort of power into the car. The answer was, essentially,
"very heavy connectors that require huge forces to mate and un-mate
and only last a few hundred cycles at best, and that with careful
maintenance (cleaning and lubrication)".

If only for that reason, we'll never see a car that recharges in six
minutes yet goes 375 miles on that charge.

Battery swapping, on the other hand...

Tesha

[lumberjack_jeff]

43. Battery swapping is the ticket.

The secret is a standardized and non-proprietary form factor battery module. Robotic refueling stations could simply swap packs... as many modules as necessary for the vehicle being recharged.

[Kennah]

26. Hopeful, but skeptical

There is so much bullshit reporting with exaggerated claims of success where EVs are concerned that I cannot help but remain very guarded about the veracity of these claims.

However, take a look at what a bunch of long haired, hippie freak, commie, pinko, leftist college students are doing at MIT.
http://web.mit.edu/evt/

Maybe DBM is full of crap, maybe not. The reporting is interesting, entertaining, inspiring, and hopeful--now the car makers have to get off their asses and deliver something to the market.

[PuppyBismark]

29. Wow! Beats the Volt!

[defendandprotect]

30. K&R ---

[defendandprotect]

31. How did oil industry miss stomping that one out ....???

[Scuba]

33. They don't appear to own the German government. n/t

[defendandprotect]

44. Oh, forgot .... elites are limited by international borders .... !?

[Scuba]

45. Certainly not, but...

...it appears the German government was subsidizing new energy technology while ours was giving hundreds of billions of dollars in tax rebates to the most profitable industry in the history of commerce.

Hard to believe we haven't revolted yet.

[defendandprotect]

46. Partial revolt in the movement from American cars long ago ... but should have

been up to government to BREAK the alliance between oil industry and our American

car manufacturer. Then, perhaps, we might have seen some realistic MPG and even

electric cars!


Unfortunately, consumers acting in their own interests, without action by government

and legislators, has done great harm to American workers and their unions.

Similar, of course, to the damage to farming areas with monopoly farming permitted

to take hold. And many other examples, of course.

Gulf oil spill -- a major catastrophe and Obama jumped right in to overturn the

temporary moritorioum on oil rigs.

W also ripped up a few peace treaties and our Constitution without any action by

Congress ... on and on.

Can only hope that Democrats will stand against going back into this right wing diaster!

[Tesha]

34. We've done the math here before; six minute recharge is impossible.

Search for my posts but the amount of power that has to be
moved to allow a car to recharge 375 miles worth of power
in six minutes makes for an infeasible design for several
very good reasons.

Forget about this.

Tesha

[grahamhgreen]

37. More info about the battery - PHOTO - (charge time is 4 hours, not 6 minutes!)

"Battery lithium-iron-polymer (260 Ah/380 V) cell voltage of 3.8 volts
Battery weight about 300 kg
Currently lifetime is at 2500 Charge cycles without any degradation. This is targeting 500,000 km service lifetime or 200 km/cycle. This is 310,686 miles and 124 miles/cycle.

No word on depth of discharge for the zero degradation.
6 minute charge is future/theoretical limits of the battery.
The actual time is 4 hours; which is still very impressive."




PHOTO - http://endless-sphere.com/forums/download/file.php?id=48012&sid=af4f1edc9d2398c915c95780f10585e0

http://endless-sphere.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=14&t=22467


Who knows, but the endorsements seem to be high level German govt officials...

[Gabi Hayes]

39. welllll, let's see +- 4000%. isn't that within the MOE?

[ProudDad]

41. Just a cautionary note

It would take 4 planets worth of resources to make a car each for just 1/2 the world's current population no matter WHAT powers it...

Not to mention the absurd amount of (Coal-fired? "Natural" gas? -- contributing to Catastrophic Global Climate Destabalization or Nucular (Kaboom!) energy required to build them.

Think of using significantly less power and resources, effective mass transit in new relocalized communities DESIGNED around transit (unlike the obscene suburban sprawl designed around the personal automobile)...

Hey, fewer and shorter trips -- bicycles, rickshaws, right-sized street cars and two feet...

[dtmfman]

42. It's about time...

I recently saw a story on cable about an older couple who discovered/engineered a long life battery for cars...evidently it had similar capabilities as the car battery above....it was in the same show about how Chevy (I think) recalled all their electric cars and crushed them...to this day...no one knows why....but I think I do...

On another note...I'd like to know why these technologies disappeared?.....I'm willing to be some big oil company bought them and buried them...

http://www.femuscle.org/CoolStuff/saltwater.wmv

http://www.femuscle.org/CoolStuff/WaterPower.wmv