nothing we didn't really know about electric cars

[Kevin Bacon 5]

Yeah it's an inductance loop, as per electric toothbrush charging and you're right, I don't think you get as much 'calorific' energy from that kind of charging as you would a physical connection with more grunt (amps) behind it. Maybe some qualified sparkies on here might be able to confirm?

 

And wouldn't the car's metal body mess around with the charging in some way? Maybe it's just for those G Whizz plastic bodied type cars?

 

I think Hydrogen was deemed a bit unsafe due to the pressures and extreme flammability involved or do you mean the cars that extract hydrogen from water?

 

My old physics teacher once told me an interesting story about a home made inductance loop. For years the national grid noticed a very slight voltage drop on one of their high tension lines, so one day they sent an engineer out to investiate the lines / pylon. In the end they traced the voltage drop to the house that was directly under the pylon. Turns out the chap living there built a MASSIVE inductance coil in his shed and was basically creaming off free electricity from the high tension wires :lol: I don't know if that's an urban myth or not, but I like the sound of it :D

Edited October 8, 2012 by Kevin Bacon

[Wendy 0]

I don't really buy the fuel shortages Jim. Sure it will run out eventually, but not as quickly as the doom mongers will have us believe. I'm sure your parents remember as well as mine do the 1970s 'fuel crisis'? We've not seen anything like that since. So where did all the fuel suddenly come from that kept us going in the 80s, 90s, 00s ?

 

My clients in the Oil Industry also believe there is no chance of us running out of oil for a very long time.

 

Electric Cars, surely this is another of those things that if it ever takes off will make one manufacturer a small fortune hence the research into it.

Is this really any different to the thought we would all be using LPG powered cars - that has never really made it.

[Critical_Mass 10]

Its wont be about physically plugging the car in over night. It'll be about parking your car over a bay and it charging... like how electric toothbrushes charge - i forget the name of it. Proximity charge or something like that.

 

DOH - Kev beat me to it.

[Fanjita 1]

I think Hydrogen was deemed a bit unsafe due to the pressures and extreme flammability involved or do you mean the cars that extract hydrogen from water?

 

There was a couple of reasons for not adopting Hydrogen on top of those wasn't there Kev? I think electrolysis (hydrogen from water) was so energy expensive that it wasn't viable at all! Apparently they were putting in more energy than the Hydrogen would return!

 

The other Hydrogen source was by cracking hydrocarbons, but then I guess they ruled that out as hydrogen was to replace hydrocarbons! (and also the byproduct was a lot of carbon possibly with attached oxygen)

 

But yeah the storage was a big one, tanks running at mammoth pressures under the rear seat wasn't appealing. I did read that hydrogen is notorious for leaking out too, due to being a very light element?

[Wullie 1]

Maybe just plain old air is the answer.

 

http://uk.finance.yahoo.com/news/liquid-air-could-fuel-future-035017019.html

[jamiehamy 0]

Electric Cars, surely this is another of those things that if it ever takes off will make one manufacturer a small fortune hence the research into it.

Is this really any different to the thought we would all be using LPG powered cars - that has never really made it.

 

Bit of a revival, but you'd be surprised Wendy how mamy cars are on LPG these days. Although still not mainstream, there are a fair few! I'm happy it's still very much under the radar as , in my mind anyway, it helps keep prices down.

 

My hubby is studying Hydrogen Storage at Uni for his final year, we talk about it quite often, but cars are defo the key focus for them right now, although there are so many challenges, I can't see it ever being a success from what he's told me. He gets really frustrated by all the researchers - they live in the research world, but really struggle to incorporate their ideas into real life. But as I told him - once there is an iota of an indication that it would work commercially, the big guns will come in and pour money in.

 

In the meantime, LPG for me :)

[Tempest 0]

Indeed, LPG, according to current research figures from the German AA (ADAC) indicates that out of all alternative fuels, LPG is used by far out the largest proportion, by 46%.

 

Network of pumps offering the stuff is also far denser in the Netherlands and Germany, with certainly in the Netherlands pretty much every forecourt offering LPG.

 

Tempest