The most ridiculous claim about a car...

Angilion · 31 Jan 2009 at 00:07

I had a laugh about this today. I was reading The Star at work today, because it was there and I wondered how bad it was.

Half of page 34 is given over to (yet another) electric sports car that is alleged to be planned to be available to buy soon. This one, supposedly, goes into production in June.

Whichever one of the gossip and smut writers had this piece dumped on them obviously had no idea about the subject, so they apparently just made some stuff up.

0-60 in 2.5s. That's definitely plausible.

Top speed of 208mph. Well, that's possible.

Range of 150-200 miles. Maybe, if it's driven normally and the battery pack has a high enough capacity.

Full recharge from mains in 10 minutes. Huh? Who's backside did they pull that figure out of? An instant's rough calculation would show that mains can only provide a 500Wh charge in 10 minutes. That might be enough to power a model car for 200 miles.

No doubt it can do the Kessel run in 12 parsecs.

Dogbreath · 31 Jan 2009 at 00:10

Angilion said:
No doubt it can do the Kessel run in 12 parsecs.

But a parsec is a unit of distance

Err...sorry, coat on, leaving...

rypt · 31 Jan 2009 at 02:07

Angilion said:
Full recharge from mains in 10 minutes. Huh? Who's backside did they pull that figure out of? An instant's rough calculation would show that mains can only provide a 500Wh charge in 10 minutes. That might be enough to power a model car for 200 miles.

What if you had 1000 mains plugs from 1000 mains circuits?

Dup · 31 Jan 2009 at 02:18

Angilion said:
I had a laugh about this today. I was reading The Star at work today, because it was there and I wondered how bad it was.

Half of page 34 is given over to (yet another) electric sports car that is alleged to be planned to be available to buy soon. This one, supposedly, goes into production in June.

Whichever one of the gossip and smut writers had this piece dumped on them obviously had no idea about the subject, so they apparently just made some stuff up.

0-60 in 2.5s. That's definitely plausible.

Top speed of 208mph. Well, that's possible.

Range of 150-200 miles. Maybe, if it's driven normally and the battery pack has a high enough capacity.

Full recharge from mains in 10 minutes. Huh? Who's backside did they pull that figure out of? An instant's rough calculation would show that mains can only provide a 500Wh charge in 10 minutes. That might be enough to power a model car for 200 miles.

No doubt it can do the Kessel run in 12 parsecs.

They pulled it off the SSC press release everyone copied and pasted in the news:

http://www.engadget.com/2009/01/27/shelbys-amazing-aero-ev-0-to-60-in-2-5-seconds-10-minute-rech/

Bennie-Mac · 31 Jan 2009 at 02:45

http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showthread.php?t=17969371&highlight=shelby

Clearly nothing to do with the writer from The Star, it may well be a rubbish paper but you can only work with the information you're given.

Angilion · 31 Jan 2009 at 07:08

rypt said:
What if you had 1000 mains plugs from 1000 mains circuits?

Then you'd have a lot of very helpful neighbours

Angilion · 31 Jan 2009 at 07:25

Bennie-Mac said:
http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showthread.php?t=17969371&highlight=shelby

Clearly nothing to do with the writer from The Star, it may well be a rubbish paper but you can only work with the information you're given.

No, you can assess it. Unless there wasn't a writer and it was just a straight copy and paste job that no-one read.

If Ford released something claiming that they were making a new model of the Fiesta that had a top speed of 900mph and did 632mpg, would you print it as fact without any checking? No - you'd assess the claim first, based on your knowledge of what is plausible.

Flukester · 31 Jan 2009 at 07:58

maybe its a electric car with a hydrogen fuel cell... to technically 'charge it' just fill up with liquid hydrogen

thats the only way it would work as far as i can see.... so that would make 'the star' right and op wrong, oh dear

Angilion · 31 Jan 2009 at 20:52

Flukester said:
maybe its a electric car with a hydrogen fuel cell... to technically 'charge it' just fill up with liquid hydrogen

thats the only way it would work as far as i can see.... so that would make 'the star' right and op wrong, oh dear

Oh bugger, I hadn't thought of that. The range would then be limited by the capacity of the hydrogen storage, so it could be quite large.

Can a currently existing hydrogen fuel cell stack put out 750KW and fit into a car that size?

Is there a hydrogen refueling station within 50 miles of where you are?

Although what you suggest isn't ridiculous, so it would make me wrong.

rypt · 31 Jan 2009 at 21:27

Why would it be talking about mains re-charge for a hydrogen car?

reflux · 31 Jan 2009 at 21:37

Until they can make an electric car sound like it has a V10, I ain't interested.

BigglesPiP · 31 Jan 2009 at 21:42

This is a hurdle that battery bases electric cars will not pass.

The only answer would be an exchange battery system at the "pumps".

rypt · 31 Jan 2009 at 22:18

BigglesPiP said:
This is a hurdle that battery bases electric cars will not pass.

The only answer would be an exchange battery system at the "pumps".

That technology is already there, it's called a hydrogen fuel cell.

BigglesPiP · 31 Jan 2009 at 22:19

rypt said:
That technology is already there, it's called a hydrogen fuel cell.

And a hydrogen fuel cell is not called a battery based electric car.

CliffyBiro · 31 Jan 2009 at 22:21

Most probably Hydrogen.

Doesn't look like a typical electric only car.

Angilion · 31 Jan 2009 at 22:53

reflux said:
Until they can make an electric car sound like it has a V10, I ain't interested.

That isn't a problem. Speakers and a computer will mimic the noise, so it will sound like whatever you want.

But it's just mimicking it, so it's pointless. The only reason to make an EV noisy is for the safety of other people. If I had one, I'd have it set to sound like a 2CV and I'd laugh at all the people with pretend big engines. Making an electric motor sound like a big ICE is like fitting a Corsa with a fake turbo whistle device.

rypt · 31 Jan 2009 at 22:56

BigglesPiP said:
And a hydrogen fuel cell is not called a battery based electric car.

It should be, since it's an electro-chemical cell, in a similar way to a normal batter (however it is open air and uses oxygen from air).

Angilion said:
That isn't a problem. Speakers and a computer will mimic the noise, so it will sound like whatever you want.

But it's just mimicking it, so it's pointless. The only reason to make an EV noisy is for the safety of other people. If I had one, I'd have it set to sound like a 2CV and I'd laugh at all the people with pretend big engines. Making an electric motor sound like a big ICE is like fitting a Corsa with a fake turbo whistle device.

If I had a hydrogen car I'd have it set to run as quite as possible, so basically minimal motor white, just tyre noise.

Angilion · 31 Jan 2009 at 22:58

BigglesPiP said:
This is a hurdle that battery bases electric cars will not pass.

The only answer would be an exchange battery system at the "pumps".

That isn't an answer either, due to the complexity of the battery systems. They take far too long to exchange and require skilled people to do it.

I'm undecided as to which is the least impractical source of electricity for cars on a large scale - battery or hydrogen fuel cell. Both have huge issues with practicality on a large scale, but which is worse?

Angilion · 31 Jan 2009 at 23:01

rypt said:
[..]
If I had a hydrogen car I'd have it set to run as quite as possible, so basically minimal motor white, just tyre noise.

That would increase the risk to pedestrians in this country, so it might not be legal.

People cross roads here wherever they judge it safe - we don't have the legal or social background of forbidding that. People also use noise as an indicator of approaching cars. With those two things, extremely quiet cars are dangerous.

Angilion · 31 Jan 2009 at 23:03

BigglesPiP said:
And a hydrogen fuel cell is not called a battery based electric car.

It isn't, but they're not conceptually all that different.

A battery uses a chemical reaction to generate electricity.
A fuel cell uses a chemical reaction to generate electricty.

Calling a fuel cell a refillable battery wouldn't be unreasonable.