FIA Formula E Championship

Glaucus said:
Cant understand why they only tested it with 1/4 power.
Still all coming together. Just need to announce the last three teams.
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wolvers said:
Because they don't have the full size battery pack yet. ;)

Anyhoo, it already does doughnuts without breaking a sweat.................
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Is it 1/4 power? I was a bit confused by the video. At the beginning they said the battery was only 1/4 of the size of the race battery, and at the end Di Grassi said they had 1/4 of the power and torque. But they aren't the same thing are they? Surely if the motor is the motor then it will run at full power with a 1/4 sized battery, it will just run 1/4 as long?

Or have they turned the motor down to 1/4 too so they are getting a full race time out of the 1/4 battery?
 
Im assuming the latter by what they said.
Probably because a 1/4 pack at full power would last 5 mins, so not a lot to test.
And secondly each cell has a max discharge rate and i doubt a 1/4 pack could actually provide the needed discharge for full power.
 
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Yeah there's no point in testing a cars basic functionality on only 10 minutes of 'fuel', so I agree I expect its the latter.

Any details on the proposed circuit layouts yet?
 
I really hope they have the guts to go properly into cities. I'm not expecting Forza style circuits around Trafalgar Square or anything, but the opportunity is there to do some interesting things.
 
wolvers said:
Williams Advanced Engineering are doing the battery, I work for F1 mainly but also do R&D work for all parts of the company.
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Can I be you? Seriously, if Williams asked me to go work for them for free, I would seriously consider doing it.

God knows how I would live, but sod that. Ever since I walked around their factory back in 1995 Williams F1 (a friend of the family worked for them at that time), I was hooked. I love the team.
 
Skeeter said:
Is it 1/4 power? I was a bit confused by the video. At the beginning they said the battery was only 1/4 of the size of the race battery, and at the end Di Grassi said they had 1/4 of the power and torque. But they aren't the same thing are they?
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Yes it's the same thing. Think of the battery pack as if it's the fuel and the engine, because it has to provide the electrical power for the motor. If it's only got a 1/4 of the 200kw max power the Formula E official specs say, then that's your limiting factor. Like having a 1/4 engine size. Of course the motor, and it's power electronics, has to be capable of converting that electrical power into mechanical power but that's another issue altogether!

There's a huge amount of new prototype tech in this car, so running it at limited power to begin with is a very sensible choice IMO.
 
Glaucus said:
each cell has a max discharge rate and i doubt a 1/4 pack could actually provide the needed discharge for full power.
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The max current a pack can pull can be up to 15x the capacity of the cells, so a pack made up of 10Ah cells could be discharged at 150A. It depends on the cells, they vary. Also there's a load of other things to consider like the temperature you run them at.

The voltage of the pack is determined by the number of cells in the pack. The more cells strung together, the higher the voltage.

So, the max electrical power the pack can produce is the max discharge rate times the voltage. A pack that can discharge at 100A with 400v has 40kw available. A 1/4 sized has a 1/4 of the cells so is 100A times 100v, and ultimately 1/4 of the power at 10kw.

The length of time the pack will last under discharge depends on the capacity of the cells used and the rate they are discharged at. Continuously pulling 1A from a 4Ah cell will take it from fully charged to fully discharged in 4 hours (theoretically).
 
wolvers said:
Yes it's the same thing. Think of the battery pack as if it's the fuel and the engine, because it has to provide the electrical power for the motor. If it's only got a 1/4 of the 200kw max power the Formula E official specs say, then that's your limiting factor. Like having a 1/4 engine size. Of course the motor, and it's power electronics, has to be capable of converting that electrical power into mechanical power but that's another issue altogether!

There's a huge amount of new prototype tech in this car, so running it at limited power to begin with is a very sensible choice IMO.
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At the start the guy said it was only an 8KWH battery, whereas the race one will be 30KWH, which has no bearing on the power of the motor. Filling a 200bhp cars petrol tank with only 1/4 of a tank doesn't make it a 50bhp car.

I'm with Glaucus, in assuming the motor has been turned down to be in line with the current battery. But from the video alone it doesn't make sense what they said.
 
You wouldn't need to do anything to the motors, just reduce the power given to them.

I expect its a 1/4 pack delivering 1/4 power. Ie throttle recalibrated to 1/4 to maximise running time and save the cells by not discharging above there rated discharge rate.
 
Aother team

http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/11/28/motor-racing-electric-india-idUSL4N0JD2B120131128
Nov 28 (Reuters) - Mahindra Racing will join the new Formula E electric racing series starting next year as the eighth, and only Indian, team, the Mumbai-based Mahindra Group said on Thursday.

The $16.2-billion multinational group said it had signed an agreement with Formula E Holdings to join the series starting in China in September, with races in 10 leading cities including Berlin.

"We strongly believe that Formula E can provide an excellent global showcase for our electric vehicle technology," group chairman and managing director Anand Mahindra said in a statement.

The group, which manufactures Mahindra Reva electric vehicles, said joining Formula E was a "natural step".
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