Eletric Car with 10 minute recharge
GreyFlcn
Join Date: 2006-12-19 Member: 59134Members, Constellation
Join Date: 2006-12-19 Member: 59134Members, Constellation
<div class="IPBDescription">644 Horsepower, 155mph, 350 mile driving range</div>Move over Prius. 'You' just became obsolete. <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/wow.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":0" border="0" alt="wow.gif" />
<!--quoteo--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE</div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->Zap! and Lotus Team Up to Create the Zap-X: 350 Miles and 155 Mph on a 10 Minute Charge
by Jacob Gordon, Nashville, TN on 01.31.07
Electric vehicle maker and importer Zap (stands for zero air pollution) announced in mid January that it had partnered with the consultancy Lotus Engineering to explore the feasibility of new concepts for electric cars. Yesterday, Zap announced that it will pursue a long-range, high-performance electric car based on Lotus' lightweight APX concept design (pictured above). Zap will display the concept, which it is calling the Zap-X, at the upcoming North American Dealers Association (NADA) annual meeting in Las Vegas. Zap plans to use Lotus Engineering's APX (Aluminum Performance Crossover) concept design as a platform for a revolutionary breed of electric car. Zap claims this project will lay the basis for a "production-ready electric all-wheel drive crossover high performance vehicle for ZAP in the USA market." The battery system for the vehicle (details have yet to be disclosed) boasts a 350 mile range between charges and a 10 minute recharge time. Four in-wheel motors will give the Zap-X a total of 644 horsepower and a top speed of 155 mph.
Zap is better known for focusing on offering considerably meeker vehicles like the electric Obvio, Xebra, and Smart Car. The Zap-X is being positioned to compete with high-performance EVs like Tesla's Roadster (for which Lotus did body design) and its "WhiteStar" (codename) electric sedan. From the press release on January 30th, Zap CEO Steve Schneider said: "Lotus Engineering's APX technology demonstrator vehicle is a perfect fit for our plans to introduce a full product portfolio of electric cars. Due to the initial design by Lotus, our cost and time to production will be significantly reduced. We believe that the ZAP-X will become the most advanced, most practical and most appealing flagship electric vehicle to date and will revolutionize the industry providing the driver with the enjoyment of a sports car and the practicality of an SUV."<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
<a href="http://www.treehugger.com/files/2007/01/zap_x.php" target="_blank">http://www.treehugger.com/files/2007/01/zap_x.php</a>
<a href="http://www.autobloggreen.com/2007/01/30/no-tesla-cuv-but-zap-will-build-the-lotus-apx-with-batteries/" target="_blank">http://www.autobloggreen.com/2007/01/30/no...with-batteries/</a>
<img src="http://i.treehugger.com/images/2007-2-1/apx_side-1.jpg" border="0" alt="IPB Image" />
<img src="http://www.blogsmithmedia.com/www.autobloggreen.com/media/2007/01/lotus_apx_concept.jpg" border="0" alt="IPB Image" />
<img src="http://i.treehugger.com/images/2007-2-1/apx_front_3qtr_1.jpg" border="0" alt="IPB Image" />
<!--quoteo--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE</div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->Zap! and Lotus Team Up to Create the Zap-X: 350 Miles and 155 Mph on a 10 Minute Charge
by Jacob Gordon, Nashville, TN on 01.31.07
Electric vehicle maker and importer Zap (stands for zero air pollution) announced in mid January that it had partnered with the consultancy Lotus Engineering to explore the feasibility of new concepts for electric cars. Yesterday, Zap announced that it will pursue a long-range, high-performance electric car based on Lotus' lightweight APX concept design (pictured above). Zap will display the concept, which it is calling the Zap-X, at the upcoming North American Dealers Association (NADA) annual meeting in Las Vegas. Zap plans to use Lotus Engineering's APX (Aluminum Performance Crossover) concept design as a platform for a revolutionary breed of electric car. Zap claims this project will lay the basis for a "production-ready electric all-wheel drive crossover high performance vehicle for ZAP in the USA market." The battery system for the vehicle (details have yet to be disclosed) boasts a 350 mile range between charges and a 10 minute recharge time. Four in-wheel motors will give the Zap-X a total of 644 horsepower and a top speed of 155 mph.
Zap is better known for focusing on offering considerably meeker vehicles like the electric Obvio, Xebra, and Smart Car. The Zap-X is being positioned to compete with high-performance EVs like Tesla's Roadster (for which Lotus did body design) and its "WhiteStar" (codename) electric sedan. From the press release on January 30th, Zap CEO Steve Schneider said: "Lotus Engineering's APX technology demonstrator vehicle is a perfect fit for our plans to introduce a full product portfolio of electric cars. Due to the initial design by Lotus, our cost and time to production will be significantly reduced. We believe that the ZAP-X will become the most advanced, most practical and most appealing flagship electric vehicle to date and will revolutionize the industry providing the driver with the enjoyment of a sports car and the practicality of an SUV."<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
<a href="http://www.treehugger.com/files/2007/01/zap_x.php" target="_blank">http://www.treehugger.com/files/2007/01/zap_x.php</a>
<a href="http://www.autobloggreen.com/2007/01/30/no-tesla-cuv-but-zap-will-build-the-lotus-apx-with-batteries/" target="_blank">http://www.autobloggreen.com/2007/01/30/no...with-batteries/</a>
<img src="http://i.treehugger.com/images/2007-2-1/apx_side-1.jpg" border="0" alt="IPB Image" />
<img src="http://www.blogsmithmedia.com/www.autobloggreen.com/media/2007/01/lotus_apx_concept.jpg" border="0" alt="IPB Image" />
<img src="http://i.treehugger.com/images/2007-2-1/apx_front_3qtr_1.jpg" border="0" alt="IPB Image" />
Comments
--Scythe--
<a href="http://www.marketwire.com/mw/release_html_b1?release_id=198524" target="_blank">http://www.marketwire.com/mw/release_html_...lease_id=198524</a>
Tesla Motors made a sports car off of tech thats no more advanced than laptop batteries
<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Rh2tka0P6M&mode=related&search=" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Rh2tka0P6M...ted&search=</a>
Time to see what the Next-gen Nano-Lithium batteries can do <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/smile-fix.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":)" border="0" alt="smile-fix.gif" />
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Only problem I can see is you'll likely need a seperate rack of batteries at home if you wanted to recharge that quickly.
Have the home batteries recharge slow. Then discharge over to the car quickly.
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That said, the car doesn't look that affordable <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/tounge.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":p" border="0" alt="tounge.gif" />
"ZAP is targeting the $60,000 USD price range for the ZAP-X, with expected availability in 2008"
But then again, thats a bargain compared to a Tesla, which is $90,000 and takes 3.5 hours to recharge.
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Oh yeah, did I forget to mention that this car accelerates faster than Ferraris, Lamborginis and Porches?
Extra Links:
<a href="http://www.insidegreentech.com/node/126" target="_blank">http://www.insidegreentech.com/node/126</a>
<a href="http://www.insidegreentech.com/node/677" target="_blank">http://www.insidegreentech.com/node/677</a>
<a href="http://www.treehugger.com/files/2006/10/new_nanotechnol.php" target="_blank">http://www.treehugger.com/files/2006/10/new_nanotechnol.php</a>
<a href="http://www.altairnano.com/markets_amps.html" target="_blank">http://www.altairnano.com/markets_amps.html</a>
Phoenix Motors will already have a "Sports Utility Truck" out inbetween Now and next month :O
130 mile range, 10 minute recharge
They just paid $1 million for additional batteries from AltairNano
<a href="http://www.greencarcongress.com/2007/01/altairnano_clos.html" target="_blank">http://www.greencarcongress.com/2007/01/altairnano_clos.html</a>
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As for the recharging,
"The 35 and 70 kWh NanoSafe packs provide sufficient power and energy for a fleet vehicle to travel up to 130 or 250 miles, respectively, with a top speed of more than 100 mph. Both NanoSafe battery packs can be recharged in less than 10 minutes using an industrial 480 volt battery charging platform.
The NanoSafe battery packs can also be charged over longer periods of time when using typical 120 or 240 volt power sources. An on-board charger is standard equipment for both the Phoenix SUT and SUV vehicles."
<a href="http://www.greencarcongress.com/2006/12/altair_nanotech.html" target="_blank">http://www.greencarcongress.com/2006/12/altair_nanotech.html</a>
Extra Links:
<a href="http://www.autobloggreen.com/2007/01/24/zap-licenses-new-lithium-battery-management-system/" target="_blank">http://www.autobloggreen.com/2007/01/24/za...agement-system/</a>
<a href="http://www.autobloggreen.com/2007/01/30/no-tesla-cuv-but-zap-will-build-the-lotus-apx-with-batteries/" target="_blank">http://www.autobloggreen.com/2007/01/30/no...with-batteries/</a>
Sounds like a winner, provided two things:<ul><li>They can pull it off</li><li>They can make it affordable</li></ul>Fulfill those and you just made internal combustion engine cars obsolete.
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Hopefully it won't take too long, and I think the money having left over for paying for gas will cover a bit of the cost <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/tounge.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":p" border="0" alt="tounge.gif" />
Granted, we'll also be paying for construction of the charging stations too; money put to good use, though.
Howcome all of the hybride cars are ugly as hell... Put that tech into a high selling model gadamnit and stop screwing arround with the design of it. No wonder they wont sell <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/tounge.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":p" border="0" alt="tounge.gif" />
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<img src="http://www.techepics.com/files/sut_front3_large.jpg" border="0" alt="IPB Image" />
<img src="http://www.techepics.com/files/sut_rear3_large.jpg" border="0" alt="IPB Image" />
"Phoenix Motorcars has received 75 fleet orders from several municipalities and one utility company for its new zero-emission, all-electric, freeway-ready sport utility truck (SUT). The company, which is on target to manufacture and sell 500 fleet-ready vehicles by year’s end, will produce 16 pilot-build vehicles this month."
<a href="http://www.greencarcongress.com/2007/01/phoenix_motorca.html" target="_blank">http://www.greencarcongress.com/2007/01/phoenix_motorca.html</a>
Howcome all of the hybride cars are ugly as hell... Put that tech into a high selling model gadamnit and stop screwing arround with the design of it. No wonder they wont sell <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/tounge.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":p" border="0" alt="tounge.gif" />
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I won't say they're ugly, but they all have a certain look..
<img src="http://www.northbayhummer.com/images/H3_BIRCH%20WHITE.jpg" border="0" alt="IPB Image" />
But yeah, a 2005 Ferrari only has 483 horse power.
Yeah, I'm sure you would need to have something a iittle bit more powerful than just plugging it in to a typical wall socket.
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We don't get gas piped to our houses now either though. It could just become that instead of heading to the gas station you go to your local power plant and/or distribution station. If it actually charges in 10 minutes, that wouldn't be too horribly longer than a current gas stop.
How does it have that many horses and a top speed of 155 mph? Low torque? Electronically limited?
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The car must weigh alot. I don't know how big these batteries are, but Im guessing they are pretty hefty.
We don't get gas piped to our houses now either though. It could just become that instead of heading to the gas station you go to your local power plant and/or distribution station. If it actually charges in 10 minutes, that wouldn't be too horribly longer than a current gas stop.
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Well technically it can do it <a href="http://www.b2i.us/profiles/investor/ResLibraryView.asp?BzID=546&ResLibraryID=17574&Category=856" target="_blank">in 6 minutes.</a>
You can't exactly fill up a gas can with the kind of power you need. And I'd bet another electric car would be hesitant to let you siphon some off.
It would suck to run out of juice looking for a charging station though.
You can't exactly fill up a gas can with the kind of power you need. And I'd bet another electric car would be hesitant to let you siphon some off.
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Thats not much different than running out of gas in the middle of nowhere.
Most tow-trucks run around with a fat battery pack on em, with jumper cables that can flow a lot of juice.
If you're not worried about the charging time, you could just use a plain old wall socket.
"The NanoSafe battery packs can also be charged over longer periods of time when using typical 120 or 240 volt power sources. An on-board charger is standard equipment for both the Phoenix SUT and SUV vehicles."
<a href="http://www.greencarcongress.com/2006/12/altair_nanotech.html" target="_blank">http://www.greencarcongress.com/2006/12/altair_nanotech.html</a>
And hell, chances are, some places might even gladly fill you up for free, and offer free parking
in return for borrowing your battery to stabilize the electricity grid.
<a href="http://www.technologyreview.com/Energy/17930/" target="_blank">http://www.technologyreview.com/Energy/17930/</a>
EDIT: Cheaper you say? Yesh because they will undercut oil companies who supply water, gas, electricity etc. with the hope of that, they will get their product to more people and oil and gas will be used in less products so they can pay off their long-term debts with alot of buying from consumers. I probably make no sense, but it would throw the economy round a whole lot particularly if oil companies got alot less power.
On a more serious note, I will miss how you could speed up the engine, impressing others with its power, which is impossible with electric ones.
How much fossil fule does a power plant need to burn to recharge the car up enough for a 100 mile trip?
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True. Actually my main reason for interest in this tech isn't for cars.
It's just that this will cause their <a href="http://www.cosmosmagazine.com/node/957" target="_blank">storage, charge speed, and price to improve</a>.
I'm actually much more interested to see how they can be applied to Solar and Wind.
But then again, straight electric is a far better option than Hybrid or Hydrogen vehicles.
Since by using batteries <a href="http://www.physorg.com/news85074285.html" target="_blank">90% of the energy put in, can be put out</a>.
On the flip side <a href="http://www.physorg.com/news85074285.html" target="_blank">Hydrogen only 25% of the energy in can be put out</a>, and everything else gets lower than that.
So fully electric cars are my #2 choice for climate+energy security.
(They just cost too damned much right now)
(Not to mention the electricity grid would need an overhaul to support it)
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As far as cars go on climate/energy security, so far my best bet is on Algae BioDiesel cars ;D
Diesel in general produces 20% less carbon emmisions (20% more per gallon, but 40% better mileage per gallon)
Soy BioDiesel gets a <a href="http://www.unh.edu/p2/biodiesel/article_vehicle_compare.html" target="_blank">574% reduction in Fossil Fuel inputs over Gasoline</a> - Beats the pants off of Fuel Cells and Hybrids.
Not to mention, since the <a href="http://www.dieselforum.org/meet-clean-diesel/what-is-clean-diesel/new-technologies/ultra-low-sulfur-diesel/" target="_blank">price of Diesel production has gone up</a>.
Soy BioDiesel is already equal or cheaper than normal diesel.
And is expected to become considerably cheaper than normal Diesel
(<a href="http://www.renewableenergyaccess.com/rea/news/story?id=35527" target="_blank">$0.30 reduction/gallon</a>, <a href="http://www.uta.edu/publications/researchmagazine/2006/index.php?id=46" target="_blank">$0.40 reduction/gallon</a>, <a href="http://www.greenlineindustries.com/faq.html#If%20I%20produce%20biodiesel" target="_blank">federal subsidy $1.00 reduction/gallon</a>)
<a href="http://www.greenfuelonline.com/stage/gf_files/GFHowDoesItWork.rm" target="_blank">Right Click, Save As (32.2Mb)</a> - Algae BioDiesel - up to 500x the growth rate of Soy BioDiesel.
<a href="http://world.honda.com/news/2006/c060925DieselEngine/" target="_blank">2008 Honda Diesel Engine which is cleaner than Gasoline</a> - (Also being done by Volkswagen, Audi, Chevy/Mercedes/Jeep in 2008)
And just in general, <a href="http://www.propelbiofuels.com/site/aboutbiodiesel.html" target="_blank">BioDiesel blows the doors off of ethanol and other liquid fuels</a> when it comes to energy out, for energy in.
And hell, maybe if you're up for <a href="http://www.sportfishingmag.com/article.jsp?ID=38202&destinationID=" target="_blank">a long detailed explaination of it in laymens terms</a>
The alternative to not stepping up BioDiesel production <a href="http://urwebsrv.rutgers.edu/medrel/science/coal.shtml" target="_blank">is Coal Diesel <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/sad-fix.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":(" border="0" alt="sad-fix.gif" /></a>,
Which is <a href="http://www.treehugger.com/files/2007/01/coalto_liquid_f.php" target="_blank">really bad in terms of climate safety</a>.
<i>"a 35-mpg car powered by the CTL fuel that's currently available would generate as much carbon dioxide pollution as a far less efficient 19-mpg car that runs on conventional gasoline.” The reason? CTL emits relatively more C02 during the extraction and processing stage of making transportation fuel."</i>
Which is saying a lot, <a href="http://www.edmunds.com/advice/fueleconomy/articles/93338/article.html" target="_blank">since Diesels can get 40% better mileage</a> than comprable Gasoline engines.
<a href="http://www.treehugger.com/files/2006/02/loremo_ag_157_m.php" target="_blank">Lol 157mpg mini diesel car <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/tounge.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":p" border="0" alt="tounge.gif" /></a>
<!--quoteo(post=1604148:date=Feb 6 2007, 12:00 PM:name=Svenpa)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Svenpa @ Feb 6 2007, 12:00 PM) [snapback]1604148[/snapback]</div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->
On a more serious note, I will miss how you could speed up the engine,
impressing others with its power, which is impossible with electric ones.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Uhm.... this car is faster at accelerating than most sports cars.....
<a href="http://news.com.com/Second-fastest+sports+car+runs+on+batteries/2100-11389_3-6119237.html" target="_blank">This electric car is even faster.</a>
Only reason electric cars had sucky acceleration before was because the battery storage sucked.
So they cut the horsepower down to the scale of a moped to conserve range.
Now, they can use as much juice as they want.
<!--quoteo(post=1604148:date=Feb 4 2007, 09:09 PM:name=Revlic)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Revlic @ Feb 4 2007, 09:09 PM) [snapback]1604148[/snapback]</div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->
All we need now are a increase in nuclear power plants! <!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Nuclear power plants are just as bad as coal plants when it comes to global warming.
<a href="http://www.peakoil.org.au/nuclear.co2.htm" target="_blank">http://www.peakoil.org.au/nuclear.co2.htm</a>
Besides which, they cost way too much, and are propped up entirely by government subsidy.
If we have that much money to toss around, a small sliver would be better spent on other technologies.
I have a pretty sweet internship <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/tounge.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":p" border="0" alt="tounge.gif" /> (Asside from the part where I don't get paid)
Essentially, my job there is to do research into cutting edge green stuff.
Just today I was arguing a little bit with a guy from Toyota
He didn't believe me that "<a href="http://www.treehugger.com/files/2006/10/america_says_he_1.php" target="_blank">Clean Diesels</a>" could exist. <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/sad-fix.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":(" border="0" alt="sad-fix.gif" />
But so far I do have a little bottle full of BioDiesel.
Could probably chug it if I wanted to, since it's 8x less toxic than table salt.