9 décembre 2007
7
09
/12
/décembre
/2007
01:44
A the beginning of the XXth century, the fastest car on the road was the belgium made La Jamais Contente (The never happy) which could run up to 105 km/h. It looked somehow like a rocket. First attempt at an aerodynamic car maybe ?
We had to wait until recently when proper technology would allow to implement electrical technology at its fullest. First thing that any engineer knows is that an electrical motor can delivier a lot more torque and power at start-up than any fossil fuel engine. This means that these cars can have tremendous accelerations.
Another reason in favor of electrical cars is their mechanical simplicity. There is a just a few parts moving and therefore, one can expect much better reliability.
In the middle of nineties, IREQ, the very brilliant research center of Hydro-Quebec commenced an interesting research project. The research engineerrs took a large Canadian built Dodge Intrepid to strip it out of all its fossil fuel gear and replaced it by a fully electrical drivetrain where one motor would be fitted on each wheel and a set of newly developped flat Li-Ion batteries along with energy managment to allow for fast charging and also to stop charging when the batteries are full. The wheel motors, suspension and batteries were of new designs. The car proved that it was possible to have proper range and accelerations such as required by any salesman having to do a lot of driving. The car would also be rechargable in acceptable time as well. This led to a venture with Heuliez and Dassault to build the Cleanova where the engines and battery designs come from Hydro-Quebec. Another example of excellent France-Quebec relationship.
Later, the french car maker MVS Venturi renowed for very nice sports car, pushed the limits further. They decided to show that it was possible to create a true sports car with electrical power. They designed the Fetish which can be considered a true bomb that can outdo a Porsche in terms of acceleration figures.
Then, the British decided to match the Fetish and they designed the Tesla which is also a true electrical sports car sold at a much affordable price than the Fetish:
http://www.teslamotors.com/
The next challenge would be to design a fast sedan that would prove exceptionnal. This has just been succeeded by the ZAP company. The car has been designed by Lotus and implements Hydro-Quebec's idea to have an electrical motor per wheel. The advantage is that EPS and ABS can easily be implemented on the four wheels:
http://www.zapworld.com/electric-vehicles/electric-cars/zap-x
It is also a four wheel drive.
Just have a look at the performance:
Power: 644 hp in 4 motors
Acceleration: 0-100 in 4.8 seconds
Range: 470 km
Charge time: 10 minutes
If this cars meets its specifications, it will then prove that electrical cars have reached complete maturity and they are now coming back as serious alternatives. I would even state that there would now e no real reason to continue with fossil fuel cars. These figures are better than any Mercedes-Benz with these ridiculous oversized engines.
Of course, we now wish that someone would do a large family vehicle such as a Peugeot 807 driven by electrical motors.
The question that now needs to be answered: can of charging system be sufficient to provide for the 10 minutes charge. Therefore, we could we have installed on every rest area in Europe and America ?
Last point, someone has to convince people in India and China to buy electrical cars.
LHR
We had to wait until recently when proper technology would allow to implement electrical technology at its fullest. First thing that any engineer knows is that an electrical motor can delivier a lot more torque and power at start-up than any fossil fuel engine. This means that these cars can have tremendous accelerations.
Another reason in favor of electrical cars is their mechanical simplicity. There is a just a few parts moving and therefore, one can expect much better reliability.
In the middle of nineties, IREQ, the very brilliant research center of Hydro-Quebec commenced an interesting research project. The research engineerrs took a large Canadian built Dodge Intrepid to strip it out of all its fossil fuel gear and replaced it by a fully electrical drivetrain where one motor would be fitted on each wheel and a set of newly developped flat Li-Ion batteries along with energy managment to allow for fast charging and also to stop charging when the batteries are full. The wheel motors, suspension and batteries were of new designs. The car proved that it was possible to have proper range and accelerations such as required by any salesman having to do a lot of driving. The car would also be rechargable in acceptable time as well. This led to a venture with Heuliez and Dassault to build the Cleanova where the engines and battery designs come from Hydro-Quebec. Another example of excellent France-Quebec relationship.
Later, the french car maker MVS Venturi renowed for very nice sports car, pushed the limits further. They decided to show that it was possible to create a true sports car with electrical power. They designed the Fetish which can be considered a true bomb that can outdo a Porsche in terms of acceleration figures.
Then, the British decided to match the Fetish and they designed the Tesla which is also a true electrical sports car sold at a much affordable price than the Fetish:
http://www.teslamotors.com/
The next challenge would be to design a fast sedan that would prove exceptionnal. This has just been succeeded by the ZAP company. The car has been designed by Lotus and implements Hydro-Quebec's idea to have an electrical motor per wheel. The advantage is that EPS and ABS can easily be implemented on the four wheels:
http://www.zapworld.com/electric-vehicles/electric-cars/zap-x
It is also a four wheel drive.
Just have a look at the performance:
Power: 644 hp in 4 motors
Acceleration: 0-100 in 4.8 seconds
Range: 470 km
Charge time: 10 minutes
If this cars meets its specifications, it will then prove that electrical cars have reached complete maturity and they are now coming back as serious alternatives. I would even state that there would now e no real reason to continue with fossil fuel cars. These figures are better than any Mercedes-Benz with these ridiculous oversized engines.
Of course, we now wish that someone would do a large family vehicle such as a Peugeot 807 driven by electrical motors.
The question that now needs to be answered: can of charging system be sufficient to provide for the 10 minutes charge. Therefore, we could we have installed on every rest area in Europe and America ?
Last point, someone has to convince people in India and China to buy electrical cars.
LHR
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