Electric Car Does The Quarter Mile In 5 FIVE SECONDS....

[shaggerz]

maybe so but "just drop an electric motor into any rwd 4 cyl car" I think not... not without about a metre width of rubber on the ground.

 

[starkeyholden]

maybe so but "just drop an electric motor into any rwd 4 cyl car" I think not... not without about a metre width of rubber on the ground.

You're forgetting the extra traction you get from the downforce of over a ton of well distributed lead acid batteries gives you, in spite of which the car had it's front wheels up in the air for about a third of the track... and the car was street legal and driven there and back as well as daily. I'd love to get one of those 2000 Amp controllers!

 

[semi]

I'm sure thats what they said when they converted from coal trains to electric as well.

Admittedly electric cars are a very long way off being ready for general market use, but it doesn't mean they'll never get there.

elecric rains dont run off batteries though, do they? they run off power lines or off diesel powered generators

 

[shaggerz]

as semi said!! the problem is not that we don't have powerful electric motors, because we do.... As michaelw has made clear there is plenty of power and torque there for the taking, but the hard part is the batteries.

Not sure what the rest of you think but they seem to be a horribly cumbersome way to store electricity to me since they have to be so large and heavy.

oh and starkeyholden in order for it to gain that much traction by sheer weight, consider how much extra power would be required to accelerate that great big lump of lead to 400km/h in 5 seconds...

maybe 12-13 second quarters for something initially very light (before the batteries lol... it wouldnt be light with them in)

Theres no arguing with peak torque available across the entire rev range, but in practice, very cumbersome no doubt. Weight would be less of an issue than charge time I think.

 

[starkeyholden]

Charge time is getting to be less of an issue, although it really isn't that big a deal to start with, To put a different perspective on things, would you rather travel to a service station once a week to put petrol in you're mobile phone to run it, queing for the pump, queing to pay, or would you rather just plug it in to charge each night?

Also running cost is becoming a rather large consideration, current EV drivers in the States calculate that the total running costs of their vehicle INCLUDING the neccessary periodic replacement of the batteries equates to about 20cents US per litre for petrol at prices current a year or so ago.
As for cumbersome due to the weight, The purpose built EV's (as opposed to a converted car) are amazingly agile and very quick around corners due to the weight of the batteries and their position (resulting in a much lower centre of gravity than standard vehicles) Footage of these EV's going through handling testing shows much less body roll at high cornering speeds than standard vehicles