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NASCAR All-Electric Car Races


Thaddeus Kosciuszko

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8 hours ago, Thaddeus Kosciuszko said:

NASCAR is investigating running all electric car races.

https://www.cbssports.com/nascar/news/nascar-is-exploring-the-idea-of-an-all-electric-racing-series-per-report/

So far, they've announced they've solved two of the biggest problems related to all-electric car races:

For longer races like the Daytona 500. pit stops will be abolished.  Instead, there will be a 60 minute 'intermission' where all the cars go off the track to get charged back up.

Because electric cars are so quiet, every racing team will be required to put baseball cards into all four wheels on their cars to mimic engine noises as the cars go around the track.

 

How are they going to do the engine noise?  All electric races would be like a silent movie by comparison with the "rrrooommm" of today's racers going by.

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7 minutes ago, BR46 said:

I would like to see pit stops under green for battery swap.

It will be the future, possibly.  Imagine a world with no ICE.  :(  You can't have hundreds of people lined up waiting for a 40 minute charge at the local station.  Imagine pulling in and a new battery was installed from below.  Might be quicker than a fill up now.

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7 minutes ago, Square Wheels said:

It will be the future, possibly.  Imagine a world with no ICE.  :(  You can't have hundreds of people lined up waiting for a 40 minute charge at the local station.  Imagine pulling in and a new battery was installed from below.  Might be quicker than a fill up now.

At work we had a few electric fork lifts and changing out batteries only took a minute or two. Slide one out and slide the fully charged battery in. 

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12 minutes ago, Square Wheels said:

It will be the future, possibly.  Imagine a world with no ICE.  :(  You can't have hundreds of people lined up waiting for a 40 minute charge at the local station.  Imagine pulling in and a new battery was installed from below.  Might be quicker than a fill up now.

You would have been quite the futurist back in the horse and buggy days :D  Those ICE things will never catch on! You'll never see a horse catch fire and explode!

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9 hours ago, Square Wheels said:

Imagine pulling in and a new battery was installed from below.  Might be quicker than a fill up now.

This could work if people could get past 'exchanging' parts of their cars - parts with significant value, at that - for something of unknown quality and capacity.

 

I think instead we will see cars evolve away from the all-electric systems because they take too long to charge and the 'fuel' infrastructure won't be there some time.

We will see hybrid cars, I think, that are the 'flip' side of hybrid cars now.  The future car will use electric for the main motive power, but the car will also have a small 5 or 10HP motor having the sole function of powering a small generator as the car drives and while it's parked.  This will both extend the range of the car by offsetting some of what is taken out of the battery while driving.  It will also allow the car to 'recharge' anywhere at anytime.  Of course, the car will be able to recharge by plugging it in too.  I could see this happening especially with commercial vehicles and tractor trailers where downtime for traditional charging affects profits, and where the larger vehicle can more easily accommodate the generator/engine set up.

By using the electric side for motive power, the combustion engine no longer has to be oversized to accelerate the car, nor even be sized to propel the car against wind resistance at highway speeds.  It only has to be sized to offset some - not all - of the electrical energy spent by the main electric drive system.  Which means no sizing for the massive torque required by acceleration, so the combustion engine can now be much, much smaller and carefully sized to provide just the energy needed, with the attendant reduction in fossil fuel use.

 

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37 minutes ago, Thaddeus Kosciuszko said:

The future car will use electric for the main motive power, but the car will also have a small 5 or 10HP motor having the sole function of powering a small generator as the car drives

That was the way the Chevy Volt worked, except it had a 100 hp ICE.  If I remember correctly it just charged the batteries. and the ICE never directly powered the car.

I didn't pay attention.  but the Volt died and I don't know why. 

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55 minutes ago, Bikeguy said:

That was the way the Chevy Volt worked, except it had a 100 hp ICE.  If I remember correctly it just charged the batteries. and the ICE never directly powered the car.

I didn't pay attention.  but the Volt died and I don't know why. 

There was considerable resistance to it's only so so current technology.  That's what led to a lack of Volts.

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13 hours ago, Bikeguy said:

That was the way the Chevy Volt worked, except it had a 100 hp ICE.  If I remember correctly it just charged the batteries. and the ICE never directly powered the car.

I didn't pay attention.  but the Volt died and I don't know why. 

Not many people bought them :(  My friends had one and loved it.  Eventually, they went even farther into that rabbit hole (GM electric) and got a Bolt (full EV) when the Volt lease was up.  Seem happy with that too, but they really don't drive much.  With PHEV plentiful, and EVs continuing to grow and enter the market all over, we're very likely to eventually hit a two part market - folks will have their "normal" car/truck/SUV that is an EV for the 99% stuff we all generally use a vehicle for short trips AND then a "secondary" vehicle option for the out-of-the-ordinary situations. The secondary is a 2nd, 3rd, or 4th vehicle in the family OR it is a rental/car share vehicle.  

With me as an example, we are a 2-car family (of two people) and 95% of the time our cars are parked and unused.  Of the 5% time we use them, they are under 50 miles 90+% of the time. So, when time comes to replace one, EV is a strong contender and, for me, the issue only remains the lifespan for it (has to be a 10+yr buy and the battery replacement & disposal issues need to be reasonable).  When the other vehicle goes, it becomes a "what's the truck market look like now", but at the least, the F150 hybrid is a real strong contender if the Lightning is fully up to snuff yet.

FTR, if @MickinMD get's a new car, the Bolt type seems perfect for him - like his Honda Fit, but all electric so appealing to his frugality.

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6 hours ago, Razors Edge said:

the Bolt type seems perfect for him

Maybe a Bolt that has been fixed during the recall, or one that is new and doesn't have the problem.  https://www.caranddriver.com/news/a37552121/chevy-bolt-battery-recall-deep-dive-details/

6 hours ago, Razors Edge said:

the issue only remains the lifespan for it (has to be a 10+yr buy and the battery replacement & disposal issues need to be reasonable).

I had my 2005 Prius for 11.25 years and 260,650 miles.  It never had any issues with the high voltage battery.   

The 12 volt battery was replaced at 8 1/2 years.  Spark plugs were replaced  twice.  The inverter coolant was replaced twice (every 100,000 miles).  The front wheel bearing were replaced once.  The water pump was replaced twice, including a new serpentine belt.  And then just oil, the oil filter, cabin air filters, wiper blades and tires as needed.   It never needed new brakes.  Regenerative braking made the real brakes last for the entire time I had the car.    It was one of the most reliable cars I've ever owned.  My 2016 Prius is so far, even better.

I was looking again... at new cars.  The Toyota RAV4 Prime maybe (not any time soon) my next car to replace the 2010 Subaru.   The RAV4 Prime can drive about 42 miles on the battery.  That would cover many short trips.  And for longer trips, the hybrid system should get about 36 miles per gallon.   I'd run a 240 volt circuit to the garage for charging the car.  I have an open position in my breaker box for the circuit.

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10 minutes ago, Bikeguy said:

I had my 2005 Prius for 11.25 years and 260,650 miles.  It never had any issues with the high voltage battery.   

Good to know!

12 minutes ago, Bikeguy said:

The RAV4 Prime can drive about 42 miles on the battery.  That would cover many short trips. 

Just about all my "routine" driving with the exception of road trips to visit friends, family, or camping.  It's tough (for me) to find places to drive that are 21+ miles away very often.  I'd be in battery power quite a lot. :)

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