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August 2008 Posts
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Zap NightMares, Ryan
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I noticed that the MP3 file for today has the ID3 tags set for artist and album! Excellent!
Thanks!
Steve
your constant bringing up of that GM car is revolting ha ha ha
First, I don't know about the cycling of Lithium Ion batteries, but not draining NiCad batteries and then recharging them developes a memory at the point of average discharge. Then the battery won't discharge below that point. Second, if the Lithium Ion batteries can charge to 80% withing the first hour of charge; why not stop charging the battery at 1 hour. The last 5 hours of charging seems to be a waste of energy. Just buy an EV that can take you where you want to go and back on 70% of its max charge. Or would that cause the battery's max charge value to drop? I don't have the answer but I like the question. Ron
When dealing with EV range figures you must remember that they are very elastic. The Volt is said to travel 40 miles before the engine kicks in but is that 40 miles with an egg between your foot and the accelerator or is that 40 teenage boy miles. Big difference.
I believe their extra 6 or 7 added just help them pad their 40 number a bit. From what I've heard, I believe people may be able to get 50 miles al--electric when the batteries are new. Of course, with use that number will slowly decrease.
Driving range is certainly affected by driving style and whether the driving is city or highway as well as other factors. Fortunately, there is a standard testing procedure.
SAE J1634-1993-05-20, ``Electric Vehicle Energy Consumption and Range Test Procedure.''We can only hope that GM is talking about 40 miles based on SAE J1634 standard. Otherwise, this might just be a B.S. claim. Battery SOC (state of charge) limits are a mystery to me as well. I thought I heard that the Volt will be operated between 20% and 80% SOC under normal conditions. I don't know why range isn't 0% to 100% SOC. Perhaps this damages the batteries. Protecting the battery pack from damage will probably be more important than almost any other issue. Surely GM will make sure the pack will be reliable under all conditions.If the charging (or discharging) process damages the batteries, then GM will have anexpensive warranty repair on their hands. Regarding memory effects on batteries. I recently read an article saying that is no longer an issue. Modern batteries do NOT have memories effects.
When thinking about charging a battery to 80% capacity in a short time, remember that this would mean being able to supply a LOT of power (volts * amps) during that period. Take a small 5KwHr battery for example. Assume that 80% of capacity would be ~ 4KwHr. To add that much power in 1 hour using a 110v input, you would need to supply 4000 / 110 = 36 Amps (not counting efficiency losses). Larger batteries or a shorter time would require more. This exceeds the limit on a 110v normal outlet which is ~ 15 Amps. So the charge time on today's EV batteries may well be constrained by the amount of power that can be reasonably supplied. (I think the Tesla can use a 220v 70A supply to decrease charging time.)
So the net is that given normal house outlets, it is going to take quite a while to charge an EV, even if you are only charging to 80% of capacity.
