You are not logged in. Access is limited. Login or see membership information. • EVcast

EVcast.com is the home of the EVcast.  The EVcast is a podcast dedicated to bringing consumers the latest information on electric vehicles in a non-technical, non-political, and entertaining way.  Don't forget, you can also subscribe to this podcast via iTunes or your favorite podcatcher.

NEW! Stream the latest episode of the EVcast from your website by including this one simple line of javascript:

<script src="http://www.igroops.com/evcast.js" type="text/javascript"></script>


Watch this Blog Notify me by e-mail any time a new post is made to this blog.

Subscribe to this Podcast
via iTunes!

The EVcast is a podcast dedicated to bringing consumers the latest information on electric vehicles in a non-technical, non-political, and entertaining way.

Become Our Platinum Sponsor
Product ID: 00000003
Currently In Stock: 0

For the main sponsor, you get the big prize! A 622px wide x 100px tall banner that will appear on just about every page within EVcast.com, including blog posts. On the homepage, in place of the banner you will have a custom ... More »

Price: $2500.00

August 2008 Posts

Archives


  The EVcast
Blog Entry

EVcast #64: Interview with Karen Fitzgerald from Sunmotors

Monday, August 25th 2008 @ 11:17 AM (not yet rated)    post viewed 1825 times

click to download this audio file

 

 

  • Interview with Karen Fitzgerald from Sunmotors
  • Update on Envia
  • Tesla Model S Hybrid??
  • Hyundai Plug In
  • Volvo Plugin
  • Bo Explains "Customer Depletion Point" thanks to Lyle
  • Better Place May Not Be a Happy Place
  • Listener Feedback

 

 

Don't just listen to the EVcast -- experience and be a part of it!  Join us at 1:00pm Eastern, M-F, in our live video broadcast and chat along with us!

add a comment  rate this post: very bad poor average good fantastic!
Comments

John Briggs
Free Access
JohnBriggs said on Monday, August 25th 2008 @ 2:13 PM:

http://www.sunmotor.us/Company_Products.html

quote comment


John Briggs
Free Access
JohnBriggs said on Monday, August 25th 2008 @ 2:30 PM:

OK, reality check on Sun Motors

   1) 400 mile range
   2) Solar panel changes the car in 2 days.

  RANGE:  I really doubt it will have a 400 mile range.  Solectria Sunrise did get 375 miles on a single change in a race under controlled conditions and a champion racer at the wheel.  However, I rather doubt any practical car can reach that.  The Tesla has a 53 KWH battery to go 220 miles (EPA test conditions).

    SOLAR.  The specs say this has a 300 Watt solar panel.  That seems reasonable.  Let's estimate the output.  My 3000 W solar panels on my house produce 16 KWH in one day (a good day).  That means we can expect 1.6KWH per day from the 300 W panel.
    Let's assume they have a 53KWH battery like the Telsa.  It will take 33 days (one month) to charge the batteries.

    I don't know why these companies make these exaggerated claims.  There is so much BS in the EV marketplace.

    By the way, commercial solar panels are currently running at $4.85/watt (customer price).  For a 300 Watt panel, this represents about $1500 for the solar panel.  I wonder if it is worth it.

quote comment


Bill Berggren
Free Access
BillBerggren said on Monday, August 25th 2008 @ 2:30 PM:

I don't mind the looks of this car.  400 mile range maybe they could offer a 1/4 pack to lower costs.

All submarines before nuclear were battery-electric underwater.  As you can't run an gas engine below water, no air.

As for the solar panel, it probably offers 5-10 miles range.  Still it would be nice to have larger battery pack to bank electricity.  She might have been thinking with original lead-acid battery pack.  Car probably gets 100 whr/mile at 25 mph.

Seems lithum iron phosphate is becoming battery of choice.

 

 

 

quote comment


John Briggs
Free Access
JohnBriggs said on Monday, August 25th 2008 @ 3:11 PM:

Efficiency

  We often talk about BEV's as being 90% efficient.  However, converting Coal or natural gas or oil to electricity is probably on the order of 30% efficient.  So to get the overall efficiency from well-to-wheel you have to multiply the two numbers together. 90% times 30% = 27% efficient.  Now BEV's and ICE's look pretty similar in terms of efficiency.

   On the other hand, you can make electricity from wind or solar (I do) and then you can talk about BEV's being 90% efficient because you don't have conversion efficiencies of the fossil fuel to worry about.

quote comment


william stockwell
Free Access
WilliamStockwell said on Monday, August 25th 2008 @ 3:43 PM:

Who would want to go 400 miles at 25mph-35mph if I'm using a low speed car I'm probably not going out more than around 10 miles- say 25 miles round trip- My personal opinion is a low speed car 25-35mph wouldn't need more than 50 mile range a medium speed car 45-55mph wouldn't need more than 150 mile range.

quote comment


John Briggs
Free Access
JohnBriggs said on Monday, August 25th 2008 @ 8:12 PM:

I guess I assumed the EX model was a full speed vehicle and had a 400 mile range.  But now that I go back and look, it is not clear.  The description is very brief.

quote comment


Paul Cummings
Free Access
PaulCummings said on Monday, August 25th 2008 @ 10:03 PM:

From the podcast, Karen said that the EX and DX were both NEV's- th EX just had an extended range- i.e. larger battery pack, though this was hard to understand from her interview- she jumped around a bit- seemed very nice, but perhaps is not used to being interviewed.  Though I would imagine her engineer will make it a bit more clear on the PV panel at the least;-)

quote comment


John Briggs
Free Access
JohnBriggs said on Monday, August 25th 2008 @ 10:25 PM:

FOSH WARNING !!!!!

Avoid the FOSH website.  It is full of anti-Obama vile messages and gross-bloody-graphic images.  It is a complete HOAX.

quote comment


Ray Steve Ellis
Free Access
RaySteveEllis said on Friday, January 15th 2010 @ 2:52 AM:

Hi there..I love the plug in of Hyundai. It really do have good center caps in it. I really like it a lot.

quote comment