[KevO]

There is a breaking news story on the BBC this morning that China is about to release an electric car that will hold 5 people and do 250 miles, that's miles, all on a single charge.
It can be fully charged, get this, from any household plug socket in 7 to 8 hours but if you use a specially developed fast charging point with a lead the diameter of a fire hose it will fill up the car in just one hour and you can get half a charge in only 10 minutes.

They've certainly been busy out east and if it is indeed all true then the implications of this are MASSIVE. It would obviously ruin the petrol driven car industry and leave the US trailing so far behind it could collapse the dollar once and for all. But on the up side Obama's wishes for his people to wake up may become realised and we may see a NASA type effort to beat the Chinese to gain world domination in electric car sales.

This of course will kill 'peak oil'. There have been many new discoveries of Oil fields lately but the decline from existing ones has still outweighed that but not by that much. This car and what will surely be the subsequent race by the rest of the world to catch up will mean that there will indeed be enough Oil to get us through.
It could also mean huge, huge emission cuts and therefore saving us from climate disaster and vegetarian sandals just in the nick of time, although that does entirely depend on how we generate the electricity needed. James Lovelock will undoubtedly say that only nuclear could do the job and this is probably the case. Renewables such as wind and solar would never be able to power enough generation for electric transportation.

But this all means, that apart from China becoming the world's main superpower within years, our reliance on Oil will lessen and we would no loner need to deal with the Middle East. This would inevitably mean the fall of Saudi Arabia which of course would cause strife bit hopefully only in the short term and as long as none of these countries acquire nukes then it will stay in the short term and not the forever term. Ii is time to get away from relying for our very lives from that part of the world and become truly self sufficient as a nation.
And if nothing else, it will be an end to noisy roads.
http://kevinollier.blogspot.com/

[cipi604]

Hold your horses buddy, I don't know how many can afford this gizmo ~ £30,000/$50000

[KevO]

Hold your horses buddy, I don't know how many can afford this gizmo ~ £30,000/$50000

LCD 46 inch TV's were £2000 three years ago, they are now £500. WE all kn ow how economics work. These cars will cost no more and probably a lot less than petrol cars in a very, very short time

[Arthur75]

LCD 46 inch TV's were £2000 three years ago, they are now £500. WE all kn ow how economics work. These cars will cost no more and probably a lot less than petrol cars in a very, very short time

lol

[Olle]

This is hardly news. If it can be recharged at home in 8 hours, then the battery can hold no more than 16 kWh. That is not much and it will not be sufficient for more than 100-150 km in a modern and SAFE car.
Sorry to be so negative, but please understand simple math here, a household plug can give approx 2000 Watts. Multiply that by 8 and you get 16000 Wh, a.k.a. 16 kWh.

[KevO]

This is hardly news. If it can be recharged at home in 8 hours, then the battery can hold no more than 16 kWh. That is not much and it will not be sufficient for more than 100-150 km in a modern and SAFE car.
Sorry to be so negative, but please understand simple math here, a household plug can give approx 2000 Watts. Multiply that by 8 and you get 16000 Wh, a.k.a. 16 kWh.

I'm with yas, but that's what they're saying at the BBC.
And the BBC is GOD
see
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/8315947.stm

[SeaGypsy]

How much can the current ramp up to with beefed up connections to the mains? Think about it; your oven and stove and refrigerator and hot water system can all run at the same time. With 3 phase standard power what can the amps rate? Questions others here are more qualified than I to answer.

Either this is a Ponzi conspiracy of monumental proportions or it's a "BUY BUY BUY" I dug a little and found this excellent article introding the company with a focus on it's founder;


"Wang Chuan-Fu started BYD (the letters are the initials of the company's Chinese name) in 1995 in Shenzhen, China. A chemist and government researcher, Wang raised some $300,000 from relatives, rented about 2,000 square meters of space, and set out to manufacture rechargeable batteries to compete with imports from Sony and Sanyo. By about 2000, BYD had become one of the world's largest manufacturers of cellphone batteries. The company went on to design and manufacture mobile-phone handsets and parts for Motorola (MOT, Fortune 500), Nokia (NOK), Sony Ericsson, and Samsung."

Perhaps the noise in April deafened us?

"But Buffett, who is 78, was intrigued by Munger's description of the entrepreneur behind BYD, a man named Wang Chuan-Fu, whom he had met through a mutual friend. "This guy," Munger tells Fortune, "is a combination of Thomas Edison and Jack Welch - something like Edison in solving technical problems, and something like Welch in getting done what he needs to do. I have never seen anything like it."


Coming from Munger, that meant a lot. Munger, the 85-year-old vice chairman of Berkshire Hathaway, is a curmudgeon who frowns on most investment ideas. "When I call Charlie with an idea," Buffett tells me, "and he says, 'That is really a dumb idea,' that means we should put 100% of our net worth into it. If he says, 'That is the dumbest thing I've ever heard,' then you should put 50% of your net worth into it. Only if he says, 'I'm going to have you committed,' does it mean he really doesn't like the idea."

This time Buffett asked another trusted partner, David Sokol, chairman of a Berkshire-owned utility company called MidAmerican Energy, to travel to China and take a closer look at BYD."


http://money.cnn.com/2009/04/13/technol ... c.fortune/

[Olle]

I'm with yas, but that's what they're saying at the BBC.
And the BBC is GOD
see
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/8315947.stm

and it is filed under Science....
Isn't it a journalists job to come up with tough questions on everything they report...?

[SeaGypsy]

Before I commented I read about 10 articles on the company; BYD. The big deal is not in the electric car per se but on application of a new battery system. The detail on dynamics and growth of this company are very impressive; some very serious heads have already grabbed a chunk.

[kjmclark]

Hold your horses buddy, I don't know how many can afford this gizmo ~ £30,000/$50000

LCD 46 inch TV's were £2000 three years ago, they are now £500. WE all kn ow how economics work. These cars will cost no more and probably a lot less than petrol cars in a very, very short time

WOW - so the Chinese have figured out how to use photolithography to make cars! That is impressive!

Come on KevO. Surely you can see that cars are not circuit boards?

[edit to replace the hard to understand sarcasm - is that better?]

[SeaGypsy]

Hold your horses buddy, I don't know how many can afford this gizmo ~ £30,000/$50000

LCD 46 inch TV's were £2000 three years ago, they are now £500. WE all kn ow how economics work. These cars will cost no more and probably a lot less than petrol cars in a very, very short time

WOW - so the Chinese have figured out how to use photolithography to make cars! That is impressive!

Come on KevO. personal attack deleted

Don't be the class smartarse; say something .

[kublikhan]

This is hardly news. If it can be recharged at home in 8 hours, then the battery can hold no more than 16 kWh. That is not much and it will not be sufficient for more than 100-150 km in a modern and SAFE car.
Sorry to be so negative, but please understand simple math here, a household plug can give approx 2000 Watts. Multiply that by 8 and you get 16000 Wh, a.k.a. 16 kWh.

BYD claims the battery pack is 48 kWh, not 16 kWh.

the E6 is a full sized people carrier and carries a large 48kw/hr battery pack giving a range of 400 km (249 mile), the curb weight comes in on the heavy side at 2020 kg (4453 lb)

BYD target US launch for electric cars in 2011

Sounds like a better deal than the Tesla Model S. The Model S base model is anticipated to have 160mi(260km) range from a 42 kWh battery pack at a price of $57,400. At $50,000 price tag and 48kWh battery pack, the e6 is over 30% cheaper on a per kWh basis.

[The Model S] is being designed as an alternative to cars such as the BMW 5 Series and the Audi A6, with an anticipated base price of US$57,400 (or US$49,900 after the federal tax rebate). If you consider the lower cost of electricity vs. gasoline, as well as the lack of routine oil changes and other maintenance, Tesla says the cost of the Model S is similar to internal combustion engine vehicles with a sticker price of roughly $35,000. Tesla is planning on having three options for battery packs, allowing customers to select from 160 mi (260 km), 230 mi (370 km) or 300 mi (480 km) per charge before it must be recharged using a conventional 120 volt, 240 volt or some 480 volt outlets.

Model_S

[Carlhole]

Gosh! How many swift kicks to the groin can the peak oil theory withstand?

[misterno]

The inventions or super efficient cars mean nothing unless they cost close to what we pay now.

For gods sakes you can even manufacture a car working on solar power but what good is that if it costs $1MM?

New technology does not mean it is affordable, it is just NEW maybe more efficient but necessarily affordable by masses.

Move on....

[Carlhole]

The inventions or super efficient cars mean nothing unless they cost close to what we pay now.
For gods sakes you can even manufacture a car working on solar power but what good is that if it costs $1MM?
New technology does not mean it is affordable, it is just NEW maybe more efficient but necessarily affordable by masses. Move on....

Well, obviously, price declines with mass production as we've always seen throughout industrial history. This is something the Chinese in particular are going to be very good at.

(wow...)

[hardtootell-2]

How much can the current ramp up to with beefed up connections to the mains? Think about it; your oven and stove and refrigerator and hot water system can all run at the same time. With 3 phase standard power what can the amps rate? Questions others here are more qualified than I to answer.
/

I agree with SG on this one and I will add this:

What if we could put some whiz bang EV into every consumers driveway tomorrow? Unless there is an order of magnitude improvement in efficiency, the grid would crash, and possibly burn. It is old and overburdened now. If grid loading does not become a problem then I predict that some elemental material will become supply constrained (dare I say peaked?) and shut down the affordability of the enterprise.
Of course, benevolent aliens may be leaking just the right amount of technology to us to keep humanity from choking on our own shite.

[mos6507]

It's a good incremental step but KevO's hysterical sensationalism (sarcasm or no) is misplaced.

Batteries do not follow Moore's law the way consumer electronics and computers do. Something like EESTOR is required to push electric cars over the top.

[mcgowanjm]

"As oil revenues were going down, City revenues were going to take their place, but then all of a sudden City revenues have disappeared," said John Curtice, politics professor at Strathclyde University.

"It's part of the backdrop to the financial crisis -- we have to find other sources of revenue."

Meanwhile, all available financing is going to keeping up
appearances at the Insolvent Banking System.

That has to stop, all debt has to be cleared, before we can even
begin. And individual cars are a non starter in that new system.

Trains or nothing.

[Jotapay]

It's a good incremental step but KevO's hysterical sensationalism (sarcasm or no) is misplaced.

Batteries do not follow Moore's law the way consumer electronics and computers do.

Exactly. I am extremely skeptical of this article's claims. It is probably a scam by the Chinese to get investors' money. Battery technology has not advanced to the point where a viable car can drive more than ~60 miles on a single charge. 250 miles is an extraordinary claim. The available power per unit of battery weight in rechargeable batteries has always been the Achilles' heel of electric vehicles. With current technology, batteries just weigh too much to get the required power needed to drive 100+ miles from one charge. This is total vaporware to me.

[Carlhole]

It's a good incremental step but KevO's hysterical sensationalism (sarcasm or no) is misplaced.

Batteries do not follow Moore's law the way consumer electronics and computers do.

Exactly. I am extremely skeptical of this article's claims. It is probably a scam by the Chinese to get investors' money. Battery technology has not advanced to the point where a viable car can drive more than ~60 miles on a single charge. 250 miles is an extraordinary claim. The available power per unit of battery weight in rechargeable batteries has always been the Achilles' heel of electric vehicles. With current technology, batteries just weigh too much to get the required power needed to drive 100+ miles from one charge. This is total vaporware to me.

????

It already exists. Kublikhan posted the link a few posts back:
Gizmag