Battery based electric vehicles of today and tomorrow.

[TheGoose]

That is an amazing story at his age getting the longer range new Bolt and at a good price. Is this his first EV?

My range with our new 40 kWa Leaf battery I get a range of 90-170 miles depending on how I drive and how long I preheat on a 14F morning to melt off the windows. EPA calls it a 150 mile range car but those wide open take offs sucks a lot of juice out of the battery.

It’s the first EV for him and anyone we know. Living in a small Texas town there aren’t very many, if any, EV’s in our area. One guy in town had a Tesla and I see some in the next town over weekly but nobody I know had one.

Leafs are a no go in Texas because the battery lacks a thermal management system. Heating the car is not an issue but cooling it and the battery is a major concern.

So far, with the way he drives, he’s getting well over 300 miles of range.

 

[TheGoose]

Great! But the car displays power drawn from the battery, not the power drawn from grid to charge the battery. Batteries are not 100% efficient, they get warm when charged and get warm again when discharged. Also the charger/inverter gets warm converting AC to DC at a useful voltage for charging.

As you say, 8 miles per kWh is 12.5 kWh per 100 miles. Thats so good as to be in the fantastic range as EPA rating is 29 kWh per 100 miles. The EPA measures power from the grid which is usually around 20% greater than the power drawn from battery.

10¢/kWh and 29 kWh/100miles is 2.9¢/mile. If gasoline was $2.90/gallon then his MPG$ would be 100. That is to say his Bolt costs same to drive as 100 MPG. Gasoline hit $2.049 here today which works out to a still excellent 70 MPG$.

He only charges with the 110v cord with the power set at 12 amps. It takes a long time to charge but he believes charging the battery as slow as possible will extend the life as much as possible. He did buy a level 2 charger (16 Amps) but only plans to use it in an emergency situation.

I’ll admit his miles per kWh are high but he drives, well, like an old man. Even still, most people are reporting 3-4 miles per kWh even in Tesla’s and other Bolts. This is right in line with the EPA rating of 30 kWh per 100 miles. I’ve read that the calibration for this is off and goes down as the miles accrue but we’ll see.

He bought the car because he considers burning fuel to be a waste and he wants an alternative to being dependent on gasoline and oil companies. An EV was on his bucket list. He owns three other vehicles, he just wanted something different.

 

[koshari]

Tesla vs Detroit is similar to Amazon vs Sears & Roebuck.

Vision and innovation leading to a more profitable future. Versus - in the case of the automakers - so much inbred inertia that all the automakers can think of in response is relying on their lobbyists to write legislation protecting their status quo.

this scenario has been played out on so many arenas its almost predictable these days.

 

[sd455dan]

GM lays out it's EV strategy

GM Lays Out Its EV Strategy; New Fiat 500 is All-Electric - Autoline Daily 2787 - YouTube

$100 a KWH long pouch cells, skateboard style stampings (not extrusions) 50-200 KWH



a more in depth discussion of GMs electric plans will air today in a live Autoline after hours

 

[Gale Hawkins]

EV makers can be unique people it seems. And I was worried about Elon Musk being all work and no play.

Musician Grimes Confirms She's Pregnant With Elon Musk's Child

What Elon Musks early morning SpaceX all-hands meeting says about him

"Musk called an all-hands meeting at his SpaceX spacecraft factory in Boca Chica Beach, Texas at 1 a.m. on Sunday, Feb. 23, according to a story published Thursday by Ars Technica.

The billionaire SpaceX and Tesla boss is known for setting outlandish goals (and sometimes missing them). And in the wee hours of the Sunday, he wanted to know from his team why his factory wasn稚 running 24-7 to build the Starship rocket system (which will eventually take crew and cargo to Mars).

Musk's engineering team explained they needed more people to take shifts. So over the next 48 hours, SpaceX hired 252 workers, doubling the workforce at that factory, Ars Technica reported. "

 

[sd455dan]

That made me Smile.

Got to hand it to Musk. He is relentless when he sets a Goal.

Iirc interview where Musk was asked to write down 1 attribute to being successful- he wrote down Focus

 

[buckeyefarmer]

He should have written, get the government to fund you.

 

[Gale Hawkins]

He should have written, get the government to fund you.

Or the billions he is saving US Tax payer in our space and renewalable energy efforts.

 

[sd455dan]

Or the billions he is saving US Tax payer in our space and renewalable energy efforts.

No argument on getting Federal funding :laughing:


But it should also be Worth "something" to have American Astronauts flown to the space station on a Rocket designed and Built in America
versus A Russian rocket.

Don't know about anyone else- but whenever they show old footage of the Saturn V Apollo launches and the U S A ascends as the rocket begins to take off- I get a bit choked up.

Same when SR -71 footage is shown.

 

[DarkBlack]

No argument on getting Federal funding :laughing:


But it should also be Worth "something" to have American Astronauts flown to the space station on a Rocket designed and Built in America
versus A Russian rocket.

Don't know about anyone else- but whenever they show old footage of the Saturn V Apollo launches and the U S A ascends as the rocket begins to take off- I get a bit choked up.

Same when SR -71 footage is shown.

Of course, that Saturn V rocket was designed by 1500 or so, German scientists we stole.