Miracle Capacitor for Elec. Car or Hoax

[Tom_H]

An ultracapacitor that can take a car 500 mi. and flash charge in 5 min.? Sounds too good to be true, yet the maker is being financed by the same venture capital group that underwrote the startup of Amazon and Google. Is the end at hand for liquid fuels and the IC engine, or is this the same baloney as the "cold fusion" hoax a decade or so ago? Which of us put big $ on MS, e-Bay, Amazon, or Google when they first started? Monday a.m. armchair quarterbacking is easy, reading crystal balls not such a crystal clear task.

Battery-like device could power electric cars - CNN.com

 

[Tig]

Pretty exciting technology and not so far away. If they are for real.
One issue they would have to deal with is the bleed down that caps have. Normal caps can hold quite a large charge but they will loose it over time. It would be a drag to go camping and wake up to a dead car.
The issue with the 5 min charge is having a source to deliver it. You average 15 amp outlet is not going to do that. It's a lot of power to try to get out of any household source.
I would love to see this technology on the street.

 

[bill177]

Theoretically possible - in real life, hmmmm?????

Sure would like to see it happen. The batteries are a real rip-off.

 

[jdbower]

I'd say neither real nor hoax - just optimistic marketing until they actually get a production model. It'll be nice when they actually have a tangible product, but until then I tend to ignore claims of miles between charges and the like. If you've got a hankering for a real electric vehicle I'd start drooling over this one which is available today. Of course, if you want an eco-friendly car not stuffed to the gills with toxic batteries a good old simple VW diesel is probably just the ticket.

 

[RonMar]

Untill this is proven, my vote goes with the VW on biodiesel And as with all electric vehicles, where does the electricity come from to charge it? Due to ecology, I don't see any new hydro plants on the horizon, for the same reason, I don't see any new nuke plants either... Solar is great, but it is expensive and it dosn't shine at night.

 

[Soundguy]

Hmm.. amperage is amperage. if the cap stores enough charge to do those 500 miles.. then that 5 minute flash charge must be hooked to a pretty hefty dc supply rail.. Not you average house electrical outlet..

I'm not saying bunk.. but I wouldn't hold my breath just yet..

Soundguy

 

[hitekcountry]

Sounds like they've developed a new dielectric material and probably some sort of buildup technology to fabricate the sandwich in order to get the layers very thin. I'd hate to see that sucker blow.

 

[BobRip]

Untill this is proven, my vote goes with the VW on biodiesel And as with all electric vehicles, where does the electricity come from to charge it? Due to ecology, I don't see any new hydro plants on the horizon, for the same reason, I don't see any new nuke plants either... Solar is great, but it is expensive and it dosn't shine at night.

You could add a high power electric outlet in your garage or driveway. Probably would not give you five minutes, but pretty fast. Recharging at night would use the extra capacity that most power compaines have avaialble at night. You could probably get a better rate at night. Wind power peaks in the early morning hours. Air conditioning and industrial loads are low at night. I think the power companies would love another night load. That's why they push street lights.

 

[Soundguy]

If the thing is really that good.. make it a hybred setup with a small IC engine coupledto a genny and run at max efficiency...

Soundguy

 

[Cottonhawk]

When it sounds 'too good to be true', it must be 'too good to be true'. Three mils investment is extremely small regarding that type of products. There exist too many real world problems for that technology to be implimented in a working car as a reliable power source.