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posted by Fnord666 on Wednesday August 12 2020, @06:12AM   Printer-friendly
from the 490-must-be-enough-for-anyone dept.

With the latest long range Tesla rated at 402 miles, newcomer Lucid Air demos one of their cars going 450 miles in real-world driving. An additional 40 miles were driven after the Motor Trend witness called it a day.

2021 Lucid Air First Ride Review: 450 Miles on One Charge!:

Lucid engineering is located close to Tesla in the Bay Area and the article claims they employ 1200 people at this point--not a small effort. A clipping from the end of the story:

Back on the road and heading north, we pass a milestone: 402 miles, or the highest rated range for which a Tesla model is certified. At this point, the Air's battery reads 16 percent remaining, and the range prediction has now dipped to 478 miles. An hour and a half later, we roll into Lucid HQ for a coffee, a stretch, and a shake of our foggy heads, then crawl back in and head out again. We cut west across the Dumbarton Bridge to lap up and down the 101 as it arteries along San Francisco Bay's east side, increasingly reddening on the traffic map. The day is starting its reverse transition to twilight, and we're experiencing range anxiety of the opposite type: Instead of worrying about running out of juice, we're getting anxious that we'll never stop driving.

At 6:20 p.m., 450 miles and almost 12 hours after we started, we pull back up to HQ. A stubborn 7 percent of energy is displayed on the screen, predicting a range of 484 miles—that's now probably very close to reality for this trip—and we sit silently for several seconds before I concede the battery has beaten us. That's enough; we're calling it a day. I slowly climb out of the car and straighten up. Later that evening, a fresh Lucid driver took out the car again, finally ending the experiment at 490 miles. Not the FEV laboratory's 517, but 95 percent of it, every mile demonstrated in the hills and heat of the real world.

Also noted in the article is that Lucid have developed their system in-house, not using available parts from suppliers. They make their own 900V battery pack which allows motors to be smaller, and charging (with the right charger) to be faster.

Getting closer, but still not enough range for this AC--I'm headed out for a 730 mile road trip tomorrow, it took about 12 hours when I did the same trip last month (didn't want to fly for viral reasons). I stopped to pee a few times and twice for gas, never pushed the ~400 mile range of the gas tank of my Impreza. Yes, it's a bit noisy, that's what ear plugs are for!


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  • (Score: 2) by ledow on Wednesday August 12 2020, @11:28AM (1 child)

    by ledow (5567) on Wednesday August 12 2020, @11:28AM (#1035478) Homepage

    Yes, but if it's a 10KW charger, then it's a 10KW charger, the battery isn't going to charge any faster whether it's a 900V battery or a 12V battery.

    You're just converting/transporting power. And a 900V charger still has a wattage. Of course a 900V 100A charger will do more than a 900V 10A charger, and a 12V 1000A charger more than a 900V 1A charger, but you're not limited by the voltage at all in terms of charging time. You can charge at any voltage you like above a certain threshold more than the battery voltage.

    You'd use 900V because it requires less-thick cables, not because it charges faster (which would require thicker cables, again) - especially when it's all going to come off a domestic (110/220V) or industrial (400V?) supply in the end anyway. It won't magically charge faster "just because" it's 900V.

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  • (Score: 2) by c0lo on Wednesday August 12 2020, @11:40AM

    by c0lo (156) Subscriber Badge on Wednesday August 12 2020, @11:40AM (#1035482) Journal

    You'd use 900V because it requires less-thick cables, not because it charges faster

    No necessarily. See that "They make their own 900V battery pack which allows motors to be smaller, and charging (with the right charger) to be faster."

    The thickness of the charging cable is not that much in the budget of the car dead-weight. The thickness of the electric motors winding is important.

    If I'm optimizing for the later (weight of motors) by increasing the voltage, I might let the charging cables be bulky and use a more powerful recharger to provide a better user experience.

    --
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford