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posted by LaminatorX on Thursday July 02 2015, @01:08PM   Printer-friendly
from the lightning-fast dept.

Electric racing cars are in vogue right now. The first Formula E championship just concluded in London (sadly the Ars-sponsored car did not win), and this side of the pond saw an electric vehicle win the prestigious Pikes Peak International Hill Climb in Colorado, setting a new record in the process. Rhys Millen took his Drive eO PP03 to the top of the mountain in 9:07.022, beating rival Nobuhiro "Monster" Tajima by more than 20 seconds. The consequences of getting a corner wrong and going over the side don't bear thinking about.

The annual Pikes Peak International Hill Climb in Colorado is the second-oldest race in the US. It first took place in 1916, and it's a unique challenge for man and machine. Starting at Mile 7 on Pikes Peak Highway, cars race one at a time up the side of Pikes Peak, completing 156 turns in 12.4 miles (20km). It may be familiar to you from Gran Turismo 2, featuring prominently in that game, and indeed Polyphony Digital sponsored this year's race, making us wonder if the iconic event will reappear in GT7, whenever that happens to arrive.
...
Electric vehicles (EVs) in particular have done well since the resurfacing. From the starting line at 9,390 feet (2,862m) above sea level, the cars climb another 4,720 feet (1,440m) to the summit, causing even forced induction engines to lose power as oxygen molecules become fewer and farther between. But electric motors don't have the same altitude problem, making just as much power and torque in a vacuum as they do at sea level. Consequently, it's become a place for people to test out new EV technology.


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  • (Score: 2) by davester666 on Thursday July 02 2015, @06:20PM

    by davester666 (155) on Thursday July 02 2015, @06:20PM (#204342)

    Don't forget this won't be cheap. You'll need new power lines to the building, as well as retrofitting the parking area to have metered charging stations for each stall [you think the building will just pony up for the electricity].

    And then there is whole electric grid that can't support millions of electric cars being added to it. And then there is generating the electricity. Remember, most vehicles will be charged overnight...

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  • (Score: 2) by AndyTheAbsurd on Thursday July 02 2015, @06:37PM

    by AndyTheAbsurd (3958) on Thursday July 02 2015, @06:37PM (#204350) Journal

    I don't expect it to be cheap or easy or simple. That doesn't mean that it isn't worth doing. And no, I don't think that the building will just pony up for the cost of electricity. I think that the solution will probably be a key-operated switch on each charging station so that only the registered user of a particular station will be able to turn on each charging station - and then you run into the problem of running electrical from each individual apartment's electrical panel out to their particular parking spot. But I think that's a less difficult to solve problem than doubling the number of meters, and either requiring the residents to have two accounts with the electric company or having the building manager pay the power company directly and then pass the cost on to the residents as part of their rent (and fairer than having one meter and distributing the cost evenly across all residents, even those that don't have electric cars).

    As for the electric grid not being able to handle it: A gradual adoption means that the companies running the power grid will have time to adapt to the new realities. There will be a few stumbling blocks, to be sure, but it's not like we're going to add millions of electric cars and their associated charging station overnight.

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    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday July 04 2015, @01:12PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Saturday July 04 2015, @01:12PM (#205004)

      I'm curious why you think tying the power at the parking spot into the apartments existing supply will be easier than putting in extra meters for the parking spots. It shouldn't be difficult for power companies to bill two meters to one account. I should think running extra power lines from each apartment (excepting ones that are adjacent to the parking lot) would be a lot more difficult than adding extra meters.

  • (Score: 2) by Phoenix666 on Friday July 03 2015, @01:52PM

    by Phoenix666 (552) on Friday July 03 2015, @01:52PM (#204707) Journal

    Cars charging overnight will be better for the grid because it will smooth out the demand curve. Currently demand at night is low and not where the utilities make their money, thus spot rates are lowest then. (Base load is handled by coal plants, which have to run all the time.) Having new overnight demand for surplus power is something the power companies would probably welcome.

    On the consumer side, early adopters who opt for variable rates will see a lot of gain because they'll be recharging at the lowest possible rates. Throw in the home batteries that Tesla is going to shortly build at its gigafactory and the win for the EV driver and electricity consumer will be even higher.

    On the grid side, EVs will make them happier for a while. Where they will really get punched in the nuts is when all those EV drivers have the light bulb go on, "Hey, why don't I put solar panels and a home battery in and drive for free?!"

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