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from the coming-soon-to-a-vehicle-near-you dept.
An electric car has been tested that managed a huge 1,100 mile range on a single charge. A massive jump from current electric cars.
-- submitted from IRC
An electric car has been tested that managed a huge 1,100 mile range on a single charge. A massive jump from current electric cars like the Tesla Model S which tops out at around 300 miles.
The secret to this super range is a type of battery technology called aluminium-air. This uses oxygen naturally occurring in the air to fill its cathode. This makes it far lighter than liquid filled lithium-ion batteries to give car a far greater range.
Phinergy, who created the battery, is an Israeli company who worked with aluminium specialist Alcoa Canada to create the batteries.
[...] Aluminium-air batteries drain turning the metal into aluminium hydroxide which can then be recycled to make new batteries. That will mean swapping out batteries every few months. But since it's so much lighter and cheaper than current efforts it should offer huge mileage and be affordable.
(Score: 2) by t-3 on Friday December 11 2015, @12:39PM
If a single charge only goes 1100 miles, how do they foresee swapping out batteries only every 3 months? I saw the article says owners would have to add water occassionaly, is that the "charge" referred to?
(Score: 4, Insightful) by FatPhil on Friday December 11 2015, @12:55PM
Thinking out of the box... If there's room for X Li and X Al batteries, and you only need the Al rarely, wouldn't it be better if you could just have 2X Li batteries for day-to-day use and only swap in the Al when you knew you'd need it. And what's about swapping in 2X Al batteries for ultra-long runs where you know you can just get replacements at the end. I wonder how much complete modularity would cost in terms of complexity?
Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people; the smallest discuss themselves
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday December 11 2015, @01:50PM
First saw an Al-air battery in a car at a trade show in the 1980s -- not a new idea. The problem at that time was low peak current. Stores lots of energy, but can't deliver high power bursts for acceleration.
TFA didn't really say much, but it seems like the Al-air battery in this test car is used in the same way as the range-extender engine in the Chevy Volt or other range-extended electric cars.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday December 11 2015, @07:45PM
IANAEE, but couldn't you add capacitors or something like that to store up power for those sudden bursts of acceleration?
(Score: 2) by Nesh on Friday December 11 2015, @01:47PM
See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aluminium%E2%80%93air_battery [wikipedia.org]
This is not new tech either. This kind of setup has been tested in 1989 but in combination with lead-acid battery instead of current lithium-ion batteries.
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Friday December 11 2015, @03:14PM
I figured out 15 years ago that Electric Vehicles will always be at a disadvantage for long-haul uses: precisely because they have to store the reaction products, while vehicles venting to the atmosphere after reacting with free oxygen (including hydrogen vehicles) do not.
THS points out that this design DOES in fact store the reaction products: in the form of aluminum hydroxide. This battery design actually get HEAVIER with use: the opposite of how your traditional fuel-tank works.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday December 11 2015, @03:16PM
null dummy text. MOre null dummy text.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by FunkyLich on Friday December 11 2015, @04:42PM
I'll take this heavier variant where everyone driving carries their own shit with them and don't burden others, instead of the lighter variant where every driver dumps shit in the atmosphere for everyone else to breathe, even the non-drivers and even the non-humans.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday December 11 2015, @06:43PM
I agree, that is why I specified "long haul" applications.
Sometimes while I am riding my bike in traffic, I feel like I am taking one for the team with all the fumes.
(Score: 2) by bzipitidoo on Friday December 11 2015, @07:43PM
That is true, but electric motors can be close to 100% efficient at converting electricity into motion. Think a typical figure is 98%. (However, not every kind of electric motor is that good.) In contrast, gasoline engines max out at about 30% to 35% efficiency. And that is only at the optimum RPM and load. With such a huge disparity, an electric motor more than compensates for the extra weight of the less efficient fuel storage. It's the other problems with batteries that are holding back the electric car-- the long recharge times, limited energy capacity which makes for short ranges, short battery life, and expense. It is really tough to compete against the humble gas tank for simplicity and practicality.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday December 11 2015, @07:45PM
>"This battery design actually get HEAVIER with use"
True, but the system could be designed so that you can dump the AlOH periodically independently of changing the whole battery. If you did that when adding water, it would be a minor inconvenience. A good design would be a car that could hold five 200 mile batteries that are used one at a time, so that a battery could be entirely depleted before swapping it out. For around-town use, you could run with just two such batteries, saving some weight and opening up some cargo space.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday December 12 2015, @04:30AM
Hydrogen doesn't have to be burned. With a fuel cell, electricity can be produced from it.