Mobility
Recumbents
Flux S900 Shortrider
Fateba L1 Longrider
Street Machine Gt Shortrider
Roulandt Longrider
EBikes
E-Motion California
Flyer C8
E-Pfeil
Diamond Frame Bicycles
MTB Kuwahara
Cyco Compact 28TR
Mobility Diary


    "Yes, we can."

    Barack Obama
    4th November 2008, Chicago, USA

    Mobility Diary

    2009/04/11
    Tesla Roadster: Old Way Car with Electric Engine
    last edited 2009/04/12 04:51 (*)

    It came to my attention as it made it to the blog news-scene about the Tesla Roaster which ran 390km (241 miles) without recharging from the town of Valance in France to the Principality of Monaco as part of a "E-Rally" called Rallye Monte Carlo d'Energies Alternatives and covers a mixture of trunk roads, motorways and single-carriageway roads that wind through the mountains.


    A closer look at the "roadster":

    Old Way: Take 1,150 kg metal box, a so called "car" and ..

    New Way: .. put a 450kg heavy battery in it and use an electric engine . . .


    Which makes up 1,600kg heavy vehicle; in the worst case to transport one person (80kg) which makes 20/1 vehicle/body ratio - in other words, 95% of the energy is used to move the vehicle, and 5% of the energy to move you.

    Calculating a 5.1L gasoline equivalent per 100km or 46 miles per gallon reveal that this isn't a revolutionary step in efficiency - instead of fussil fuel is will use (or waste) just the equivalent in electric power.

    One may argue, in order to establish alternative transportation away from fossil fuels, one has to make small steps, which means to keep the heavy vehicles and only replace the engine . . . even if the engine efficiency itself is much higher than in a gasoline based engine, if you still use 95% of the energy to move the vehicle, this isn't worth it. If you reach a 1/1 ratio between vehicle and to be transported body or goods, then it gets interesting, and you gain an energy efficiency by the very fact you are not wasting it to move a heavy vehicle anymore!

    As I wrote in Mobility, a fully loaded truck has a very good vehicle/body ratio, but it's a waste if the truck driving empty.

    Sources:



    All posts or individual posts:

  • Solar Powered Airplane: Solar Impulse (2010/07/11 09:48)
  • General Motors & Chrysler Bankruptcy (2009/06/02 12:08)
  • USA wants cars make 39MPG or more (~6.2L/100km or less) by 2016 (2009/05/19 07:53)
  • High-Speed Railway for USA (2009/04/18 11:21)
  • Exotic Vehicles (2009/04/16 16:40)
  • Microcar: Swiss-based Cree's SAM (2009/04/14 09:50)
  • Lightweight Car: Loremo LS - 1.5L per 100km / 155 MPG (2009/04/13 14:03)
  • Vehicle/Body Ratio: Efficiency and Safety (2009/04/13 12:29)
  • Microcars Done Wrong: Smart Fortwo & Obvio 828 (2009/04/13 11:27)
  • Tesla Roadster: Old Way Car with Electric Engine (2009/04/11 17:26)
  • Solar Taxi - A Swiss Entrepreneur (2009/03/29 07:19)
  • Wind-powered car breaks record: 126.1 mph or 202.9 km/h (2009/03/28 22:09)
  • US car manufacturer crisis (2009/03/25 12:28)
  • Shell quits alternative energy investments (2009/03/25 10:37)


    [ post new entry ] (only for administators)

    Title:

    Text:

    Tags: (separated by commas)

    Date (optional):

    Password:
  •  


    .:.




    Copyright 2007-2016, 2020-2024 © by René K. Müller <spiritdude@gmail.com>
    Illustrations and graphics made with Inkscape, GIMP and Tgif