Aluminum-air battery

[Nakoron]

There appears to be a new process to augment already existing lithium-ion batteries. 
This will be used in EV batteries, aka cars to; in theory, GREATLY extend the range of an all-electric car to an estimated 1600km per charge!

This would put electric vehicles ahead of virtual every single gasoline powered sedan for range.


Here is the original article with an embedded youtube video.


 

[Fred Castellum]

Yay for more battery advancements~!

 

[Ivyk]

I want a car that can drive on air as fuel.

[AlexGoesHigh]

I want a car that can drive on air as fuel.

well you could try and slap a sail into your car

[ZetZet]

I want a car that can drive on air as fuel.

impossible.

[Blackterror25]

Why do electric cars always look like little lunch boxes? I want more electric car's like the Tesla.

 

 

[ZetZet]

Why do electric cars always look like little lunch boxes? I want more electric car's like the Tesla.

 

 

 

 

Real question is why do manufacturers make stupid electric cars. Renault had normal looking electric car but the battery bank was so little It couldn't last 200km. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Renault_Fluence_Z.E.

why not put 2 or 3 times more battery and have it drive 500km~ on a charge, it would be plenty.

[Fred Castellum]

Why do electric cars always look like little lunch boxes? I want more electric car's like the Tesla.

That roadster.... looks so niceeee 

 

Real question is why do manufacturers make stupid electric cars. Renault had normal looking electric car but the battery bank was so little It couldn't last 200km. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Renault_Fluence_Z.E.

why not put 2 or 3 times more battery and have it drive 500km~ on a charge, it would be plenty.

Welp Tesla will be improving their battery tech with the super charger factory. So stay tuned for major range improvements. 

[Mooshi]

How much acid rain, strip mining and carbon pollution these batteries cause to make, though? There is a reason why cars like the Prius are daft and do more harm than good.

 

Electric cars are pointless, we should move to hydrogen.

[MetEishYa]

Why do electric cars always look like little lunch boxes? I want more electric car's like the Tesla.

I agree, i want a car that looks and functions as a car no matter if its electric or petrol. Tesla is nice cause they design there cars to look like already existing cars; roadster - Lotus elise and the model S - jaguar xk. Merc did the same with there SLS electric car, its an sls with electric motors.

 

This seems to good to be true, snakeoil? Ill wait till i see it in a proper car before i pass judgement.

[MetEishYa]

Real question is why do manufacturers make stupid electric cars. Renault had normal looking electric car but the battery bank was so little It couldn't last 200km. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Renault_Fluence_Z.E.

why not put 2 or 3 times more battery and have it drive 500km~ on a charge, it would be plenty.

Double the batteries = double the charge time which goes from 8+ hours to 16+ hours then.

[ZetZet]

Double the batteries = double the charge time which goes from 8+ hours to 16+ hours then.

it doesn't really work that way since batteries have cells.

[MetEishYa]

it doesn't really work that way since batteries have cells.

Yes it does, the motor draw X of Kilo Watts at Z speed (km/h) from the batteries that are Y amount of kW.h (kilowatt hours). (Y/X)*Z = Distance Traveled. To increase distance you must either increase Y or decrease X. By adding more cells you can increase Y but when recharging the batteries the charger has a limit as to how much watts it can deliver to the batteries Y/(charger Watts) = recharge time.

[ZetZet]

Yes it does, the motor draw X of Kilo Watts at Z speed (km/h) from the batteries that are Y amount of kW.h (kilowatt hours). (Y/X)*Z = Distance Traveled. To increase distance you must either increase Y or decrease X. By adding more cells you can increase Y but when recharging the batteries the charger has a limit as to how much watts it can deliver to the batteries Y/(charger Watts) = recharge time.

Yeah, you need more power. You can charge them fast with more power though. If we had 20-30kW charger stations it wouldn't be a problem.

[MetEishYa]

Yeah, you need more power. You can charge them fast with more power though. If we had 20-30kW charger stations it wouldn't be a problem.

Yeah that would charge a tesla in about 2.8-4.3 hours which isnt too long.

[wpirobotbuilder]

How much acid rain, strip mining and carbon pollution these batteries cause to make, though? There is a reason why cars like the Prius are daft and do more harm than good.

Probably not any more than the acid rain, strip mining, and carbon pollution from coal mining and consumption that almost every other industry relies on. Priuses are responsible for less environmental damage than other cars (source with links to reliable sources). That said, they do use "rare earth" elements that do their own share of environmental damage, but you can't directly compare that damage to the damage from coal mining or burning of gasoline.

 

Most people I know who own them get them because they're solidly built cars that get awesome gas mileage and don't cost more than the average car, not because they want to "save the planet". There are so many better ways to do that than buying an environmentally friendly car.

 

Electric cars are pointless, we should move to hydrogen.

Never mind the carbon pollution or inefficiency of hydrogen production, nor the lack of a practical storage solution for vehicles, nor the lack of infrastructure.

 

We already have an electrical grid, good batteries that continue to improve, and cars that use it. Hydrogen has pretty much lost.

[mr moose]

Probably not any more than the acid rain, strip mining, and carbon pollution from coal mining and consumption that almost every other industry relies on. Priuses are responsible for less environmental damage than other cars (source with links to reliable sources). That said, they do use "rare earth" elements that do their own share of environmental damage, but you can't directly compare that damage to the damage from coal mining or burning of gasoline.

 

Most people I know who own them get them because they're solidly built cars that get awesome gas mileage and don't cost more than the average car, not because they want to "save the planet". There are so many better ways to do that than buying an environmentally friendly car.

 

Never mind the carbon pollution or inefficiency of hydrogen production, nor the lack of a practical storage solution for vehicles, nor the lack of infrastructure.

 

We already have an electrical grid, good batteries that continue to improve, and cars that use it. Hydrogen has pretty much lost.

 

Not to mention coal only accounts for 37% of US power production where gas, nuclear and renewable's make up the rest.

[wpirobotbuilder]

Not to mention coal only accounts for 37% of US power production where gas, nuclear and renewable's make up the rest.

I was referring to China, where most industry takes place nowadays, and where coal supplies more than half the total power consumption. It's a good time to live in Shanxi province.

 

I didn't realize that almost 20% of U.S. electricity production is nuclear. Kind of surprising. Still upsetting that 85% of our production is non-renewable

[MetEishYa]

Probably not any more than the acid rain, strip mining, and carbon pollution from coal mining and consumption that almost every other industry relies on. Priuses are responsible for less environmental damage than other cars (source with links to reliable sources). That said, they do use "rare earth" elements that do their own share of environmental damage, but you can't directly compare that damage to the damage from coal mining or burning of gasoline.

 

Most people I know who own them get them because they're solidly built cars that get awesome gas mileage and don't cost more than the average car, not because they want to "save the planet". There are so many better ways to do that than buying an environmentally friendly car.

 

Never mind the carbon pollution or inefficiency of hydrogen production, nor the lack of a practical storage solution for vehicles, nor the lack of infrastructure.

 

We already have an electrical grid, good batteries that continue to improve, and cars that use it. Hydrogen has pretty much lost.

That link is a BS source from Toyota with no proof to substantiate there claims, they don't even say what they comparing the Prius to achieve such savings. I do agree hybrid car are the future but atm they are really really expensive hope the technology evolves to the point the price increase over a normal car becomes alot less.

 

Hydrogen has problems but its just another alternative, the more alternatives the better for everyone.

[wpirobotbuilder]

That link is a BS source from Toyota with no proof to substantiate there claims, they don't even say what they comparing the Prius to achieve such savings.

That is why you go to the sources referenced in the document.

 

Their lack of comparison to other cars is very annoying, though.

[mr moose]

I was referring to China, where most industry takes place nowadays, and where coal supplies more than half the total power consumption. It's a good time to live in Shanxi province.

 

I didn't realize that almost 20% of U.S. electricity production is nuclear. Kind of surprising. Still upsetting that 85% of our production is non-renewable

 

I see.  I was angling that the recharging of said batteries would be from mostly "cleaner" energy. 

 

I don't know what the energy consumption in the US is, but in Aus. about 75% is industrial consumption and thus it is very difficult for many renewable sources to maintain the supply.

[MetEishYa]

I was referring to China, where most industry takes place nowadays, and where coal supplies more than half the total power consumption. It's a good time to live in Shanxi province.

 

I didn't realize that almost 20% of U.S. electricity production is nuclear. Kind of surprising. Still upsetting that 85% of our production is non-renewable

Yeah Gas and Coal need to shrink and renewable and nuclear need to grow.

[Altecice]

Electric cars are pointless, we should move to hydrogen.

 

Threre wont be any hydrogen powered cards that are safe for a long time like that Thorium powered car that could only use 8 grams of the stuff per 100 years. But it produced astounding amounts of Gamma radiation and the tech did not exist.

[MetEishYa]

That is why you go to the sources referenced in the document.

Sources are to references for there calculations such as how much an elephant weights, how much fuel a space shuttle uses at take-off, how much a household contributes to carbon foot print etc, there is no sources to statements like:

 

 

Toyota estimates that globally its hybrid vehicles have collectively reduced CO2 emissions by 34 million tons.

or 

 

Toyota estimates its hybrids have saved their owners more than 3 billion gallons of gasoline worldwide compared to gasoline-only powered vehicles.

[wpirobotbuilder]

Yeah Gas and Coal need to shrink and renewable and nuclear need to grow.

Nuclear is... special.

 

We need to fund a lot more nuclear chemistry, specifically on extracting usable nuclear fuel (either as pure fuel or mixed-oxide fuel) from radioactive waste. Otherwise we'll just have stockpiles of nuclear waste.

 

Sources are to references for there calculations such as how much an elephant weights, how much fuel a space shuttle uses at take-off, how much a household contributes to carbon foot print etc, there is no sources to statements

Yeah that is annoying. The calculators they used from the EPA website are good, but they don't include a top-to-bottom teardown of the numbers used in the calculation. They're probably close to accurate, but I would like to do the calculations myself.