whaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaat? Mercedes invest in radical electric car technology which could revolutionise the industry

[piemadd]

Quick Summary: The car fully charges in 5 minutes. Jeez.

Quote

One company has been busy manufacturing new electric car battery technology that could become a game changer in the EV world which Mercedes has invested in.

Israel start-up StoreDot has developed a new car battery technology which could prove to be revolutionary in the industry. 

Their new developments in the technology has also now just got a $60 million backing from Mercedes parent company Daimler, who want to bring it to their future EVs.

The price of a plane backing the tech, for the Line of Mercedes Self-driving cars.

Quote

This is currently better than other electric cars on the road such as the Tesla Model S.

Mercedes unveiled their new EQA Concept at the Frankfurt Motor Show 2017 this week which will go into production in 2019

 

Daimler AG’s Trucks wrote in a press release: “Complementing the investment, both partners have agreed to a strategic partnership that focuses on the field of fast battery charging. 

 

”StoreDot’s FlashBattery technology enables charging any electric vehicle within minutes, as quickly as filling a tank of gas. 

“Furthermore, FlashBattery’s high efficiency in recuperation is particularly interesting for commercial vehicles; better usage of braking energy increases the range and requires less frequent charging. 

So they will actually go for the consumers instead of doing small upgrades over time.

 

 

---------

 

So first off, when is this tech coming to phones, like actually.

 

Pretty cool.

 

Source: http://www.express.co.uk/life-style/cars/854560/Mercedes-electric-car-battery-charging-technology-Daimler#t=48s

[openthatchest]

interesting.

[emosun]

for those wondering , it's not a battery but a capacitor , which is definitely not revolutionary or new

[mariushm]

There's always a catch.

 

The batteries could have limited charge cycles (like for example maximum 500 charges before capacity drops to 70% of original charge) , or requiring 480v AC circuit to charge the batteries.

Either way... pumping so much energy in the batteries in such a short amount of time means either high voltage going into the car (which i doubt as it wouldn't be safe) or high current.  My guess any charging would be limited to 480v AC or lower and high currents.

 

Let's say you have a charge station right now with maybe 3-4 places where someone could bring their electric car and put it to charge for 30 minutes to 45 minutes ... while the car charges, guy or girl owner of said car can go inside and buy some snacks or a coffee and the charge station makes some money that way as well (like at movies, when you buy popcorn or something). So you can probably sell the electricity at near cost, with minimal profit.

It would work because the charge circuits would be relatively cheap per "charge slot", slow charging means reasonable amounts of current.

 

But if you increase the charge speed by 6 times or something like that (let's say from 30 minutes to 5 minutes) , people would have no incentive to get out of the car, they'll just sit in their seats listening to a song or two on the radio while the car charges, and then they'll leave.

You lose the extra profits from selling crap inside the fuel station, you lose profits from selling oils and other things regular cars need, and now you also have at least 6 times more energy consumption compared to before. That could mean more expensive circuits and your "fuel station" would be a heavier load on the power grid - a car charging right now is probably averaging as much power as 10-25 houses use.

 

So you'll have to sell the electricity at higher price and then if less gasoline cars are on the roads, gasoline could become cheaper ... and the government will add a lot of taxes to the charge costs because right now when you're buying gasoline you also pay some taxes that go to repairing roads and for other things...

 

What fun...

[Bouzoo]

Mercedes has been going all in with electric and I completely support it. They said that by 2022 they will offer electric option for every of their cars. Their city cars will be only electric. 

They are not the only germans to go all in though, VW said they will invest $84 billion in electric by 2030. 

 

 

[Eroda]

well if you think about how Formula 1 is with their ERS systems  this technology  could help them there plus with Mercedes Entering Formula E  as well they will be using their high end R&D from those categories to see how this technology pans out

[Guest]

Still waiting for Solid State batteries inside anything outside of labs...

[terrytek]

How bout instead of investing in battery tech and ruining the car industry, MErcedes bring back the manual transmission in their luxury cars and bring them back in luxury cars.

[MadyTehWolfie]

Ew electric only cars >_> hopefully they don't need to have their cars subsidized like Tesla. Least from what I read anyway.

 

Edit: if that's true please government stop subsidizing cars that rich ppl buy thank you!

[mynameisjuan]

"Revolutionize the industry"...basically short for "thats neat, but you'll never see happen"

[TheRandomness]

53 minutes ago, terrytek said:

How bout instead of investing in battery tech and ruining the car industry, MErcedes bring back the manual transmission in their luxury cars and bring them back in luxury cars.

What's wrong with having something less to think about when driving?

[Vacras]

Why does it seem like so many people dislike and don't want electric cars? 

It's a fact that oil will deplet eventually and we WILL need alternatives if we like it or not. 

 

14 minutes ago, Tibbles said:

But who will pay for all those new powerplants needed to power all those new cars if everyone is going electric in 2050? :^)

The same Gouvernements that invest billions of taxes into military every year duh.

 

[jagdtigger]

Smells like BS to me... Tesla's superchargers are chewing through 100+ kW and even those cant charge the battery to full in 5 minute. That would require an insane amount of power(possibly around 1 MW), not to mention how the battery will survive this.

[ionbasa]

41 minutes ago, Tibbles said:

But who will pay for all those new powerplants needed to power all those new cars if everyone is going electric in 2050? :^)

The consumers will of course. Its how business works, the oil industry will adapt and instead of selling crude, oil, gas (both liquefied and natural) to end users, they'll sell it to power plants operators. In all honestly, no one loses out. Big Oil can still make money and EV can still prosper. Big Oil will probably invest in the power plant sector, like they've done so in the past. You'll just be paying for it in your electric bill or taxes.

 

Now, you're probably thinking: That's dumb if the power comes from hydrocarbons/fossil fuels, it's still polluting! You're not wrong, but we'd be polluting less. Large scale power plants are miles more efficient than say running an ICE. We'd be extracting more energy out of the raw resources and the conversion factor (even with losses) is more efficient. Not to mention some of that production would obviously be offset by cleaner energy sources: Nuclear, Wind, Hydro, Geothermal, Solar, etc...

[Okjoek]

2 hours ago, emosun said:

for those wondering , it's not a battery but a capacitor , which is definitely not revolutionary or new

Maybe not the technology is new, but the implementation.

[Jito463]

9 hours ago, TheRandomness said:

What's wrong with having something less to think about when driving?

What are you referring to?  Battery charging, or manual transmission?

 

Personally, I wish there were more options available for manual.  I'm driving a 24 year old pickup in part because it's hard to find newer vehicles that aren't automatic (also because I got the truck for free ).

[Drak3]

9 hours ago, TheRandomness said:

What's wrong with having something less to think about when driving?

*Generic load ob bullshit about how drivers with manuals are somehow better drivers*

 

Pyo.

[ionbasa]

1 hour ago, Drak3 said:

*Generic load ob bullshit about how drivers with manuals are somehow better drivers*

 

Pyo.

It's not that we're better.... Its that we have control of the vehicle and can make it do exactly what we want it to do. Hence, being able to select any gear we want. Brownie points if you have a second lever for controlling the transfer case (off roading) or towing applications.

 

PS: Standard (manual) transmission is also cheaper than buying a vehicle with automatic transmissions. Its different for EV since the gear ratio is pretty much set with 1 planetary gearbox (in most cases), EV also has the benefit of  a linear torque gradient from the motors that approach infinity as current also goes up, furthermore, if motors are PWM/frequency controlled, the number of torque curves/bands are also infinite. EV also gets its toque near instantaneously. 

[Hiitchy]

I lament the idea that a car would charge faster than my phone with fast charge enabled. How will they achieve this while maintaining the health of the battery? If that battery goes before the vehicle does, would they cover It or just tell the person to buy a new car?

[mr moose]

15 hours ago, emosun said:

for those wondering , it's not a battery but a capacitor , which is definitely not revolutionary or new

But Mercedes will use it, then tell everyone they invented the battery in a few years.

2 hours ago, ionbasa said:

It's not that we're better.... Its that we have control of the vehicle and can make it do exactly what we want it to do. Hence, being able to select any gear we want. Brownie points if you have a second lever for controlling the transfer case (off roading) or towing applications.

 

PS: Standard (manual) transmission is also cheaper than buying a vehicle with automatic transmissions. Its different for EV since the gear ratio is pretty much set with 1 planetary gearbox (in most cases), EV also has the benefit of  a linear torque gradient from the motors that approach infinity as current also goes up, furthermore, if motors are PWM/frequency controlled, the number of torque curves/bands are also infinite. EV also gets its toque near instantaneously. 

 

I've been driving for 30 years, everything from ride on dihastu lawn mower cars to 4x4 off road.  This debate (manual/auto) has been going around and around for a long time.  Whether we agree or not, more people are gravitating toward autos, the industry supplies what the consumer demands.

In fact there is even a big industry springing up here in Aus converting old 4x4's into autos. So with the exception of a few instances where one or the other actually has a distinct benefit, for everything else it really just comes down to personal preference. 

[leadeater]

3 hours ago, ionbasa said:

It's not that we're better.... Its that we have control of the vehicle and can make it do exactly what we want it to do. Hence, being able to select any gear we want.

But... the car can do that for me and I don't have to do anything. Yay for laziness lol.

[Eaglerino]

I want to believe, but, yet another great battery technology from Krypton...

[Bananasplit_00]

guessing they just fount a way to make graphense supercapacitors for a "resonable" cost or the that the battery is lower capacity then what the Teslas have

[Scitesh]

18 hours ago, Tibbles said:

But who will pay for all those new powerplants needed to power all those new cars if everyone is going electric in 2050? :^)

DYSON SPHERE

 

[Drak3]

7 hours ago, ionbasa said:

Its that we have control of the vehicle and can make it do exactly what we want it to do. Hence, being able to select any gear we want.

Which equates to either fucking over your tranny, or shifting at the same point that a modern automatic does. With my auto-6 in my RAM, I've got all the control I need. Hell, I can drop to first or jump to 6 and have more assurance that I'm not murdering my tranny because it will preserve itself by shifting though the gears as I accelerate. Whereas jumping straight to the top gear on a manual from a low gear is putting more strain on the tranny that it would expience going through the gears correctly.

 

7 hours ago, ionbasa said:

Brownie points if you have a second lever for controlling the transfer case (off roading) or towing applications.

AKA 4x4, which is pretty much a standard on any 3/4 ton truck, and most 1/2 tons.

 

7 hours ago, ionbasa said:

Standard (manual) transmission is also cheaper than buying a vehicle with automatic transmissions.

Modern trannies, it's only because the OEM deems automatics to be worth the premium, and I agree with them. Modern vehicles use the same tranny for both your auto and manual, both will be controlled via computer. However, the auto has a profile that tells it how to shift.

3 hours ago, mr moose said:

I've been driving for 30 years, everything from ride on dihastu lawn mower cars to 4x4 off road.  This debate (manual/auto) has been going around and around for a long time. 

I've only been driving for a few short years, but here's my conclusion: the vast majority of drivers suck. A good amount shouldn't be allowed a license. The better drivers are typically the ones that drive large vans, trucks, and box vans often.

Tranny of choice doesn't fix stupid. It doesn't stop people from texting once they're in the gear they want.