EV (electric vehicle) beats Porsche, Ferrari, Lambo and oh ya... an SUV

I recently watched a movie called "Who Killed the Electric Car" and yes it was a little biased as they did present electric cars as the only salvation of the future. At the time, only a week ago, I was complaining that this movie's opinion of EV success was a little short as the battery capacity of EV cars failed to satisfy anyone outside of Hollywood. What's good for Mel Gibson may not be good for me.

Then I heard about EEStor's top secret ultra capacitor.

Silicon Valley venture firm, Kleiner Perkins, has apparently invested in $3 million in EEStor Inc., a start-up from Austin, TX. While the company isn't saying much about the new technology this is what I have found:

• Its a ceramic powder coated with aluminum oxide and glass battery capacitor so there are no chemicals. This makes it extremely safe and clean
• Estimated Range - 500 miles
• Fully charge in 5 minutes
• weighs 400 pounds - 10 times the energy density of a lead-acid battery
• Out performs lithium-ion batteries in power output (better pedal to the metal)
• Won't be available until 2008 and cost from $3000 to $5000

News from: Business Week, May, 2004 edition of Utility Federal Technology Opportunities, Toronto Star, Clean Break Blog, and CNN Money.

This technology could easily go into one of these new electronic cars...

Current Electronic Vehicles

I had been keeping an interested eye on the potential of EV (electronic vehicles) as a few racecar versions were quite fast.

Wrightspeed's X1 , founded by Ian Wright, developed the $100,000 EV car which outpaced racers Porsche, Bugatti and Ferrari that cost several times as much. The X1 Prototype is a tubular, open framed racer powered by an electrical power plant from AC Propulsion . The chassis comes from Ariel Motors (their car is powered by a Motech engine from GM).

• top speed of 112mph
• 0-60mph in about three seconds

Tesla Motors makes my dream electronic vehicle. It is based on a Lotus Elise frame which is an amazing car on its own. The Telsa is just gorgeous. One of the sexiest cars I have ever seen. Why couldn't GM make their EV1 look like this?

Popular Mechanics reviewed the Tesla , and so did CNN Money and Forbes although from a different (business) viewpoint.

The Tesla Roadster is powered by 6,831 rechargeable lithium-ion batteries with a range of 250 miles. Fuel costs are 1 to 2 cents per mile. Top speed is over 130 mph.

Here are a few interesting books on the EV topic

Convert It!

Build Your Own Electric Car