I Spotted Formula E electric car racing for the first time, only last night1 (Yeah, yeah, where have I been hiding, etc). I had to say, as I started to get engrossed in the race, I was somewhat surprised as to the pit-stop part of the race!

 

 

If you are familiar with this race series, you will already know but for the uninitiated, such as myself, When the drivers come in to the pit-stop, which in traditional racing, would be to re-fuel, change wheels/tyres etc, the drivers jump out, run a short distance of just a few metres and jump back in to a TOTALLY DIFFERENT CAR!   WTF?

 

I would have thought, prior to seeing this, that they would do the same sort of thing as re-fuel. I would have expected the car to be lifted, a battery section removed, new, fully charged battery re-inserted, dropped to the ground and off they go again! How can you call swapping the whole vehicle, a RACE?  It doesn't seem to allow for the fact that a complete balls-out racer will wear out components and need to either stop longer for repairs or retire if he/she knackers the cars gearbox or whatever. I guess a racer who tries to go fast and lead the whole race will inevitably flatten their battery sooner but I am sure the amount of laps involved, account for the distance the car can travel and the SECOND car will be fully charged anyway. I do realise ALL the competitors will have this "Swap" but if the best car is better, the driver will have TWO better cars and an even bigger advantage!

 

After watching this and thinking a little, it also made me wonder if this is the way electric car travel will go? In 2040, sales of new petrol and diesel cars must stop, if the new rules become law. If battery technology has yet to develop a vehicle capable of driving more then around 120 miles without needing a two hour re-charge, will hire car companies rent you a car you drive to a set location, drop it off and continue your journey in a different vehicle? Perhaps even two...

 

Continental driving tours will be a logistical nightmare too, unless developers and manufacturers can get re-charging down to around 15 mins maximum for a full charge. (About the same time you'll queue, fill up your tank, pop for a p-wee grab a snack and a drink and pay for the fuel).  Even now, most fast chargers won't be that fast and the faster the charger, usually, the hotter it gets and the life of the battery will become shorter. Riskier fire hazard, too. I know this will be a fair bit more developed by then, it is around 22 years away, after all and look how far technology has gone in the last two decades.

 

Another small thing came to mind... The cessation of sales of new petrol and diesel cars by 2040... If diesel is GENUINELY that much worse then petrol, bearing in mind, we were sold a dud there in the first place, "Cut back on naughty CO2's, buy diesel, save the environment and money on road fund licence", etc, then WHY wait till 2040 to stop selling these diesel cars? Why not ban them from, say 2030, and phase out the now supposedly cleaner petrol engined vehicles by the following decade. 

 

I am only a lowly street guy but if these polluters are really so bad, why not stop sales of new fossil fuel vehicles by 2025? There would be no more need for car manufacturers to further develop either fuel type, allowing them to concentrate on getting the battery jobbies up to scratch.

 

I feel we are being taken for yet another trip to Alton Towers and we are all going to feel it in our pockets more then we realise!

Hi GF, I have to confess Formula E left me a bit cold after watching a few races, agree a better solution would have been changing the battery pack. Probably better to drive than watch. All rather too much Scalectric for me - though that might be partly down to the tracks.

Personally, I think petrol/hybrid is the way forward for normal motoring for the near future, with improved battery packs to allow better range when commuting between charges at home (PHEV) I rather suspect the present electrical infrastructure, certainly in the UK, will not allow more than a relatively insignificant proportion of vehicles to be pure electric, especially when using fast chargers  - then possibly fuel cells when the technology finally catches up.

Science fiction now, but how about filling the fuel tank with water and cracking that into hydrogen and oxygen? That could even be burned in a standard ICE.

Think I'll need to stop recording that as I never seem to watch it as I'd hoped I would want to! Tree huggers would not allow us to run any green fuel through our ICEs, it would not be "fair" to make ICEs acceptable blow their case out of the water, so to speak.

40 minutes ago, rum4mo said:

Think I'll need to stop recording that as I never seem to watch it as I'd hoped I would want to! Tree huggers would not allow us to run any green fuel through our ICEs, it would not be "fair" to make ICEs acceptable blow their case out of the water, so to speak.

 

I fear you may be right about that - we could of course go back to horse-drawn (wouldn't be that much slower around London anyway) - then they can start shouting about the ****  being up around their eyes, but that would be nothing new.

Arguably off-topic, but the "TT Zero" is still running single laps, although now getting close to competitive speeds, where in year 1 McPint's best 2 Senior TT laps would have had him within seconds of lapping his TTZ bike had they started together!

@Warrior193

Main reason against the electrolysis of water for hydrogen release is the amount of energy required to crack it in the first place.

Then allow that unless its fully purified water, theres going to be other deposits of "stuff" in it getting burnt and dumped out. Home water distillaries to purifiy.. more waste products and energy cost.. 

It doesnt work unfortunately.

 

And ill admit i shelled out and bought the bloody ebook on building the unit and converting a petrol ice to run with water mixed..

 

 

 

 

38 minutes ago, mac11irl said:

@Warrior193

Main reason against the electrolysis of water for hydrogen release is the amount of energy required to crack it in the first place.

Then allow that unless its fully purified water, theres going to be other deposits of "stuff" in it getting burnt and dumped out. Home water distillaries to purifiy.. more waste products and energy cost.. 

It doesnt work unfortunately.

 

And ill admit i shelled out and bought the bloody ebook on building the unit and converting a petrol ice to run with water mixed..

 

 

 

 

 

Although we are now in the 21st century - just look at all the things that couldn't be done at the beginning of the 20th, commonplace now. 

True, but at the moment it just isnt economically viable without a lot more RnD.

 

Reckon a mini gas turbine generating lecky to battery bank and wheel mounted motors could be a good way.. stick an afterburner on to clean up those waste gases and it would look cool, boost thrust....

 

GT-EV /AB

Unfortunately with regards to diesel vehicles much of the bad press I feel is not all justified. They produce less CO2 than a petrol car which is what has always been the argument for them being better than petrol. Yes they also produce NOx which is not good for air "quality" but that can be overcome with adblue, or, if the VW defeat device was so effective at cheating the system why not make it a legitimate feature and have it kick in under 25mph? That way less NOx produced in built up areas at the expense of a few mpg. Trains, gas central heating, lorries, buses, taxis, agriculture all produce harmful emissions way in excess of those produced by personal cars. Improvements to local air quality around Paddington and out to south Wales could be made by electrifying the south wales rail line, but no, that's been scrapped.

 

As for battery powered cars, the latest tesla3 and new Zoe both do offer a pretty good range and a reasonable charge time. After all, driving for 2hrs then having a 30min stop is probably quite a good idea in reality, especially if they make the services nice places to take a break! Yes they are still too expensive I think, but that should change in the next 10yrs, in particular the lease of Zoe batteries costs the same as diesel per mile so apart from being green why bother? Zoe's are already appearing used for £6.5k, buy out the battery lease for £2.5k and you have a £9k runaround that will do 90miles, so getting there for most daily commutes.

 

And while it's good to charge up at home it would be better to do so during the day where solar generation is higher and the batteries can be used as storage to buffer the evening surge in consumption of electricity. Followed by a late night trickle charger when demand is low!

Interesting from Seat.

 

https://www.autocar.co.uk/car-news/motor-shows-geneva-motor-show/cupra-unveils-e-racer-electric-racing-car

 

Didn't some of the endurance races and other formulas allow for spare cars in the past? It was the driver that had to do the distance not the vehicle I think was the reasoning.

 

This is probably the compromise to get the race series started. The batteries are probably structural so swapping won't be an easy option.

 

But I've seen it as well and it was pretty dull. But then F1 is dull as dishwater these days too. I doubt the tech will be as interesting to follow i.e. Team X has a new motor that that has lowered it's resistance by 0.02 Ohm.

1 hour ago, Aspman said:

Didn't some of the endurance races and other formulas allow for spare cars in the past? It was the driver that had to do the distance not the vehicle I think was the reasoning.

 

This is probably the compromise to get the race series started. The batteries are probably structural so swapping won't be an easy option.

 

But I've seen it as well and it was pretty dull. But then F1 is dull as dishwater these days too. I doubt the tech will be as interesting to follow i.e. Team X has a new motor that that has lowered it's resistance by 0.02 Ohm.

 

But 4 wheel drive is easy with EVs.  Acceleration and lap times, if the human body can stand it, will be much quicker.

Edited 2 March, 20188 yr by lol-lol