Electric cars

Nope.

With high-density types such as Li-ion, the problem is usually ensuring that they don't overheat. Most notebook manufacturers have had problems with overheating batteries; the problem is much more severe when you're delivering upwards of 50kW.

To the extent that cold reduces the performance, it isn't as if the car simply won't start. It just means that you won't get the spec'd 0-60 time until you've been driving for 5 minutes. Given that the driver is probably still half asleep, that isn't necessarily a bad thing. ICEs tend not to be at their best when stone cold either.

The situation is completely different for a lead-acid battery used to drive a starter motor. Lead-acid doesn't like cold, and you need full power when it's at its coldest. By the time you have heat, you don't need the battery.

That's probably a legitimate concern in colder regions.

Decent cabin insulation would actually matter if you don't have "free" heat.

Double-glass windows, such as in the house, and 5cm styrofoam? :)

Sorry Rich, It's funny, but I don't think it's true. Best price I can find for aluminum is $0.20 per LB. It takes 32 cans to make a LB. At $15.00 a case (24 cans, you tell me, I found that online, might be low) That's 67 cases or 1608 cans or 50lbs of aluminun. I think that's $10.00. Keep thinking, there must be a better reason to drink. :-) Mike

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Wrong. The population of may countries in Europe is going to stop increasing sometime fairly soon, when the baby boomers start dying off in significant numbers. They are living longer than was expected when retirement at 65 was the norm, and if they continue to retire at 65 some countries will have trouble funding the old age pension. Germany is in the process of raising the statutory arge of retirement to 68, which they seem to thing will be enough to solve that problem.

As demographic tme bombs go, this would be a damp squid.

The population of the US shows no prospect of stabilising. You burn twice as much fossil carbon per head as Europeans, and have to import half the oil you burn, and you can't export anything like enough to pay for it, and haven't been able to come anywhere near it for more than twenty years now.

This looks more like the kind of demographic time bomb that Malthus had in mind.

A silly claim, which you keep on making and have never been able to substantiate.

a lot

I don't make up stuff about the USA - I don't need to. The reality provides all the ammunition I need.

The foreign graduate students that you used to import did keep US science and industry ahead of the rest of the world for quite a while, but Europe caught up a while ago, and now attracts bright graduate studnets from all over, the way you used to do.

As you keep on telling us. It is certainly good, but perhaps not quite as brilliant as yur PR-team would like us to believe.

Who get stuff that works and keeps on working (if you are to be relied on as an impartial source). It seems unlikely that it is any better or more advanced than it needs to be. Cutting edge design takes a lot of work, and it is hard to justify for the rather small production volumes required by big scientific and aerospace projects.

Jim designed some ground breaking non-linear ICs back when he was still working for Motorola. I used his MC4024 and MC4044 to build a phase-locked loop, which wasn't as easy as it might have been, and I contemplated using his MC1495 which would also have been a swine to use, but Barry Gilbert at Analog Devices managed to produce a more practical device before I had to design a four quadrant multiplier into anything.

Other people who were active in the area back then seemed to do better than Jim, but he's obviously good enough to have been able to keep working in the area.

I never had any formal schooling in electronics - as you are well aware - so this is a particularly silly question.

As I was explicitly talking about general education, it is also totally irrelevant

No. I "pontificate" on issues where there are clear provable points, in areas that you would be ill-equipped to understand, even if you read more than the first few words of my comment. We don't have to go back too far in the thread for an example

You responded to the first line of my comment before you'd bothered to read the second line; when I was at school we were taught to read the whole question before starting to answer it.

You were presumably goofing off. designing something, when your teachers tried to get this across to you.

Your enthusiasm for assuming that I don't know anything about the USA does seem to lead you to neglect evidence that might persuade that I'm less ignorant than you think, but that's right-wing thinking for you.

The fact that you don't know anything about anthropogenic global warming, beyond knowing that you don't want to believe in it, does make you insensitive to the arrant nonsense that gets posted here in support of the attractive (but false) proposition that anthropogenic global warming isn't good science.

-- Bill Sloman, Nijmegen

You got it ;-)

...Jim Thompson

-- | James E.Thompson, P.E. | mens | | Analog Innovations, Inc. | et | | Analog/Mixed-Signal ASIC's and Discrete Systems | manus | | Phoenix, Arizona 85048 Skype: Contacts Only | | | Voice:(480)460-2350 Fax: Available upon request | Brass Rat | | E-mail Icon at

Jim Thompson wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@4ax.com:

but not truly "safe" for you,either. Big cars/SUVs don't handle as well,so you can't AVOID things,and are less forgiving when control is lost. And more prone to flip over(SUVs).

Of course,a Q45 isn't really a big car as compared to the 70's landbarges.

The Fit is a great little car.

John

More useless weight to lug around.

It's BIG, but it's Japanese... handles beautifully ;-)

On Thanksgiving Day (IIRC 2005) our 1996 version was hit hard from the passenger side... drove it in almost a foot. Absolutely no tendency to flip or even spin (I was driving at the time).

My only concern was the right door parts, speakers etc., were _almost_ in the wife's lap. Fortunately it didn't hurt her.

...Jim Thompson

Only if you're fond of shoe horns ;-)

...Jim Thompson

krw, Do you electricity where you are located?

...Jim Thompson

-- | James E.Thompson, P.E. | mens | | Analog Innovations, Inc. | et | | Analog/Mixed-Signal ASIC's and Discrete Systems | manus | | Phoenix, Arizona 85048 Skype: Contacts Only | | | Voice:(480)460-2350 Fax: Available upon request | Brass Rat | | E-mail Icon at

No, I don't electricity. ;-) What was the question?

Kentucky is reported to be without electricity? Are you?

...Jim Thompson

-- | James E.Thompson, P.E. | mens | | Analog Innovations, Inc. | et | | Analog/Mixed-Signal ASIC's and Discrete Systems | manus | | Phoenix, Arizona 85048 Skype: Contacts Only | | | Voice:(480)460-2350 Fax: Available upon request | Brass Rat | | E-mail Icon at

Oh, no. Never made it to Kentucky. I decided not to retire (none months was enough) and couldn't find anything in KY. I moved from VT, with a 1YR stopover in OH, to Eastern Alabama, about 100mi SW of Atlanta. It's nice here. Sure beats living waste deep in snow and drowning in weenies. ;-)

Jim Thompson wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@4ax.com:

the Fit looks like crap. It's just a box.No sportiness at all,ZERO.

I doubt you've even sat in a Fit. What small import cars HAVE you sat in,or driven?

CE > And electric cabin heat would really drain a CE > pack fast, you would probably find some sort CE > of heat pump arrangement for heating and cooling.

krw > How is the heat pump going to work at -20F?

CE > It would also become common for employers CE > and cities to have charging stations in the CE > parking lots. Some of that charge could be CE > used for 'battery warmers' just like you have CE > engine warmers today for cold climes.

Opportunities to plug in engine block heaters are not exactly plentiful in Minnesota.

In the 1980's Northern States Power, the largest electric utility provider was actually ordered to disconnect heaters built into sidewalks and bus shelters to save electricity. This included the sidewalk around their own building.

Personally I thought the heated sidewalk thing was a great public safety move.

Ironically, within the last year they redid the sidewalk and steps outside our courthouse here in Iowa and they INSTALLED piping for water/steam heating them. I can easily imagine that this feature could save a LOT of taxpayers money when it comes to snow/ice removal AND you can bet that the decreased LIABILITY would also be well worth the cost.

For an employer or parking ramp to place an outlet near a parking space could get to be a considerable legal liability, not to mention a problem allocating the considerable energy cost.

CE > Actually, I expect cities to get into providing CE > charging stations that double as parking meters!

Going for some MAJOR popularity there!

Jim Yanik

You think an electric motor runs hot in a -20 F climate?

You think the heat would be enough to be worth collecting?

Jim Yanik

As opposed to a free market, good business model, etc.?

CE > Actually, I expect cities to get into providing charging stations that CE > double as parking meters!

JY > They may not be able to afford the installation costs, JY > and desire to move you into public transpo anyways.

Good point about installation costs. The wiring of such outlets for that many cars and for that level of power usage would not be trivial.

Thanks for posting the links! I'd like to see if they've solved any of these cold weather issues.

Greg

Perhaps at park and ride lots for electric light rail stations?

Yes, but those are for the little 'smart' type vehicles that are for the commuters to use to get from the station to their destinations, rented by the day for cheap.

At least, until you can get self guided vehicles, then they drive you to work, and then go back to the lot for the next guy... 8-)

Charlie