Posted: Sun Jan 12, 2003 1:33 am ....[Long time ago]
By: CougTek of Montreal Quebec
http://storageforum.net/forum/viewtopic.php?p=24932#24932
The best idea I ever saw for powering a car was the electric motor-wheel developed by Hydro-Québec some 8 years ago. But something screwed up during the development and although it worked perfectly fine (only two wheels could pushed a big Chrysler Intrepid from 0-60mph in 8 sec, imagine four), they apparently dropped the project.
Many people are still revolted that Hydro-Québec decided to cancel the motor-wheel, since it was the only electric-based motorization that was powerful enough to bring decent performances for average-sized cars.
I'm pretty sure some big oil company put pressure on Hydro-Québec in a way or another, (wouldn't be surprised if it was Esso, bunch of bastards), to put the motor-wheel in the grave.
The principle of the motor-wheel was, at large, to make the wheel spinning by injecting an electrical current in coils placed inside the wheel. They were able to apply 3 times more pressure on the wheel with their prototype than a Ferrari of the mid nineties.
Hydro-Québec still owns the patent for a few years, but nothing good will come out of it. It would have been so great. I have no words to describe the idiocy of the manager who decided to cancel the project.
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Posted: Sun Jan 12, 2003 2:04 am
By: jtr1962 of Flushing New York
I'm guessing it was pressure from some oil company to drop the project since it would have greatly decreased demand for fossil fuels. The idiot that dropped it should be made to suck on an exhaust pipe until he croaks.
I too have often wondered why we don't just do away with the mechanical transmission in road vehicles and power cars via electric motors in the wheels powered by either a battery, an engine powered generator, or solar cells (or some combination of all three). The battery will provide stored power upon demand for quick bursts of acceleration, the gas engine power for steady cruising (and to recharge the battery), and solar panels will supplement the output of the gas engine.
I'd guess that you could run the car at moderate cruising speeds entirely on solar power on bright days, and at highway speeds you would still get perhaps a third of your power via the sun. Other times the engine will supply the power, but it can be a much smaller engine, and since it will run at it's most efficient RPM rather than constantly speeding up/slowing down, it will be smaller as well as run more efficiently.
100 mpg is not unrealistic from such a setup, and perhaps 150 to 200 mpg once ultra-efficient solar cells are available. Small wonder the oil companies likely killed it as it eventually would bring the demand for gas to 10 to 15% of what it is now.
Electric motors are the best way to power vehicles. Some commuter trains I used to take had a 250 HP electric motor on each axle(1000 HP per car). These were able to accelerate a train of cars of 61 tons (plus passenger load) each up to 80 mph from a dead stop in under a minute(0 to 60 took about 35 seconds).
Now imagine what 100 HP of electric motors on a 1 ton car can do. My best estimate is 0 to 60 mph in about 6 seconds. Electric motors can also be overloaded at twice or more of their rated capacity for a few minutes so you can easily cut that figure in half if you can hit the battery for the extra juice. I don't think you can do better than about 3 seconds due to the limits of tire-road adhesion. For the same reasons it is difficult to get a train up to 60 mph in much less than about 25 seconds, even if power is unlimited (which it never is).
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http://www.techspot.com/vb/showthread.php?p=295610#post295610
These observations are 3 ½ years old….
Where is our electric car? TG
It occurred to me that While I am giving some casual help to a friend who is refurbishing a beautiful property in Courtenay here on Vancouver Island, to try and preserve the beautiful mature trees I should mention it in the hopes of saving the place and it*s beauty.
