Re: Dodge going Electric
 

Ahhhhh.... Not so 'fast' (pun intended)...

You have to remember the law of conservation of energy.
An 80% charge in 5 minutes of a 75 kWh battery (regardless of battery type or chemistry), would require a 720 kw charger. At residential 240Volt that is 3,000 amps.
Further down the article it mentions a 10-minute version with a 400kW charger.. That's 1,667 amps.
Anybody on here have 1,700 amp service at their house?

Trust me I'm all for more electric cars being sold (I'm the plant manager of a coal-fired power plant), but the misinformation being thrown out there about battery life, charging times and the practicality of a nationwide charging system in just a few years is abject nonsense.

Personally, I would indeed like to get one, then I can put a bumper sticker on the back that says "this car is coal powered"

Re: Dodge going Electric
 

This article IS a very interesting read on the state of battery evolution......
As far as a time frame though, they're probably just as far off as the 50 MPG carburetor.

Re: Dodge going Electric
 

Or the soy bean and chemical "Beef", that "tastes just like real meat!"

Re: Dodge going Electric
 

I liked the Budweiser backed urine powered battery.

Re: Dodge going Electric
 

How in the hell are they going to charge all of these battery powered cars in Texas? They can't even heat their houses. Nobody is talking about the infrastructure to power up all of these electric vehicles. I am waiting to hear about the road tax on these vehicles since the current road tax is covered in the price of fuel. Probably something like the harbor tax on boat fuel. Uncle Joe has a lot of explaining to do. In the old days, we would say they are putting the wagon before the horse.

Re: Dodge going Electric
 

How good are solar panels when they are covered with 7 inches of snow?

Re: Dodge going Electric
 

About as good as a natural gas or oil well with a frozen well head. Except a broom won't fix a well head.

This weather screws most everything up.

Re: Dodge going Electric
 

They have been pumping oil and gas at -50 for years. As long as you keep it flowing it will not freeze. Trans Alaska Pipeline is not heat traced.
.Randy

Re: Dodge going Electric
 

From CNBC "ENERGY U.S. oil wells, refineries shut as winter storm hits energy sector"

My post was somewhat tongue in check but it is warmer in Alaska now than in some of Texas. The Alaska pipe line was designed for these temps, the oil infrastructure in Texas is not.

This to will pass.

Re: Dodge going Electric
 

The T-A pipeline heats the oil at the first pump station.

Re: Dodge going Electric
 

There are no oil and gas well heads “froze.”
Have no idea what your taking about.

But Texas’ much touted “25,000 mw of wind “capacity” ( capacity being the keyword, not output) is sitting at 4,500 mw right now and that’s double what it was yesterday.
Yesterday they were over 15,000 mw’s short on supply vs demand.
The power prices down there are still maxed out at $9,000 per mw.
For reference a typical large coal fired plant can produce each mw for around $25 to $30/mw.

Re: Dodge going Electric
 

I have worked at Pump 1, they do heat some of the oil. The oil coming from North Star is heated because it comes from a man made island about 10 miles away and about 5 miles of the pipe is under the arctic ocean, but the oil comes out of the ground at around 130 F and is over a 100F when it enters the TAP's. Flow Rates keep it heated on its journey to Valdez.

The reason refineries in areas where they were not designed for the cold shut in, is the instrumentation impulse lines freeze, 3/8" 1/2" tubing that has no heat trace, with out these permissive's things shut down.

Randy

Re: Dodge going Electric
 

I am not in the business, but these is from an email I got yesterday from our gas utility in Tulsa, Oklahoma.

"Why has this weather caused so many problems?
Due to the unprecedented, historically low temperatures over an extended period, we are seeing much higher natural gas use coupled with supply issues. As of this morning, our suppliers of natural gas are experiencing freezing gas wells due to the duration of the extreme cold. This is impacting the amount of gas they are able to provide to us."

I would think the same would be true in Texas.

Re: Dodge going Electric
 

They are freezing because they are not heat traced and insulated, gas does have condensates that will freeze, in the tubing impulse lines that runs to Pressure Transmitters and Flow Transmitters, if you use Tube Bundle that is insulated and heat traced this would not be happening, Prudhoe Bay Alaska processes more cubic feet of gas a day then any field in north America and the 50 Mega Watt Central Power Station runs on fuel gas, gas runs through a knock out drum that separates the condensates out. I have seen 35 to 45 below 95 below chill factor for weeks on end and everything keeps running. There is no way in hell a wind turbine could operate in these temperatures, and Solar! no sun for 3 months

Randy
5628

Re: Dodge going Electric
 

Looks like swapping the battery out rather than charging it is the way of the future. Might work in populated areas, can't see it working to well in remote areas.

"Electric Cars can be designed to allow a fast battery swap, exchanging your battery for a fully charged battery in less than half the time it takes to refill a gas tank. This offers Tesla Model S drivers an even faster option when recharging while driving long distances."

Still haven't figured out where all the electricity is going to come from.

Jim Mantle V/SA 6632

Re: Dodge going Electric
 

Jim,

You are right, no such thing as perpetual motion, at least not yet, it still takes HP or KW to move an object.

Randy Wells
5628

Re: Dodge going Electric
 

I remember being in a meeting when Ford bought the Think electric car company. The person introducing the cars said that Ford had just finished a year long electric car owners survey. The conclusion: Everybody thought it was a good idea if their neighbor bought an electric car to clean up the environment. Started the meeting out on a light note. Tesla seems to have changed that mind set. As they say, come on in the water is fine. I'm still from the show me state.

Re: Dodge going Electric
 

I just googled "Tesla battery replacement cost", and it came up with $16,000 parts and labor, with 13 hours required to perform the task. Even my old Ford truck with dual gas tanks took considerably less than 26 hours to fill both tanks.

Re: Dodge going Electric
 

I wonder how all the Tesla drivers are doing in Texas this week?

Re: Dodge going Electric
 

Has anyone checked EBay or Amazon for cheep Chinese replacements batteries that have a half life measured nanoseconds?

Re: Dodge going Electric
 

I know one thing the lithium battery in my race car does not like cold weather. It struggles to start the car when the weather is real cold. I just hook up the 16 v charger to it like a jump box and it starts. Once its warmed up then it works good all day. in the future I will warm the battery with a small heater in the cold weather.

Re: Dodge going Electric
 

I'm a little late to this post... but the realistic-ness of the entire country investing in the infrastructure to support only electric vehicles is a pipe dream.. it wont happen. we cant even take of the roads we already got..

Second as soon as these car companies decide to push back hard enough.. the damage to the planet these electric car are doing will be exposed.. the mining and disposal practices are just as bad if not worse than the fossil fuel productions and emissions..

Third.. I would put money on some version of hydrogen powered vehicles whether is a blend with gasoline or something else becoming the gold standard moving forward and electric becoming a popular metro area solution.

Re: Dodge going Electric
 

This is my take on cold batteries, there was a guy down here with a battery powered porsche drag car.

He lost 1/2 second with warm batteries.

Just my $.02.

Re: Dodge going Electric
 

I guess I have bought my last new Corvette.