spidergoat
Valued Senior Member

Wow, look at this stylish number!
It was actually somewhere in the middle. The $80k number came from dividing the total cost of the EV-1 program, including research and development, by the number of EV-1s that they produced. I believe the actual cost of building one additional EV-1 was only something like $50k. $38k was sort of an estimate about how much it might cost if they mass-produced them and were selling thousands. But like I said, it's very unlikely that enough people would be interested in buying one to make real mass-production (and the associated per-unit price drop) feasible.Thats the estimated cost for determining a lease arrangement. The car actually cost GM $80,000 to manufacture.
It was an experiment.
Good clear thinking.... $38k was sort of an estimate about how much it might cost if they mass-produced them and were selling thousands....
The problem for electric cars is that even though people complain all the time about the price of gasoline, it really isn't that expensive. Most people in the U.S. only drive about 10k miles/year, which in a fuel-efficient car will only burn through about $1000 in gasoline. How long do you plan to own the car? 10 years? Okay, you will need about $10k in gasoline over the life of your car. Since you can get a small four-door sedan for about $10-12k, the price of an electric car will need to be below $20k before it even begins to be compeditive with a gasolne-powered car.
Yeah, there are some people who drive a lot more than 10k miles/year; but for them the limited range and loooooong recharge times are likely to be a problem. A small, fuel-efficient, four-door sedan
I wish people would stop talking about GM's EV-1 like it was some kind finished product that was ready to replace cars. Very, very few people would be interested in buying an EV-1. It only had 2 seats, a 100 mile range, and took eight hours to charge. Even with those limitations, the EV-1 might have found a market with people who only wanted a car to commute to work or something...if it hadn't cost $38k. That high pricetag more than cancels out any gas savings; you could buy a regular small sedan (that will still be a lot bigger than the EV-1) for around $10k, budget $18k to buy more gas than you are ever likely to use in the life of the car, and still end up paying $10k less than the price of the EV-1. With the exception of a few die-hard environmentalists, no one is willing to pay thousands fo dollars more for a car that does a lot less.
Wow, look at this stylish number!
Stop insulting golf cart makers or I will report you.Probably. It looks like a golf cart.
yes, and I said "more circuits" AND MORE COST. My concern is not that it is impossible (although that may be the case in practice) but with the economics, as I clearly stated. Note also that these extra circuits must be able to handel the peak power demanded by the car pulling away from an accident etc. even if there is little energy left in the capacitor just as the last cup of gasoline in the fuel tank can. - I.e they will not be cheap.The part about the voltage dropping is the easiest. There are already chips out that are dedicated to tasks like keeping a constant current flowing through an item like an LED. Those chips can be adapted to a variety of different loads using transistors. There are all kinds of switching power supply chips that are already made to do this job.
Stop insulting golf cart makers or I will report you.
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I'll keep this thread posted on any developments. They are not taking investment from the public at this time, and they dont even have a website.In Summary:
I wish EEStor luck, but will not invest in them. (I'll believe it, perhaps, when I see them demonstrate their claims.)
yes, and I said "more circuits" AND MORE COST. My concern is not that it is impossible (although that may be the case in practice) but with the economics, as I clearly stated. Note also that these extra circuits must be able to handel the peak power demanded by the car pulling away from an accident etc. even if there is little energy left in the capacitor just as the last cup of gasoline in the fuel tank can. - I.e they will not be cheap.
That is true, but in the capacitor storage case, they are much more complex and expensive* to cope with the varying voltage of the energy supply....Any modern electric car uses some kind of switching controller that continually optimizes power use.
I was not familiar with the "buck-boost" circuit by that name, but learned what it is from:a typical "buck-boost" circuit can work both ways. It can supply higher voltages at lower currents or lower voltages at higher currents than the input. ...
No. You will want a DC motor for the high torque at low RPM it can provide and there is no "power factor problem" with a DC motor. Especially true if one is using "in wheel" motors as then there is no space for a complex gear set that can let an AC motor develope adequate torque for a standing start.* (In wheel motors have many attractions, not the least of which is to deliver different power to each wheel by computer control for "no-slip" operation. Another is that the "rotator" can be an integral part of the wheel. They also facilitate regenerative breaking.)...You also need similar capabilities to control the power factor of the motor.