someone Build one of these 150 mpg hybrids!

[theholycow]

Originally Posted by JoeBob

it might get rid of the charging time problem...

The charging time problem is due to lack of adequate supply. Put the capacitor in the charging station.

[rgathright]

Originally Posted by theholycow

The charging time problem is due to lack of adequate supply. Put the capacitor in the charging station.

Well... not entirely friend...

If you run an EV for 100 miles at once and try to recharge it, you will find that the batteries are going to be hot. Hot charging batteries results in cooking of the cells which leads to premature failure of them. Oddly though, few people commute 100+ miles daily. A standard 120VAC 15 amp wall outlet can recharge a 10Kw battery pack in 8 hours. Just in time to go home again from a long day at work.

Read about Noel Perrin's scientific work in Solo to find out more ok?

[GasSavers_JoeBob]

Originally Posted by rgathright

Well... not entirely friend...

If you run an EV for 100 miles at once and try to recharge it, you will find that the batteries are going to be hot. Hot charging batteries results in cooking of the cells which leads to premature failure of them. Oddly though, few people commute 100+ miles daily. A standard 120VAC 15 amp wall outlet can recharge a 10Kw battery pack in 8 hours. Just in time to go home again from a long day at work.

Read about Noel Perrin's scientific work in Solo to find out more ok?

I happen to be one of those people who commute about 100 miles daily. One of my co-workers (who has a much shorter commute) has converted a VW bug to electric...but hasn't been able to get the boss to let him recharge his car...yet...he has a much shorter commute (<20 miles), and his batteries won't let him go to work and back home.

[Dr. Jerryrigger]

caps are a much simpler device than batters, which makes them more flexible in application. You can charge a big one in 2sec if you have the current source. And on the flip side of thing, if you sort out a cap it will discharge completely in a fraction of a second. On the scale of a car battery, that's big hole melted threw your hood.
I don't know how long a cap can hold a charge, I think, batteries have a large advantage on this. But there are many types of caps, and many types of batteries. It wouldn't be that hard to fabricate yourself a Lithium Ion car battery, which would raise the bar much higher for what you would need out of a cap for it to be a better chose.

I've heard, somewhere, that there are some people using caps for electric drag racing cars.

[GasSavers_JoeBob]

Yes, when capacitors blow, they can do so rather spectacularly...I was using an old tube type Sansui stereo my brother brought back after a tour in 'Nam. One day, I heard a loud 'pop' from the set...there was one of the filter caps, blown apart, foil expanded out everywhere!

It was a quick fix, of course, solder in a new cap and the set was good as new. But magnify that by the amount of current required in a car, and you might get an idea of what could happen if a cap failed.

A charged capacitor can hold a charge for quite a while...when working on old tube type radios and TV sets, the wise person always, after removing power, shorts all electrolytic capacitors. Most sets have a way of bleeding off the charge, but since the caps can hold a potentially fatal charge, one should never trust such bleeder devices.

[JanGeo]

A company called EEStor in Texas (has) is working on a capacitor that should be capable of powering a car for 250-300 miles and recharge as fast as you can pump the energy into it - will not wear out and be lighter and smaller than a Lithium battery with the same energy and theorically cheeper. Just have not seen it come out year . . .