They claim to have a 400 watt hours/kg battery that they have produced and is ready for production, or at least will be ready for production in a year and a half. So I'm guessing they already have the batteries built, but don't have a factory to produce them at industry numbers.
They say this more than doubles industry energy density and halves the cost, but I'm betting they really mean that doubling the energy density will halve the cost of the battery, not that it's a X4 gain. Still, that's a very significant jump forward and affects all kinds of things, not just EVs. You could use the same batteries to build your house sized UPS also.
http://www.smartgridnews.com/artman/publish/End_Use_Electric_Transportation/A-cheaper-EV-battery---for-a-300-mile-range-EV-4531.html
Showing posts with label EV. Show all posts
Showing posts with label EV. Show all posts
Wednesday, February 29, 2012
Sunday, January 30, 2011
solar panel payoff
Ok, I have all the information I need to figure out a pretty accurate total pay off time for my solar panels. Unfortunately to make it actually accurate would require a ton of data mining and calculations. So instead of that I'm going to do a quick and dirty approximation.
The 6.72kWh system cost $42672.
Xcel bought 20 years of my carbon credits for $23520 in the form of a rebate off the total price.
Then I paid the $19152 that was left.
I received $5444 in tax credit in 2009.
I received $5188 in tax credit in 2010.
I'll receive $3334 in tax credit in 2011 unless something changes.
And I hope to receive approximately $1111 in 2012.
I will get about $20 per year back from Xcel for generating more electricity than I use and letting them fuck me up the ass with a barbed pole for it.
Now the simplistic part of this calculation. I checked and my average power bill now is about $50 less per month than my average power bill was before I got the solar installed. While this is true, it's not really a very accurate assessment of the solar panels effect on my power bills. But until I do the work to mine all of the rest of the data required, we'll settle with that.
So...assuming I get this year and next years projected tax credits, and using the simplistic power bill difference above the out of pocket cost of these solar panels for me is going to be about $4000. So it will pay for itself in about 6.5 years. In that 6.5 years I will never pay for electricity on my power bill. (I will pay for electricity because I have to pay for what I use, then Xcel pays for what I generate, then charges twice what they pay me to someone else for the power I generated. It really is a giant FUCK YOU from Xcel.)
6.5 years total. 5.2 years from now. March 2016. Then I'll get another 13.5 years of solar power generation out of the system. Sure the system will slowly degrade, but they guarantee it'll be generating at least 85% of the power it generates now in 20 years, they actually expect it'll be generating more than 90% of it's rating at install for 25 years. And unless I begin using significantly more electricity than I currently do during that time, I'll never have to pay for electricity on my power bill.
Now...being the geek that I am, and having figured out that I'm not calculating this quite correctly, it's likely sometime this year I'll get annoyed with that and be bored and I'll end up data mining my power bills and doing a bunch of more accurate calculations.
And speaking of using more power...I'm planning on buying an EV next year, so that'll take up a crapload of power, and of course it'll never be plugged in during the day so that'll kill the balance. Of course I'm also intending to continue making my house more energy efficient and if I can figure out how to do it I'll be installing solar thermal and more solar panels. If I can find a way to do it I'll be installing a big assed storage system so that I store the excess power I generate during the day to use at night, but Xcel is kinda pissy about that so I'm not sure how I'll do it even if I can come up with the money. Which is considerable.
So that's some damned good news in my opinion, and hopefully will help convince some more people to invest in putting solar on their house. Especially since the panels you can get now are already much better than the ones I've got.
The 6.72kWh system cost $42672.
Xcel bought 20 years of my carbon credits for $23520 in the form of a rebate off the total price.
Then I paid the $19152 that was left.
I received $5444 in tax credit in 2009.
I received $5188 in tax credit in 2010.
I'll receive $3334 in tax credit in 2011 unless something changes.
And I hope to receive approximately $1111 in 2012.
I will get about $20 per year back from Xcel for generating more electricity than I use and letting them fuck me up the ass with a barbed pole for it.
Now the simplistic part of this calculation. I checked and my average power bill now is about $50 less per month than my average power bill was before I got the solar installed. While this is true, it's not really a very accurate assessment of the solar panels effect on my power bills. But until I do the work to mine all of the rest of the data required, we'll settle with that.
So...assuming I get this year and next years projected tax credits, and using the simplistic power bill difference above the out of pocket cost of these solar panels for me is going to be about $4000. So it will pay for itself in about 6.5 years. In that 6.5 years I will never pay for electricity on my power bill. (I will pay for electricity because I have to pay for what I use, then Xcel pays for what I generate, then charges twice what they pay me to someone else for the power I generated. It really is a giant FUCK YOU from Xcel.)
6.5 years total. 5.2 years from now. March 2016. Then I'll get another 13.5 years of solar power generation out of the system. Sure the system will slowly degrade, but they guarantee it'll be generating at least 85% of the power it generates now in 20 years, they actually expect it'll be generating more than 90% of it's rating at install for 25 years. And unless I begin using significantly more electricity than I currently do during that time, I'll never have to pay for electricity on my power bill.
Now...being the geek that I am, and having figured out that I'm not calculating this quite correctly, it's likely sometime this year I'll get annoyed with that and be bored and I'll end up data mining my power bills and doing a bunch of more accurate calculations.
And speaking of using more power...I'm planning on buying an EV next year, so that'll take up a crapload of power, and of course it'll never be plugged in during the day so that'll kill the balance. Of course I'm also intending to continue making my house more energy efficient and if I can figure out how to do it I'll be installing solar thermal and more solar panels. If I can find a way to do it I'll be installing a big assed storage system so that I store the excess power I generate during the day to use at night, but Xcel is kinda pissy about that so I'm not sure how I'll do it even if I can come up with the money. Which is considerable.
So that's some damned good news in my opinion, and hopefully will help convince some more people to invest in putting solar on their house. Especially since the panels you can get now are already much better than the ones I've got.
Thursday, January 20, 2011
T25 exceptional EEC40 crash test results.
Gordon Murrays EV concept car T25 survives it's EEC40 deformable half barrier impact crash test with incredible results. Makes some sense given that it was designed around a safety cell as in the type of technology that keeps racers safe. This isn't actually the EV like the title says, but the only change between the two would be the drive train.
Thursday, November 25, 2010
Chevy Volt is impressive but far too expensive.
Chevy Volt gets an average of 60mpg starting from a full charge and has about a 380 mile range. It would be perfect for pretty much anything other than long drives and even there it's not bad. The problem is that it's $41,000 dollars for a small car and it's a GM car. Given how badly the fucked up the EV-1 and the Saturn line once it was absorbed back into the parent company, I really can't feel good about buying a GM car. Especially since they already got a shitload of my money against my will when the government bailed them out. But this is an innovative design...one I thought of and of course had no way of capitalizing on many years before GM.
For most people they would be able to do all their commuting and most of their in-city driving purely on electricity (assuming they install a charger in their house or have access to one for over night charging). The EPA says the all-electric equivalent mpg is 93. That's pretty damned good.
Let's compare a drive I do a few times a year in my Saturn SL1 to the drive in the Volt.
The trip is ~1000 miles and my Saturn averages about 37mpg on the interstate. I'll pick an arbitrary gas price of $3/gallon. So the trip costs me roughly $81 in the Saturn.
In the Volt assuming a full charge when leaving for the trip and the rest all the same I'd get 60mpg for the first 300 miles and then because I couldn't recharge the battery I'd get 37mpg for the rest of the trip. So that's $15 for the first 300 and $56 for the last 700 miles for a total of $71. My Saturn cost $13,000 or so and the Volt costs $41,000 (but you get a $7500 tax credit). So if all I was doing was driving long distance and all I was considering is the cost of driving that far, the Volt isn't worth it at all. Driving all interstate mileage I'd have to drive over 2,000,000 miles to make up for the difference in cost.
But of course there are many other factors involved so it's not that simple and of course if you use it as a commute car most of the time like most people would and if you have access to a plug each day then the volt only costs you on your electrical bill at an equivalent of 93mpg according to the EPA. And I only get about 30mpg in my Saturn when driving in the city. So there it would only take 300,000 miles or so of just gas costs to make up the difference in cost.
Of course, in my case I have solar panels. So the car isn't going to cost me anything in energy costs to drive on average over a year. But then any EV that is cheaper than the volt would be a better choice even if I have to rent a car every time I travel more than the range of the car. And most plugin hybrids (if they ever start making them) that is cheaper is likely to be a better deal.
So to me, while the design is cool and all, the Volt just isn't worth the money. I'd rather get a plugin hybrid toyota where I can tell it to just use electric for my commute, get almost as good mpg on a long trip as the volt and get a car brand that is radically more reliable in the long run.
What I really want is an EV that I can drive long distance, but I don't think we'll have those for a while yet. I'd certainly settle for an old style Saturn plugin hybrid, from the version of Saturn back when they first formed so that the cars were good quality relatively inexpensive cars that you could buy without dealing with sleazy sales people and get worked on without dealing with mechanics who were trying to get sell you the idea of getting a bunch of work done on your car that wasn't required, basically not having to deal with the cheating bastards I've mostly run into in car dealerships everywhere other than the old original Saturn dealerships.
But that certainly isn't going to happen...GM absorbed Saturn, Saturns sales dropped every year after that and their cars got shittier and shittier. They have possible the worst hybrid on the market and now the Saturn brand doesn't even exist anymore.
So if I'm lucky I'll end up with a Nissan Leaf or a Toyota Rav4 EV or some even better car when I have the money for a new car or when I'm forced to buy a new one when my 10 year old Saturn finally gives out.
I won't even speculate on when I'll be able to get a nice EV motorcycle like the Honda ST1300. At least some companies are making EV motorcycles so I have some hope.
(There's always a chance I'll make mistakes in basic math...if you see one let me know.)
For most people they would be able to do all their commuting and most of their in-city driving purely on electricity (assuming they install a charger in their house or have access to one for over night charging). The EPA says the all-electric equivalent mpg is 93. That's pretty damned good.
Let's compare a drive I do a few times a year in my Saturn SL1 to the drive in the Volt.
The trip is ~1000 miles and my Saturn averages about 37mpg on the interstate. I'll pick an arbitrary gas price of $3/gallon. So the trip costs me roughly $81 in the Saturn.
In the Volt assuming a full charge when leaving for the trip and the rest all the same I'd get 60mpg for the first 300 miles and then because I couldn't recharge the battery I'd get 37mpg for the rest of the trip. So that's $15 for the first 300 and $56 for the last 700 miles for a total of $71. My Saturn cost $13,000 or so and the Volt costs $41,000 (but you get a $7500 tax credit). So if all I was doing was driving long distance and all I was considering is the cost of driving that far, the Volt isn't worth it at all. Driving all interstate mileage I'd have to drive over 2,000,000 miles to make up for the difference in cost.
But of course there are many other factors involved so it's not that simple and of course if you use it as a commute car most of the time like most people would and if you have access to a plug each day then the volt only costs you on your electrical bill at an equivalent of 93mpg according to the EPA. And I only get about 30mpg in my Saturn when driving in the city. So there it would only take 300,000 miles or so of just gas costs to make up the difference in cost.
Of course, in my case I have solar panels. So the car isn't going to cost me anything in energy costs to drive on average over a year. But then any EV that is cheaper than the volt would be a better choice even if I have to rent a car every time I travel more than the range of the car. And most plugin hybrids (if they ever start making them) that is cheaper is likely to be a better deal.
So to me, while the design is cool and all, the Volt just isn't worth the money. I'd rather get a plugin hybrid toyota where I can tell it to just use electric for my commute, get almost as good mpg on a long trip as the volt and get a car brand that is radically more reliable in the long run.
What I really want is an EV that I can drive long distance, but I don't think we'll have those for a while yet. I'd certainly settle for an old style Saturn plugin hybrid, from the version of Saturn back when they first formed so that the cars were good quality relatively inexpensive cars that you could buy without dealing with sleazy sales people and get worked on without dealing with mechanics who were trying to get sell you the idea of getting a bunch of work done on your car that wasn't required, basically not having to deal with the cheating bastards I've mostly run into in car dealerships everywhere other than the old original Saturn dealerships.
But that certainly isn't going to happen...GM absorbed Saturn, Saturns sales dropped every year after that and their cars got shittier and shittier. They have possible the worst hybrid on the market and now the Saturn brand doesn't even exist anymore.
So if I'm lucky I'll end up with a Nissan Leaf or a Toyota Rav4 EV or some even better car when I have the money for a new car or when I'm forced to buy a new one when my 10 year old Saturn finally gives out.
I won't even speculate on when I'll be able to get a nice EV motorcycle like the Honda ST1300. At least some companies are making EV motorcycles so I have some hope.
(There's always a chance I'll make mistakes in basic math...if you see one let me know.)
Thursday, November 18, 2010
2012 Toyota RAV4 EV
Toyota RAV4 EV
I'm really happy to see all these EVs and hybrids hitting the market. Hopefully my excellent Saturn SL1 will survive long enough for me to be able to afford whichever EV/Hybrid I can fit in most comfortably.
I'm really happy to see all these EVs and hybrids hitting the market. Hopefully my excellent Saturn SL1 will survive long enough for me to be able to afford whichever EV/Hybrid I can fit in most comfortably.
Wednesday, March 17, 2010
BMW Z3 EV conversion by Tim Catellier
http://ev.gearboxmagazine.com/2010/03/16/tim-catelliers-2000-bmw-z3-ev/
This is an article about my friend Tim who just finished converting a BMW Z3 to all electrical. I've been reading along while he's been building it, and spent an excellent day hanging out talking and checking out the car when I was down in Phoenix last. I've got to say he's done an exceptional job on this and really proved he is an extraordinary man especially when it comes to resolving difficult problems. Many of the problems he ran into would have stopped me dead.
Here's his blog in case you're interested.
http://evz3.blogspot.com/
This is an article about my friend Tim who just finished converting a BMW Z3 to all electrical. I've been reading along while he's been building it, and spent an excellent day hanging out talking and checking out the car when I was down in Phoenix last. I've got to say he's done an exceptional job on this and really proved he is an extraordinary man especially when it comes to resolving difficult problems. Many of the problems he ran into would have stopped me dead.
Here's his blog in case you're interested.
http://evz3.blogspot.com/
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