EV's....and the future of 'breakdowns'
Discussion
MitchT said:
98elise said:
Batteries are way to big heavy to replace at the roadside. In addition manufacturers will vever argree on a single standard as it compromises the design choices. Something that works in a tesla will not work in twizzy.
My theory would be that a pack would be made up of smaller units. Think of it like AA batteries in electrical items. Some items need two batteries, others might need four. Make batteries that are smaller, can be used in the multiples required for the size of car and can be easily swapped at the roadside.98elise said:
You do not need to disconnect the motor. Brakes are far more powerful than motors, so if you want to stop a runaway car you simply push on the brakes.
Are you sure? There have been enough stories of people whose throttles were jammed open and standing on the brakes didn't seem to stop the car. With all the torque that electric cars have I wouldn't want to take my chances, and besides, if the car was brake-by-wire who's to say the brakes might not be inoperable due to the same fault that caused the motor to run away?Edited by MitchT on Sunday 12th February 13:08
The stories of people not being able to stop a car if the thottle jams open are b
ks. Try this....drive your car at 70mph, then stamp on the brake and throttle at the same time. Do you think you will stop of accelerate?98elise said:
Try this....drive your car at 70mph, then stamp on the brake and throttle at the same time. Do you think you will stop of accelerate?
My car? I have an [almost] 18 year old E36 318 which I love to bits but I'd be lying if I said it had enough torque to pull the skin off a rice pudding, let alone overcome the brakes. Modern diesels or electric cars however? Maybe someone should try it.MitchT said:
My car? I have an [almost] 18 year old E36 318 which I love to bits but I'd be lying if I said it had enough torque to pull the skin off a rice pudding, let alone overcome the brakes. Modern diesels or electric cars however? Maybe someone should try it.
The Zoe allows throttle input while braking (I really like that it does, too many modern cars won't, and it makes left-foot braking impossible). The brakes will overpower the motor if you properly lay on them, yes, it'll stop.The issue with people having their brakes not be able to stop "unintended acceleration" is likely that they try and be gentle with them and modulate their speed initially, which gets them too hot to be able to help later. If you properly stomp on them right from the get-go, it'll work much better.
A typical EV passenger car does around 3.5 miles per kWhr of electricity.
So the recovery van doesn't need to store lots of energy. A "half" sized EV battery, say 10kWHr, could easily be used to rapid charge (50kW, so around 12 min) a stranded EV, giving that EV more than enough range to get to the nearest fixed charger. Then, a diesel genset could recharge that battery (or a big alternator on the vans engine) whilst it drives to it's next job.
So the recovery van doesn't need to store lots of energy. A "half" sized EV battery, say 10kWHr, could easily be used to rapid charge (50kW, so around 12 min) a stranded EV, giving that EV more than enough range to get to the nearest fixed charger. Then, a diesel genset could recharge that battery (or a big alternator on the vans engine) whilst it drives to it's next job.
EVs regenerate when going down hill, at any speed, or just rolling to a stop. Why can't they be towed as a means of adding in some juice?
The recovery trucks could be a mobile dyno but in reverse. Winch the car onto the dyno wheels, fire it up to get the driven wheels spinning at 100mph and just give it ten minutes.
Sorted.
The recovery trucks could be a mobile dyno but in reverse. Winch the car onto the dyno wheels, fire it up to get the driven wheels spinning at 100mph and just give it ten minutes.
Sorted.
dave_s13 said:
EVs regenerate when going down hill, at any speed, or just rolling to a stop. Why can't they be towed as a means of adding in some juice?
The recovery trucks could be a mobile dyno but in reverse. Winch the car onto the dyno wheels, fire it up to get the driven wheels spinning at 100mph and just give it ten minutes.
Sorted.
Sounds good but would be too expensive and can you imagine doing that on a cold dark rainy evening in the arse end of knowhere. The basic tow to charge idea is good though providing the EV was clever enough to facilitate it.The recovery trucks could be a mobile dyno but in reverse. Winch the car onto the dyno wheels, fire it up to get the driven wheels spinning at 100mph and just give it ten minutes.
Sorted.
Purity14 said:
Everyone has adopted ISOFIX child seat connectors as the standard.
My imagination is that when you break down there is an option to fit a large batterypack to the ISOFIX connector in one of the passenger places, or even in two.
It would then be plugged in, and the car could be driven to the charging station.
They could drop the batteries off at the charging station for pickup later.
Or the breakdown truck could follow them and recover the batteries there and then.
The batteries only need 20 miles or so I guess, but I am unsure how big they would need to be and if this would be a viable solution.
That should work and be relatively simple to implement, in fact its so logical it will never happen. My imagination is that when you break down there is an option to fit a large batterypack to the ISOFIX connector in one of the passenger places, or even in two.
It would then be plugged in, and the car could be driven to the charging station.
They could drop the batteries off at the charging station for pickup later.
Or the breakdown truck could follow them and recover the batteries there and then.
The batteries only need 20 miles or so I guess, but I am unsure how big they would need to be and if this would be a viable solution.
Edited by babatunde on Monday 13th February 14:14
babatunde said:
Purity14 said:
Everyone has adopted ISOFIX child seat connectors as the standard.
My imagination is that when you break down there is an option to fit a large batterypack to the ISOFIX connector in one of the passenger places, or even in two.
It would then be plugged in, and the car could be driven to the charging station.
They could drop the batteries off at the charging station for pickup later.
Or the breakdown truck could follow them and recover the batteries there and then.
The batteries only need 20 miles or so I guess, but I am unsure how big they would need to be and if this would be a viable solution.
That should work and be relatively simple to implement. My imagination is that when you break down there is an option to fit a large batterypack to the ISOFIX connector in one of the passenger places, or even in two.
It would then be plugged in, and the car could be driven to the charging station.
They could drop the batteries off at the charging station for pickup later.
Or the breakdown truck could follow them and recover the batteries there and then.
The batteries only need 20 miles or so I guess, but I am unsure how big they would need to be and if this would be a viable solution.
Best bet is just to tow the car to a charger.
Clem2k3 said:
babatunde said:
Purity14 said:
Everyone has adopted ISOFIX child seat connectors as the standard.
My imagination is that when you break down there is an option to fit a large batterypack to the ISOFIX connector in one of the passenger places, or even in two.
It would then be plugged in, and the car could be driven to the charging station.
They could drop the batteries off at the charging station for pickup later.
Or the breakdown truck could follow them and recover the batteries there and then.
The batteries only need 20 miles or so I guess, but I am unsure how big they would need to be and if this would be a viable solution.
That should work and be relatively simple to implement. My imagination is that when you break down there is an option to fit a large batterypack to the ISOFIX connector in one of the passenger places, or even in two.
It would then be plugged in, and the car could be driven to the charging station.
They could drop the batteries off at the charging station for pickup later.
Or the breakdown truck could follow them and recover the batteries there and then.
The batteries only need 20 miles or so I guess, but I am unsure how big they would need to be and if this would be a viable solution.
Best bet is just to tow the car to a charger.
colin_p said:
dave_s13 said:
EVs regenerate when going down hill, at any speed, or just rolling to a stop. Why can't they be towed as a means of adding in some juice?
The recovery trucks could be a mobile dyno but in reverse. Winch the car onto the dyno wheels, fire it up to get the driven wheels spinning at 100mph and just give it ten minutes.
Sorted.
Sounds good but would be too expensive and can you imagine doing that on a cold dark rainy evening in the arse end of knowhere. The basic tow to charge idea is good though providing the EV was clever enough to facilitate it.The recovery trucks could be a mobile dyno but in reverse. Winch the car onto the dyno wheels, fire it up to get the driven wheels spinning at 100mph and just give it ten minutes.
Sorted.
dxg said:
colin_p said:
dave_s13 said:
EVs regenerate when going down hill, at any speed, or just rolling to a stop. Why can't they be towed as a means of adding in some juice?
The recovery trucks could be a mobile dyno but in reverse. Winch the car onto the dyno wheels, fire it up to get the driven wheels spinning at 100mph and just give it ten minutes.
Sorted.
Sounds good but would be too expensive and can you imagine doing that on a cold dark rainy evening in the arse end of knowhere. The basic tow to charge idea is good though providing the EV was clever enough to facilitate it.The recovery trucks could be a mobile dyno but in reverse. Winch the car onto the dyno wheels, fire it up to get the driven wheels spinning at 100mph and just give it ten minutes.
Sorted.
As long as the car hasn't s
t itself in anyway I can't see how this will hurt? 
Max_Torque said:
A typical EV passenger car does around 3.5 miles per kWhr of electricity.
So the recovery van doesn't need to store lots of energy. A "half" sized EV battery, say 10kWHr, could easily be used to rapid charge (50kW, so around 12 min) a stranded EV, giving that EV more than enough range to get to the nearest fixed charger. Then, a diesel genset could recharge that battery (or a big alternator on the vans engine) whilst it drives to it's next job.
This. So the recovery van doesn't need to store lots of energy. A "half" sized EV battery, say 10kWHr, could easily be used to rapid charge (50kW, so around 12 min) a stranded EV, giving that EV more than enough range to get to the nearest fixed charger. Then, a diesel genset could recharge that battery (or a big alternator on the vans engine) whilst it drives to it's next job.
The RAC vans with on-board energy storage only have a 5kW charger for some reason, but no reason why that couldn't be a 50kW one instead.
If the stricken EV is still healthy, you could tow the car to recharge via regen - I've done this in a proving ground environment with engineering cars, when we didn't have enough rapid chargers or time!
Most EVs (those with PM motors at least) say they cannot be towed. This is usually due to the risk of being dragged along whilst the systems are off (or broken), and the PM electric motor still generating some voltage - if the car is off, or the motor controller/inverter is off/dead, then you run the risk of overvoltaging the power electronics. For a healthy car that's turned on, towing it with all 4 wheels on the ground is no different to normal regen conditions.
dxg said:
colin_p said:
dave_s13 said:
EVs regenerate when going down hill, at any speed, or just rolling to a stop. Why can't they be towed as a means of adding in some juice?
The recovery trucks could be a mobile dyno but in reverse. Winch the car onto the dyno wheels, fire it up to get the driven wheels spinning at 100mph and just give it ten minutes.
Sorted.
Sounds good but would be too expensive and can you imagine doing that on a cold dark rainy evening in the arse end of knowhere. The basic tow to charge idea is good though providing the EV was clever enough to facilitate it.The recovery trucks could be a mobile dyno but in reverse. Winch the car onto the dyno wheels, fire it up to get the driven wheels spinning at 100mph and just give it ten minutes.
Sorted.
As long as the car hasn't s
t itself in anyway I can't see how this will hurt? mybrainhurts said:
Clem2k3 said:
babatunde said:
Purity14 said:
Everyone has adopted ISOFIX child seat connectors as the standard.
My imagination is that when you break down there is an option to fit a large batterypack to the ISOFIX connector in one of the passenger places, or even in two.
It would then be plugged in, and the car could be driven to the charging station.
They could drop the batteries off at the charging station for pickup later.
Or the breakdown truck could follow them and recover the batteries there and then.
The batteries only need 20 miles or so I guess, but I am unsure how big they would need to be and if this would be a viable solution.
That should work and be relatively simple to implement. My imagination is that when you break down there is an option to fit a large batterypack to the ISOFIX connector in one of the passenger places, or even in two.
It would then be plugged in, and the car could be driven to the charging station.
They could drop the batteries off at the charging station for pickup later.
Or the breakdown truck could follow them and recover the batteries there and then.
The batteries only need 20 miles or so I guess, but I am unsure how big they would need to be and if this would be a viable solution.
Best bet is just to tow the car to a charger.
I may of course be talking b
ks, but actually interested if anyone could shed light onto how possible this would be
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