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I think a good way to do EV racing would be to use batteries with relatively small capacities, but very high power density. (Maybe supercaps?) There'd be a se

by elihu 4y ago

I think a good way to do EV racing would be to use batteries with relatively small capacities, but very high power density. (Maybe supercaps?) There'd be a section of the track where the car can recharge without stopping by making physical contact with overhead lines or metal plates embedded in the road or something like that. The battery would have enough capacity to do maybe a couple laps. So, you could slow down in the "charging section" to fully charge, or you could go faster or pass the slow cars by bypassing the charging section altogether, but then you'd have to budget your energy more carefully and maybe have to spend longer charging next lap. It'd be interesting to set up a track like this for racing radio-controlled cars.

etempleton 4y ago
Would kind of be like FZero in this regard. I think this would be interesting. Interested to see where F1 goes with their power spec. I think they could do with more power, but they will probably stick with some kind of hybrid setup for at least the next decade or more.
KennyBlanken 4y ago
Supercapacitors have several orders of magnitude less energy density. What might make more sense is a modular battery.
- elihu 4y ago
  That is true, but they also have several orders of magnitude higher power density. Maybe the battery technology to make this work just doesn't exist -- I'm imagining something that can absorb enough energy in, say, ten seconds or less, to make it around the track a couple times. Lithium ion can store huge amounts of energy, but charge times are slow. Capacitors can charge very quickly, but have very little capacity. I don't know if there's some technology that splits the difference. Lithium Titanate? Solid state batteries?
- Dylan16807 4y ago
  The comment said power density, and supercapacitors have almost 10x the power density. The energy density hit is between 1 and 2 orders of magnitude, not several. You could run a lap on supercapacitors alone. Or make it so most of the power comes from supercaps so that there's a bit more endurance and running low is a bit less harsh.
byhemechi 4y ago
i'd like to see how this would be achieved, putting a rail in the ground would be very expensive and overhead catenary would be hilarious (just imagine a formula 1 car with a pantograph) but equally impractical.
- elihu 4y ago
  For a track it could be something like a long metal plate embedded in the road that you drive over with a parallel long metal plate suspended above the track; one side is positively charged and the other side is negative. Since all the cars are basically the same size, the "pantograph" might only stick up a few inches. A somewhat more complex system might have power and ground rails embedded in slots in the road surface, and there's something on the bottom of the car that drops a conductor into the slots. There's a test of that kind of system being done in Norway or Sweden (I forget which) on a public road.

by elihu 4y ago

etempleton 4y ago

Would kind of be like FZero in this regard. I think this would be interesting. Interested to see where F1 goes with their power spec. I think they could do with more power, but they will probably stick with some kind of hybrid setup for at least the next decade or more.

KennyBlanken 4y ago

Supercapacitors have several orders of magnitude less energy density. What might make more sense is a modular battery.

elihu 4y ago
That is true, but they also have several orders of magnitude higher power density. Maybe the battery technology to make this work just doesn't exist -- I'm imagining something that can absorb enough energy in, say, ten seconds or less, to make it around the track a couple times. Lithium ion can store huge amounts of energy, but charge times are slow. Capacitors can charge very quickly, but have very little capacity. I don't know if there's some technology that splits the difference. Lithium Titanate? Solid state batteries?
Dylan16807 4y ago
The comment said power density, and supercapacitors have almost 10x the power density. The energy density hit is between 1 and 2 orders of magnitude, not several. You could run a lap on supercapacitors alone. Or make it so most of the power comes from supercaps so that there's a bit more endurance and running low is a bit less harsh.

byhemechi 4y ago

i'd like to see how this would be achieved, putting a rail in the ground would be very expensive and overhead catenary would be hilarious (just imagine a formula 1 car with a pantograph) but equally impractical.

elihu 4y ago
For a track it could be something like a long metal plate embedded in the road that you drive over with a parallel long metal plate suspended above the track; one side is positively charged and the other side is negative. Since all the cars are basically the same size, the "pantograph" might only stick up a few inches. A somewhat more complex system might have power and ground rails embedded in slots in the road surface, and there's something on the bottom of the car that drops a conductor into the slots. There's a test of that kind of system being done in Norway or Sweden (I forget which) on a public road.