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It's somewhat sad. I really hope Better Place's demise happens because battery-swapping lost to just-keep-the-battery-in-the-car-and-charge-it strategy; not bec

by eliben 13y ago

It's somewhat sad. I really hope Better Place's demise happens because battery-swapping lost to just-keep-the-battery-in-the-car-and-charge-it strategy; not because oil-is-still-more-economical. :-/ But seriously, how will we ever be able to drive truly long distances with EVs? Super-charger stations that recharge batteries in a very short time?

JoeAltmaier 13y ago
The Spark takes 20 minutes to recharge apparently.
- eliben 13y ago
  http://www.chevrolet.com/spark-ev-electric-vehicle.html http://www.chevrolet.com/spark-ev-electric-vehicle.html says 7 hours
  - te_chris 13y ago
    It says on that website "20 minutes to 80 percent [at their special charging stations]"
marvin 13y ago
I'm pretty sure that heavily parallel charging of batteries made up of smaller battery cells in special supercharging stations will be the solution, combined with charging at home when you can afford to wait eight hours for charging the battery slowly. At the moment this is just a question of existing battery technology improving enough. Right now we are in the region where this is just borderline feasible, but in five years I'm pretty sure it will seem like a no-brainer. Tesla Motors is currently building supercharging stations all over the US, and it remains to be seen whether their approach will work. Note that they are a private company with no current government involvement, and we are now a few years into the future from when Better Place started rolling out their technology. Timing is everything in this game - the obvious strategy will seem like a bad idea until suddenly it isn't.
- eliben 13y ago
  Hmm, according to http://www.teslamotors.com/supercharger http://www.teslamotors.com/supercharger Tesla now promises to charge 150 miles of range worth of battery in 30 minutes. This isn't bad, though of course far from perfect. But yes, parallel charging of sub-batteries sounds like a good idea, one I was also thinking about at some point. It definitely sounds like (and I hope it's no more than) an engineering problem at this point.

by eliben 13y ago

JoeAltmaier 13y ago

The Spark takes 20 minutes to recharge apparently.

eliben 13y ago
http://www.chevrolet.com/spark-ev-electric-vehicle.html http://www.chevrolet.com/spark-ev-electric-vehicle.html says 7 hours
- te_chris 13y ago
  It says on that website "20 minutes to 80 percent [at their special charging stations]"

marvin 13y ago

I'm pretty sure that heavily parallel charging of batteries made up of smaller battery cells in special supercharging stations will be the solution, combined with charging at home when you can afford to wait eight hours for charging the battery slowly. At the moment this is just a question of existing battery technology improving enough. Right now we are in the region where this is just borderline feasible, but in five years I'm pretty sure it will seem like a no-brainer. Tesla Motors is currently building supercharging stations all over the US, and it remains to be seen whether their approach will work. Note that they are a private company with no current government involvement, and we are now a few years into the future from when Better Place started rolling out their technology. Timing is everything in this game - the obvious strategy will seem like a bad idea until suddenly it isn't.

eliben 13y ago
Hmm, according to http://www.teslamotors.com/supercharger http://www.teslamotors.com/supercharger Tesla now promises to charge 150 miles of range worth of battery in 30 minutes. This isn't bad, though of course far from perfect. But yes, parallel charging of sub-batteries sounds like a good idea, one I was also thinking about at some point. It definitely sounds like (and I hope it's no more than) an engineering problem at this point.