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Electric Exige?? (Dale Vince - Wind Car)

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doug

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VIDEO: Wind-powered Lotus Exige in the works? - AutoblogGreen

lotus-electric-exige.jpg


Not really sure what this guy can actually accomplish. Seems to me he should just buy a Tesla with a hard top.

Another Tesla? – preferably not. | Transport | Zerocarbonista

Dale Vince announces his Tesla-beating electric sports car - News at SmartPlanet.com
 
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so?

I don't get it. What's the big deal here? A rich guy is paying for a high-performance EV conversion in a fancy sports car...it's been done lots of times. He's in this video describing "the challenge" like he's off intrepidly breaking new ground...maybe he should check the EV album at austinev.org?

To me it just comes off like "look at how great and responsible I am! Now, if you'll excuse me, I have to drive this Mercedes to the airstrip; my pilot is waiting."

Could be I'm just bitter about the budgetary gulf separating his conversion from my '84 Chevy :biggrin: ...I should send ABG a video of my friends and me drinking beer on the tailgate at a football game saying "How do we live more sustainably--we know we have to--and how do we have fun at the same time?" See if they find that newsworthy...
 
Thanks for the update, graham.
The Wind Car is on its way | Transport | Zerocarbonista
Actually, once you get past the "personality," the video on his blog is interesting from an engineering POV. I have to say the belt drives seem to be a weak link in the power train. Not sure they can reliably endure the strain that would result from the stated acceleration goal of 0 to 60 in 4 seconds.

 
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As for the name "Edison" for a car, the last I heard was that Cooper Industries Inc. in Houston owned the Edison name for automotive purposes. (One of the companies that Cooper acquired over the years was the McGraw Edison company.)
 
This guy again:



VIDEO: Zero Carbonista wind car update - AutoblogGreen

ecotricity-exige-in-green.jpg


Looks like it's becoming quite a project. First it was just an Exige conversion, but now they want to extend the frame a little bit which forces them to redo some body work. Seems like that's a decision that should have been made earlier in the design phase.

 
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He has a point. Many believe petrol engines in cars will soon be replaced by fuel cells, and the race is on to increase non-carbon sources of electricity to power them.

“You need a decade to get fuel cells working?” he interjects. “Come on.”

:confused:


And then he needs to get Top Gear down to film his electric sportscar. “Yeah, we made it with Jeremy Clarkson in mind,” he laughs, before backtracking, “Well, not with his size in mind.”

I hope he gets a fair hearing.
 
Dale Vince's wind-powered car could be the Storm, the Zero or the Nemesis - AutoblogGreen

zero-carbonista-grab.png


The Wind Car (4 of 6) - Time for a name | Transport | Zerocarbonista

I made this comment over at ABG:

I'm not so interested in this silly body work. I just want to know if they got the drive train to work. Seems they could be driving it around and fussing with cosmetics later. IIRC, they had decided on a dual rear motor setup with an independent belt drive to each wheel. In this video they mention that the car will not have any traction control. But they will at least have to work out the interesting control problem of having the motors serve the function of a differential when the car makes a turn.
 
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If using dual DC motors, I think the dual belts is an easy way to go (no need to fuss over the diff function as the motors can spin at different speeds on their own). Dual motors seems to be a popular solution for hobbyists and on prototypes, but doesn't seem well suited to mass production (just based on what I have seen in the marketplace). For instance, why didn't EV1, Rav4-EV, Tesla, or ACP end up with dual motors?