I just saw a Fifth Gear TV show (that's the other British car show, and frankly a lot better IMO), and there was featured a land speed record attempt for an electric car.
This is not news per se since it happened a year ago, but I haven't seen much coverage of its innovative battery charging system.
I can't find any footage of the Fifth Gear episode on the web, though here is an Autoweek coverage of it -
204.185mph in an electric car - a new world land speed record - autocar.co.uk - YouTube
The Autoweek coverage is not very informative, sadly, but the Fifth Gear episode is. (you will just have to find it some other way)
According to Fifth Gear, the car has 30kWh of storage, composed of two batteries each with about 2,500 lithium-ion cells.
The car is charged inductively... no wires. It uses a 20kW charger to charge the battery inductively by simply parking over the top of the charging pad... and it charges from flat up to full in 90 minutes. 20kW is of course the same power as Tesla's HWPC... but there is no cable to plug in.
Here is a 3yr-old press release regarding the car. The induction charging system is manufactured by HaloIPT Ltd. There's quite a lot detail in the press release.
Drayson Racing Technologies : News : Announcement - Details of all-electric race car partners
Interestingly, exactly two months after that press release from Drayson, HaloIPT was acquired by Qualcomm:
Qualcomm buys wireless electric car charging tech Tech News and Analysis
Qualcomm seem to be pretty enthusiastic about it:
Overview | Halo | Qualcomm
Anyhow... would be nice if one of the "cards" Tesla is holding that we don't know about yet... would be an adaptation of this inductive charging system, that allowed cars that aren't parked in garages to easily charge up. Very important for appealing to all those markets that aren't houses with built-in garages. Perhaps there will be some patent-swapping going on between Tesla and Qualcomm.
A single layer of the 10% larger "new tech" batteries in a new pack that also included an induction pad on the bottom could have decent capacity and still be just as thick (or "thin" depending on your POV) as the current pack form factor.
Just some late night pondering
This is not news per se since it happened a year ago, but I haven't seen much coverage of its innovative battery charging system.
I can't find any footage of the Fifth Gear episode on the web, though here is an Autoweek coverage of it -
204.185mph in an electric car - a new world land speed record - autocar.co.uk - YouTube
The Autoweek coverage is not very informative, sadly, but the Fifth Gear episode is. (you will just have to find it some other way)
According to Fifth Gear, the car has 30kWh of storage, composed of two batteries each with about 2,500 lithium-ion cells.
The car is charged inductively... no wires. It uses a 20kW charger to charge the battery inductively by simply parking over the top of the charging pad... and it charges from flat up to full in 90 minutes. 20kW is of course the same power as Tesla's HWPC... but there is no cable to plug in.
Here is a 3yr-old press release regarding the car. The induction charging system is manufactured by HaloIPT Ltd. There's quite a lot detail in the press release.
Drayson Racing Technologies : News : Announcement - Details of all-electric race car partners
Interestingly, exactly two months after that press release from Drayson, HaloIPT was acquired by Qualcomm:
Qualcomm buys wireless electric car charging tech Tech News and Analysis
Qualcomm seem to be pretty enthusiastic about it:
Overview | Halo | Qualcomm
Anyhow... would be nice if one of the "cards" Tesla is holding that we don't know about yet... would be an adaptation of this inductive charging system, that allowed cars that aren't parked in garages to easily charge up. Very important for appealing to all those markets that aren't houses with built-in garages. Perhaps there will be some patent-swapping going on between Tesla and Qualcomm.
A single layer of the 10% larger "new tech" batteries in a new pack that also included an induction pad on the bottom could have decent capacity and still be just as thick (or "thin" depending on your POV) as the current pack form factor.
Just some late night pondering