The following article from Wired's Autopia discusses a decent alternative to the problem of rate of refueling for electric car battery packs. It's merely a swap out - drive-in with a 'flat' battery, drive-out with a 'fresh' one.
Though the article pooh pooh's the notion saying, consumers will equate changing out batteries to changing an engine, and then decries the fact that we'll never standardize misses a couple of important points.
1) The batteries are 'fuel' - and the consumer is likely to see them as that. Especially if a scheme is put in place to treat them as such, including the cost associated with 'using' the fuel. Charges based on the cell.
2) Battery powered vehicles are in their infancy. Standards will come. That's why automakers are members of the Society of Automotive Engineers (the US standards body). Think of it this way, at the dawn of the horseless carriage there was no standardization of controls. Today you can get into almost any car and drive it away without having an all day course to figure out how to drive it.
This idea has a lot of merit IF battery power is the fuel source of the future.
Monday, May 18, 2009
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment