Will there ever be a battery-operated vehicle that will go 3,000 miles without recharging?

That would be one helluva battery…unless you’re using solar panels…

I doubt it. Not in your lifetime. There is a limit to what a battery can store in terms of energy and I do not think we can increase efficiency by 2500% anywhere in the near future. Even the best battery powered cars today have thousands of batteries to get to those 120 miles and they take hours to recharge. Heck, we can’t even build petrol powered cars than can go 3000 miles on one tank.

I have yet to figure how owning a battery-operated vehicle is going to same me money. i pay for the gasoline for a combustion engine, now. i will be paying for the electricity to recharge my battery-operated vehicle, so how will i save money?

Recharge pumps will take the place of fuel pumps and you know the electricity will not be free. so, how is transferring from a combustion engine to a battery engine going to save anyone money?

Most definatly. There is still much to be discovered in the way of battery technology. They already have fantastic vehicles which don’t get much media attention and very little funding. If people were very motivated to make this technology I defiantly believe it will happen. The things that stop great advancements seems to be lack of funding, and greed by people that don’t want to see your invention come into fruition.

@john65pennington
The reasoning is that, currently anyway, the price per unit of distance for electricity is lower than petrol or diesel. But that will change drastically once millions of car owners start feeding their cars with the juice.

@Tenpinmaster
It is ”definitely”, not defiantly.

@ragingloli lol! im sorry!! you got me on that yesterday too.

ragingloli, another question: will man ever give up his love for the combustion engine? i can just see a battery-powered car out on the drag strip to see which vehicle can outrun the other, without running out of “juice”.(electricity). and, lets talk about the recharge pumps. where will this electricity come from and how will it be generated? gas turbine engines? if so, here we go again reverting straight back to oil and gasoline. this whole picture has me confused.

In any case, if you want such a high efficiency vehicle, you inevitably have to drastically reduce size, weight and drag of the car, so you would end up with something like this
this incidentally, is a clean diesel engine car, which will go 400 miles on its 1.7 gallon tank

As for electricity production, seeing that fossil fuels will be depleted in the foreseeable future, will have to be done based on alternative energy sources and nuclear energy, including fusion. Building the powerplants and the necessary infrastructure to supply the recharge stations, which will also have to be expensively retrofitted to accomodate millions of cars will drive the costs for electricity sky high, at least in the beginning.

My favourite however is hydrogen, which could be produced via electrolysis in solar/wind/hydroelectric hybrid powered factories at the coast or directly above water. You would not need to build expensive infrastructure to transport the hydrogen to the “petrol” stations, just use tankers like we are doing now, costs for retrofitting the stations to expense hydrogen would be limited as well and the people could refill their cars the same way they do petrol/diesel powered cars, so the transition would be much more smooth than with electric vehicles. Plus the exhaust would be water so you do not even have to worry about dying from dehydration.

ragingloli, i am impressed. you have done your homework. your last answer has true merits. great answer for you. john

I don’t think the battery life will ever be that long, but there is a German company that is working on a wireless charging system that can be laid under the road surface. This would likely only be implemented on major interstates, but you would be able to drive along at 70 miles per hour on the highway while charging your car. Such a system would get you the 3,000 miles without stopping to recharge.

Also, as electric vehicle adoption rolls out there are lots of other charge options being evaluated and the best will be implemented. These include charging stations at places like grocery stores, hotels, and movie theaters and quick chargers that use a higher voltage to produce a full charge in a shorter time.

@john65pennington This electric car will beat just about any production vehicle in a short distance drag race. The only reason it would lose a longer race is that it’s top speed is electronically limited to something vaguely reasonable.

Sharp, thanks. i do not see this happening in my lifetime. i am still impressed with the interstate system, which began in the late 50s. this might occur in your lifetime, but not mine. thanks for the info, anyway.

Another problem with a battery-powered vehicle is the cars accessories. when the battery goes down, so does everything electrical inside and outside the vehicle. this includes hazard duty lights to flash. at least with a combustion engine vehicle, if the transmission blows, the engine will still operate for flashers, heat, etc.

@john65pennington Another answer on cost: Electricity prices fluctuate throughout the day for power companies, and with smart grid technology this fluctuation will soon be passed on to you the consumer. When that happens an electric car becomes a different kind of asset. Not only can electricity be cheaper per mile than gasoline, but your electric car can be charged late at night while you are sleeping and electricity rates are at their lowest. For most drivers this will work quite well for their daily commuting needs. In addition another technology being considered is using the car as a battery for the house. If you have a reasonable commute and aren’t going anywhere until morning, your car will have a pretty good charge sitting in your garage. When prices are highest (right after you get home from work) the house can pull some of its electricity needs from the car, and then charge the car again later when prices are lower. There is a real potential for savings there.

@john65pennington Wow, I’m going to spend the whole morning answering these questions!

The road charging technology is a long way off, but remote charging stations with rapid charge technology will happen much sooner. Getting to the point that you can drive all day and charge in a hotel for tomorrow’s drive will take longer, but it’s possible that we’ll get to the point that you can drive half a day, charge while eating lunch, then drive some more and charge at your hotel in your lifetime, making long road trips in electric vehicles feasible for some people.

Oh, how many times would i have to stop for a recharge on a trip from Nashville to Seatlle. 25 times? how long would this trip take? 12 days? i could arrive faster with a horse and buggy and the fuel cost would be minimal. there has to be a better way than electric-powered cars.

As for reliability, the battery technology is highly reliable, the battery dying is not going to be any more likely than running out of gas, which would also kill all your accessories. But for now most of the first plug ins to be released will still have hybrid technology to cover the distance. We’re looking now at PHEVs or Plug In Hybrid Electric Vehicles, so you have a car that can be plugged in to the wall to charge and will run on pure electric for most commuting and city driving, but will have a small gasoline engine to kick in for longer drives.

@john65pennington
You could use the train. It would beat all other options anyway. It is cheaper and more relaxed, you can sleep while on the move, no need to watch the road or look on a map.

@john65pennington No doubt pure electric cars aren’t going to be ready for most people to take long road trips right now, but for the “typical” American family having a PHEV for one adult and a full electric for the other makes sense. Most driving is short commutes that don’t need any great battery technology, so you could use the PHEV for road trips.

You’re looking at about a 200 mile range on a charge right now, and that will improve over time. So Nashville to Seattle will be 12 charges, if half of those are at lunch time and half overnight then it’s a 6 day trip. Still a little long, but not entirely unreasonable for some people.

@john65pennington BTW I work in developing smart grid technology, so we’re studying a lot of this stuff. One of my colleagues is the real expert though.

Snarp, so now my car has two engines? one battery-powered and with gasoline? does this not add weight to the vehicle and thus less gas mileage? i guess that if i traveled 40 mph on the interstate, did not use my ac, heat, windshiled wipers or electric windows, that i might make it 120 or more miles at one time? wait, i can’t travel 40 mph on the interstate, that would not be safe and i would be impedding traffic. do electric cars have airbags? i feel i might need them. not being arrogant, i just do not understand how battery-operated vehicles can every be made productive to travel on the interstate for more than 120 miles at a time.

ragingloli, so now, we have scrapped the electric-powered vehicles for a train??? my sentiments exactly. thank you.

@john65pennington Wait about a year and you can test drive one and see for yourself. The battery will get you 200 miles alone. I imagine having two engines adds weight, but my non plug in hybrid gets fifty miles to the gallon and has no speed or acceleration or lack of accessories issues. Basically you’re just expanding the electric range of that car and adding a charging plug. Having two engines, one electric and one gas, works quite well right now and plug in versions will likely be released for 2011 models.

Scrap cars for trains? That would be a great solution, but Americans seem not to go in for the “lack of freedom”. An electric car for ordinary daily driving, which you can easily do on a single charge and taking the train for longer trips would be great, but Americans still like their road trips. PHEVs will make them possible in the short run and pure electric road trips will likely be quite reasonable within ten years, probably less.

And yes, electric vehicles have airbags.

“I have yet to figure how owning a battery-operated vehicle is going to same me money.”

Unlike a petrol car that not only depreciates but then include the cost of gas and upkeep.

An electric car will almost pay itself off during its life cycle.

chamz, never considere that, good point, john

Only if you’re using “Battery” in the very general sense, of something that can store energy. Someday, probably… but not in the sense that we know batteries today.

@ChazMaz
Only in relation to the money saved from not using a petrol powered car instead.
Objectively, it can not pay for itself, because it would have to generate income for that.

@ragingloli Ha – true – maybe it’ll have some sort of power generation someday that’ll add to your home grid while you’re not driving. Now that’d be sweet.

“Only in relation to the money saved from not using a petrol powered car instead.”

Correct. The money saved.

I have a friend that has a horse for sale. my friend says this horse gets 50 miles to a bale of hay and sometimes more. i am seriously considering buying this horse and completely forgetting about electric-powered anything. i will have a one horsepower engine, no oil to change, maintenance is minimal, cushioned ride, no need for headlights, manual turn signals, and the body style will never change from year to year. not a bad deal for 50 bucks.

@john65pennington Works in low population density areas, but I’m not sure about the actual energy costs of a horse compared to a car, let alone pollution. You know when horses were the main form of transportation in cities raised curbs and sidewalks were invented so that pedestrians didn’t have to walk in the river of horse shit that was the street.

snarp, great answer and you made me laugh this morning. good for you. i am done with questions about elec. vehicles. thanks all.

@john65pennington Glad the humor came through, it’s so hard in writing sometimes.