More on EEStor's ultracapacitor. Information is hard to find. But, here is the status as of 2004.
According to a May, 2004 edition of Utility Federal Technology Opportunities, an obscure trade newsletter, EEStor claims to make a battery at half the cost per kilowatt-hour and one-tenth the weight of lead-acid batteries. Specifically, the product weighs 400 pounds and delivers 52 kilowatt-hours. (For battery geeks: "The technology is basically a parallel plate capacitor with barium titanate as the dielectric," UFTO says.) No hazardous or dangerous materials are used in manufacturing the ceramic-based unit, which means it qualifies as what Silicon Valley types call "cleantech."
As of last year, EEStor planned to build its own assembly line to prove the battery can work and then license the technology to manufacturers for volume production, UFTO says. Selling price would start at $3,200 and fall to $2,100 in high-volume production. Of course, all of this may have changed since KPCB got involved.
What does 52kW-hr mean(some sources say 56kW-hr)? Well, here is a Geo Prism that was converted to electric.
auto.howstuffworks.com
It has a 12kW-hr battery that weighs 1000 pounds, costs about $2000 and lasts 2-4 years. It has a range of 50 miles and does 0 to 60 in 15 seconds. So a purpose-built electric car should get in excess of 200 miles per charge and maybe reach that magic touchstone of 300 miles that the industry wants. A purpose-built electric car would have the motors in the wheels, regenerative braking(when the motors are used as generators to brake and the electricity generated is used to charge the capacitor) and no transmission. An example is GM's AUTOnomy project. Now true, it is designed for fuel calls, but an ultracap should work as well.
autointell.com
Apparently, EEStor is planning on pilot production this year and full production next. Now if that is true, and if the product is real and delivers anywhere near this amount of performance, we could have practical, affordable electric cars in 5 or so years. We could have impractical(i.e. like the Geo conversion and little infrastructure for recharging) and affordable electric cars maybe next year. |
