Former Tesla CEO, Martin Eberhard, recently shared his views on the first thousand miles of driving his custom-painted Tesla. Apparently he is a fan, although he is very honest about his dislikes of the car. These include such mundane things as his hatred of the overly complex navigation system, to more serious issues regarding stiff suspension, limited visibility, and lack of creature comforts.
On the positive side, he talk about all the attention his hundred thounsand dollar electric car is getting, and how much fun it is to zip around in traffic. His longest trip was over 125 miles, and he still felt that he had the ability to travel another 30 miles.
You can read more here.
EEStor is a company based in Cedar Park, Texas, United States that claims to have developed a superior type of capacitor for electricity storage, which EEStor calls ‘Electrical Energy Storage Units’ (EESU). Its CEO and president is Richard Weir, who is also a co-inventor named on their principal technology patent.
These units use barium titanate coated with aluminum oxide and glass to achieve a level of capacitance claimed to be much higher than what is currently available in the market. The claimed energy density is 1.0 MJ/kg (existing commercial supercapacitors typically have an energy density of around 0.01 MJ/kg, while lithium ion batteries have an energy density of around 0.54–0.72 MJ/kg).[2]
Based on these claims, a five-minute charge should give the capacitor sufficient energy to drive a small car 300 miles (480 km). However, standard household wiring is not capable of delivering the power required for this, so charging times this short would probably require purpose-built high capacity dispensing stations. Overnight charging at home should still be practical, as is using a second EESU for the home which could be charged overnight using cheap, off-peak electricity to then charge the EEStor unit in the car in 5-10 minutes on demand. Also according to Ian Clifford a normal household outlet with 110 volt supply can fully charge the EESTor powered CityZENN in 4 hours for a 250 mile range and a normal household outlet with 220 volt supply can fully charge the EESTor powered CityZENN in 2 hours for a 250 mile range. CityZENN target price is around $25000 – $30000.
Not sure if this will ever actually work, or if it is just hype? I think LS9 has a better chance to revolutionize our energy supply.
Filed in Electric Car, Energy-Independence, Green
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Also tagged aluminum oxide, barium, barium titanate, Cedar Park, EEStor, EESU, Ian Clifford, lithium ion batteries, Richard Weir, supercapacitors, technology patent, Texas, Volt
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