How Electric Cars Work
Image Gallery: Electric Cars The Subaru R1e electric car can be charged overnight on household current. It has a range of 50 miles and a top speed of 62 miles per hour. See more electric car pictures .
Electric cars are something that show up in the news all the time. There are several reasons for the continuing interest in these vehicles:
From the outside, you would probably have no idea that a car is electric. In most cases, electric cars are created by converting a gasoline-powered car, and in that case it is impossible to tell. When you drive an electric car, often the only thing that clues you in to its true nature is the fact that it is nearly silent .
Under the hood, there are a lot of differences between gasoline and electric cars:
In order to get a feeling for how electric cars work in general, let's start by looking at a typical electric car to see how it comes together.
This electric vehicle began its life as a normal, gasoline-powered 1994 Geo Prism. Here are the modifications that turned it into an electric car:
Everything else about the car is stock. When you get in to drive the car, you put the key in the ignition and turn it to the "on" position to turn the car on. You shift into "Drive" with the shifter, push on the accelerator pedal and go. It performs like a normal gasoline car. Here are some interesting statistics:
Clearly, the "fuel" for electric vehicles costs a lot less per mile than it does for gasoline vehicles. And for many, the 50-mile range is not a limitation -- the average person living in a city or suburb seldom drives more than 30 or 40 miles per day.
To be completely fair, however, we should also include the cost of battery replacement. Batteries are the weak link in electric cars at the moment. Battery replacement for this car runs about $2,000. The batteries will last 20,000 miles or so, for about 10 cents per mile. You can see why there is so much excitement around fuel cells right now -- fuel cells solve the battery problem (more details on fuel cells later in the article).
le puteti gasi si pe
http://auto.howstuffworks.com/electric-car1.htm
- Electric cars create less pollution than gasoline -powered cars, so they are an environmentally friendly alternative to gasoline-powered vehicles (especially in cities).
- Any news story about hybrid cars usually talks about electric cars as well.
- Vehicles powered by fuel cells are electric cars, and fuel cells are getting a lot of attention right now in the news.
From the outside, you would probably have no idea that a car is electric. In most cases, electric cars are created by converting a gasoline-powered car, and in that case it is impossible to tell. When you drive an electric car, often the only thing that clues you in to its true nature is the fact that it is nearly silent .
Under the hood, there are a lot of differences between gasoline and electric cars:
- The gasoline engine is replaced by an electric motor .
- The electric motor gets its power from a controller .
- The controller gets its power from an array of rechargeable batteries .
In order to get a feeling for how electric cars work in general, let's start by looking at a typical electric car to see how it comes together.
How Electric Cars Work
A typical electric car, this one has some particularly snazzy decals. This vehicle is owned by Jon Mauney.
An Electric Car Example
The electric car that we will use for this discussion is shown here.This electric vehicle began its life as a normal, gasoline-powered 1994 Geo Prism. Here are the modifications that turned it into an electric car:
- The gasoline engine, along with the muffler , catalytic converter , tailpipe and gas tank, were all removed.
- The clutch assembly was removed. The existing manual transmission was left in place, and it was pinned in second gear.
- A new AC electric motor was bolted to the transmission with an adapter plate.
- An electric controller was added to control the AC motor.
The 50-kW controller takes in 300 volts DC and produces 240 volts AC, three-phase. The box that says "US Electricar" is the controller.
- A battery tray was installed in the floor of the car.
- Fifty 12-volt lead-acid batteries were placed in the battery tray (two sets of 25 to create 300 volts DC).
- Electric motors were added to power things that used to get their power from the engine: the water pump, power steering pump, air conditioner.
- A vacuum pump was added for the power brakes (which used engine vacuum when the car had an engine).
The vacuum pump is left of center.
- The shifter for the manual transmission was replaced with a switch, disguised as an automatic transmission shifter, to control forward and reverse.
An automatic transmission shifter is used to select forward and reverse. It contains a small switch, which sends a signal to the controller.
- A small electric water heater was added to provide heat.
The water heater
- A charger was added so that the batteries could be recharged. This particular car actually has two charging systems -- one from a normal 120-volt or 240-volt wall outlet, and the other from a magna-charge inductive charging paddle.
The 120/240-volt charging system
The Magna-Charge inductive paddle charging system
- The gas gauge was replaced with a volt meter.
The "gas gauge" in an electric car is either a simple volt meter or a more sophisticated computer that tracks the flow of amps to and from the battery pack.
- The range of this car is about 50 miles (80 km).
- The 0-to-60 mph time is about 15 seconds.
- It takes about 12 kilowatt-hours of electricity to charge the car after a 50-mile trip.
- The batteries weigh about 1,100 pounds (500 kg).
- The batteries last three to four years.
Clearly, the "fuel" for electric vehicles costs a lot less per mile than it does for gasoline vehicles. And for many, the 50-mile range is not a limitation -- the average person living in a city or suburb seldom drives more than 30 or 40 miles per day.
To be completely fair, however, we should also include the cost of battery replacement. Batteries are the weak link in electric cars at the moment. Battery replacement for this car runs about $2,000. The batteries will last 20,000 miles or so, for about 10 cents per mile. You can see why there is so much excitement around fuel cells right now -- fuel cells solve the battery problem (more details on fuel cells later in the article).
le puteti gasi si pe
http://auto.howstuffworks.com/electric-car1.htm
