Cars - Who's Killing The Electric Car Now
Why don't we have solar powered windshields and windows in cars? Harnessing the power of the sun could at least power some parts of a car. Hybrids run on gas and electric so why don't we have these solar powered windows helping store the electricity for the car? Also why can't we have a series of fans running underneath the car that kicks on when the car gets over a certain speed. This could generate some power from wind resistance that could be stored as well. I guess I just don't understand why engineers are so concerned with the look of cars and trucks and not the energy efficiency of them. I know that the car companies are all in bed with the oil companies so perhaps this what is holding us back. I mean after all we did have electric cars that were successfully produced by GM. They worked so well that GM had to pull them off the market and destroy every last one of them. Just check out the documentary "Who Killed The Electric Car?" if you don't believe me...
4 comments:
Uh, I think fans would make the car less efficient. They would be generating electricity by slowing the car down. That can't be creating more electricity than it uses, unless the car is always going downhill or something. As far as solar panels are concerned, they're expensive. They would make the cars cost much more, and they really don't make much electricity for their size. You'd need lot more of them. Also, i don't think they make clear solar panels. I want to see through my windshield.
I don't question that the oil industry has done everything it can to restrain the development of alternative energy sources - especially those they can't make a buck on.
But your points are a little misguided. Specifically-
"...why don't we have these solar powered windows helping store the electricity for the car" Covering the roof and hood of a car with typical commercial-grade solar cells would only generate about 300watts of electrity (mid-day, clear sky) - not enough to eliminate the alternator - and you'd still need a source of electricity for non-sunny driving. Bottom line, you'd expend more energy producing the solar cells than the gasoline you'd burn to drive a standard-output alternator.
-"why can't we have a series of fans running underneath the car that kicks on when the car gets over a certain speed" Not to be rude, but this is simply naive. The biggest inefficiency in propeling a car is wind resistance. Hang some fan-driven generators in the windstream and you'll see a net loss in energy gained/spent.
-"we did have electric cars that were successfully produced by GM" Edison Electric had the largest fleet of electric vehicles, and clearly had a strong motivation to see them succeed. The problem was the cars needed a new set of batteries every 2-3 years at a cost of several thousand dollars. Come up with a higher output, longer life battery and electric cars become practical - and that's one place where the oil companies have directly impeded the advancement of technology.
In the late '70s, I worked for an engineering firm that built prototypes for other companies. One of our projects was a charging station for a company developing a high output battery intended to power an automobile. One day we got a call saying that the company had been bought and to halt work on the project. Two days later, a truck showed up to collect all the materials from the project, and in return they handed over a check from Shell Oil Co. paying off the rest of the development contract.
Fans with variable blade angle might be used as part of the braking system and convert the vehicle's kinetic energy into generate electrical energy but I'm not sure they'd be much good at either braking or generating.
My deceased father was a mechanic and he told us the story of the 30's when Standard Oil killed the man who ran a car on water. Guess nothing has changed. Money money money. People wake up and smell the air.
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