Oh well. its fun to speculate. In my time i have often been prescient about such stuff. Its satisfying to anonymously pat yourself on the back when others make it a reality.
There is romance in this current era. I really dont think folk have adjusted to the paradigm shift all this avalanche of new stuff creates.
2 points
a/
a related & possibly ~original idea i think damn good but all think me mad is:
the reverse of the one discussed
a simple analogy is a cyclist hitting a speed hump. a competent rider isnt slowed at all. he does a little shop by shifting his weight and glides over.
The minimalism of cycling power available has made me sensitive to the fact that more than anything~, bumps slow you down.
So, using sensors and smarts, a capacitor powered electromagnet could pulse appropriate hops on appropriate wheels - slightly shift weight off the about to be slammed wheel, to a rear wheel on smooth track.
a blatant example, to me, is rail lines. The noise of freight or even passenger trains slamming into the tiny cracks in rail joins (pretty inevitable as expansion joints?) is deafening for blocks. Cant be good or cost free?
Even lower hanging fruit I feel, are rail junctions - points?. Trains seem to have to crawl thru them, presumably for the above reasons only more extreme. Faster switching of trains would be great for peak times.
It doesnt sound expensive. Magnets placed at precise distances from gaps could alert the modded bogey to initiate a precise jiggle in the springs to rock it so weight was shifted back while the front jumps the crack and is taking more weight when the rear wheel is over the crack.
b/
you touch on that slagging off modern modern lounge room cars.
EVs can transport folk fine, in "tuk tuk" mode, or like the lean and mean jaloppys they use in india etc.. A very light 4 seater glf buggy cobbled together from variants on mass produced, state of the art, e/bicycle componentry, - should be doable at 80kg (the weight of 3 MTBs) and $2k mail order from china.
To get the same power to weight ratio i am happy with on my 350w mid-drive ebike with 4 x 75kg passengers like me, i need:
(given 300kg load
80kg car = 380kg
vs
28kg bike (inc battery 3kg) / 75kg me =103kg)
so i now have about 10watts per kilo for an hours running at full power of 350watts on my 10am 36v battery
for the car weight, ex batteries, I need 3.8kwh batteries, or say 38 100 amp lifepo4 pouch cells at i guess 2.5kg each. which is 100kg of batteries., which means, with battery weight, i need 4.8kw which means i need 120kg of batteries.
total ev equivalent to my great bike, 500kg.
EDIT
BIG MISCALCULATION
3.8kwh is not 38 x 100 ah cells. each cell is about .33 kwh, so its more like 12, for a weight of 30kg. much better
the tricycle example requires about 8 cells for a total battery weight of 20kg
END OF CORRECTION
Still not great but way leaner than alternatives
A better example would be a tricycle for 3. methinks 50 kg for the bike, 225 kg for the folks = 2750 watts at 10w per kg, so 65kg batteries for 340kg which in turn requires 3400kw or 85kg of batteries an extra 20kg of batteries to propell the batteries
- total loaded vehicle weight 360kg
but no, an EV has to be something at which it is bound to fail. a vehicle which has evolved in a paradigm where 85% of the fuel is wasted but is almost free. annual insurance costs more than fuel historically. Our evs must be copies of what we were able to get away with in a la la land which cannot and must not continue.
i am a non obese 6 foot guy & weigh 75kg. a conservative car is 1800 kg (24x my weight), the smallest 1000kg - none of which is even pushable at all by a man really.
just saying, what I use is a 28kg (~35% of my weight) ebike and i prefer it for my (retired with dog) needs, now I am used to its very different strengths and weaknesses in my millieu. I hate using my old but good car. its big but i dont use it much.
Its the regulators as much as anything. they will make roadworthiness depend on crash tests that require a tonne of protective stuff.
There are many parallels to the early car industry now, but the regulators would allow a model T today.
Tellingly, most factory ebikes come with no: lights, indicators, security, storage, rack, horn, electrical accessory loom generally,... These are very basic things, absent. As it was for the model T sorta. A starter was an accessory u got on ebay later.
in short, battery evs cannot serve as what we have come to expect of a car, as things stand
a niche? (perhaps not, most delivery vehicles spend much time stationary) that has been forgotten is the guy who can live with just having a charger running while driving. he will run flat eventually in some situations, but mostly not, or it can be worked around. Most days he commutes on plug in, odd days he fires up a lawn mower engine the provides constant ~20% of max power specs. to supplement/charge battery, which will probably last as long as he can in a days driving. A 25cc petrol motor weighs about 2kg and is 2kw methinks, enough for a 10kw lifepo4 battery (tho they can charge faster under some circumstances, but double that and its still only a 50cc).
