<VV> Hydrogen, was: Cold fusion news-no Corvair but potential sourceof po...

[RoboMan91324 at aol.com]

Alan,
 
Yes, absolutely the case.  Back in the early 90s I tried  to get some 
development business with GM on their electric vehicle  project.  This turned out 
to be the EV-1.  I strongly suggested a  hybrid system with regen 
capability but they were dead set on a 100%  battery powered vehicle.  I tactfully 
told them what you pointed out in  your post.  Perhaps their decision was 
based on the assumption that an all  electric vehicle could be developed and 
brought to market quicker than a hybrid  whether or not it was practical.  If 
so, they were correct in that  assumption but the EV-1 was little more than a 
flash in the pan, as they  say.  I suppose it gave GM bragging rights but 
it was a dismal failure  other than that mostly due to the limited range of 
its battery.  They lost  lots of money but they did get the PR boost.
 
 
GM's present Volt concept is what I was proposing but I did  not get the 
development project I was after back then, or since.  Oh  well.

 
The Corbin Sparrow was a similar battery only 3 wheeled  vehicle that 
lasted in production for just under 2 years.  At least my  company got prototypes 
on that one.  I believe that after filing Chapter  7, the manufacturing 
rights eventually ended up with Myers Motors in  Ohio.  Other than our 
development model, I have never seen one on the  road.  Actually, the Feds never let 
us drive the experimental unit on the  road and we respected their wishes, 
of course.  (wink ,,,  wink)  I am not sure if Myers is still making them.
 
On a side note, the GM meeting included a bunch of Engineers  and 
management folks who were happy to be diverted to discuss my car  collection for well 
over an hour.  At that time, the  collection included a 55 Bel Air Sport 
Coupe, a 60 Corvette, a 65  Corvette convertible, a 66 Corsa, a 67 Nova SS and 
a 68 Camaro, they seemed  impressed.  The 55 Bel Air and the Corvair 
stimulated the most  interest.  They even forgave me for driving a Bronco.  Yes, I 
was that  big a bonehead to let slip at a GM meeting that I used a Ford as 
my daily driver  and tow vehicle.  Maybe that was the real reason I didn't 
get the  contract.
 
Doc
60 Corvette, 61 Rampside, 62 Rampside, 64 Spyder Coupe, 65  Greenbrier, 66 
Corsa Turbo Coupe, 67 Nova SS and a 68 Camaro  convertible
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
In a message dated 4/20/2009 1:54:26 A.M. Pacific Daylight Time,  
alan.wesson at atlas.co.uk writes:

> If  cars become hydrogen/electric and we somehow increase the electric 
power  grid capacity (or go to solar/wind generators) THEN maybe it might have 
a  use.

I have just had a blinding realisation - nothing to do with  hydrogen 
(except that it goes to the issue of where we are going to get the  power to do 
the electrolysis necessary to produce it).

The reason  electric cars won't work is simply because batteries contain so 
little  potential energy compared with gasoline. The reason I thought of 
this was  because I was mowing our lawn with our useless gasoline lawn mower, 
and I  remembered how much more useless the electric one we once had was. It 
had no  power at all (and that was a mains one, so it didn't even have the 
battery  problem to contend with!). Batteries are a very poor and limited 
way of  storing energy.

So I decided to find out how much more potential energy  a tank of gas has 
than the batteries in a typical electric car, and although  the information 
was hard to source, I managed in the end (info. courtesy of  the British 
Royal Institution!).


A BATTERY WITH THE SAME AMOUNT OF  POTENTIAL ENERGY AS A TYPICAL TANK OF 
GASOLINE WOULD WEIGH 24 TONS.

So  battery-powered cars will never work, and we are wasting our time 
trying,  because they will have NO range, NO air con, NO electric seats, NO sat 
navs,  NO power mirrors, NO sound systems, NO heater fans, NO other 
electrical  services, and NONE of the zillions of electric doodads no-one can live 
without  nowadays. And when the batteries run down in the middle of the city 
(or the  middle of nowhere) they will become traffic obstacles.


We (both UK  and USA) would be better off investing in renewable 
electricity to produce the  hydrogen we will need for our fuel cells, if we decide to 
go down that route  (because we have got a BIG mountain to climb in that 
direction - a lot of  electrolysis is going to have to be happening, and there 
is NO electricity to  do it with at the moment!).

So far, Gordon Brown's response has been to  commission three new 
gas-powered power stations. Not sure what Obama is doing,  but he is going to have to 
do better than that.

On the same topic,  while we were on the way to Italy last week there was a 
programme on the BBC  radio about energy and the future. As usual with the 
BBC it was highly  anti-car and heavily slanted towards saying how wonderful 
alternative energy  was, and how it was going to Save Us All.


The first part of the  programme was devoted to sycophantic adulation of 
electric cars, and there  were interviews with BMW car company executives in 
which they were invited to  support the thesis that we would all be driving 
electric MINIs in 50 years'  time, and that this would Save The World. The 
executives, of course,  agreed...

The second part of the programme was devoted (without any  apparent sense 
of irony) to a very alarmist assessment of Britain's  electricity producing 
needs and capabilities, and it concentrated particularly  on the looming 
energy gap we face circa 2014-20 (because of the need to  decommission existing 
power plants).

Not sure how they think we can  increase our power consumption needs by 
circa 100% while simultaneously  experiencing a 40% energy gap, but this seems 
to be the kind of dream world  politicians and the media live in nowadays.

Cheers

Alan  




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