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New Advancements In Electric Car Technology
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Internal combustion engines have always been known to be inefficient users of energy produced. Each time the piston falls and gasoline explodes in the cylinder, the energy generated passes to the crankshaft, flywheel, gearbox and drive train to the axles. By the time the wheels actually turn, nearly four fifths of the original energy generated has been lost.
For electric cars, nearly sixty percent of the energy still is lost because of the loss during the mechanical operation of the vehicle. From the battery, the power goes to the drive train that turns the axle and wheels and nearly much of the power is still lost. New models of electric cars now have been designing more and more ways to increase the efficiency of battery power use in electric vehicles.
The newest design currently being developed for electric vehicle use is the wheel motor. The wheel motor design has magnets in the wheels and is clearly more efficient and effective for use on the road. The design is simple, with each wheel hub having a ring of electromagnets and another ring of magnets line the rim of the wheel. The wheel rim magnets fit over the wheel hub magnets and when a rapid alternating pulse of electricity alters the polarity of the magnets many times each second. The changing electromagnetic activity causes the wheel to turn and aside from the wheel itself, the only moving parts are ball bearings.
As of the moment, nearly twenty companies are currently developing and studying the technology, such as BMW, Ford, General Motors, Honda, Mitsubishi, Nissan-Renault, Siemens and Volvo. Other companies that are very interested are wheel and tire makers such as Bridgestone, Michelin and Goodyear. There are many other companies that have created wheel motor vehicles in the two to three wheel designs. Many of these are built in China with many countries developing four-wheel models.
One such automaker is ZAP Electric Vehicles based out of Santa Rosa California. This electric automaker would start manufacturing a roadster, pickup, sedan and minivan wheeled motor passenger cars. The vehicles would be built in Franklin, Kentucky. According to Steven Schneider, CEO of ZAP Electric Vehicles, the company would be able to create a pair of wheel motors for a fraction of what it costs to create a combustion engine with its thousands of moving parts. It is expected that each wheel motor vehicle would cost $14,500 to $35,000.
Bobby Castro is the online editor at the EV Community, where he has published a number of articles about the Electric Car industry
Article submitted Thursday, January 26, 2012 & read 2 times.
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