" From: Archimedes <Freedom@xxxxxxxx> " " " " " You know, the one question that keeps popping up in my mind is why " designers of electric cars aren't thinking in a "modular" fashion -- " have a standardized size / form factor, stop in at the "electric charge " station", pull up to the "battery pack dispenser", the automated " "attendant" finds the locating anchors on your vehicle, you watch it " pull out your battery pack, put it on the charge rail, take a charged " unit off the rail, and slide it in the battery pack housing on your " vehicle. You pay the man for the charge and go. Two minutes, max. " " It seems so obvious to me; and it seems so stupid that everyone " designing the cars designs them with a two to six hour "down" time " planned in. Who in their right mind is going to take an electric on a " cross-country trip under those constraints? With a modular system, " "recharging" would be no more painful than filling up every 250 miles " or so is now. " " -- Marc we're still in the early days of developing an electric fleet, comparable perhaps to the turn of the 20th c for cars generally. for example, the hand-and-foot control layout we take for granted didn't become standard until the mid '20s. it will take time to build the market pressure which would make battery swap stations attractive. while we're talking of that, there's an 'aluminum-air' batt tech which promises power density comparable to - or maybe even better than - liquid fuels, but like dry cells isn't electrically rechargeable; discharge forms aluminum oxide. the way they'd work is you'd have a station where you swap old plates for new; the old ones would be hauled off for reprocessing at a smelter, then returned to the supply chain. ________________________________________________________________________ Andrew Hay the genius nature internet rambler is to see what all have seen adh@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx and think what none thought _______________________________________________ Amc-list mailing list Amc-list@xxxxxxxxxxxx http://splatter.wps.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/amc-list