Wimpy Electric Cars - RushOnline.com
In case you didn't see this press release, here's an
EV for you !
Spielberger
Baton Rouge, La
Date: Wednesday, December 3, 1997
Source: PR Newswire
------------------------------------------------------------------------
GOLDEN, Colo., Dec. 2 /PRNewswire/ via Individual Inc.
-- Unique Mobility, Inc.'s (Amex: UQM) powerful but compact electric
motor and control technology is at the heart of a "hybrid-electric"
HMMWV combat vehicle to be unveiled today in Huntsville, Alabama.
The ultra-rugged combat vehicle, the first of its kind,
boasts twice the acceleration and climbing capability of a conventionally
powered "Hummer."
It can zip from zero to 50 in 8 seconds and climb a
60% grade at 17 miles an hour. A conventional HMMWV takes 14 seconds
to accelerate from zero to 50 and can climb a 60% grade at 7 miles an
hour. The hybrid's performance is all the more remarkable since, with
a payload of 1,750 lbs., its gross vehicle weight (9,100 lbs.) is the
same as a conventional HMMWV.
"This hybrid-electric Hummer is a dramatic example
of the brute power and energy efficiency of electric propulsion,"
said Ray Geddes, chairman and CEO of Golden, Colorado, based Unique
Mobility. "Our motors have the muscle to move four tons of heavy
hardware over the road or off the road quicker than ever before."
The vehicle, designed and built by PEI Electronics,
Inc. of Huntsville, Alabama, uses four Unique Mobility permanent magnet
motors which can peak at 75 kW (100 horsepower) to provide power to
each wheel and a fifth (55 kW) (73 horsepower) permanent magnet motor
as a generator on the diesel powerplant.
The four electric motors provide truly independent four-wheel
drive, allowing the Hummer, like a tank, to actually turn around in
place by having one or more wheels turn in different directions.
As is typical of electric vehicles, the hybrid-electric
Hummer can be stealthily quiet. In addition, at low speeds (10 mph or
less) in all-electric operating mode the vehicle's electric motors give
off a low "thermal signature" making it virtually impossible
to detect using infrared sensor technology. The hybrid Hummer will increase
the performance and flexibility of military forces while reducing the
impact on the environment.
Hybrid-electric vehicles, powered by a combination of
electric motors and conventional diesel or gasoline powered engines,
have more range than electric-only vehicles and don't require expensive
charging infrastructure since on-board sealed lead acid batteries are
charged by the diesel generator. The range of the hybrid Hummer is 300
miles, the same as a conventional HMMWV. In the field, the onboard generator
can provide emergency power -- to a mobile hospital or disaster communications
center, for example.
The hybrid-electric HMMWV was developed through a 50/50
industry- government alliance funded in part by DARPA (the Defense Advanced
Research Projects Agency) through the Atlanta-based Southern Coalition
for Advanced Transportation (SCAT). PEI Electronics, Inc. is the team
leader for the SCAT HMMWV project.
The roll-out of this first-ever hybrid Hummer will take
place at 11:00 a.m. today at PEI's main facility, at 110 Wynn Drive
in Huntsville, Alabama.
Scheduled to attend the unveiling are national, state
and local elected officials, military leaders and industry executives
from across the country. For more information on the unveiling ceremony,
contact Dan Tudor at (205) 895-2051.
Unique Mobility, Inc. is one of the world's leading
developers of energy efficient electric and hybrid electric vehicle
systems. It is a Golden, Colorado, based engineering concern and manufacturer
of high efficiency permanent magnet motors and controls for automotive,
aerospace and industrial applications. For more information on the Company,
please visit our world wide web site at http://www.uqm.com.
This release contains forward-looking statements that
involve risks and uncertainties. The Company's actual results could
differ materially from those discussed in this release. Factors that
could cause or contribute to such differences include, but are not limited
to, those discussed in the Company's Registration Statement on Form
S-3 (file no. 23843). These forward- looking statements represent the
Company's judgment as of the date of this release. The Company disclaims,
however, any intent or obligation to update these forward-looking statements.
SOURCE Unique Mobility, Inc.
CONTACT: John S. Gould, Director-Investor Relations
of Unique Mobility, Inc., 303-278-2002/ /Web site: http://www.uqm.com/
(UQM)
* * *
Electric Vehicles
Regarding hybrid electric vehicles:
If a conversion system can be designed which will generate adequate
electricity to propel a vehicle at highway speeds over a useful range
and that system is contained entirely within the vehicle, then I will
get excited about electric vehicles.
However, hybrid internal combustion / electric vehicles are energy wasters.
If I have a vehicle powered solely by an internal combustion engine,
then I operate that vehicle at a given efficiency determined by the
thermal and mechanical efficiency of the engine. However, if I use that
internal combustion engine to generate electricity to run electric motors,
I have significantly reduced the efficiency of the process of converting
thermal energy to mechanical energy to electrical energy and back to
mechanical energy. The electrical generating process is less than 100%
efficient, and the conversion of that electrical energy back to mechanical
energy in the electric motor is less than 100% efficient. So if the
internal combustion engine is 30% efficient, and the generator is 95%
efficient, and the electric motor is 95% efficient, then the entire
propulsion system is now 27% efficient.
B.Carnes, P.E.
* * *
I am 20 years old and planning on buying a vehicle after
I graduate from college I plan on buying cool automobile
I could buy a $65,000 electric car because the democrats want me to
buy it. The fastest that car goes is 30 mph and it takes a 10 mile stretch
to go that fast. But, it can only go ten miles out from my house because
after twenty miles, I loose my charge on the damn car. Then PROBABLY,
I would have to pay for a charging station and get it installed in my
garage so I can charge it over night, (I can only imagine the electric
bill after that). I wonder if batteries come included. out of all the
choices that I've seen so far, all of them look like it came out of
my --- after eating asado.
OR, for a little less money i could buy myself the biggest
baddest SUV of all the FORD EXCURSION (hoo-ha) and still have some change
to even give it a suspension lift. Oh, the choices!!!!
* * *
Conversion of Energy-- Date: Thu, Apr 17 2003
If I recall correctly, it was professor Albert Einstein,
the father of the atomic bomb, Princeton University, Princeton, N.J.
who said, and I approximate the quote, "One cannot create or destroy
energy, it can only be converted from one form to another."
Example---During the process of boiling water, you do not create steam,
you convert it from a liquid into steam, and if you cool the steam,
it converts back to water. If the conversion process in either direction,
is less than 100%, i.e., 97% then 3% was disappated into the atmosphere,
ground or any other close by object, in short !00% in, and 100% out.
An electric car, which is solely run on batteries and
obviously requires charging stations along the way, will be recharged
by a generator which is being by turned some heat driven source, coal,
oil, atomic powered plant. To claim that battery operated device eliminates
pollution is a fallacy.
The closest thing to a continuous non polluting power
source is a dammed water power generating system, which can only be
built in areas that have sufficient rainfall to keep the dam at operating
level. The operating source for this type of power is obvious, the Sun,
which is only estimated to be around for another 5 billion years. Then
what!!!!
An ardent listener, Joe
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