Full recharge in ten minutes is really cool. That makes "filling up" at recharge stations very feasible for solving the range issue of EVs. I just hope neither the batteries or the rapid chargers are prohibitively expensive.

So I'm curious how that

works. at some point the voltage will be 120V before it's bumped up to whatever "high" means via a transformer.. That means there will be 1000 amps running through the wires (500A if you run 240) unless I'm missing something here (i'm guessing the "rating" is a little exaggerated)

I've done this in my RAV4 EV. Not the rapid charging, but 180 miles, no problem.

For the record, the 27 Amps at 240 my charger draws is only a fraction (5.5 Kw) of the 50 Kw I've seen during full regen. What this means is the batteries are quite capable of taking much higher loads than the slow charger that comes with the car.

On ten year old technology. Using NiMH batteries.

Nate

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(MikeSF @ Oct 31 2007, 12:18 AM) [snapback]532754[/snapback]</div>

No, the Aerovironment charger just makes use of a step just a little further up the grid than standard residential supplies, using higher voltage three-phase AC. This type of supply is very commonly used in factories everywhere for high power equipment.

In fact they have recently demonstrated a 250 kW charger with Altair cells, which could give (at 5 miles per kWh), a range of over 200 miles per 10 minute charge.


http://www.autobloggreen.com/category/phoenix-1/

This is awesome. How much does it cost?

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(clett @ Oct 31 2007, 06:02 AM) [snapback]532853[/snapback]</div>

Now I was thinking about this, but does that mean you'd need to have special wiring to your house? Or that your rapid charger stays attached to the power pole with the transformer (before it downsteps to 120) and again you need a special wire brought to your house?

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(MikeSF @ Oct 31 2007, 12:09 PM) [snapback]532950[/snapback]</div>

125KW is 5 times the capacity of the 200A electric service you probably have at your house. Or, if you have a very, very large house, you might have as much as a 400A electric service, and therefore 125KW would be 2.5 times the capacity of your electric service.

Such a charger is not for your home.

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(MikeSF @ Oct 31 2007, 11:09 AM) [snapback]532950[/snapback]</div>

It means that you would have a lower capacity and therefore slower charger at home. You would plug your car in and it would be ready to go the next morning.

For rapid charging you could go to a electricity station and top off your battery in 10 minutes. So if you were traveling on the road, you would need to use charging stations with the capability to rapid charge.

Also remember this is a Fiat being tested in Europe. Europe uses 220V residential power instead of the 110V used in the US and Canada.

Ahhhh thanks for that clear up. Forgot to think outside the box, neat little charger for a "gas station" type of deal.

Well guess what...

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(MikeSF @ Oct 31 2007, 08:39 PM) [snapback]533199[/snapback]</div>

That's the business plan behind Project Better Place, an electric-car infrastructure effort headed up by former SAP executive Shai Agassi. The organization wants to set up service stations where electric-car drivers can pull up, replace their batteries, and then drive another 150 miles or so before needing a recharge.

The plan ameliorates two big problems for electric cars: the long charge time and the limited range. Drivers wouldn't have to buy their batteries either, according to Agassi. They would lease them for a fee that would come to about what they would ordinarily spend on gas. That solves a third problem: the high cost of batteries...


Getting charged up over service stations