Comments on: Mitsubishi i-MiEV – Mitsubishi Electric Car lands in Australia

By: Chuck

Chuck — Sun, 14 Aug 2011 12:24:11 +0000

I heard that the Chinese version is coming soon, and it cost just around $20,000~$25,000 , with a range of 150Km per charge, fast charge will take only 30 minutes, normal charge takes 6-8 hours with a household power supply, and the max speed is 120 km per hour.
I hope it can be exported to Australia, and lets kill the greedy oil companies.

By: Reza

Reza — Wed, 22 Jun 2011 11:06:20 +0000

realy Nice…………

By: BEEng

BEEng — Sun, 27 Mar 2011 10:16:17 +0000

Mike,
Your right you do have to do the real world calcs. so Here’s how. To raise you say 2000Kg (assume you like SUV’s) car/semi monster truck up 400m that would be 2000X400X9.81 (gravity)= 7848000 Joules. To convert to KwHrs X 2.7778×10−7 = 2.18 KwHrs. That is of course in addition to the energry had you lived on level ground. Care to explain how you got 13.3KwH? Perhaps try that again.

By: BEEng

BEEng — Sun, 27 Mar 2011 09:47:28 +0000

Raymond,
Close but a few mistakes.
Braking can be done by eltric cars completely. Of course this is limited to electric motors that can supply/stand the torqe required to brake a car. A few do exist that can do this, the produce and can brake 600NM of torque per wheel. As well as this you must be able to put this energy quickly back into the battery, a few problems may arise there but still doable. Of course I doubt this car could do that. I would like to know where you got the 10% for regenerating, 90% fritcion and wind loss, well maybe if you were doing 300Kmh.

By: Raymond

Raymond — Thu, 24 Mar 2011 11:21:49 +0000

Sorry Betty Blue . The laws of Physics are such that if you use power to drive the car and make it move you need a power source-Electricity from the Battery. Using the brakes on a vehicle to SLOW IT DOWN actually uses power.(Not battery power)
It takes the power from the cars momentum. Imagine trying to slow a moving car by standing in front of the car. You would need heaps of power from your body to slow it down. If you expect to put power into the batteries while the car is USING electricity from the batteries, then ALL the electricity you use, originates from the batteries. You cannot have it both ways. ALL electricity from an ALL electric car ,comes from the batteries. The only way to put energy back into the batteries, is to use the free energy which you get while running downhill.This recharges the batteries a little bit and it also does SOME of the braking. The electricity which is put back into the batteries when it goes down the hill is actually only about 10% of the amount you use to move the car up the hill. A lot of the energy used going down hill, is used to overcome wind resistance and friction of moving parts and friction between the road and rubber tyre. This is why most car makers choose to go ‘Hybrid’ instead of all Electric. Regenerative electricity during Braking is pretty much a sales gimmick. ‘All electric’ cars are not at all practical. Nobody has yet come up with batteries that are light enough and cheap enough to be PRACTICAL alternative to Petrol or Diesel.

By: Simone

Simone — Mon, 03 Jan 2011 13:06:44 +0000

I realy like the whole idea of an EV but i see the problem in its acceptance being its size (to Small) and the battery life per use. For some of us country folk 100 odd km is only a morning trip and if the car could power itself while being used would help with distance avaiable,
I do have an idea on how this can be accomplished but i wont be devaulging it here! Best of luck!

By: Rosy

Rosy — Tue, 19 Oct 2010 06:44:43 +0000

I am keeping my 12 year old car until these electric cars come on the market, then I will buy an electric car. I will not take any part in the future destruction of our planet, as all that remains is for Russia to turn the beautiful white North Pole black with their oil spills.

subaru

By: Vincent

Vincent — Tue, 05 Oct 2010 11:36:28 +0000

Thank you! Maths trumps assumptions any day.

By: Elise

Elise — Wed, 04 Aug 2010 09:56:39 +0000

Charging an electric car with coal-fired power is BOTH cheaper AND less polluting than a petrol car. The reason is that electric motors are much more efficient than combustion motors. The oil companies would not like this to be common knowledge.

If you charge the car with solar power (either at home or with solar panels on the work carpark) then you solve BOTH peak oil AND climate change issues. We are looking at an idea whose time has come.

By: Golfman

Golfman — Fri, 23 Jul 2010 11:53:46 +0000

One factor people don’t often realize is that not only is electricity cheaper it is also better for our economy if we use electricity vs petrol. The same amount of carbon is probably emitted to power an electric car charged from a coal fired power station as is emitted from burning petrol in a combustion engine the electric car reduces how much oil we have to import. The coal powered fire station is powered by good old Aussie coal, employing Aussie workers instead of from oil imported from other countries. This means we keep more money in the country which helps us pay of labor’s debt etc., The extra tax the government earns by keeping that money cycling around the Australian economy can pay back the debt and when that’s paid off we can pump that money into solar and other renewable energy sources.