Anyone know anything more up to date? All i know is that they are planning on having it to the market by summer 08. Anyone have any insight to their secrecy of the company? Like the webpage that disappeared? (eestor.us)
As far as I know, the most recent news item about Eestor was the announcement in January about the Lockheed/Eestor joint venture.
I sincerely hope that Eestor will have something specific to announce by May of this year regarding their ultracapacitance battery endeavors, and that the announcement will be something on the order of “SUCCESS”.
[QUOTE=Sir Joab;2082]Their URL ‘eestor.com’ is up for sale… though ‘eestor.us’ is not.[/QUOTE]
…and “eestor.com” was once owned by by battery developer Eestor, and “eestor.us” (as far as I can tell) never was. It is under construction by a different organization called Network Solutions.
[QUOTE=Lectrol;2170]I should buy it (: and then sell it to eestor once their product comes out. Make some money so i can convert my car (:[/QUOTE]
I doubt they would buy it if they are the ones that are selling it… i’m sure once they are under contract with lockheed to build something they will get absorbed into them for the right ammount of $$.
I posted this comment to another thread but thougth we might get better dialog on this one. I’ve been following the Eestor saga for about a year now and, the more I read the more I believe they will be able to produce a prototype. The issue, I believe, will be recharge facilities. In order to recharge in a reasonable time frame at 3500 V, you would need an industrial capacity transformer. That might work if we could drive up to an electrical substation that had a sort of “retail” point of sale, but most gas stations wouldn’t be able to provide this type of connection. And no insurance company I know would cover a home with a substaion iin the garage.
It makes sense that the military would be up for a 3500v, 52Kwh capacitor…they aren’t governed by National Fire codes. If the Eestor unit shipped with a 220v recharge circuit it would work, but my numbers are closer to 1.5 hour recharge at 220v, not 5 min. Nonetheless, this is the most exciting EV technology I’ve ever seen (well, heard of!).
I’ve also been tracking the news items about the Eestor ultracapacitor battery. Even without fast recharging, the range alone will make it a desirable battery pack. Plus, as I understand it, winter temperature will not reduce the range. It will be a fantastic breakthrough.
[QUOTE=nhsatguy;2181]The issue, I believe, will be recharge facilities. In order to recharge in a reasonable time frame at 3500 V, you would need an industrial capacity transformer.[/QUOTE]
Remember, these are super-[I]capacitors[/I], not batteries. You can charge them to any voltage you want, as long as it’s under 3500V. However, they will store the most energy at 3500V. You could simply charge them up to 120V, but it would require some 29 of these super-capacitors to make the above stated 52Kwh.
But even if they were charged to 3500V you wouldn’t need any extravagant charging apparatus, as long as you didn’t need your car to charge in 5 minutes.
A capacitor won’t give you a constant voltage out either; the voltage will be directly proportional to the charge. At 100% charge the capacitor will be at 3500V, when at 50% charge the capacitor will output 1750V. At 10% the output will be 350V. This makes it much easier to tell exactly how much charge you have left, but creates a headache for the poor engineer designing the controller, which means expense.
The recharge time is indeed the key. A capacitor will absorb the charge in a big hurry, but my 200 amp, 220v service at home wouldn’t allow a 5-min. recharge, as Eestor is touting. I have no problem if I can get 100+ miles out a charge, go 55-60 mph and recharge when I get home. If it takes 2-4 hours, who cares.
The big question is recharging on the road. I guess if there were recharge stations at gas stations, you could charge for as long as practical and then go on your way. I have visions, though, of long lines at the recharge stations, with people tying up the facilities while they go to lunch…sounds like a recipe for a riot.
Zenn Motors (small EV mfg.) announced 3/28/08 that the Eestor EESU launch will now be late 2009… I guess I’m just going to ignore the Eestor deal until I see it in a vehicle. I’m still convinced that they are on to something, but I’m wasting too much time following the process. I originally thought that the involment with Lockheed Maritn would expedite the process, but that doesn’t appear to be the case.
