http://www.zapworld.com/ZAPWorld.aspx?id=4560
Does anyone think this car will be a reality? Some of Zap’s claims / goals seem pretty ambitious. I like the AWD concept created by using four smaller motors. The 10 minute re-charge :eek: just seems a bit beyond the technology of Li-ion and / Li-poly batteries. That’s an awful lot of charge current.
Cheers
it can be a reality, all depending on their method of recharging…
i like the idea of all wheel drive, BUT all that means is that there is more power to drain from the vehicle and more batteries needed…
i LOVE the concept of that car, but in all honesty they need to get more technology done with nano tubes so that they are able to store more power in smaller areas and have a better use/recharge rate.
Very nice I’ll bet the price tag is too, a toy for the very rich not for the masses!
[QUOTE=inSANe DIEGO;159]http://www.zapworld.com/ZAPWorld.aspx?id=4560
Does anyone think this car will be a reality? Some of Zap’s claims / goals seem pretty ambitious. I like the AWD concept created by using four smaller motors. The 10 minute re-charge :eek: just seems a bit beyond the technology of Li-ion and / Li-poly batteries. That’s an awful lot of charge current.
Cheers[/QUOTE]
I believe the recharge rate is accurate for the new nanotech batteries. Killacycle’s A123 pack is supposed to be rechargeable in 5 minutes. AltairNano has had the recharging performance of their batteries independently verified. They claim a 10 minute recharge time.
To my knowledge Zap has not released info on the battery supplier for the Zap-X. There was an interview on AutoBlogGreen with the CEO of AltairNano in which they agreed that only AltairNano’s batteries could provide the claimed performance for the Zap-X - but the AltairNano CEO didn’t explicitly say he had a deal with Zap. Also, there are a number of companies developing nanotech batteries now and I’m not sure one of them couldn’t match the performance of AltairNano’s packs.
The Zap-X itself appears to be nothing more than a combination of Lotus’s APX platform concept, PML Flightlink’s Hi-Pa drive system, and a nanotech battery pack. Building it is more a matter of business savvy than engineering skill. I don’t see any technical hurdles. Whether the market is there at that price range (it would slay the Porsche Cayenne turbo at a $30,000 discount so why not?) and Zap can make it happen is another question entirely.
I THINK I read something about them using EEstor capacitors. 300lbs for 52kWH. Just on the edge of my memory.
Edit: I guess that was for a zen and it was 45kWH for 300lbs.
http://www.edmunds.com/advice/fueleconomy/articles/119533/article.html
About the EStor technology, I don’t believe in its validity since the company doesn’t even have a website, and the few details released are pretty vague. I’m more of an AltairNano kind of guy.
Very nice I’ll bet the price tag is too, a toy for the very rich not for the masses!
Hopefully, a company will step up to make a modern day Model T (if we pray enough it’ll be North American too) that’ll have the same effect on electric cars, as the original had on gasoline in the sense that it’ll bring the technology to the masses.
Google up the Miles Javlon. They’re trying to be the first with an under $30,000 electric.
The Zap-x is one of the most fascinating propositions for an EV I have seen so far. It seems like an EV that’s actually practical in real life with it’s cross-over body. Also the fact that zap proposes a Lotus body design makes the project more realistic. However I do agree with some posters here that the specs regarding range, performance and recharging time sound a lot like sci-fi. If these specs were possible there would be no more need for ICE cars. This would mean the car and oil industry would do pretty much what ever it takes to stop this project. One way or the other: this car will never happen.
Regarding the $ 60000,- price tag: it’s not as expensive as it sounds if it could really deliver the goods. The Lotus body concept is aluminium which would make this car pretty much last forever, provided it could be retrofitted with future improved battery and drive train technology. This is good news because as a general rule an ICE car takes as much energy to produce as it consumes during it’s lifetime, so with an EV car this ratio probably even more unbalanced. Of course the idea of a car that lasts for decades is a nightmare for the mainstream car manufacturers and therefore an other reason for them to make sure that this car never happens.:mad:
Well, here it is, amost March of 2008 - and still there is complete and utter silence from EESTOR regarding progress of their highly touted capacitance battery.
And why don’t they have a website?
[QUOTE=voltsrus;1914]Well, here it is, amost March of 2008 - and still there is complete and utter silence from EESTOR regarding progress of their highly touted capacitance battery.
And why don’t they have a website?[/QUOTE]
they are working with other companys and since i’m sure they are mostly funded by other companies i’m almost positive that they wont be advertising anything them selfs since the other companies have the rights to it exclusively for the next year or so.
In a previous post I was rather sceptical about the technical feasibility of the specs proposed by ZAP. More study on the net made clear that this car may be less Sci-Fi than I thought. This excited me because the ZAP-X is the most promising all electric car concept I have encountered so far. However I noticed that the APX body concept from Lotus engineering that this car would be based on is no longer featured on the Lotus website. Allso the webpage of ZAP’s Detroit Electric joint venture that was supposed to build the car mentions the production of the silly ZAP Alias by 2009 but doesn’t mention the ZAP-X. Paranoia is setting in again…
Well it would appear that my initial hunch that the ZAP-X was to good to be true was correct. The web-site Wired.com features an article that exposes the ZAP company as a bit of a fraud. Once involved in the production of electric scooters it has degraded to a financial racketeering scheme. Apparently it cleverly boosts the value of it’s board members stock options with a barrage of press releases about ground breaking green vehicles that never materialise. People buy into it because they idealistically believe such green vehicles are possible. I think the world needs cars like the ZAP-X, but I’m afraid that this particular EV is never gonna happen. The Electric Lightning proposal for an EV features similar technology and performance as the ZAP-X and apparently this car will be a reality soon. What’s also a reality is that this car is rumoured to be costing at least twice as much and has probably only half the range…Clearly it’s still a long way to go before the mass introduction of EV’s is feasible.
Read the whole story with this link:
http://www.wired.com/cars/futuretransport/magazine/16-04/ff_zapped?currentPage=1
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!).