News: The fuel pump of the future, 400-volt electric plug standard to be unveiled today

AiR

AiR

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Since I'm such a snitch I'm gonna blatantly copypaste the entire thing. Please excuse the one-liners. No picture yet.
AFP said:
Leading automotive and energy companies have reached agreement on a common "plug" to recharge electric cars, a spokeswoman for German energy company RWE said Sunday.

The three-point, 400-volt plug, which will allow electric cars to be recharged anywhere in a matter of minutes, is set to be unveiled Monday at the world's biggest industrial technology fair in Hanover, northern Germany.

"A car must be able to be recharged in Italy in exactly the same way as in Denmark, Germany or France," an RWE spokeswoman, Caroline Reichert, was quoted as saying in an edition of Die Welt to appear Monday.

She gave no timeframe for the introduction of the plug, saying that talks between the companies were ongoing.

The agreement on a common standard for the plug comprises several major automakers, including Volkswagen, BMW, Ford, General Motors, Fiat, Toyota and Mitsubishi.

Energy firms signed up to the accord include Eon, Vattenfall, EDF, Npower, Endesa and Enel.

Berlin hopes that one million electric cars will be on the road by 2020. RWE and Daimler launched a pilot project in Berlin in September.

The development of a common plug is a major step towards the mass production of electric cars, Reichert told Die Welt.
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http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5gaHUD24bD32cKQQemS9xWbevZVpQ

To compare, charging a Tesla Roadster takes (full charge)
@ 120V: 10 hours
@ 240V: 3 hours
@ 400V: ????
 
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Now we need the biggest possible leap ever in battery technology and electric cars could actually become a fesable alternative. And work like normal cars.
 
I actually re-watched that TG episode with the Tesla last night. Forget the batteries, I want hydrogen fueling stations and a freakin' Clarity!!!
 
Making the majority of cars on the road electric will be hard and take a long time, but it's much easier than the utopia that is hydrogen. Running things on hydrogen introduces more steps than is necessary and has a lower efficiency as well as a higher emission output.

http://img139.imageshack.**/img139/535/800pxbatteryevvshydroge.png
 
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AiR said:
To compare, charging a Tesla Roadster takes (full charge)
@ 120V: 10 hours
@ 240V: 3 hours
@ 400V: ????
Click to expand...
About an hour, by my crude just-woke-up calculations.
 
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vikiradTG2007 said:
In that case, you don't want an Audi R10 to race or an R8 V12 TDI to drive around. Because those sound like spaceships mated to very silent jet fighters.
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Shut it! Michael Bay might hear you!
 
vikiradTG2007 said:
Now we need the biggest possible leap ever in battery technology and electric cars could actually become a fesable alternative. And work like normal cars.
Click to expand...

There is incentive now at least, and the biggest advances always come when there's an incentive to make them.
 
I used to be in denial about it but i really do see electrics being the car of the future rather than hydrogen.

Although i think gasoline will still be popular in many applications for decades at least. Its not like we're gonna flip a switch and change over like the Horse->Car change.
 
Huh, I never even thought about that. I guess a common plug would greatly simplify a lot of things. Also, a 400v wall outlet sounds awesome.
 
tigger said:
Huh, I never even thought about that. I guess a common plug would greatly simplify a lot of things. Also, a 400v wall outlet sounds awesome.
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Yeah, more shocks per second :lol:
 
tigger said:
Huh, I never even thought about that. I guess a common plug would greatly simplify a lot of things. Also, a 400v wall outlet sounds awesome.
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Not that exciting to be honest, it's avalible in nearly all homes already, which is likely why they picked it, out of convenience. In the original post it does not mention the amps, it's 400V 63A.
 
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AiR said:
Not that exciting to be honest, it's avalible in nearly all homes already, which is likely why they picked it, out of convenience. In the original post it does not mention the amps, it's 400V 63A.
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400V / 63A, so let's see...

[James May number crunching mode]
400V * 63A * 3 (lines) * 1 (hour) = 75,600 Wh

Tesla Roadster has a 55 kW battery, which (due to losses) needs 66 kW to fully recharge. If 75,6 kW are available within 60 minutes, 66 kW are available in 52 minutes. So it takes 52 minutes to fully recharge a Tesla, maybe 60 if you count some losses in the charger and on the way.
The three-point, 400-volt plug, which will allow electric cars to be recharged anywhere in a matter of minutes, is set to be unveiled Monday at the world's biggest industrial technology fair in Hanover, northern Germany.
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Yes. 52 minutes at least that is. :rolleyes:
 
I'm no electrician but can't you put a transformer in that 400v-socket that does something funky? Charging your car in under an hour at home is okay but charging it in the field needs to be alot quicker, I imagine future "petrol stations" would have some sort of quickcharge system with more heavy duty stuff.
 
AiR said:
I'm no electrician but can't you put a transformer in that 400v-socket that does something funky?
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No. A transformer can change the voltage up or down, but the current will change inversely proportional. The product of voltage and current is power. You can boost the voltage with a transformer, but the current will change accordingly, and the resulting power will be constant. Thus, the maximum you can get with 400V and 63A on the three lines is 75,600 Watts.
 
yay, more batteries will be mined and shipped around the world to be processed at what cost to the environment? stupid pseudo-green electric cars.
 
^ High five!
 
Und hier ist er!
http://img195.imageshack.**/img195/1998/smartdetailmithand.jpg

230V/380V ("400V") 63A etc. Made by german company Mennekes.
 
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