Alternative-fuel engines of different sorts all suffer from one major drawback or another: poor range, hard-to-find filling stations, high cost, poor performance. EEStore is out to change all that with a revolutionary new kind of "battery". We put "battery" in quotation marks because the unit doesn't store power in a chemical capsule like a conventional battery, but instead uses some kind of glass- and aluminum-coated ceramics. The inventors are understandably tight-lipped on the way their creation works, but they're adamant it could completely replace the internal combustion engine.
Feel Good Cars, the Toronto company responsible for the ZENN, wants to get the unit on the road by 2008. The most significant benefit would be its efficiency: a car powered by the EEStor unit could run on the equivalent of 45 cents per gallon, driving 500 miles on $9 worth of electricity after just five minutes to charge.
We could tell you this invention could be the fix for our addiction to foreign oil, but that's scary talk for gear-heads. So we'll tell you about the performance instead. The company's CEO insists that "a four-passenger sedan will drive like a Ferrari". That's a tall order, but if he's right, the prancing horse could find itself grazing on greener pastures.
(Thanks to Robert for the tip!)
[Source: CNN]
GM shrinks Volt's gas tank, range drops from 600 to 360 miles
MINI dealers to sell Alfa Romeos in the U.S.
Honda to reveal OSM open-top concept in London
With crisis looming, GM may unveil Volt for 100th anniversary
Next BMW M5 will nix V10 in favor of twin-turbo V8
In the Autoblog Garage: 2009 Lincoln MKS
Track Test: 2008 Roush 427R Trak Pak Mustang
In the Autoblog Garage: 2008 Porsche Cayman S
First Drive: 2009 Chevrolet Traverse
In the Autoblog Garage: 2008 Mazda MX-5 Miata Retractable Hard Top
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
pavster @ Sep 21st 2006 6:14PM
It's either a capacitor or a scam. I vote scam.
Lee Gibson @ Sep 21st 2006 6:18PM
Wake me up when they've got some numbers, or some science, to talk about. Until then, it's all marketing.
JC Whitless @ Sep 21st 2006 6:31PM
"some kind of glass- and aluminum-coated ceramics"
Translation
Static Power
Generates a static charge between the plates, and as you drive it slowly agitates the surfaces to create mini lightning.
Now the neat part is, whenever you bump into a wall, the car automatically backs up and then turns right, before going forward again at full speed
Jeff Banks @ Sep 21st 2006 6:36PM
Hmmm... my theory is that its a big wind up car with a big aluminum spring.
Leo @ Sep 21st 2006 6:54PM
I never figured it out, why companies insist on making electric cars ugly (except the Tesla)
if they looked better adn more like a regular car, i bet you people would take more notice than thee ugly things theyalways show us.
IMO - the oil industry is paying them off to come up with ugly designs to keep people from getting interested in them.
rem83 @ Sep 21st 2006 7:07PM
Let's see, at about 9 cents/kwh, that's 1000kwh of storage. 1000kwh/5 minutes = 12000 kw, or 12 MW. I'd like to see the charging station that can provide 12 MW of power to a vehicle in a safe way. This has got to be total BS.
arnie @ Sep 21st 2006 7:11PM
Has to be an ultra capacitor. Lots of research going on in that area right now. Maybe they have come up with something new but it sounds too good to be true.
arnie @ Sep 21st 2006 7:14PM
They'll need to have a nuclear power plant attached to the charging station. Or an ultra-ultra capacitor!
AutoFan @ Sep 21st 2006 7:37PM
My daddy always told me there are three kinds of liars: Liars, damn liars, and battery engineers.
I'll hold on to my investment dollars for now.
Gary Hyslop @ Sep 21st 2006 7:57PM
I read a while ago about a company that had come up with a new type of capacitor that instead of having flat internal plates had millions of micro-threads which greatly increased their capacity (because of the increased surface area). If this is a practical application of that, they could really be on to something.
Poe @ Sep 21st 2006 10:44PM
Well, it certainly sounds too good to be true, but here's to hoping.
Thunder @ Sep 21st 2006 11:29PM
rem83
I think you miscalculated.
9 cents per kwh = 900 cents ($9.00) per 100 kwh, not 1,000.
So the amount of power delivered would be 1,200 KW in 5 minutes or 1.2 MW. I don't know what this means in terms of gauge of wire required or amount of amps drawn. If someone with an electrical background would comment though I'd appreciate it.
Jim @ Sep 22nd 2006 8:32AM
First thing I thought it might be is flywheel technology.
http://www.discover.com/issues/aug-96/features/reinventingthewh842/
BJ @ Sep 22nd 2006 10:46AM
Lots of followers in here, no leaders that's for sure.
mo @ Sep 22nd 2006 11:06AM
1200 kW where Power = Voltage * Current; we know the power, and voltage in the US is 120 V. So I = P/V -> I = 1,200,000/120 = 10,000 Amps. Sounds like BS.
DP @ Sep 22nd 2006 1:15PM
EEStor is working with ultra capacitor technology and the actual charge time I've heard is 15 minutes to a full charge
Rory @ Sep 22nd 2006 6:57PM
Holy Grail Batman.
kf4yfd @ Sep 22nd 2006 10:39PM
Follow up to - rem83 and mo:
Amperage is measured per second. In your calculations you forgot to divide the Kwh measurements by the time factor.
So, 10,000(amps) / 5(minutes) / 60 (seconds)
comes out to 33.3 amps or 6 gauge wire.
:)
Eric @ Sep 23rd 2006 12:06AM
I'd like to know plug you need to plug in to in order to pull $9 worth of electricity in just five minutes. Nonsense!
Keith @ Sep 23rd 2006 12:15AM
It's a flux capacitor.
It uses something like 1.21 Gigawatts of power to get it going. You'll need something like a lightning bolt to charge it.
I hear it gets up to 88 MPH pretty fast though.