The first fully electric supercarMercedes-Benz SLS E-cell

[KingAndy]

I really like Top Gear series (only the British version) and I found this awsome video on youtube:



I must say that Mercedes is unbelievable. It has so futuristic technology and powerful. I have to say I don't like the japanese electric cars, I think they look ugly, and until now I only like 2 electric cars: the Tesla Roadster (and the Tesla S) and the electric Mercedes SLS.



This is the moment when I think: see the video and you will find this car is more powerfull than the fuel powered "twin", it has so cool technology... Why the only problem there is always in electric cars is the lack of capacity of the batteries, why anybody do some recearch to improve them? And why it's just a prototype model, why this and lots of other electric cars produced by some companies are only for "show" and not for the public? Maybe the rumors that petrol companies pay to make electric cars don't evolute are real...

[Storm_Sullivan]

Electric cars aren't standard market cause they just don't cut it, IMO. I mean, currently most are what, a 12 hour recharge every 40 miles? Say that could be upped to 60 and all speed limits were 60 miles an hour. You drive for an hour, then you stop all night to recharge. I've always thought there's a better way to power cars, but maybe its not what everyone thinks.

Grass, for instance. What if there's a chemical compound in it from which diesel fuel could be derived? It's certainly plentiful enough.

Or maybe a car with a giant fan. A battery starts the fan and the electric engine, and then the speeding car creates its own wind and charges itself all drive.

Yeah, this is pretty much how most of my day-dreaming goes...

[e-cobra]

Saw the video for the first time. Its surprising to know that company like Mercedes is working on an electric car-with zero emission.

Or maybe a car with a giant fan. A battery starts the fan and the electric engine, and then the speeding car creates its own wind and charges itself all drive.

Won't be even close to success because there will be some (a lot of) wastage of energy in the form of friction and air resistance of the car and the power generated by the fan will always be less than the power spent on driving the car.

[whoami]

We could make the whole car out of battery, but it would become extremely hot and I don't think humans surrounded by chemicals producing electric charge is very safe.

[Seahawk]

It's good that electric cars will soon dominate the roads and reduce pollution.

[COOLGUY200]

Who wants to drive a performance car that makes no noise when it revs? That SOUNDS lame, and actually would be lame.

LAME.

[carmaniac]

It's good that electric cars will soon dominate the roads and reduce pollution.

So, you want to hear ''tssssssssssssssss'' instead of ''ROARRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR''

[Storm_Sullivan]

Who wants to drive a performance car that makes no noise when it revs? That SOUNDS lame, and actually would be lame.

LAME.

I know, right? When I get a truck, I'm going to really be tempted to put a valve in the pipe so I can open the throttle and ROAR!! down the highway .

And Seahawk, be careful who you believe. Global warming is only a reality when you look at a small area of the world. When you observe the globe as a whole (thence GLOBAL), there is actually a very slight trace of cooling. Data actually suggests it was warmer back in the medival days, when there really wasn't pollution at all. So we who like to hear our performance cars can keep them without fear of killing the world .

(if I don't ruin my DAF in the process, I might add major exhaust effects to accompany the roar)

[Seahawk]

It's good that electric cars will soon dominate the roads and reduce pollution.

So, you want to hear ''tssssssssssssssss'' instead of ''ROARRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR''

First we must think about the increasing CO2.

[whoami]

To make the rev sound in an electric car:

1. Record a lion roaring.
2. Play it while revving.
3. ???
4. Profit, I guess.

[KingAndy]

Well, I sould say I love muscle cars, and if some day I could my dream would be buying a old muscle in a junkyard and rebuild it with that imrpved awsome engines with supercharger and all of that, but okay, the problem is not only the environment, the fuel will not last forever. Some day petrol will be so expensive ts so hard to buy enough fuel to drive a car.

When this day come, I will love to see the petrol companies smash one after the other, and then with no one to pay to avoid the development of electric cars, I guess everybody will be able to have one.

Lack of autonomy of electric cars: one of the biggest problem of electric cars, but if some recearch was made, it could be easily solved.

No engine sound: Like shown on the video of the Mercedes, is possible to create a fake engine sound, it's not really good but I guess its another really easy to do stuff.

Crappy looking of most electric cars: I don't like chinese or japanese (I don't know) electric cars because they look horible like a try to make it look futuristic or something, but maybe if the electric cars start being produced as normal fuel moved cars they could look like the normal cars. In fact, I bet some day we could buy any car in a dealer and like today we can choose the power of the engine or if its gas moved or a diesel, we could choose it electric.

In fact, like there are some GPL convertion shops that can put a GPL engine in your car, maybe some electric convertion shops will exist, where you can take your old bad-ass muscle, your exotic Ferrari or whatever and put a electric engine on it, and choose what you want on it like the power or a option to make it have the sound of the original engine.

[COOLGUY200]

Well, there has to be an alternative source that's like fuel.

How about E85 Ethanol? I've heard that stuff is renewable.

Plus, if we do run out of petrol/gasoline, cars with a "FlexFuel" system would still be able to run the same engine with a choice of the old stuff, or E85.

Here's a 2008 Chevrolet Corvette ZO6, used in the Indy 500 as a pace car. What powers the engine? Ethanol, of course!

[carmaniac]

Or maybe one day a new type of fuel will be found and we could still have nice engine sounds but with little to no pollution!

[Storm_Sullivan]

Run out of fuel? I kinda doubt that. True, its a fossil fuel. But there's more in the world than America's president would have us think. There's in-ground reservoirs, off-shore, shale extraction, and more, and some places have a good bit, like Texas or Alaska, if only we could do away with this whole environmental jumbo-mumbo and use the resources we have. And other countries have their fair share. Israel, for instance is thought to be oil rich. That's one of two reasons its such a hotspot. Though not being allowed to use the resourses we have...that could cause problems.

Coolguy, ethanol can be produced in fermentation of alcohol (yeast and sugar reaction) and the sugar can be derived from cellulose for industrial purposes, more or less, so as long as the sun shines and the rain falls, yes, its quite renewable. I wouldn't mind filling my tank with yeast and cornhusks (:lol:)

[COOLGUY200]

Exactly, Sullivan. I really think the president of the United States (where I live) is a idiot, because I think that when a president is not actually telling companies to do the "Keystone Pipeline" and all that jazz, No oil is flowing, and everyone goes nuts. I'm no politician, and I don't want to be one, so I'm not all sure if this makes sense. Thank you.

And don't you need coal to use electricity, when coal can be turned into gas, right?