Have you ever used a battery? Of course you have. It is highly unlikely that there is anyone alive today that has not used a battery. Many times you do not realize how much you depend on batteries until they die and you do not have any spares around.

When you think about batteries you may not think about the batteries that power your vehicle, but these too are batteries. They can be recharged and last much longer than the double A or nine volt batteries that charge the cd players or flashlights that you were probably thinking of but they are batteries nonetheless. They also require different care than the batteries that you may have had in mind originally.

With the price of gas and the pollution involved, alternatives have been developed to the vehicles that we have always used. One of the first is the electric car. The electric car depends highly on a rechargeable battery and of primary concern with this is the capacity of the battery, the size of the battery, and with size also comes the weight of the battery.

As it stands right now the size of a car battery is tied to the strength of a car battery. A regular car battery is nine inches by twelve inches, by seven inches in size. What is most important is power. It takes power to move the car and power to maintain speed above ten to fifteen miles per hour. This power must come from the battery.

In the case of electric cars this power must come from the battery. In order to get more power (more amps) from a battery it requires more size and/or more batteries. In order to get the speed needed for the electrical vehicles you actually need several batteries. By using several batteries, obviously you take up more space, by taking up more space; you lose more space for other things. Since the parts of a vehicle are pretty much mandatory what you lose is seating space and/or storage space.

Because of this, we are down to two seats with the electric car. So, obviously there are some problems with the electric cars. There are some situations to be resolved. With the environmental issues that are resolved it is definitely worth trying to resolve the issues.

More and more people are concerned about the environment and as this concerns mounts they are realizing that electric cars may be the way to go for environmental safety. Cars that can use a combination of gas and electricity are referred to as hybrids. Currently these types of cars are quite expensive but as time goes on the price will go down.

polluting petroleum powered cars?
They can’t even supply enough power to keep the lights on in LA without buying power from Arizona.

Electric cars run on batteries anywhere from 12 to 24 of them underneath the hood. When it comes time for new batteries, they are actually readily available. The batteries used to run an electric car are similar to those used to power cell phones and even those little vehicles that kids like to drive around the yard. Getting new batteries for your electric car should not be a problem when the time comes.

The reality is that electric car batteries last for quite a long time, so getting new ones will not have to happen for quite a long time. When you do have to get new batteries for your electric car, you can expect to pay around $2,000 to $5,000 for them depending on the make and model of your electric car.

Some batteries have memories in them and if you do not run them out before charging them, they lose some of their potency. Be completely aware of how much electricity you have left before you go to plug in for a recharge. You may find yourself having to buy new batteries for your electric car before you really want to.

The electric car industry is always coming up with new battery technology that can help power your vehicle longer and charge faster. It is only a matter of time before that technology will allow you to drive your car further before a charge. That is good news for people who are electric car enthusiasts. Right now, the general range is around one hundred miles per charge. It is entirely possible that by the year 2010, you will be able to drive an electric car over 200 miles on new batteries.

When the time does come to get new batteries for your electric car, you can rest assured that you will be able to recycle almost the entire battery. Electric car batteries are 95 percent recyclable. You have an electric car, most likely, because you want to do something good for the environment and give yourself some relief from the ridiculous price of gasoline. Well, being able to recycle an electric car battery before you buy new ones, you can have peace of mind and a new source of power.

Choose the best type of battery for your need when you are buying new batteries for your electric car. Get the best battery you can find for the money and rest assured that you are doing your part both for the environment as well as for yourself.

Using a sealed lead acid battery quick capacity test can give you the most up to date diagnostics regarding the capacity of your battery within seconds. This can tell you if you need to charge your battery a bit longer or even if you have overcharged your battery. By using a quick capacity test, you can find out right away if your battery is in good shape.

Sealed lead acid batteries are sold today for cars, electric vehicles and other items. They are completely contained and harness electrical power. They can be recharged but cannot be overcharged. One of the primary mistakes that people make with rechargeable batteries is to leave them in the charger for too long. This can actually damage the battery so that it is no longer viable.

Rechargeable batteries can be expensive to replace. This is one reason why you want to maintain the battery that you have. If you have an electrical transport, for example, you want to be certain that this vehicle is in working order at all times. It is crucial that you charge the battery. This is often the case for those who have small electrical vehicles that get them around gated communities and campgrounds. These generally run on electric power that is stored into the battery. This makes for clean air use but the battery is rendered useless if it is not properly maintained.

Using the sealed lead acid battery quick capacity test is the best and quickest way to check the battery of your vehicle. You do not even have to remove the battery from the device in order to perform this test. If you are new to the idea of charging a battery, you can use this testing device so that you understand exactly how long you should charge your battery.

Some sealed lead acid batteries have quick charging devices that are available to them that can charge the battery within four hours. When you are charging a battery, you are essentially providing it with electricity that can be portable. Batteries have been around for a long time and have always been a way to store energy. Because we are more environmentally conscious these days, we are looking for batteries that can be recharged instead of those that have to be discarded which are not biodegradable and can harm the soil.

No matter what type of battery that you use for your electric vehicle, you should be certain that it is properly maintained and charged when needed. If you forget to charge the battery or over charge it, you will eventually harm the battery to the point it will be useless and you will have to purchase another battery.

Take care of your sealed lead acid batteries by charging them as directed and by regularly testing them with sealed lead acid battery quick capacity test. This only takes a few minutes and can end up saving you a lot of money as it can actually allow you to keep your battery for a longer period of time.

So you’re thinking of getting an electric car? Well, one of the first things you need to do before getting one is to learn a few basic things about these vehicles — especially with regards to how they run and where they get their power. And like all things electric, an electric car relies on an independent power source — the battery.

A normal car (powered by an internal combustion engine) only needs the battery to start the engine as well as run the air conditioning system and the car stereo. That isn’t the case with electric cars. In fact, the battery used in electric cars runs about everything. When electric cars were first introduced, the primary concern was (and still is) the quality and reliability of the electric car battery, i.e. how long can the battery last before it needs to be recharged. Fortunately, the last few decades has produced significant improvements on how electric car batteries are made. Now we already have nickel metal hydride (NiMH), lead-acid and lithium-ion (Li-ion) types that are rechargeable and readily available in the market.

Compared to normal car batteries, how do electric car batteries fare? Here’s a look at the benefits:

Cost-effectiveness. For five bucks worth of electricity, your electric car can run for more than 300 kilometers. Now if you do the math and compare that with your current gas costs and equivalent mileage, you’ll see that going electric can be quite economic in the long run.

Cleaner & Greener. Although you still need to burn fossil fuels in order to generate the electricity needed to recharge electric car batteries, the pollution produced is very minimal compared to the pollution caused by internal combustion engines. Plus, with better power generation sources like nuclear plants, the level of carbon emissions in the process of recharging becomes even lesser.

Re-usability. Electric car batteries can be reused and recycled. So you don’t need to worry about how you can dispose of your battery pack.

However, like any new technology, electric car batteries are not perfect. Here are the drawbacks:

They’re heavy. Because electric car batteries are designed to provide more power, they need to be connected to battery packs to ensure heavy duty performance. And these battery packs are not light. A battery pack can weigh as much as half a metric ton. But don’t worry, there’s hope — manufacturers are designing electric cars with lighter body frames to offset the battery’s weight.

Recharging time. Unfortunately, there’s no technology available yet for quicker and easier recharging. You still need several hours of downtime before your electric car can run again.

Maintenance. Electric car batteries are still uncommon, which means the number of service stations which can do repairs is still fairly limited, too. And since they’re quite fewer, maintenance costs might be a bit higher, too.

No doubt, electric car batteries are still a work in progress. It has its own set of limitations but there’s still plenty of room for improvement. But in a few years, the new generation of batteries will be lighter, more economical and most importantly, more powerful. That’s certainly a comforting thought.

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A lot of Energy is lost, with each conversion. I mean that the more steps you take, then the more energy will be needed to drive the conversion process? Also producing more CO2. This link has (plausible, alarming)FIGURES for waste at each step. His idea: producing fuel oil by reacting hydrogen with coal (hydrocracking) would be much less wasteful, than liquifying the hydrogen, and using it as a fuel. Or converting it to electricity , and charging electric cars with it.

http://www.recoverybydiscovery.com/hydrogen.htm

Compressed air might be more practical than batteries, since the volume increases faster than the weght. The article doesn't discuss the energy lost compressing air, I think it'd be at least as much as charging a battery. but the tank wouldn't cost as much ,wear out as fast, be so affected by cold, and not a toxic mess.
The article discusses using waste heat from an electricity – generating power plant, to increase hydrogen electrolisis efficiency to 50%. also, the waste heat would be a big saving on the "hydrocracking" process.
The alternative to finding a practical method of powering our civilisation is to wait for most people to die, and then there will be enough land for the remainder to become subsistence farmers. It seems obvious to me that hydrogen and batteries will never be practical. the article explains it well.
i agree about drilling ANWR, and using nuclear power. Imagine the oil that the navy has saved, with nuclear powered ships. Those nuclear aircraft carriers only need to refueled once in their lifetime. I disagree about the CO2 hazards, and think it'd be a real shame to let AGW, or the fantasy of hydrogen fuel distract us.

you still have to work. The solar panel system that charges the bike is 3 x 80w panels on the roof, down to 20A regulator and 4 x 130ah deep cycle batteries up to a 600w pure sine inverter. The bike draws around 50 amps when charging the battery, and a full charge takes around 4 to 5 hours or so. The solar setup is of course overkill for charging an electric bike, but I use the solar power for other things too. Eventually I’d like to build the solar kit to charge an electric car, when that time …

Well I'm opting for a car that doesn't have a running engine, but still has a nice body/chassis that I could work with. Basically, my options are these:
Subaru WRX 2.5rs (older GC chassis ones)
Datsun 240Z
Acura Integra GS-R
Honda Prelude (4th or 5th gen)
So those are my options as cheap, but still high performance vehicles. I want to swap out the combustion engine with an electric motor, as well as add the necessary components with it (batteries, fuse, et cetera) Now here's the problem:
My main problem is that I feel sort of uneasy about putting a bunch of batteries in front, so I PREFER (but not require) to have them all resting in the back. Granted, this will cause weight unbalances.
I think the best cars are the Integra and Prelude, since they're already front heavy, but front wheel drive cars have an issue with understeer. 240z needs restore first and will be even more rear-heavy. Best is WRX, but not sure if I could put power to all 4 wheels with just one electric motor.

It’s a convertible. It was cheap. It has four seats, and a musty smell. And he’s past the point of no return. Join a totally non-mechanically-minded newbie on his quest to build an electric car that doesn’t look like it fell out of a cornflakes box.