Mercedes SLS Electric Drive hooned on a track.
 

750hp, 4 motors, complete independent drive for each wheel and crazy torque vectoring for Yaw Control

[YOUTUBE]IElqf-FCMs8&feature[/YOUTUBE]

This is very cool IMO


-Travis

Wish the price tag was better and they could squeeze in a small Diesel engine to charge the bats but vvv nice v

Or better yet, a turbine engine for efficiency.

Turbine probably wouldn't pass noise/heat emission standards.

He gets a little too excited at 9:48 lol

Thats okay, he's one of the few car journalists I enjoy listening too.

I don't see why not. Muffle the exhaust for the noise issue just like a normal engine. Heat emissions could be an issue, but nothing that some clever engineering couldn't mitigate. Besides, a turbine sized properly for approx 30-50kw output - just large enough to cover average power draw - wouldn't be too bad. After all, we aren't talking about an engine from a Boeing 7x7...

Turbine generator for sure, you can have a 50kW gen for less than 100lbs, and the heat/noise is a NON issue.

I like the Hotwheels blue chrome color. Some of the features of this car are pretty cool, like the ''negative torque'' which actually helps the car turn with less steering input. But it still is just another really cool car that is out of reach for most of us, Henry Ford gave us the Model T that most everyone could afford, well we need a Henry Ford of the twenty first century to give us the E-Model T.
The best option we have now is a frikkin' Nissan Versa that is electric and costs 40 grand.

The negative torque is just another way of saying selective regenerative braking.

The guy didn't go into a lot of explanation on it but it sound to me like it's more than just regenerative braking, it sounds like it's constantly monitored and adjusted on the fly to help stabilize the car.

I agree. Regen braking is simply shorting the motor coils in a controlled manner via PWM, while this negative torque scheme sounds more like "reverse power" is being applied for more aggressive action - just a little though, not enough to actually spin the tires backwards.

I'd assume that it is using regen braking vs a Holmes hold style approach. They mention drag brake in the video.

Still some interesting tech.

Tech dating back to the late 80s early 90s as far as using negative torque to help the car turn. Pierre Couture from Quebec, Canada had a great project going on with Hydro Quebec with a prototype using in wheel, air cooled motors he developed, he and his team also had some tech about batteries and a tiny generator making a crap load of power. The prototype made with a Chrysler Intrepid had 4 in wheel motors, a large battery and a small generator running with a small gas motor. Recognize the Chevy Volt anyone? All was lost , buried, sold or stolen by other companies due in part to poorly managed patents, but mostly because of other business or political BS. Couture said in those times that the whole power steering mechanism of ICE cars would not be needed because the in wheel electric motors could be used to help steer the car.
one motor per wheel, 95 hp per motor with 1200 Nm of torque per motor. With that much torque, the motors could also be used to brake the car. Powerful as huge disk brakes and precise as the most advanced ABS. Regen braking of course. The project and prototype were just awesome.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jHmxJ...utu.be&t=7m09s

Sorry for the French language in the video.

Hmm, i love the hybrid vehicle equation:

Burn gas in engine to create rotaional power to rotate a generator to charge a battery to power a motor to create rotational power to move the car.

Or the plug in electric vehicle equation:

Burn coal in power plant to heat water to turn turbine that also rotoates a generator to produce electricty to eventually charge a battery to power a motor to create rotational power to move the car.


Vs regular "boring" gas engine vehicle equation:

Burn gas in engine to create rotaional power to move the car.

Simple is better.

Until we have local nuclear powerplants or individual high outpout solar production a plug in electric is just a joke. They do need to develop the tech, so we do need more plug in electrics. Hybrids are a marketing scheme, for the people who think green is something other than a color. The cost and complexity of a hybrid limits it to being a lease vehicle, and the pollution they create during their cradle to the grave is greater than other options.

Disagree Linc - The effective MPG and efficiency is much higher with the generator or even coal burning.

Sorry Linc i disagree a well. I wait with total anticipation and excitement for the electric car to become mainstream. It will be the next evoloutionary step for the automotive industry. It will be bigger than what brushless was for RC. And more and more industries are doing it. Here is a link to 63 m3 Diesel hydraulic excavator that weighs in excess of 1000Tonnes that uses hybrid technology to reduce the cost of material per tonne.

The future sure is exciting!!!

http://www.cat.com/cda/layout?m=676515&x=7

http://xml.catmms.com/servlet/ImageS...mageId=C806042

We do not need anymore nuclear power plants in this world. Have Chernobyl and Fukushima not been enough of an eye opener?

No one mention nuclear power plants, and the amount of research and development going into alternative methods of generating power mean that in the near future nuclear and coal burning will be a thing of the past.

There is a depressing amount of technology that is simply kept out of the people's hands... almost 6000 patents in the US alone, on advanced energy production, transformation, and storage have been labeled and protected as "classified", all in the name of 'common interests" of the power elite.

We need clean energy, and windmills are not that. Solar is ok, but needs development. Flaps in the ocean??? Who comes up with this crap, anyone heard of rust?

Nuclear works, as long as it is monitored correctly, and the current envogue hiring policies that are forced by the gov't cannot be employed in a nuclear power plant. See NASA if you want to see beauracraps making something fail. There are 40yr old plants making 16% of americas power. We should be 100% powered by nuclear, and stop burning stuff to make electricity. Burning stuff is bad, for all of us.

Hybrids are not cost effective. Plug ins are a much better idea, save for driving across country. Battery tech needs to improve, I think we can all agree on that.

But charging your car battery by burning coal 5000 miles away and then transmitting that power with huge losses is just dumb. Charging your car battery via a solar panel mounted to your house is much better, no burning stuff (just as long as the factory that made the solar panel was powered by something other than a coal fired power plant.)

We need local power production to combat losses via transmission, and solar to augment that power. Will we ever get there, I do not think so.

If you want to be green (I hate that term, btw) move closer to work, or work from home. Limit your driving as much as possible, or walk/ride a bike. Turn everything off in your house when you leave, etc. Leasing a hybrid is not being green.