Originally Posted by
Dave H
The last few years have been interesting no doubt and the future needs sunglasses, but there is a little more than 10 years behind the electrics. Lithiums started in the '70s, with significant milestones in the '90s. The '90s GM Impact - EV1 had a lot of technology in it that has carried over, regenerative braking (just like some RC controllers of the era!), composite and aluminum suspension components, low resistance tires, etc. A lot of the control experience comes from forklifts, golfcarts, and other industrial drive tech. Brushless motors are near ancient. Go really old school, electric cars outsold gas cars in the early 1900s. Sorry for going off topic, sort of an interest of mine.
I keep thinking were in the 2000's when i spit out a number for age...I think my mind got so used to it growing up it assumes it still is sometimes lol
I don't mind going off topic for this at all, the thread has really stopped anyway.
When I said that, i meant it as the technology wasn't really usable until then. The EV-1 should have never been discontinued (ever seen "Who Killed the Electric car?" documentary?) Yes the actual physics and concepts have been around a very long time, not much of it was very practical till the 90's, and the EV-1 didn't even use lithium batteries. Brushless motors are actually old design wise, and FET's were invented in the 20's i believe, but weren't realistic to use until for large amounts of power till fairly recently.
The electric car gave way to a gas engine around 1900ish and remained fairly untouched (couple little exceptions) till GM came along. Comparing that to the IC engine that powered most inventions with the push for horsepower pushing them to develop them as fast as possible for over a century is apples and oranges. The IC engine was around back in the 1870-1880's (maybe before) and widely used for transport in the 20's. So respectively, they are 100 years ahead in development.
Not intending to rant or anything, just kinda kept talking...lol