An electric car would mean pretty much instant torque and acceleration, since there is no need to wait for a chemical reaction to occur in the engine to drive the pistons up and down, right?

I think the only problem would be battery weight, going that fast in an electric car has got to take a large battery, one that wouldn’t need recharging every 10 miles.

No, theres another problem, the lack of a deep, growling, beautiful exhaust.

Hahah….well put.

Christoforo-

Battery weight issues are gradually being solved by recent technological innovations. Lithium polymer batteries are very, very lightweight and have awesome discharge rates. They can also being molded into alternative shapes, rather than the bricks and cylinders we’re so familiar with.

Hold on guys, their is another problem, the conservation of energy. Electricity doesn’t grow on trees, we have to burn coal, use nuc power, dam rivers,etc. to run that car. Think about it for a secound. Just because that car isn’t directly dumping polutants into the air, doesn’t mean its any better for the enviroment. Those batterys have to be created and disposed of as well. The manufacturing procees has some pretty nasty chemicals involved.

I am not against people making progress, but lets not forget the laws of thermodynamics.

The idea is that it is easier and cleaner to produce the power from a single large source like a power plant then have hundred of polluting cars around. I am not saying I agree with it or that it is the right idea but that is the idea. Now if they make a solar awning that you can park this car under that say stores somewere on the car then we are going somewhere.

I second Ryan, how can you have a silent super car? An Aston Martin or Ferrari without a V12 bellow? No thanks. I wrote an article on this last year… hydrogen or ethanol combustion all the way!

Secondary polluction is also still a major issue, the general public is very short sighted though and dont normally understand this very important issue. Also whats the point of an electric car if it costs more to manufacture (cost can be roughly linked to environmental damage in life cycle analysis) and battery technology still has manufacture and disposal issues. I still think BMWs Hydrogen combustion engine is still the best idea yet. Or ethanol or bio-diesel. Electric still isnt viable unless you country’s power-production infra-structure is from 100% renewable sources, but already mentioned, power-production is only half the problem. The car and drive train it’s self still needs to be built.

More power to them! eh, electric power that is.

Think outside the box for exhaust note.
Record your favorite car and playback through an external speaker…. better yet internal speaker.
When you get sick of that you could pay to download another car, jet, steam locomotive, an Aria perhaps?

Dunno about the exhaust note, after 9-11 they speed traps like crazy. I’d much prefer a silent rocket than something that attracts attention. Plus, it’d be more comfortable for long trips.

We dont need an electric car the can race with ferrari and bmw thats just ****** ! How boering that would to drive no exhaust sound or less they add sound but i will always love gas powerd cars! Sure you get all that smooth power from electric but thats half the fun with gas cars is its not always smooth. And you cant really tune a electric car ! ! ! !

@ RRBoy, an exhaust note is part of a car’s soul, especially on Astons et al, turning this important feature into nothing more than a glorified ‘ringtone’ totally detracts from this part of the joy of owning such a car. I certainly wouldnt enjoy seeing some spotty boy racer drving around some little hatch back that makes the same noise as my V8 Vantage!

I’m all for cleaner cars, but at what cost to those the enjoy a real driving experience should this come? (And no, roaring V8 does not come before the state of the planet!!!)

Wasn’t their another electric car like this a couple of years ago. . .the T1 something or other.

I’m with you animal.
Don’t worry though, I’ll pass on the aural amusement if we all end up in Electric cars.
For now I’ll enjoy my aluminum Rover v8.

You know, there are still people that use mechanical typewriters? Thats what the internal combustion engine is, a mechanical typewriter. A superior replacement is coming. It may not be any technolgy we see today, but the IC engine’s reign as the powersource for personal transportation is coming to an end.

You guys lamenting over the lack of sound from a noisy, inefficent combustion engine crack me up. Do you think your great grandparents longed for the days when they could hear their horse fart or their steam powered horseless carraige hiss and chug after they took a ride in an ICE powered vehicle?

I agree with you Ahk-Med. The world is changing and future generations will determine what a performance car should sound like. I love the sound of my turbo spooling up. Perhaps an electric motor will produce some distinct and desireable sound when the rpms increase rapidly…and in the meantime the occupants can carry on a conversation, or listen to their tunes.

#11 Cavemen still exist? Rawr, GROG push rock, GROG put gasoline in GROG’s V8 because GROG’s head not know he makes Saudi’s SMILE when GROG do this… GROG’s comments make Big Oil executives smile… GROG very close minded so GROG not able to understand car not defined by the noise car makes. GROG rawr. GROG have very limited mental ability so GROG not thing electric car be tuned. GROG not realize tuning refers to more than “get er done” by installing new air intake that GROG saw NASCAR driver promoting… GROG confused that some 11 year old with a computer will be the next generation of tuners… NO wrench? RAWR that not tuning…!! GROG so confused, GROG scared, GROG go into cave and suck on thumb and cry GROG to sleep. GROG brainwashed by a lifetime of propaganda from Big Oil… GROG regurtitates every PRO V8 statement he’s heard in the media, GROG unable to connect the dots… GROG affraid of change, change make GROG irrelevant. GROG not know what irrelevant means….

One of the auto magazines did reference an historical article on this very subject.
The writer did lament the loss of the rhythmic clippity clop of the horse’s gait when he rode in a ‘horseless carriage’. So not exactly a fart, but more along the lines of engine noise (without backfire) hahaha

Me have Prius. GROG feet feel better after sell his Flintstone Special. But Prius loud and stinky.

If im gunna have a fast car i want the damn thing to be heard i want it loud and powerful i will stick with the traditional noisy v12’s!!! if it cant be heard it wont turn that many heads! unless its stopped!

Awsome post #17. There are tons of GROGs posting here on LLN. They may not realize it, but that is exactly what their posts sound like.

Have you seen the VW commericial with everyone yelling in the bullhorns? #19 will be one of those guys as soon as he is old enough to drive.

i wonder if there is anyway to put an engine like that into a prius…the ultimate ghost car. haha

Hey Dav, you do realize that people are not the only things occupying the planet don’t you? Wait, no you don’t, that’s the problem.

Jon.

FYI:

ICE typical efficiency: 20%
AC/DC typical efficiency: 90%
(Above refers to converting potential energy into kinetic energy)

Current power grid production efficiency: ~55%
(Above refers to the amount of fuel energy converted to electricity)

Simple math: .55 x .9 = .495

That means an electric car is 49% efficient at converting chemical energy into mechanical energy. That is far superior to anything ICE can muster. Even diesel at 30% efficiency is a far cry.

Even if we have to use coal… that’s right coal… to produce the necessary electricty, it would still pollute FAR LESS. Why? Powerplants don’t have to worry about power to weight ratios. Thus, they can use scrubbing technologies that would be far too heavy to use on a car.

For those worried about noise, consider this: police departments around the country are developing a speed detection device that uses the sound of your car’s exhaust to determine your speed. Still want your V-8 to grumble, rumble, n’ roar?

For me, I want an electric car. It is a step in the right direction. Batteries, btw, are not the only way. Ever heard of an electrically spun flywheel? Didn’t think so. Do some research. Those are truly the way of the future.

Some food for thought for the NASCAR GROG’s 1) Everything you interact with in your life, on a daily basis, is a result of progress. Your toothbrush, your cell phone, Cotton, the computer you’re reading this on. All of it, because someone realized something could be made better or a problem could be solved in a different manner. This progress is usually a result of a few individuals lifetime of labor, hardwork, and persistance. And often these individuals face opposition by conservative people afraid of change, yet they believe in their ideas so strongly that they will continue even when they are slandered and sometimes their life is threatened… The computer wasnt invented by the mass population. It wasnt welcomed by the world with open arms… and it didnt have the biggest corporations in the world fighting against it. So imagine the work it will take to get a new transportation technology to market when it has to fight BILLIONS of dollars in resistance, and the influence that money buys AKA Washington DC. 2) I dont think anyone believes electricity is the perfect answer… #25’s numbers are pretty close to true, and if Big Oil didnt keep all those patents that we know it has.. electricity could be far more efficient. But if you look at early automobiles, i think it’s fair to say there were some pretty broad examples of what people thought a horseless carriage should be. To get where we are though, we needed to make those mistakes, failures, bad designs, ineffiecent systems… So maybe these our the first mistakes of the next step. 3) Nobody is saying that the “ultimate V8″ doesnt have the best sound ever in the entire history of sounds ever. Some people are just over it, ready for change. 4) I sense insecurity in the comments about the glorious ICE and the sounds it makes… You’re afraid a whimpy little electric motor can whip all those liters you’ve been worshiping for so long, and guess what, you’re fears are true, pics and blogs are great, but here is a video to demonstrate why you ICE is in it’s glory years…. (please refrain from making your argument even more insignificant and a desperate last cry by bringing in top fuel dragsters as a comparison to the vehicle in the video)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8qDZOBQs60w

At least GROG had the balls to post his true feelings.
He merely said his feet felt better after the Prius. Imagine accelerating and braking a stone and wood car with your feet (Flintstone Special if memory serves).
He also said the Prius was stinky and loud. Remember he’s comparing a relatively quiet car (as long as the huge ‘rolling pin’ stone wheels are perfectly round) to something more mechanical with an ICE.

Myself… I could care less how I go fast… or slow (off road) or what it sounds like.

jon, as a matter of fact i do. it is the problem, but my only point is that electric cars, as it stands now, are NOT the wave of the future. they would be great if producing the energy to run them didnt polute JUST AS MUCH and if they had long range. good city cars(except that theyre so bloody expensive), but impractical for everyone else.

Dav,

Expense, in this case, comes from a lack of mass production. In mass, electric cars would cost LESS to produce. The most expensive part is the bloody battery.

Let me clarify something, once and for all:

If we all drove just as much as we do now, and just as fast as we do now, and we did it with electric cars, and we generated that electricity using coal fired power plants….

WE WOULD POLLUTE HALF AS MUCH AS WE DO NOW!!!

Why? Scrubbing technologies, that, once again, are practical for power plants because they don’t have to worry about friggin weight. I will concede that range is a problem (for now). Don’t forget, over 70% of this nation’s population lives in a city of 100,000 or more people and drive less than 30 miles per day. Electric cars can handle that easily…

thank you for clarifying John. i was under a different impression.

#26… that video is amazing, thanks for the link. I’ll take mine in white. I dont care if i can’t hear an engine, with that kind of acceleration i’ll be able to hear my heart pounding in my throat and thats a beautiful sound.

Ryan is right - how many people will die before they realise fast sports cars are loud for a reason.

Never underestimate the predictability of human stupidity - people will always walk into the road without looking and if they can’t hear the car, death is more likely!

I suppose it doesn’t matter as every next peenarse has their iPods on full blast

well u can always fit in a loud speaker like #9 sed. Infact i think they should give it to you stock with mayb three sounds programed incase one day u wanna sound like an american muscle v8 and the next u wanna sound like supercar’s v12. The third, mayb a sound of a diesel

A question to GROG: Does the sound of the roaring V12 mean an aesthetic need beeing fulfilled for you, or is it rather the large engine per se that fills a gap in your self-confidence? If it is not the latter, then the problem can easily be solved by installing a speaker or some other sound-generating device which will perfectly mimic any V12 engine of you choosing.

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