Hey 73Jim, you're missing a couple of important points about electric vehicles. Your math is good, but you are using some bad assumptions. I don't understand exactly why, but electric vehicles require motors of much less HP than gas or diesel engines. It's partially due to the fact that electric motors generally create max torque at any RPM, instead of a torque curve that is a function of RPM. You can convert a mini pickup truck to electric with a DC motor that puts out a max of 70 HP, and it will perform as well as it did with its original gas engine. It probably draws an average of 20 KW rather than 64.

I had a genius uncle in Seattle whowas an EV fan. He has converted many gas vehicles to electric. His favorite platformwastheFord Ranger w/ a manual trans. Hewould fillthe bed with heavy duty 6 volt batteries, wired in a combination of series and parallel to get about 100 volts. He did a fair amount of research and found that the average operating cost was about a third of what it cost to run the same truck with a gas engine, even when you include the replacement cost of the batteries.

I'm not saying that electric vehicles are the way to go, but they are very interesting and I imagine we are going to see a lot more of them if petroleum costs stay high.

 

Hey Joel, I would really like some more information. I agree that an electric car has some advantages such as when it is at a stoplight it is consuming very small amounts of power (only to run things like a radio, ac, power windows etc.) whereas an internal combustion engine is running constantly. Also the use of a DC motor would omit one inverter but you are still trying to save the Titanic with a beach bucket. However a battery is constantly discharging due to the batteries ESR (equivalent series resistance). That’s why a battery will self discharge over time, a gas powered car wont lose fuel when it is not being used.
The definition of horsepower is the rating of work done in a specified time. 1 Horsepower is the ability to lift 550lbs one foot in one second. Horsepower is horsepower no matter how it is generated. If I need to move a 3000 load (car) 60 miles in one hour I need the same amount of horsepower (same work same time).
Plus filling a truck bed with heavy batteries has many drawbacks. First of all is safety; heavy batteries behind the passengers is potentially dangerous in an accident. Secondly anything over 46 volts is considered high voltage. I would love do get some details from someone who has tried an electric vehicle.

 

Here is a great website for those who want to convert a gas vehicle to electric: http://www.electroauto.com The site has a lot of good general info, and an online catalog for buying motors, controllers, chargers, etc.

 

Thanks!

 

Based on that formula, I'd say that I'm probably a 1/4 horsehuman ... maybe 1/3rd