Can the car be the battery?

Hmmmm I don't think I would feel very comfortable driving around in a car made of lithium

Especially with my feet in a pool of electrolyte, acid or alkali!!!

John

Similar to what Electroman said, I can see real problems during collision.

At best, I can see something in the car that extends the charge of the battery. I'm not talking about perpetual motion or free energy, just something that suppliments the battery, such as a gyro that works off the motion of the car to drive a generator or alternator. I'm not sure that such items would be any more feasible than the car itself being the battery.

It would be a design nightmare!

Safety issues, structual issues, Capicator effects and so on.

And what about sparks when you park near a car which is designed "negatively"

The idea could be ingenious in theory, but in practise, how are you gonna insulated passengers from the metal frame.

What are you going to do when it rains?

I have some small children and small accidents (you know what I mean) could happen. So how are you going to stabilize it chemically for outer chemicals?

On the technical/commercial side: sounds extremely expensive given the fact that all metal prices are skyrocketing.

You would do it for weight reduction, but what would the weight of the car be with those layered metals sheets? I doubt it would be lighter. With the solution for insulation etc etc in place, I reckon the weight could be considerably higher.

And what happens when your battery, er, car has gone through it's 5 year lifespan. The logistics of recycling batteries is complicated enough. Imagine a whole car.

Oh yeah, what happens if your regulator fails and you overcharge your battery? Your car explodes?!

A little scary, no?

I could see building removable, long batteries inside of the box frame of a truck or SUV. The wiring connectors could be the same style as a high end remote control car. The only time that it would be damaged would be in a high impact collision. I can not see any opportunity like this in a unibody car unless a battery box was designed in the body. This would be another one of those "improvements" that require normal everyday people to have to take their car to a mechanic to get the battery changed.

If we make the frame a true hollow tube, then we can spray-coat the frame-pipes inside and out with insulation and then load the Li and electrolytes into the frame-tubes.

We could also double seal the roof and use that as an Li tank, sort of like a double-hulled boat.

There is a lot of engineering and testing that needs to be done on the concept, but it's worth looking at for the long-run.

For the near future I don't see anything that beats a gas-battery hybrid.

/Ari (Orpheuse)

All of you have questions on what happens after the car is assembled. What about the manufacturing process of the parts. They have to be made very rapidly in order to keep up with the demand of the assembly plants (140000 to 250000 pieces a year -for one part - one model of car). What happens to the integrity of the battery when smashed with 25 tons of pressure 4 to 7 times in 30 seconds?

Are you planning to use the surrounding metal as part of the flow of electricity or layer the battery cells with in the metal and risk cracking it? What happens when we have to blank or pierce holes in the parts? Will that brake the circuit? Damaged parts would dramatically increase the cost of manufacturing.

What would we do with the scraps? Right now metal is melted down and put back into the system. Could that be done if there are battery cells mingled in the metal? Ever through a battery on a fire?

Thank you cadop and all others.

This idea was off the "top of my head" like I mentioned. Most of the difficulties were considered and some not. At least the use, of the above, concerning a car is out of my system. I would have received similar answers down the pub but have no time to be there at the moment. Thanks for all your thoughts on this. Ky.

No problem

But that's how new things get invented. Ask a question, find the problems/concerns - see if we could work around them and determine if they would it be cost feasible to manufacture.

I've had some out there idea's also - and if I could just work around some impossible problems that just don't want to change "so and so's law of whatever" I COULD RULE THE WORLD HAHA - crap did I say that out loud?

Keep dreaming something just might work.

why not make the frame into a reservoir for hydraulic oil and pressure so that braking can be capured and reused to launch the vehicle after it is stopped?

once the vehicle is in motion it takes much less energy to keep it going.

hydraulic launch assist has been around since the 70's and now it is finally being utilized in garbage trucks and delivery vehicles.

why can't we use it in every vehicle?

And no Hot Rodding it could cause a short!

This could work ift he energy density of the battery structure was low and the cells were isolated so that dents or puncture damage would not cause a fire. Would it hold a usefull amount of power at that point? The current trend in automotive electrical systems is toward higher voltage. There will be 42V systems soon. Hybrids work on about 600V. The higher voltage allows the use of much lighter wiring and components. So that would be the challege - compromise between safety and capacity.

An electric car design I saw with what I call a "uni-chassis", one solid core that has four electric motors for power and braking could do the trick. New composite material could envelop your "battery" but the particulars aren't simple.

Space age materials need space age money. The only people who have or control it are more interested in weapons than new ways of designing cars for the average public. If they could build it, it would be like american magnetic rail trains. Only the government would have access.