Reply #7: The spokesperson for this company is selling snake oil.

[AdHocSolver]

I am all for electric vehicles. I think that they can reduce oil consumption drastically, and I have been telling people this for the past 25 years.

However, several statements made by this company are hogwash. The first statement is that electric vehicles are capable of getting only 50 miles per charge. The General Motors experimental electric cars, the EV1 and EV2, that were leased to Californians between 1997 and 2003, got from 55 miles to 150 miles per charge, depending on which battery types were used.

The article then cites claims by the battery company that their batteries could be recharged in 5 minutes and power the car for 500 miles.

(snip)....
Now a Texas-based company by the name of EEStor promises "technologies for replacement of electrochemical batteries," which means motorists could plug in a car for five minutes and drive 500 miles without gasoline.
....

Again, using the EV1/EV2 as an example, the batteries used to power these vehicles stored between 18.7 kWh and 26.4 kWh depending on battery type used. Using an arbitrary average of 25 kWh (kWh = kilowatt-hour) and a nominal voltage of the batteries connected in series of about 300 volts, the batteries would have to be charged at a rate of about 83.3 amperes for one hour to fully charge the bateries (83.3A x 300V = 25,000 watts x 1 hour = 25kWh).

To put an equivalent charge into the same batteries within 5 minutes ( 1/12 of an hour), you would need to charge at a current flow of 12 x 83.33 Amps = 999.996 Amps, or rounding, 1000 Amps. You couldn't pull that much current through your house wires without melting the wire. Anyway, the circuit breakers would pop immediately if you tried.

The article referred to belittles hybrid technology cars which "still depend on fossil fuels". The hybrid is still a superior technology since, properly implemented, a hybrid vehicle can get the equivalent of 50 MPG to 150 MPG, which sure beats the average mileage of vehicles today.

The hype put out by this company is so over the top that I suspect that they are talking "vaporware", not hardware. The concept they are working on is valid in principle. An electric battery is essentially a charge holder as is a capacitor. The battery stores and releases its charge by chemical action, which is slow and generates heat in the process. This is why they have to be charged and discharged at a relatively slow rate, or they can self-destruct. A capacitor stores and discharges current without needing this chemical reaction, so it can work much faster. However, as I pointed out above, a charging circuit that could work as quickly as they claim is impractical.

Where long range for an electrically powered vehicle is required, a hybrid vehicle using an onboard charging circuit consisting of a small internal combustion engine direct-coupled to an alternator for recharging the batteries is the way to go. The current hybrids like the Prius use a relatively large gasoline engine that actually drives the wheels. This limits its ability to save fuel. Only an electric motor should be used to drive the wheels. Any internal combustion engine should be used only to drive an alternator to recharge the batteries.