SA electric car for Paris

Mr Meiring must be very carefull what he says !
Quote " Optimal Energy CEO Kobus Meiring “...we can build ... nuclear weapons....."

SA does not build nuclear weapons.
 
voipnow said:
SA does not build nuclear weapons.
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We don't any more. But we can and we did. So far, SA is the only country to voluntarily dismantle its nuclear weapons.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/South_Africa_and_weapons_of_mass_destruction

SA has produced some world-class research in many areas. Back in the Apartheid days, few countries were willing to trade technology with SA, hence the Rooivalk, nuclear weapons, Mossgas, Sasol, etc.

It's nice to see some intrepid saffers making strides like this.
 
Not to bad...

Make a Smart ForTwo one, should get more range (Smaller size) And sell it for R120 000, perfect car for people that cruise around town... I'd rather buy an electric type fortwo than the real thing... I mean WTF ;)

Nice to see South Africa exporting something useful :) Good luck to the people involved.
 
I'd buy one when they can do 160KM/H and 500KM... Til then, how much R does it use for a charge?
 
boramk said:
I'd buy one when they can do 160KM/H and 500KM... Til then, how much R does it use for a charge?
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http://mybroadband.co.za/news/General/5428.html

"Using a normal 220 volt home outlet and Joule's onboard charger, it will take approximately seven hours to recharge Joule's battery for a 200km driving range, with two packs providing 400km in total," said Meiring.
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Can anyone make an estimation based on that? I'm sure it would help if you knew more about it's batteries but a well informed guess will suffice.
 
Looks good but I would like to see a roadster model (Tesla comes to mind)
 
Threepwood said:
http://mybroadband.co.za/news/General/5428.html

Can anyone make an estimation based on that? I'm sure it would help if you knew more about it's batteries but a well informed guess will suffice.
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"Using a normal 220 volt home outlet and Joule's onboard charger, it will take approximately seven hours to recharge Joule's battery for a 200km driving range, with two packs providing 400km in total," said Meiring.

Say a socket can handle 20A -> 220V x 20A = 4400W = 4.4 KW

4.4KW x 7h = 30.8 KW.h

1 KW.h is what, 80c? That's a full charge (200km est) for R24.64.

A good guess would give you 20l of gas on a similar range, in urban driving, but we can be slightly more optimistic, and say 80c/km for gas -> R160. That's a saving of roughly R125/200km or R62.50/100km.

For me with slightly different calculations, it works out to about R10k/year saving on my daily commute. We need more specific numbers to be accurate though.
 
On Carte Blanche they said 5c per km... And ROUGH estimate of R200 000
 
Its hard to measure the cost of charging the vehicle, if it had a solar panel on the roof then it would cost you very little.
 
SlyFly said:
On Carte Blanche they said 5c per km... And ROUGH estimate of R200 000
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Then they probably weren't using the 80c/KW.h. The off-peak price is something like 40c/KW.h.

Either way, my estimate of 12.5c/km is for the given numbers, and 80c/KW.h rate. Still a bargain relative to Petrol.

Nerfherder said:
Its hard to measure the cost of charging the vehicle, if it had a solar panel on the roof then it would cost you very little.
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Not hard at all to measure :p

Solar panels add a lot of weight to the car, and might not be as effective as you would want. If they were to add 440 W of solar panels to the car (which is quite a lot), it would still take 70 Hours of full sunlight to charge the car for 200 KM so you could realistically expect just over 28km from a day in the sun :/ That's R1.40 at CB rates :p You could save R1000 a year if you're lucky! And what would all that equipment cost?

Solar cell technology is improving, but even if you get 6 m^2 capturing sunlight at 100% efficiency, you'd still be getting only about 6 KW/h. Enough to charge in 5 hours. You're looking at more like 20% efficiency if you're lucky, since you can't point the cells in the optimum direction, and won't be using cutting edge technology.
 
Solar panels adds little weight but hardly makes an impact on the numbers, because the efficiency of solar is so low. Thus only pushing up the price of the car. Same argument goes for diesel car owners, thinking that by getting better mileage from diesel they will save. They will only make a saving after 20 years vs the cost off set on buying the more expensive car (including maintenance).

Same goes for the solar panels and the batteries. Besides most people drive 100km Max a day. So I would say they are targeting people in cities. Not refering to people in Gautang that needs to drive 10km to the nearest 7/11. :p (just kidding)
 
Here is the manufacturer's website for further info including specs etc :

http://www.optimalenergy.co.za/about/


Something from the site of interest :

Efficient Economics

Save up to 90% on fuel expenses and 50% on maintenance costs. Comparatively, Joule presents a highly competitive ownership cost, including the lease cost of the battery pack. This cost differential is expected to improve even further as the fuel price continues to rise. Because Joule contains substantially fewer parts than a petrol/diesel vehicle, maintenance will cost much less and servicing intervals will be greater. Maintenance of Joule is expected to cost approximately half of the maintenance cost of petrol or diesel equivalent vehicles. Joule presents a substantial saving on fuel and running costs. The revolutionary vehicle is the way of the future.
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