you ever watch those James Bond movies. Sometimes they have a diver in a wet suit being pulled by a thing with a propeller on it. Well, those things are electric and they work under water.

The problem with electric vehicles really isn't power or speed. They can be made to be very fast. I once saw a VW Beetle that had been converted. The VW air cooled engine turned a generator that charged batteries and the batteries ran an electric motor that turned the wheels. THis thing could wheelie and it only haad fifty horse power. It wouldn't run like that for long though, the batteries would dischage too quickly.

The problem is storage. I think a small fuel cell could charge small batteries that recharge quickly to supply peak demand.

It would be hard to beat a two stroke in a long race, but it could take um in a sand drag.

Check this for the smallest fuel cell vehicle I have seen yet. small cell

 

Sounds pretty cool to me

 

I thought it would be the other way around for torque and horse power.... think about a fan motor, those spin extremely fast,(demonstrating it's horsepower) but if you put your finger on it, then turn it on it has hardly any power to move at all.(demonstrating torque) Therefore it would have a lot of horsepower, but hardly any torque. and about that 660ft-lbs of torque, super heavy duty trucks don't even have that much, heck my 220 only has 13 ft-lbs of torque, so there's no way that an electric motor could ever put out 660ft-lbs of torque, unless the engine were as big as a VW bug.(prolly not even that much then!)

 

I read about a motorcycle that was setup for drag strip use. It was running in the mid tens at about 130!!! It used something like ten batterys and the electric moter was real low on hp but all torque. The more amps from the batterys the more power you get, but it was only good for one run.

 

ledebuhr1:

Before I add anything more about fuel cell technology here I am going to look into it a little bit and try to find out if in fact it can be used in internal combustion engines and what type! I know that ford is really close to putting one of these units on the market in an automoble, whether or not it is an internal comb. eng. I am not sure.

The possibilities are truly amazing, and I don't think we are far from some REALLY new technology entering the recreational industries.

 

you boys need to go back to school and learn something. to set the record strait one 2000 powerstroke 1 ton plus one of my computerchips equals 710lbs of torqe 440 hp. electric motors produce produce alot of toruque a good example is my 1/2" electric impact makes 260 lbs of torque,trains use electric motors to pull millions of lbs.

 

OK, a couple comments;

First of all, I would be astounded to see anything that can be charged in 12 minutes go 60 miles. A simple analogy is your rechargeable flashlight... it takes longer to charge it than it lasts, meaning something that charges for 12 minutes will not last as long. So, unless this atv can go 60 miles in 12 minutes (300mph) I expect this is inaccurate.

Second, torque is gear ratios and horsepower is engine output. Even if this thing puts out 660 lb-f it would have far less to do with the motor than the gearing. Having that kind of torque on something that weighs so little is absolutely absurd. Torque, by definition, is the tendency to rotate as defined by rxF (equation for calculating torque where r is distance and F is force). So great, the wheels would rotate, but it sure wouldn't pull anything in the same ballpark as 800twin's 710lb-ft diesel, even though the torque numbers are within 10%.

I'm not suggesting that Big4x4 is telling tales... I believe that he saw an electric ATV with those numbers. I just think that whoever was presenting the ATV was misrepresenting what it was capable of.

The reason you can prevent a fan from spinning so easily is the same reason you can lift more with a crowbar and a fulcrum... simple physics (and rxF again).

Also, gas-electric hybrid technology is already available in production (Honda Insight), and GM has an electric vehicle in production (EV1). The cost of developing these technologies is so outrageous, that it will be awhile before the technology is exploited my OHV manufacturers.

Anyhoo, off my soapbox...