Skydrive -- flying car

The elephant in the room is the battery technology is still no where close. The pundits who said three, four, five years ago the scientific discoveries would follow an exponential Moore’s law were hopelessly incorrect and vital energy density has plateaued. Furthermore the C rating, a measure of the recharge, discharge and life, means the best battery will struggle to achieve a life of more than a few hundred cycles and there simply isn’t enough Lithium to keep up with that kind of useage. Yes there’s been discoveries of cheaper low Li batteries but these are too heavy and haven’t a C rating suitable for this type of flying application. As said before, this problem could be solved in the next hour or in the next two hundred years, nobody knows. I fear investor inpatient will see this bubble bursting when promise dates are repeatedly missed and the crushing impracticality of these vehicles becomes inescapable.
 
And atomic batteries, which could possibly provide the necessary power densities, are right out for the time being due to political sensibilities. Another possibility, polymer batteries, are still generally considered too expensive, for most civilian purposes at least.
 
Zootycoon said:
The elephant in the room is the battery technology is still no where close. The pundits who said three, four, five years ago the scientific discoveries would follow an exponential Moore’s law were hopelessly incorrect and vital energy density has plateaued. Furthermore the C rating, a measure of the recharge, discharge and life, means the best battery will struggle to achieve a life of more than a few hundred cycles and there simply isn’t enough Lithium to keep up with that kind of useage. Yes there’s been discoveries of cheaper low Li batteries but these are too heavy and haven’t a C rating suitable for this type of flying application. As said before, this problem could be solved in the next hour or in the next two hundred years, nobody knows. I fear investor inpatient will see this bubble bursting when promise dates are repeatedly missed and the crushing impracticality of these vehicles becomes inescapable.
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Elon Musk will be hosting Battery Day on September 22. Among other concepts is the Million Mile Battery which is ready for production right now.
 
Grey Havoc said:
And atomic batteries, which could possibly provide the necessary power densities, are right out for the time being due to political sensibilities. Another possibility, polymer batteries, are still generally considered too expensive, for most civilian purposes at least.
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With the output, you won't be going anywhere.
 
edwest said:
Elon Musk will be hosting Battery Day on September 22. Among other concepts is the Million Mile Battery which is ready for production right now.
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Lithium-iron phosphate = cheap and heavy, so no good for aviation
 
Zootycoon said:
edwest said:
Elon Musk will be hosting Battery Day on September 22. Among other concepts is the Million Mile Battery which is ready for production right now.
Click to expand...

Lithium-iron phosphate = cheap and heavy, so no good for aviation
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Do you have a source for this combination? Other battery formulations exist and a few are in trials. I suspect the more disruptive types will be too much for the oil companies.
 
Smart oil companies are already quietly diversifying into battery production.
Oil companies know that they will run out of exploitable oil in another 30 or 40 years. They will never drill for the last barrel of oil because it will be too small, too deep and too far off-shore to be profitable. There are already hundreds of capped oil and gas wells in Alberta. Those wells were abandoned because they are unprofitable at today's oil prices.
 
Pretty much all Shell petrol stations in UK, now have a rapid EV charger. They know there time is up, and they need to become energy companies. UK is also talking about stopping gas supplies to houses, they want to move to electricity.
 
Money talks;- The carbon free dream comes at a price;- OPEC pushing Oil prices down will significantly test the resolve of some of the big players to make the dream a reality. I don’t think the vast majority of people understand the scale of the problem:- If the largest nuclear power station in Europe (30 billion euros build cost) solely produces green LH2 for aviation 24/7, it would satisfy the fuel requirements of less than 20 Boeing 777 sized flights per day...... There’s currently about 600+ per day from Europe alone...... who pays the massive new infrastructure bill?......will they?

Carbon capture kerosene reduces this to maybe two.

Remember also the biggest demand for fuel comes from the short range sector, not even mentioned here.
 
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