MIRA 'Plugless' Plug-In Hybrid Car Has Removable Battery Packs

Great idea! Have one battery pack charging at home while you are out driving using the other. And if you are going on a cross-country car trip and won't be able to re-charge the battery along the way, you can just remove it so that you aren't carrying that extra weight around. (Of course, we hope that there will eventually be recharge stations across the country at gas stations, rest stops, hotels, and business offices.)

Uh, yeah. The only way for something like this to work, the battery would have to be the size of a laptop battery or smaller, no one wants to do that. Why don't the batteries recharge as the wheels spin? Why not that new ultracapicitor get charged by the wheels and then when the juice is low in the battery, wham, it jolts the battery with a full charge.

How about this for an idea. Have removable battery
packs. Then hook up with an already established big box store that has car service bays. When you pull in to shop they swap out your battery just like you swap out propane tanks today for your gas grill. You get a fully charged battery. They get you to shop in their store. No new infrastructure needs to be built. No waiting for a recharge.

Michael: What you just described is a traditional hybrid vehicle.

What we are talking about now is a plug-in hybrid vehicle. In *addition* to charging like a regular hybrid, you can also plug it into household current to charge the battery in order to extend the range of the vehicle while running on electric only.

swappable batteries means twice as many batteries need to be manufactured (at a minimum) and I doubt that anyone would want to swap out their own batteries with someone elses used battery with unknown wear. A battery deteriates over time, not exactly the same scenario as a $25 propane tank. Plus i doubt too many people would want to swap out 22kg batteries on a daily basis!.
Unless this is for a companies fleet of vehicles, I doubt it will fly- there are better alternatives out there now.

This is EXACTLY what needs to be done, but the wrong product and market. They need to get briefcase or smaller removable batteries like the old removable car stereos into scooters in Asia.

Right now the average family in Taiwan and much of Asia has 1 scooter per person and often no car. They'd buy an electric scooter because of gas price sensitivity, but they don't park anywhere near their homes and have no garages so it's impossible to charge something like a Vectrix.

For them this is perfect. Take it in at night to charge while they sleep, take it into the office to charge while they work. No gas or emissions and much lower expenses which will sell it to them completely. If this takes off in Asia it can drive the battery technology to massive scale discounts and R&D returns will be plentiful.

This addresses getting green tech into developing Asian markets before it's too late and is a stepping stone to the technology that needs to be in place in the cars of the west. I've been mailing all the electric scooter companies about this for over a year and no one yet has replied or released a press statement about such a product.

This NEEDS to happen because if we don't get China on the right developmental course almost nothing else matters and this is a ground level tactile nuke aimed squarely at a major offender: the poor consumer who has no other choices.

Michael A Senay
please review the first law of thermodynamics.

there's batteries already that charge in 10 -20 minutes and go 200-250 miles.
no need to swap batteries; have a cup o joe or check your wirless mail & you'll be all charged to go.

This sounds like a very interesting idea; but if you charge your battery off of a traditional electricity source, are you not using power generated somewhere else by some sort "fossil fuel" burning power station? I'm very wary of plug-ins because of this. But I don't know, hopefully someone can answer this for me?

And a 22kg battery sounds like you'll need a buddy to help you lift it...

This idea, swapping for full batteries, is a proven technology that has a history going back to the early part of the 20th century when electric autos were proving successful--until the Electric Vehicle Company lost it's vision and focused on the Selden patent as a means to try to control all transportation using the internal combustion engine. As usual, greed and power derailed the technology that was coming to viability 100 years ago. Just think what the world would be like if battery technology had continued its rise over the past century!

I think the idea Michael Senay brought up, swapping removable battery packs for fully charged battery packs at a re-charging station, is the way to go!
A simple machine could remove the old battery and insert the recharged battery very quickly, in less time than it takes to fill up a gas tank and without requiring physical lifting on the part of the customer.
Much like changing propane tanks, the strategy would include a "guaranteed swap", so no matter how old the last battery you swapped into your car, you would always be able to swap in a fully charged battery. This would eliminate the problem of consumers not wanting to swap out a newer uncharged battery for an older charged battery. You pay for your first battery when, and then you always have a guarantee to swap.
Aside from the cost of the electricity to charge the swapped battery, the charge of the swap would also include a small charge that would cover wear and tear on the fleet of batteries. It costs very little to recharge a battery and the average cost of wear and tear on a battery per charge is also very little, so you would get very inexpensive and zero emission fuel (electricity) without having to wait around while your battery recharges.

As far as the issue Kim brings up: electricity is often produced by fossil fuels, so therefore an electric car charged with fossil fuel electricity is running on fossil fuels by default. First off, using fossil fuels to produce electricity at a central plant and then using the electricity to power individual electric motors is a lot more efficient, costs a lot less, and produces much less air pollution that burning fossil fuels in individual internal combustion motors. Secondly, to go totally green, there are programs that earmark the money you use to by electricity off the grid for buying electricity produced by renewable sources, such as wind or geothermal. If you buy electricity in this fashion for recharging you electric vehicle, then you have a truly green vehicle.

I think the idea Michael Senay brought up, swapping removable battery packs for fully charged battery packs at a re-charging station, is the way to go!
A simple machine could remove the old battery and insert the recharged battery very quickly, in less time than it takes to fill up a gas tank and without requiring physical lifting on the part of the customer.
Much like changing propane tanks, the strategy would include a "guaranteed swap", so no matter how old the last battery you swapped out into your car, you would always be able to swap in a fully charged battery. This would eliminate the problem of consumers not wanting to swap out a newer uncharged battery for an older charged battery. You pay for the first battery, and then you always have a guarantee to swap.
Aside from the cost of the electricity to charged the swapped battery, would also include a small charge that would cover wear and tear on the fleet of batteries. It costs very little to recharge a battery and the average cost of wear and tear on a battery per charge is also very little, so you would get very inexpensive and zero emission fuel (electricity) without having to wait around while your battery recharges.

As far as the issue Kim brings up: electricity is often produced by fossil fuels, so therefore an electric car charged with fossil fuel electricity is running on fossil fuels by default. First off, using fossil fuels to produce electricity at a central plant and then using the electricity to power individual electric motors is a lot more efficient, costs a lot less, and produces much less air pollution that burning fossil fuels in individual internal combustion motors. Secondly, to go totally green, there are programs that earmark the money you use to by electricity off the grid for buying electricity produced by renewable sources, such as wind or geothermal. If you buy electricity in this fashion for recharging you electric vehicle, then you have a truly green vehicle.

I do not really get the idea of swappable batteries. Actually LIIon could be changed to BIG Capacitors, which are much faster to be charged. Also, there is a japanese company (maybe Toshiba?no time to check) developped a battery able to charge up to 80% in 5 minutes. 5 minutes is equal to drink a coffee at the petrol station, after that you are ready to go for extra 100km, if a FIX 100kg battery would be used...

Yeah, electricity can be produced by any way, not only fossils. From economical and environmental point of view the nuclear plant is a good balance. Not as green as solar or wind energy, but MUCH better than fossil plants.
By the way, solar energy is theoretically a HUGE source, but you need much more investment to get it.

Do not think about Chernobyl or any problematic one, but a modern one. Some of you may do not know,but burning some fossils may result izotopes just blown into the air at millions on tons! It just does not happen witha nuclear plant. The waste is well controlled, and only few tons in a year. I cannot imagine, than in any contry there is no real space in a 5km radius to keep things closed up.