Paris Preview: Joule from Optimal Energy sure to dazzle
Optimal Energy is the latest company to announce that they are unveiling a new electric car at the Paris Motor Show this year and it's one that should definitely impress. Coming all the way from South Africa, the Joule may very well be the world's most practical electric car to date as well as one of the more stylish. Although it has been shown to a handful of journalists there haven't yet been any published photos but it has been described as "an uncluttered mix of a Renault Scenic and a Citroen Picasso." The Minister of Science and Technology, Mosibudi Mangena, had a chance to drive it last week and he called it "simply gorgeous." If that's not convincing enough, consider that the designer of this compact 6-seater is Keith Helfet who, while he worked for Jaguar, impressed many sets of eyes with the XJ220 and the F-Type Concept.Of course, when it comes to all-electric cars, the range is of utmost importance and the head of the company, Kobus Meiring, has said that two lithium ion battery packs will move the Joule for 400 km (248 miles). Plugged into a 220 volt power source, a full charge is achievable in 7 hours. The body, said to be a mix of plastic and composites, sits on a steel space frame and is described as spacious and versatile. It has taken the company over two years to reach this point and it hopes to begin production by the end of 2010. If they can achieve the targeted retail price of R200,000 ($24,618), they should have a real winner on their hands. We'll be watching.
*Update: The 7 hour charge time given is for a single battery configuration.
[Source: IOL]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
meme 3:15PM (9/15/2008)
an uncluttered mix of a Renault Scenic and a Citroen Picasso.
Plus...
lithium ion battery packs
Plus...
400 km (248 miles)
Plus...
Plugged into a 220 volt power source, a full charge is achievable in 7 hours
Plus...
$24,618
Equals "Complete and Utter BS".
Seriously, people, use some common sense. A car like the Scenic or the Picasso would be something like 250Wh/mi electric. 248 miles would mean 62kWh. 7 hours at 220V depends on the amperage, but that would be 62kWh if 43A (assuming 0.93 efficiency), which isn't an unreasonable home charging current. From a dryer outlet, it'd imply a 100kWh pack, while from a supercharged 80A outlet being utilized at 75A, it'd imply a 35 kWh pack. Let's go with 60kWh, since something around there is what the data seems to suggest. Even the cheapest non-automotive li-ions on the market are about $0.30/Wh, which would mean an $18,000 pack just for the cells alone (let alone the cooling and control electronics), and it'd only last 5 years or so. The cheapest phosphates are $0.50-$0.60/Wh, which would mean a $33,000 pack. And let's not even get into the $2/Wh titanates!
Sorry, people, not going to happen. Please lower those expectations right now.
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GenWaylaid 8:10PM (9/15/2008)
Actually, I read that figure as "400 km on two full charges," i.e. 200 km per charge. Even so, there would be a lot of expensive batteries in this thing.
Snowdog 9:11PM (9/15/2008)
"The Joule's chassis holds two large-cell lithium ion battery packs that give the car a range of 400km."
The car has a 400km range so all the batteries are on board to give it that range. It doesn't matter if they are in one or two packs.
I agree with Meme. This doesn't make any sense, the batteries to do that range would cost more than the car.
jake 10:22PM (9/15/2008)
I think they are just way over optimistic about the range like most EV companies are.
Andy 10:53PM (9/15/2008)
If they offered an option with only 1 (small) pack. The cost figure might make a little more sense.
It's wouldn't be the first time we've seen high end performance stat's associated with entry level pricing.
Doesn't say that anywhere in the article though.
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spud 7:07AM (10/01/2008)
Well the other articles I have read clearly stated that the standard version comes with a 200km range battery pack with space to fit a second pack if required...
Mark 4:12AM (9/16/2008)
Considering the information comes from an un-official and "leaked" source, I wouldn't be believing too much of the detail figures... all we can accurately deduce is that there's a south african company launching an EV at Paris... the rest we will have to wait and see...
And unfortunatly Meme's calculations are spot on.....
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Domenick Yoney 9:32AM (9/16/2008)
My source was IOL as noted above and the information seems to be directly from the company.
Apparently though, the info was released early.
Mark 4:39AM (10/01/2008)
http://www.urbansprout.co.za/sas_electric_car_joule_official_pics
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Bikkel 6:29AM (10/01/2008)
The electric motors (four of them) are 6kw each which means 24kw in total. This means for a 200km range you need about 48kwh. Spread over 7 hours means you will have to load you plugpoint with 7kw which boils down to about 30A. At an efficiency of 93% this will be about 32Amp which is not unreasonable. The battery pack needs to be around the 50kwh. Note that the ferrite phosphate batteries have far less wear than ordinary lithium ion batteries. Riding my petrol car 5 years it hit 200.000km this year which means i threw about R200.000 worth of petrol in this vehicle. I'm sure this could have bought me some nice battery packs.
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davea0511 3:43PM (10/03/2008)
Yeah ... I don't know what they're thinking using Li-ion. You'll have to replace them after 6-8 years which will be super expensive. LiFePO4 are guaranteed for at least 10 years and can easily be pushed to 12 or longer I'm sure.
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jt 8:11PM (12/06/2008)
Could be they're thinking that LiIo will be cheaper in 6+ years, and/or that they'll be replaced by some other technology that still delivers the power needed to run the car.
Could be that they're producing the best car they can at the moment, and really not all that concerned with 8-12 years down the line. This seems a correct perspective right now, since we have nearly no e-cars on the road, and 12 years could produce tremendous innovation.
Gotta walk before we run. These are still very fast strides, and this vehicle is in the same class as a fossil-fuel car, so it gets my vote.