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germanbird writes: "Jalopnik has an interesting article up about Koenigsegg's Prototype Camless Engine. The engine uses pneumatic actuators rather than a cam to open and close the valves in the engine. The engineers behind this claim that it can provide "30 percent more power and torque, and up to 50 percent better economy" when applied to an existing engine designs. The article and some of the comments also mention that some work has been done with electromagnetic actuators to accomplish the same task. It may be a while before this tech is mature enough for passenger vehicles, but maybe if a racing series or two picked it up, it might give some of the manufacturers the opportunity to work the bugs out?
Not sure this is on topic for SoylentNews, but the article brought me back to my introduction to engineering course in college. One of my classmates was a car nut and I remember a discussion with an EE professor one day about the potential (or actually lack thereof due to performance issues) for using electric actuators to open and close valves."
(Score: 3, Insightful) by hemocyanin on Friday February 28 2014, @01:09PM
The issue with electric cars isn't the motor -- there is no question that is superior. The issue is the battery. Until we really solve battery issues, and by that I don't just mean energy density but the ability to make energy dense batteries from ridiculously common materials that don't require removing entire mountains to get at, electric cars are going to be for the wealthier people of the world -- those who can afford to have an extra car for local trips, while keeping a regular car for any trip beyond 45 miles(*) each way (I'm thinking of the Nissan Leaf -- $28k for base model, DIY cost of charger +$1000 (pro install +$2000 (includes charger)), 86 mile range. This is a car for people rich enough to have a spare car. People who buy Teslas are definitely rich).
(*) that would use the entire capacity of the battery which probably isn't good for its longevity.
(Score: 2) by buswolley on Friday February 28 2014, @01:43PM
The primary advantage of electric vehicles is that pollution is restricted to a single location, namely the power plant. If the power is driven by coal then there is no substantive advantage. If the power plant is driven by solar, wind, fusion, then there are substantive advantages.
subicular junctures
(Score: 2, Insightful) by githaron on Friday February 28 2014, @02:11PM
If all the pollution is in one location, you can more easily and efficiently filter it. You can also more easily pick where the population occurs. City smog and air quality would become and issue of the past.
(Score: 2, Insightful) by hatta on Friday February 28 2014, @02:46PM
City smog and air quality are negligible compared to climate change. And no, you can't filter out the CO2.
(Score: 1) by githaron on Monday March 03 2014, @09:13AM
CO2 is not the only exhaust that comes from burning fossil fuels. It just happens to be the only one that anyone seems to ever talk about.
(Score: 1) by hb253 on Friday February 28 2014, @06:11PM
True, but from what I've read, intensive lobbying by the power industry has resulted in a weakening or delay of those stack scrubbing requirements.
The firings and offshore outsourcing will not stop until morale improves.
(Score: 2) by hemocyanin on Friday February 28 2014, @05:08PM
That's a good point but it doesn't solve the problem of widespread adoption, namely, limited range due to battery technology. This limited range issue makes electric cars a good choice as a spare car, but if a person can afford only one car, a not so good choice.