Originally Posted by
threeighteen
It's the batteries I'm worried about. Battery technology just isn't where it needs to be for me to even consider an electric car yet.
Why not? What battery technology do you want to see before you buy an electric car?
Originally Posted by
rickair7777
For example I suspect that lithium batteries need a temperature and pressure controlled environment...basically the battery needs is own pressure container with thermal controls. They also probably need extreme quality control in design and construction, and probably active vibration damping. On top of that you need containment that can withstand a full runway, and at least two parallel units for redundancy. It can be done, but it won't be cheap, or very compact/light.
I would assume that if you wanted any significant amount of battery capacity, they would be placed in the wings. That would provide enough vibration protection. Temperature protection....air cooling might be pretty sufficient considering how fast aircraft fly. 1/2 the battery capacity in each wing, there's the parallel redundancy. Not sure about needing a pressure container. The batteries are sealed. Full runaway protection....yeah that would be a concern I guess. There are lots of electric cars driving around, and I have only heard of two or three thermal runaways. All were caused by some sort of catastrophic penetration of the battery case caused by the car being crash tested, being involved in a car accident, and a pretty good chunk of road debris. Perhaps they could engineer some sort of venting if a segment of the cells over-pressurizes, similar to what Boeing did with the 787.