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LCC debuts its Lightning GT and its fast-charge system

DailyTech last brought you news of the Lightning GT back in March of this year. The Lightning GT, produce by Lightning Car Company (LCC), promised roughly 700 HP from its Hi-Pa Drive all-electric powertrain and was complemented by sexy bodywork.

At the time, however, the only images available of the car were computer-generated and many thought of the vehicle as simply a "hype machine". LCC put at least some of those concerns to rest as they unveiled the actual vehicle this week at the British Motor Show in London.

The vehicle looks just as good as it did in the rendered shots and packs quite a punch. The Lightning GT features a powerful 120 kw electric hub motor attached to each 20" wheel and together provide over 700 HP. LCC says that its all-electric powertrain is capable of propelling the vehicle to 60 MPH in just four seconds.

Perhaps even more intriguing, however, is the 36 kw NanoSafe battery pack and its charging system. Whereas most current electric vehicles need to be charged overnight to top off an empty battery, the Lightning GT will require far less recharging time. LCC's fast charge system allows the battery to charge to 80 percent in two or three minutes. Recapturing the remaining 20 percent will take another 7 or eight minutes according to LCC. The vehicle is said to travel 200 miles on a 10-minute charge.

The only catch is that this fast recharging time can't take place in a residential home -- it can, however, be performed anywhere where there is three-phase industrial power available.

"I'd like to be talking to Tesco about it," said LCC's Chris Dell. "You're never more than 15 minutes from a Tesco in this country, and they've all got industrial power and forecourts. They're innovators - they'd probably go for it."

Dell went on to praise the efforts made by Tesla Motors and its Tesla Roadster. "Tesla have done a good job getting to production - the Roadster is an impressive car. Why's the Lightning better? Because we've got fast-charge technology. It's future-proofed."

All of this technology packed into one vehicle doesn't come cheap -- LCC says that its Lightning GT will retail for £120,000, or roughly $239,000 USD.

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Uh...
By FliGuyRyan on 7/23/2008 8:57:26 AM , Rating: 2
Will the person with the total range info, please stand up?




RE: Uh...
By JasonMick (blog) on 7/23/2008 9:14:33 AM , Rating: 2
This might not entirely answerer your question but...

quote:
Three versions of the GT are currently planned for a 2008 release, - a luxury model, a lightweight sports model capable of reaching 0-60mph in less than four seconds and an extended range model designed to travel up to 250 miles on a single 10 minute charge.


Source: http://www.gizmag.com/go/7486/

I don't think the company has released ranges on the luxury/sport editions yet, but <250 mi is a safe bet...


RE: Uh...
By mdogs444 on 7/23/2008 9:19:13 AM , Rating: 2
quote:
and an extended range model designed to travel up to 250 miles on a single 10 minute charge.

Even at $250k, I dont think there is any technology capable of doing that - outside of having an ICE involved. 10 minute charge, and 15 gallons of gas, perhaps.


RE: Uh...
By rippleyaliens on 7/23/2008 10:39:37 AM , Rating: 2
3 Phase power hmmmm...
i believe in the USA, that is 60 amps.
1- only few places i know of in my job, in which i could even think about getting the power outlet.. per say.
The true challenge, is not the 200k for the Car.. But getting an infrastructure in place, that is readily avaliable. (Hundreds of Billions)...

And then the COST!!! How much in POWER will this cost.. $10 per charge? $5 per charge?

WE all forget that electricity is not Cheap... It appears Cheap- But infact costs.. I myself am curious on the total cost per mile, in just electrical power. AND DOHHHHH i guess with an electric car, i have to give up my 2kw Stereo system.. ugggg


RE: Uh...
By Aloonatic on 7/23/2008 11:18:37 AM , Rating: 2
Is 3-phase different in the states to the UK?

I know that household outlets are but I have no idea about transmission and industrial standards.

With oil at the price it is now, electricity is probably cheaper, but not free as you point out. Nor is it as clean as the the lighting car's website would like to think it is.

The infrastructure shouldn't be too much of a problem for a country like the UK where there isn't much of a gap between towns but I can imagine that there will be a lot places in countries like the USA where there are long roads with nothing much in-between, being hard to provide for.

Perhaps for touring cars there will be an option for a big trailer full of batteries?

Alternatively, perhaps they could put peddles in the car so you can charge as you drive and maybe get a little fitter too? =D


RE: Uh...
By jamdunc on 7/23/2008 5:46:14 PM , Rating: 3
Yes we have a different voltage in the UK (and the EU) than in the US. The last time I checked (when I did my 16th Edition Wiring Regulations last year), the US used 110V compared to our 230V (EU regulations). Although if you actually check the UK voltage it will be closer to 244V (all to do with tolerances).

The UK households all just tap into 1 phase off the electricity mains which is 3 phase. So houses 1, 7 and 13 would be black phase. 3, 9 and 15 would be brown phase and 5, 11 and 17 would be grey phase (again changed from red, blue and yellow to come into line with europe.) A household has a single 100A main fuse on the incoming supply. A 3 phase supply at a big commercial site usually has multiple incoming supply's, each carrying upto 250A (on the sites I've worked on), so the power is there!

So it wouldn't be much effort to add these charge stations to Tesco's as he has planned. Might cost a bit but if he could get this technology to other car makers and it became more common, I think it's a possible reality.

Just need more Nuclear Power Stations to get 'cleanish', 'cheap' electricity.

Hope that helps explain it more!


RE: Uh...
By ali 09 on 7/24/2008 4:13:57 AM , Rating: 2
I might be very very wrong, but three phase power isn't uncommon in Australia. In my house (it is very large) we have 3 phase power coming in for our ducted air-con and our bore. So would that mean I would be able to charge the car at home?


RE: Uh...
By SiN on 7/24/2008 1:56:15 PM , Rating: 2
the tolorance is more like 240 +/- 10 giving you the 230-250v range, marketed as 240v.

If anyone reading these forums will care to check there laptop brick you will see a 100-240 volt variant "input". If you have a desktop, your PSU will have a switch (mass production) giving you the same but manually variable, usually glued into 1 of their 2 selections (110v or 240v) you can blame marketing for that.

On EU member country building sites we use 110v for power tools, usualy provided by an on site generator.

The last site i worked on we had the incoming line catch fire for some unbeknown reason, probably bad sheething and it got too hot or a crossover. All i know is i had nothing to do with it ;)

It really wouldn't be hard to get these stations up and running, all your talking about is re-routing some of the power from the board to some metered charge stations on the courtyard. its about a 5 days work, with the right team per courtyard without problems.


RE: Uh...
By jamdunc on 7/24/2008 5:41:02 PM , Rating: 2
In the past the Uk had 240V and Europe had 230V. They then wanted commonalities to help with the freedom of movement in the jobs market, so an electrician could move from one country to another and do his job safely.

So they ratified new standards and the voltage in Europe is now classed as 230V (+10% -6% for tolerances). These tolerances were added so that we in the UK would not have to refit all our power plants and transformers for this.

As for 110V on building sites, it's usually done by a transformer from a 240V supply and is also the same offshore on decks. This is because the transformer has a centrally tapped earth which means if a fault occurs, someone getting shocked would be hit with 55V. This has all been worked out so that the current you get shocked with in the case of a fault is not enough to kill you. Quite clever really! The main thing is this centretapped earth.


RE: Uh...
By Samus on 7/25/2008 4:03:50 AM , Rating: 2
3-phase probably means 440-volts (industrial connection) where as almost everyone has two-phase power (220-volts) and usually only use one phase per circuit (110-volts)

To get 220 volts from 110 volts, you take the opposite phases and combine them on a single side of the electrical outlet, leaving the neutral on the opposite side (if you look in your fuse box you'll see a zig-zag pattern, each fuse in each row is on opposite phase of the one next to it)

440-volts is 4-prong, not 3-prong like traditional outlets. It combines two phases to get 220-volts and the third phase is an additional 220-volts. So you have two prongs that are 220-volts each, plus a neutral, and of course like all properly installed electrical connections, there is a beefy ground so a short isn't absorbed by the neutral (pretty dangerous to send that much juice through a lonely neutral)

My concern is the amount of heat the AC/DC conversion will produce when dealing with 60-amp/440-volt power?

Remember, 60-amps at 440 volts is something like 300-amps of 110-volt power, and of course is even more efficient than 220-volt which is already 10-15% more efficient than 110-volt.

Industrial power is serious electricity :)


RE: Uh...
By Mutz1243 on 7/23/2008 11:55:41 AM , Rating: 5
quote:
3 Phase power hmmmm...
i believe in the USA, that is 60 amps.
1- only few places i know of in my job, in which i could even think about getting the power outlet.. per say.
The true challenge, is not the 200k for the Car.. But getting an infrastructure in place, that is readily avaliable. (Hundreds of Billions)...

Hundreds of billions of dollars. Your kidding right. 3 phase power is already in place in the US and everything that is industrial uses it. There would be no problem getting 3 phase charging stations at a regular gas station. The pumps at the gas stations probably already use 3 phase power. Also power is rated by the voltage supplied, not the current.


RE: Uh...
By Jim28 on 7/23/2008 12:49:15 PM , Rating: 2
Maybe the pumps do or maybe they don't.

They could do the job quite nicely on regular 220VAC wich is not three phase power at all. Looking at the motor size in the pumps, and the average GPM of them, I would doubt that they use anything but 220VAC.

That does not mean that a gas station does not have three phase power on hand. (If they have a shop they might.)
But gas pumps are no more power hungry than your AC unit.


RE: Uh...
By Jim28 on 7/23/2008 12:52:19 PM , Rating: 2
Missed something in your post.

You don't know much about power if you think that power has nothing to do with current.

Power = Voltage * Current (AC is more complicated but generally this works.)

Less amps plus higher volts equals more amps less voltage.
To know why we use high voltage power. look it up somewhere,but as a hint it has to do with heat loss in power lines.


RE: Uh...
By Mutz1243 on 7/23/2008 2:56:36 PM , Rating: 2
I actually know a lot about power but a power connection is not rated by the current. The voltage in a given line is always constant while the current is changing depending upon the load at that given time. You don't have to give me any hints to anything I was just trying to keep it simple so a normal person would understand me. Also 3 phase can come in multiple different voltages. 3 phase just means that there are 3 seperate ac currents being transmitted each 120 degrees apart from each other. If you don't know what I'm talking about then you don't know much about electricity.


RE: Uh...
By maverick85wd on 7/23/2008 6:28:09 PM , Rating: 1
quote:
I was just trying to keep it simple so a normal person would understand me.


right...

you must be new here.


RE: Uh...
By afkrotch on 7/24/2008 2:41:06 AM , Rating: 2
Pretty much spot on. 3-phase power can come in multiple voltages. There's 120v, 240v, 480v, etc.

Anyways, there are more and more server farms using 3-phase 120v power pushing 70 amps. Transmission power lines all over the US are 3-phase. It wouldn't be hard to add a 3-phase power line at 70 amps to any gas station.


RE: Uh...
By DeepBlue1975 on 7/23/2008 2:11:35 PM , Rating: 2
Voltage times current = power in watts.

You need to know both voltage and what the delivered current for that voltage is to know how much power you are getting.

Different electric appliances that use the same voltage input, can have pretty different power consumptions.

Think no further than a PSU on a PC. All of them have 5v and 12v rails, but to know if a PSU can support a certain configuration running off of it, you need to know the supported current in each voltage and the combination of both gives you the rated wattage of a given device.