Electric Supercar Concept from Porsche and Why 800 Volts Matter
On Monday, Porsche announced the Mission E, and it's beautiful. According to Porsche, the Mission E "combines the unmistakable emotional design of a Porsche with excellent performance and the forward-thinking practicality of the first 800-volt drive system."
Porsche media gallery: http://press.porsche.com/
Out of everything to talk about, there's a nugget buried in the press release for all of the design/engineering geeks out there.
The problem: how to get more speed without changing even one facet of the design? The answer here is plain brilliant, and it has to do with 800 volts.
Flickr Public Domain
The press release says those 800 volts of power allow smaller-than-standard cables to deliver charge to the battery and power to the rest of the components (AC, sound system, lamps). Carried through the entire electrical system, you've taken out a pretty good amount of copper.
Less copper means less weight, and without changing anything essential. The lesson here? Sometimes, you can birth solutions from the basics, the fundamentals, the brass tacks or, in this case, the copper wires.
Excellent.
Here's the press release.
Our own electric vehicle via the Tesla Model S got us thinking about gasoline, or the lack thereof, and why we love cars in the first place. Check it out.