# Electric car problems **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [October 7, 2008, 4:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/electric-car-problems/466863 "2008-10-07T16:59:05Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![antechinus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/fbc32d/32.png) [@antechinus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/antechinus)\ **Post date:** [October 8, 2008, 2:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/electric-car-problems/466863/41 "2008-10-08T02:30:55Z")
Or more simply and efficiently, you could keep the battery in the car and just replace the depleted electrolyte with energised electrolyte from a filling station. [Vanadium flow batteries are great for this](http://www.metaefficient.com/renewable-power/australian-island-using-flow-batteries-to-store-wind-power.html). ---
**Author:** ![antechinus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/fbc32d/32.png) [@antechinus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/antechinus)\ **Post date:** [October 8, 2008, 2:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/electric-car-problems/466863/42 "2008-10-08T02:37:33Z")
Or more simply and efficiently, you could keep the battery in the car and just replace the depleted electrolyte with energised electrolyte from a filling station. [Vanadium flow batteries are great for this](http://www.metaefficient.com/renewable-power/australian-island-using-flow-batteries-to-store-wind-power.html). ---
**Author:** ![mswas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e99b99/32.png) [@mswas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mswas)\ **Post date:** [October 8, 2008, 2:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/electric-car-problems/466863/43 "2008-10-08T02:40:07Z")
> [@riker1384](#): > > I think it’s completely and utterly infeasible due to the high value of the batteries. Aside from having people trying to get rid of bad ones, how would you secure them? A station would have to store tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of batteries. They would get robbed all the time. If not by robbers, then by employees. What stops people from putting a pump down into the tank, or cleaning out your average Wal Mart that has millions in stock? I worked at a service station, and between the tires, the cars being worked on, the fan belts, the tools, and the tow trucks there was easily hundreds of thousands in material there as it is. Why would suddenly batteries increase the likelihood of theft than there is for businesses that serve other items? **Magiver** Algae is promising. I have the same hopes that you do for it. ---
**Author:** ![antechinus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/fbc32d/32.png) [@antechinus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/antechinus)\ **Post date:** [October 8, 2008, 2:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/electric-car-problems/466863/44 "2008-10-08T02:46:08Z")
Sorry about the double post. Here is research on a new [vanadium bromide flow cell](http://www.actapress.com/PaperInfo.aspx?PaperID=17953&reason=500). ---
**Author:** ![Magiver](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/4491bb/32.png) [@Magiver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Magiver)\ **Post date:** [October 8, 2008, 3:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/electric-car-problems/466863/45 "2008-10-08T03:33:50Z")
Random related complaint. I saw the capacitor battery demonstration at a NASA exhibit 3 years ago and I can’t find squat about them on the net. Just did a search again and bang, I found a [reference](http://blogs.techrepublic.com.com/tech-news/?p=1131) to the technology. I posted the link if anybody is interested in following it. If it’s the same thing I saw demonstrated it was wild how fast it would recharge. The drill had a pack of these wired up like any other cordless but they charged in 2 minutes. You got about an hour of use out of them but in 2 minutes you were back in business. And they were real light in comparison to Ni Cads. ---
**Author:** ![mswas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e99b99/32.png) [@mswas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mswas)\ **Post date:** [October 8, 2008, 5:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/electric-car-problems/466863/46 "2008-10-08T05:35:28Z")
> [@Magiver](#): > > Random related complaint. I saw the capacitor battery demonstration at a NASA exhibit 3 years ago and I can’t find squat about them on the net. Just did a search again and bang, I found a [reference](http://blogs.techrepublic.com.com/tech-news/?p=1131) to the technology. > > I posted the link if anybody is interested in following it. If it’s the same thing I saw demonstrated it was wild how fast it would recharge. The drill had a pack of these wired up like any other cordless but they charged in 2 minutes. You got about an hour of use out of them but in 2 minutes you were back in business. And they were real light in comparison to Ni Cads. It’s funny when i was making my suggestion earlier I was thinking of capacitors but I thought, ‘There must be a reason why we don’t use capacitors for this sort of thing.’ Glad to know that it’s a viable technology. Of course the power grid issues will remain a problem. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/electric-car-problems/466863.md?page=2)