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Lamborghini Unveils a Self-Healing Electric Supercar Concept

bloomberg.com

81–90 of 92 posts

Re: Lamborghini Unveils a Self-Healing Electric Supercar Concept

#81
post #6

> the company will develop in-wheel electric motors, which would eliminate the need for a single large engine. A 'single large engine' is only needed in ICE cars, electric vehicles have a 'small' motor, and can easily have multiple motors. It's already being done by Tesla and Rimac. To my knowledge, an 'in wheel' motor would not be desirable due to unsprung mass, so a motor on the chassis connected to the wheel with…

Reading this, I'm reminded how little I understand why so many car people aren't excited about electric cars: all sorts of engineering problems to re-think and ideas to try out.

Re: Lamborghini Unveils a Self-Healing Electric Supercar Concept

#82
post #73

This article reads like the cars my friends and I would "design" when we were in third grade. Oh yeah? Mine is gonna have 800 horsepower and will be amphibious and have wings like the batmobile!

Buckminster Fuller's serious proposals for his Dymaxion Car aren't very far off from that!

Re: Lamborghini Unveils a Self-Healing Electric Supercar Concept

#83
post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No they actually mean power. Supercapacitors can energy faster than lithium batteries can(more power). While batteries have power densities hundreds of watts per kilogram, supercapacitors can release thousands of watts per kilogram. Now if we ignore the bullshit with carbon fiber supercapacitors it sounds like what lambroghini really wants is an energy storage system with more energy density and power density than we…

> Supercapacitors can energy faster than lithium batteries can(more power). You accidentally a verb.

This sentence no verb!

Re: Lamborghini Unveils a Self-Healing Electric Supercar Concept

#84
post #43
post #6

> the company will develop in-wheel electric motors, which would eliminate the need for a single large engine. A 'single large engine' is only needed in ICE cars, electric vehicles have a 'small' motor, and can easily have multiple motors. It's already being done by Tesla and Rimac. To my knowledge, an 'in wheel' motor would not be desirable due to unsprung mass, so a motor on the chassis connected to the wheel with…

Also, an in-wheel electrict motor would: 1. suffer a lot more from wear and tear than a motor mounted to the chassis. 2. restrain the amount of space available for brakes. While it would be reasonable to say that a small city car could forego its rear brakes and use electric motors instead to deccelerate, coupled with brakes at the front, a four wheel drive supercar with four electric motors would have no chance rely…

In case people are interested, a prior HN submission, Maker of In-Wheel Electric Car Motors Goes to China[1], had some interesting details on in-wheel motors.

1: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15570079

Re: Lamborghini Unveils a Self-Healing Electric Supercar Concept

#85

I drive a car with low clearance, but that Lamborghini is just ridiculously close to the ground. You’ll scrape the bumper just pulling out a regular drive way. It sure as hell will need to be “self healing” for someone to legitimately be driving that.

I have a car as low as an Aventador, without a front-axle lift, and a similarly bad approach angle.

You don't take steep inclines head on. Period. You take them at an oblique angle, and get the closest wheel up first. It takes a few more seconds, but you don't scrape.

I've gone up into entrances without issue where I've seen stock Toyota Camrys (which have nearly 2 inches more ground clearance and a much better approach angle) scrape. Take your time and it's a non-issue. My car has a sacrificial portion of the front splitter that's cheap to replace if I were to scrape it, but it's so easy to not scrape it it'll be a long time (decade plus?) before I need to.

Re: Lamborghini Unveils a Self-Healing Electric Supercar Concept

#87
post #6

> the company will develop in-wheel electric motors, which would eliminate the need for a single large engine. A 'single large engine' is only needed in ICE cars, electric vehicles have a 'small' motor, and can easily have multiple motors. It's already being done by Tesla and Rimac. To my knowledge, an 'in wheel' motor would not be desirable due to unsprung mass, so a motor on the chassis connected to the wheel with…

> Having 4 individual motors would be a first (I think) for a production car

It looks like the Mercedes SLS Electric Drive already had it back in 2013: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mercedes-Benz_SLS_AMG#SLS_AMG_...

Re: Lamborghini Unveils a Self-Healing Electric Supercar Concept

#88
post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Every time the idea comes up, "unsprung mass" is thrown like a pavlovian reflex. I'm curious about what they have in mind for solving the constraints. They aren't the less experienced people around.

They probably have nothing in mind. This isn't something they're planning to make so much as something that would be cool if the technology existed. The fact that in-wheel motors are put on the same level as "detecting wear and damage", "micro-channels containing 'healing chemistries'", and "supercapacitors out of carbon fiber panels that can be used to form the body of the car" gives an indication of how likely this…

This is a concept. It's a bunch of designers sitting in a room thinking "wouldn't this be cool?"

I'd be surprised if any engineer had any input on this process.

Re: Lamborghini Unveils a Self-Healing Electric Supercar Concept

#89
post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So is Tesla :-)

At least Tesla has had Model S, 5-8 years before everyone else. Also, Model 3 is already shipping. So it actually exists. Unlike this car. It's just that Tesla can't produce as many as it wanted due to certain battery production bottlenecks (so not even an issue with the rest of the car).

Just accept the zinger with grace.

Re: Lamborghini Unveils a Self-Healing Electric Supercar Concept

#90
post #73

This article reads like the cars my friends and I would "design" when we were in third grade. Oh yeah? Mine is gonna have 800 horsepower and will be amphibious and have wings like the batmobile!

Buckminster Fuller's serious proposals for his Dymaxion Car aren't very far off from that!

So cool! Thanks: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dymaxion_car
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