Ken D

Oil, Gas, Electric Cars, the Market and the Economy

The story of supercaps looks like the "100 MPG carburetor story" to me. Running an electric vehicle, even a small one, will take about 5kW minimum for the time you run it. Therefore, one hour takes 5kWH, which is a whole bunch of electrical power to be stored. Even if you could recharge it quickly -- let's say one minute per hour of operation -- you'd need to draw 300kW plus inefficiencies for one minute -- to do the recharging. The conductors required, internal heating, pressure changes, etc. make this sound very far-fetched. Yes, supercaps are real, but they are an alternative for peaking, not for primary power.