The 2012 summer Olympics are over but electric car marathons are beginning to heat up. Israel’s Better Place smashed the 24 hour distance record of 994.14 miles set last month by Renault’s Zoe. The new record was set with a Hoden Commodore. This is an Australian made electric car modified to use Better Place’s innovative quick battery change system to get a fresh battery during every 75.8 mile lap.
Ordinary electric vehicles can take hours to charge making it difficult for them to come near Better Place’s 24 hour distance record. Even the CHAdeMO rapid charger at Masdar city takes about 30 minutes to reach 80 percent of a batteries capacity. But Better Place’s battery subscription model and quick change refueling stations can have you back on the road in one minute and 13 seconds, not quite as fast as a Formula 1 race crew can change a tire, but quite a bit faster than you’ll ever refuel that old-fashioned gasoline powered car.
Here is a video demonstrating how their battery replacement system works:
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OHHvjsFm_88&feature=player_detailpage[/youtube]
The Better Place team noticed that the depleted batteries still had about 20% charge after each 75.8 mile lap, meaning it might not be long before they to break their own record.
Race car photo from Shutterstock.com