Lamborghini and MIT have innovatively working on a supercar concept model that gets powered by supercapacitors. On one side the world is getting ready for battery cars, whereas Lamborghini and MIT together went a step ahead of presenting a supercar powered by capacitors with no batteries. Last Monday the concept model got exhibited. The cost of the vehicle is yet to be declared.
The electric vehicle (EV) car is termed as ‘Third Millenium” thoroughly built by the world-famed sports car Italian sports car maker Lamborghini and MIT, Boston. The MIT engineers are making such supercapacitors for Lamborghini that would store the energy for a more extended period and release the same.They are working on this new concept car that will have no batteries at all.
The body of the car will get manufactured by the carbon nanotubes, so that whole body works as a supercapacitor. Supercapacitors are known to hold much energy and release it quickly and not as the conventional batteries. The supercar has the advantage of being light but the severe disadvantage of losing the power soon.
It would take quite some time before both Lamborghini (part of Volkswagen) and MIT work together to reach the decisive and desired goal. Right now these supercapacitors do not maintain the peak performance power for very long like doing three laps without stopping.
Photo Source: engadget.com
The supercapacitors made from carbon have the flexibility of and can get formed as body panels required for the supercar to remain lightweight and shaped as needed. The conventional batteries have the inherent disadvantage of becoming hot and suffer when the electric motors run under heavy load ( speed) for the performance cars
It is right to mention here that the supercapacitors have the outstanding disadvantage of not storing and giving out a significant amount of energy for the extended period. At present they give out the high power very quickly and need to be worked by the engineer at Lamborghini on maintaining to give a significant amount of energy for the much more extended period. Another advantage of the supercar manufacturer is for providing the independent electric motor for each wheel. It will keep the supercar all-wheel drive status. No weights within the body of the vehicle as here no electrical motor needs housing in the internal space of the car.
The car is built up with carbon ‘nanotube’ material that works as the supercapacitors. The energy is stored in the tubes and supplied for moving. It means ‘NO’ batteries required at all. As per the Director, Maurizio Reggiani of Lamborghini’s R & D (research and development) the electric car’s batteries cannot work efficiently. It is because they are vast in size and voluminous and heavy. On using small cells, they do not give out much power and do not work for an extended period. Reggiani is confident that the innovation in technology for supercapacitors will overcome the shortcomings. The supercapacitors store and release more energy than other conventional batteries. Since they are light and smooth, they can get used to making various body panels. The team of engineers at MIT are working to produce new supercapacitors because they save much energy.Present ordinary capacitors have the limitation of storing the power for a short period
The innovating and exciting factor of this car is due to the self-holding properties of the sensors used; the vehicle can self-repair any small repairs on the body. In cracks or slight damage get repaired by the internal tubes. The car only goes to the mechanic for significant renovations at the workshop.
The supercapacitor store 10 to 100 times more energy than an ordinary capacitor as the capacitance value of the supercapacitor is phenomenal when compared to a general capacitor. When compared to rechargeable batteries or electrolyte capacitator, they store more energy. The charging and releasing energy is much quicker in the case of the supercapacitor. We know that capacitors are used to start the petrol engine in all types of vehicles.
The era of NO hydrocarbon emissions by the cars would make a revolutionary change and bring in the age of the health in environments for one and all.
