Why can't an electric car charge itself..why the stops to recharge batteries?

Question

Why can't an electric car charge itself..why the stops to recharge batteries?

Answer 1

You have some good answers already and some not so good. Regenerative braking is useful in an electric car since it recaptures energy for later use whenever you brake. Current solar technology is very unsuited to powering a car on the go, it would take a week to charge the car enough to drive it for a few hours. Hydrogen is an exercise in futility because it's really nothing more than an inefficient chemical battery, requiring much more energy to create the hydrogen than you'll get back from using that hydrogen in combustion or a fuel cell. I'm not sure the relevance of what a cartoon character drives but Fred Flintstone used foot power on his car and I don't recommend that.

Basically we need new battery technology like the coming lithium-ion cells for cars, and a renewable electrical generation grid using solar, wind and nuclear sources. If we insist on this and get Congress to mandate and fund it, we'd be able to drive for a penny a mile like in the good old days. If not, the corn and petroleum lobbies will bankrupt us. The upcoming election may be the last chance for a few years to get this problem under control.

Answer 2

Because there's no source of power that would charge the batteries while driving.  It would be very impractical to build a system to charge them while moving.

Answer 3

it is good idea,but we must redesign  the  whole parts of our car in order to do that....,i mean the battery insist....

Answer 4

Because of the natural laws of Physics and Chemistry. Where does the power come from? You would need to run another engine to power a generator.

Answer 5

Professor Actual-Factual from Berenstein Bears drives a Solar Powered car. It charges itself up.

that is what the car makers need to do. make solar cars AT A DESENT PRICE FOR EVERYONE.

Answer 6

a hybrid can...but just a battery by itself looses juice....it stores power it doesn't create it like a gas engine converts carbon fuel to movement

Answer 7

What the h**l would it use for energy? Your smug sense of self-satisfaction?

You see? This is why I hate hippies.

Answer 8

Actually there is a way to do it but it is a completely new concept that i am working on that charges it while you drive so you never have to stop again I currently have a Patent Pending on it :D

Answer 9

thats why they are trying to build cars with hydrogen fuel cells.

in order to make a car go through another means of energy.

Answer 10

If the car is equipped with solar panels it will recharge the batteries. The "charge time" however will always exceed the "discharge time". In other words every hour of driving will require several hours of charging.

Answer 11

Because there is always a loss of energy somewhere in the cycle.  If there weren't it would be an example of perpetual motion which is not possible.  Energy is always required to turn the cars wheels and make it move forward.  Even if the engine was 100% efficient it would only be able produce as much energy as it consumed and a portion of the energy it produces would have to be used to turn the cars wheels.  In order to create enough energy to replace all the energy and propel the car it would have to produce more energy than it consumed.  

if you have an energy source with 100 units of energy and it takes 50 units of energy to complete one rotation of the wheel.  Then the engine would have to convert 100 units of  energy into 150 units of energy to both turn the wheel and replenish the 100 units of stored energy.  This would mean that the engine would have to be 150% efficient which is not possible.

The only way to get around stopping to recharge is to find ways to collect elements from the environment that can be converted into energy without disrupting the momentum of the vehicle i.e. Solar or Hydro

Answer 12

the popular consensus is that, It takes more energy to power an electric generator, than the generator will produce.

Where an alternator on a gas powered car will generate enough  electricity to recharge a single Battery, an electric powered car uses multiple batteries, with the preferred power source being 48 volts, with a 36 volt power also being used.

while an alternator on a  gas powered car only charges a 12 volt battery.

Answer 13

There are systems that can be used on electric cars that are called regenerative breaking. The breaking of the car charges the battery some how. I really do not know the specififcs, I only know that they exist. Check it out on the net for more info.