To win, Cars getting Light and Lean

 Context :

Carmakers go extra mile to keep vehicles light   … ET / 21 Jan 2024

Extract :
Indian carmakers are using lightweight materials like high strength steels and aluminium alloys to reduce the weight of bulky SUVs . The usage of high-strength steels and hot-stamped parts has increased in new age cars, reducing weight by about 30 kg. Mahindra & Mahindra has managed to reduce the weight of their SUVs, such as XUV-700 by 79 Kg
So, to have more features and still have lower CO2 emissions, carmakers employ high strength to weight ratio materials like high tensile and ultra high tensile steel, aluminium alloys , CARBON FIBRES and other engineering performance materials





My Take :

Ø E – Car Extrapolation : a Wishful Thinking ? .. …………..20 March 2019

Extract :
Can weight of an E Car be reduced by 50 %  ?  And, if yes , can the Lithium-ion Battery capacity also get

reduced by 50 % ?

Eg :

Can weight of Mahindra e-Verito [ D6 ], be reduced from 1265 kg to 650 kg – leading to its battery size

Going down from 21.5 KWh to 10 KWh ?

[  e-Verito , most likely uses  840 kg  of steel and  130 kg of aluminum  ]

Hey , Sounds incredible ! But is there a direct relation between the “ Car Weight “ and “ Battery Size “ ?
Can a 10 KWh battery suffice if e-Verito’s weight gets reduced to 650 Kg ?

OK, fine ! but how can we bring down the weight of e-Verito from 1265 Kg to 650 Kg ?

#  By replacing Steel used in car , with Graphene

How is that important ?

#    Graphene is  200 times stronger than steel  and  10 times better at conducting heat  than copper

#    Graphene-based chips could deliver speeds more than ten times faster than silicon chips

#    In chemical and electrical sensors, graphene could increase sensitivity by a factor of more than 30

#   Graphene is also  250 times better at conducting electricity than silicon

#   If we replaced the silicon chips in today’s transistors with graphene-based chips, we could increase the speed
of electronic devices ten-fold

Do you think any of our Policy Makers would ask our scientists / engineers to examine this ?

I have no doubt that should  Shri Nitin Gadkariji  get to read this blog ( - being sent to him as an email ) , then he will waste no time to do so


He might ask ISRO :

“ Can you develop Solar Panels using Graphene to boost its efficiency manifolds ( say from current 20 % to 80

% ) – then install such a Solar Panel on roof-top of an Electric Car , to continuously charge its Lithium-ion

battery, so that E cars do not need any road-side Battery Charging Stations , saving an investment of Rs 175

lakh*crore ? “

With regards,

Hemen Parekh

www.HemenParekh.ai / 13 Feb 2024