The fuel-burning-electric (or hybrid) car has
evolved to reduce the fuel that cars burn and the
pollution they cause, but it will not reduce global
pollution because there will just be more cars.
The plug-in hybrid car stores energy from the
electricity grid for local driving, but burns fuel for
longer trips. As batteries improve, its non-fuel burning
range will increase. It will gradually
substitute electricity for fuel. Electricity can be
produced cheaply, without pollution. Predictably,
plug-in hybrids will use less and less fuel, and the
trend will be toward the simple battery-electric
vehicle.
The fuel-cell car, replaces most of the
battery in a battery-electric car with a tank of
hydrogen and a fuel cell. Unfortunately, the
process of converting electricity into hydrogen, to
be transferred to a car that converts it back to
electricity is unavoidably inefficient, although it
does not pollute. The fuel-cell car has been
thoroughly demolished as a practical proposition
by Joseph J. Romm.1, 2
The battery-electric car, an idea that has
remained dormant because batteries do not store
enough energy, cannot be quickly recharged,
wear out too soon, and cost too much. They have
improved, but drastic improvement is needed for
the battery-electric to replace the fuel-burning
car. Ridek offers such an improvement—not in
batteries—but in how they are used. No new
technology is required, merely an application of
logic. It gives an improvement that compensates
for the limited range of the battery-electric
vehicle, the prolonged recharging time, the high
cost and the relatively short life of its battery.
The first step in the development of Ridek
was to ask: If the battery cannot recharge quickly
enough why not replace it with another that is
already charged, like the battery in a flashlight?
This has been tried several times but it has not
found favor. Batteries are cumbersome and it is
difficult to design a car so that the battery can be
changed quickly. Furthermore, although battery
exchange deals with the problem of limited range,
it does not reduce operating cost.
The next step was to ask: Because the
battery is already on wheels—the running gear of
the car—why not have a modular car such that
the running gear is easily separable from the
passenger compartment? Technically, this is easy
and the result is a new class of vehicle, the Ridek.
Building a car from chassis and body modules
goes back to the early days of mass-production
but the possibility of easily separating and
rejoining them was not proposed until recently.3
Technical details of Ridek are given in patents
and other articles.4 They involve applications of
existing technology and offer no serious problems
or difficulty.
The Ridek consists of two modules: an
upper module, or body, called the Ridon because
it rides on the lower module, the Modek (short
for motorized deck). The Modek-Ridon interface
is standardized. Above the interface, the Ridon is
free to comply with the particular needs of its
owner. A rental contract gives the Ridon owner a
fully charged and serviced Modek whenever
needed. A battery-powered Modek would usually
be charged at home, overnight, but for a quick
charge it could be exchanged at a Modek
Exchange Station for one that is fully charged.
This exchange need take no longer than to refill a
conventional car at a gasoline station. Unlike the
hydrogen car, which requires an expensive
infrastructure, the Ridek’s infrastructure can be
easily expanded from the existing electricity grid
and the cost of an exchange station would be
much less than that of a gasoline station. For
Modeks recharging at home, overnight, visits to
an exchange station would be much less frequent
than for a fuel-burning car to a filling station.
Before Modek exchange stations are widely
established, long distance driving will require the
more compact form of energy storage provided
by gasoline or diesel fuels, but limiting such fuels
to this application will enormously reduce their
consumption. The Modek is readily adaptable to
replacing some of its battery with a part-time
fuel-burning generator, making it a plug-in
hybrid. Modek exchange stations could make
such modified Modeks available, thereby solving
the immediate range problem.
The greatest single expense of operating a
car is depreciation. The running gear in a Modek
may last 30 years, but nobody keeps a car that
long. The Ridek driver is unaware of the Modek’s
age, so it does not go out of style and its predicted
annual depreciation is very little. Furthermore,
unlike a conventional car, the Modek can be
updated easily and kept in modern condition,
much as a passenger jet aircraft can remain in
service for 25 years, or more, to be retired only
because its replacement is more fuel-efficient.
The locally made Ridon can be refurbished and
modified, also.
The expense of operating a car continues
even when it is idle. A Modek need not be idle
for so long because it can return to the pool of
Modeks for others to use. For example, when a
Ridek is left in the long-term parking lot at an
airport, its Modek may carry taxis, rental cars, or
light commercial vehicles while the Ridon awaits
the return of its owner. The mass of idle
machinery in a parking lot is thus reduced to nonmechanical
bodies, the Ridons. Similar
arrangements would apply to seasonally used
vehicles. Their Ridons could be stored
indefinitely without deterioration, license or
insurance fees.
Instead of buying a whole car, the
prospective owner buys a less expensive Ridon.
The initial expense is therefore reduced. It is
predictable that local industries would build
Ridons much as they built horse-drawn carriages
in days gone by. This would benefit local labor
and give the buyer the chance to personalize the
interior environment as well as functionality;
whether delivery van, personal car and beyond.
The enormous number of cars manufactured
each year eventually find their way to the scrap
yard. This creates an increasingly serious
disposal problem with environmental
consequences. Much of the machinery in
scrapped cars is still serviceable but limited use
can be made of it. The Modek has a much longer
service life because it is readily updated and its
inconspicuousness protects it from going out of
style. This mitigates the disposal problem.
The Ridek concept separates passengers
from machinery by placing them in separate
modules, one upon the other. No longer are
passengers packaged close to the ground,
essentially among the machinery. That
arrangement has been exploited to absurd limits
to make cars appear more sporty—not to make
them go faster because most cars are capable of
traveling much faster than the law allows. Should
a car crash into the side of a Ridek at an
intersection, the passengers in the Ridon will be
above the point of contact. In a car, only side
airbags and reinforced doors protect the
passengers in a side impact. These are less
reassuring than the higher seating position a
sports utility vehicle provides. No doubt this
explains some of its popularity but the higher
center of gravity of the sports utility vehicle
increases the risk of rolling over. The Ridek’s
passengers ride just as high but its center of
gravity is low because of its design. It has the
same ground clearance as a car (about 15 cm); its
battery and other components are placed low
down and the seats of the Ridon where they
would be in a minivan or sports utility vehicle.
REFERENCES
1. Romm, Joseph J.: The Hype about Hydrogen, Island Press, Washington, 2004.
2. Romm, J.J: islandpress.org.
3. Dower, G.E.: Modular Vehicle Construction and Transportation System. United States Patent Number 6,059,058; Canadian Patent Application Number 2,302,761; European Patent Number EP 1,009,651 for France, Germany, Great Britain, Italy, and Switzerland.
4. www.ridek.com