EV Basics III – Why drive electric?
Important acronyms:
BEV: Battery Electric Vehicle: a vehicle powered exclusively by energy stored in its battery pack.
EV: Electric Vehicle: Any vehicle that uses electricity to provide some or all of the power to its wheels.
ICE: Internal Combustion Engine – The smog-belching, globe-warming automobile power plants used in the dark ages of the 20th century.
kWh: Kilowatt*hour – A unit of energy equivalent to 1000 watt*hours. A 100-watt light bulb turned on for 10 hours consumes 1 kWh of energy.
Li-Ion: Lithium-Ion: A battery chemistry that allows electric vehicles to travel much farther on a single battery pack charge, relative to older battery technologies.
NiMH: Nickel Metal Hydride – A proven battery technology that has been used in electric vehicles for many years.
PHEV: Plug-in Hybrid Electric Vehicle – A vehicle with an electric motor and battery pack that can be charged from a home electrical system, but also has on-board ICE and a fuel tank that can power the car if the battery pack batteries is drained.
What is the problem? You have read articles about electric vehicles. You have seen people with banners at demonstrations. You know a lot of people want major automakers to start making electric cars for the masses, but you don’t know why. What are the benefits of electric vehicles? Why would someone choose an electric car over a gasoline vehicle?
The two main reasons to drive an electric vehicle are simple: cost and convenience.
“What’s that?” you might ask, “I thought electric vehicles were about saving the world!”
And you’d be making a good point. Studies have shown that a massive switch from gasoline-powered cars to electric vehicles would result in less pollution, including lower greenhouse gas emissions, even if the utility grid gets 80% of its power from dirty coal plants and outdated Also, the elimination of gasoline cars could eliminate our dependence on foreign oil. Getting rid of oil energy would improve national and global security. As long as we depend on distant and politically unstable regions of the world for much of our energy supply, we risk disaster. The world would be a safer place if every region produced its own energy in a sustainable and environmentally friendly way.
The bottom line, though, is that overall our lives would be better if everyone switched from ICE-powered cars to electric vehicles. We would save money, simplify our lives, and make our cars more convenient to operate.
Imagine your day if you drove an electric vehicle. It would take you just a few seconds to unplug your car every morning. Since the car gets its power from a plug in the wall, it would be easy to design a system that lets you tell your car when to turn on the electric heater so your seats and steering wheel are nice and warm when you get in. You will never have to queue at gas stations. The drive system of an EV is much simpler than the drive system of an ICE-powered car, so your EV would be much more reliable and require much less maintenance. If you want a car that you hardly ever have to worry about, then an EV is the car for you.
Driving an electric vehicle also costs less. For example, let’s take a look at an EV currently being manufactured by California-based company AC Propulsion. Its eBox uses a first generation Scion xB platform, with the stock ICE drivetrain replaced by its electric drive system. A standard 2006 Scion xB had a combined fuel economy rating of 31 mpg. At gas prices of $3/gallon, the xB uses 10 cents of gas per mile. The eBox can travel 120 to 150 miles on a single charge of its 35kWh battery pack. If we assume that electricity costs 10 cents per kWh and that the battery pack is completely depleted in 120 miles, then we calculate the cost of electricity at 3 cents per mile, a cost savings of 70%! Even in areas where electricity costs up to 20 cents per kWh, the eBox costs 40% less than a standard Scion xB.
Plus, an EV never needs an oil change. You never need new spark plugs. Since it gets most of its stopping power from a regenerative braking system, the brake pads and rotors last several times longer than those in an ICE-powered car. Since electric motors have much more torque at lower speeds compared to ICEs, drivetrains in electric vehicles can be drastically simplified. The streamlined drivetrain in an EV not only makes it more reliable, it also results in much lower maintenance costs.
Probably the most expensive part of an EV, in terms of maintenance, is the battery pack. All currently manufactured batteries have a limited lifespan. Unless this changes, every EV will eventually need a new battery pack, costing thousands of dollars. However, companies like A123 and Altairnano are developing lithium batteries with a much longer lifespan than current lithium-ion batteries. People are also driving electric vehicles much farther than previously expected on a single battery pack. Skeptics originally predicted that the NiMH batteries in the Toyota RAV4 EV, available in the US from 1997 to 2003, would need to be replaced during the first 50,000 miles of travel, but the RAV4 EV has surprised the community. electric vehicles, with several of the original battery packs lasting over 100,000 miles.
It is reasonable to expect prices for replacement battery packs to drop to $2000 when they are mass-produced for a major automaker. If the life of these battery packs can be increased to 150,000 miles through technology development, the cost per mile of battery use would be 1.3 cents. Compare that to the cost of getting an oil change at Jiffy Lube every 3,000 miles. Using a “synthetic blend” of motor oil will cost you $49.99 each visit, for a cost per mile of 1.6 cents. Additionally, there is much discussion in the EV community about the possibility of renting or leasing battery packs, which would effectively allow EV owners to spread the cost of battery replacement over the life of an EV.
Of course, no discussion of electric vehicle cost savings would be complete without mention of the large-scale cost savings associated with preventing global warming. If the world transitions from ICE-powered vehicles to electric vehicles powered by renewable energy sources, we can still reverse the warming trend that has been documented in recent years. Not only would this save the world trillions of dollars; it could also save millions of lives.
At this point, an astute reader might argue, “Sure, what you say looks good on paper, but what about the real world? From what I’ve seen, EVs are currently more expensive than ICE-powered cars.” , and their limited range makes them less convenient.”
Clearly, electric vehicles have yet to reach their full potential in terms of cost benefits, convenience, and reliability. For example, an AC-powered eBox would set you back about $70,000 ($15,000 for a used Scion xB plus $55,000 for the conversion) versus about $20,000 for a new Scion xB. Why is there such a difference in price? Volume! Tom Gage, president of AC Propulsion, predicts the company could bring the cost down to “an equivalent retail price of $10,000 per powertrain” if they were making 50,000 to 100,000 units per year. If a major automaker built millions of powertrains each year, costs would be much lower.
Range issues are also being addressed through the rapid development of better batteries. The original GM EV1, introduced in 1996 with low-tech lead acid batteries, had a “real” range of between 45 and 75 miles, depending on how aggressively the car was driven. When GM introduced the same car with NiMH batteries, the range nearly doubled. The Tesla Roadster, scheduled for production launch in early 2008, has a published range of 245 miles. Other EVs slated for production, such as the Chevrolet Volt due to launch around 2010, will be PHEVs. As such, homeowners will be able to plug in their volts and charge the battery packs from an outlet. The car will travel approximately forty miles on the energy stored in the batteries, but drivers need not worry if the battery pack runs out! The Volt will be equipped with a small generator and fuel tank. The generator will automatically turn on before the batteries run out and provide enough electricity to run the car and recharge the batteries. The Volt will have a total range of 390 miles. If the fuel tank is low, simply fill it up at a local service station and the car is “ready to go” for another long stretch of road. Rumors are circulating that Tesla and Toyota are also developing PHEVs for release in the near future.
Convinced? Ready to make the switch to a convenient and affordable electric vehicle? If so, you may be wondering how to encourage auto companies to build and sell electric vehicles as soon as possible. The good news is that you can choose from a few electric vehicles available right now, like the eBox described above. If $70K is too much money, you can buy one of the many electric bikes on the market today, starting at under $1000. If you want a little more power, enough to ride on a multi-lane highway, you can buy a Vectrix MaxiScooter, with a top speed of 62 mph and a range of over sixty miles.
But most will agree that the golden age of electric vehicles is in the future. How do we make this golden age happen as soon as possible? Here are some ideas:
– Get in touch with the main car manufacturers and tell them that you want to buy an electric vehicle. Let them know you plan to put off buying a new vehicle until you can buy a BEV or PHEV. Car companies really do respond to customer demands. Think of how quickly its marketing campaigns have gone from extolling the size of its SUVs to bragging about the fuel economy of its compact cars, now that gas prices are skyrocketing. Here is contact information published by the Plug-In America group:
Ford (800) 392-FORD (or 800-392-3673)
ford motor company
Customer Relationship Center
post office box 6248,
Dearborn, Michigan 48126
GM/Saturn (800) 553-6000
Customer care Center
Saturn Avenue 100
MD-371-999-S24
Spring Hill, Tennessee 37174
Honda (800) 999-1009
Honda Automotive Customer Service
Torrance Boulevard 1919
Mail stop: 500 – 2N – 7D
Torrence, CA 90501-2746
Nissan (800) NISSAN-1 (or 800-647-7261)
Nissan Consumer Affairs
PO Box 685003
Franklin TN 37068-5003
Mitsubishi (888)MITSU2007 (or 888-648-7820)
Mitsubishi Motors North America, Inc.
PO Box 6014, Cypress, CA 90630-0014
Toyota (800) 331-4331
Toyota Motor Sales, USA, Inc.
19001 Southwest Avenue Department WC11
Torrence, CA 90501
– Join an EV advocacy group like “Plug In America”
– Spread the word! Let your friends know that their lives will be better once they start driving electric vehicles!