I am an avid advocate for electric cars and green technology in particular. I'm on the wait list for the Volt, have stock in several solar companies, and once Nanosolar comes out with a home package, my house is getting 8-10kW of solar power installed, so I can charge my volt and run my AC during the day for free.
BUT - in order to do all these things, they have to be COST-EFFECTIVE. I could put solar on my roof today for about $5 a watt, but then it would take 20 years to pay for itself. I could retrofit a prius to be a plug in hybrid, but it would take 10 years, even at $4 a gallon, to recoup the cost of doing so. I'm a practical greenie. Which is why I get so annoyed when I hear people talk about how GM "killed" the electric car. More over the fold.
I am SO tired of hearing how GM "killed" the electric car. The very concept is ridiculous. They tried to make something work that was way ahead of it's time, and the technology simply didn't exist yet to make it work.
Let's look at the very best EV-1, the Gen 2.
Range - 75-150 miles.
Charge time - 2-3 hours 80%, 8 hours 100%
Top speed - 80Mph, governed
Cost - $575/mo lease.
Two seats, decent ride, decent handling.
If someone offered you a two-seat gas car that could go 150 miles per fill, using two gallons of gas, but you had to refill it using a hospital drip feed, and it would cost you $500 per month, would you buy it? Of course not. Besides, highway scooters at the time already did all that, had better range and cost less than a 10th the cost per month.
For half the lease price, you could get a toyota corolla, mazda protege, dodge neon, or any of a number of other small commuter type cars which all had higher top speeds, more than double the range, and could be refueled in less than 5 minutes.
Even today, the best and brightest minds, using the newest technology, still can't deliver a fully electric car that gets more than 250 miles to a charge for less than $109,000. Why do people think they could have been competitive 20 years ago? The whole idea is ridiculous.
If you want an electric car to make a difference, they have to be economical enough to start replacing gas cars. In order to do that, there are several technical hurdles to overcome.
Disadvantages of electric cars
- Battery Energy Density
Basically, this is how much energy per unit of weight you get. Currently, good Lithium Ion batteries get about .22 miles per pound (The roughly 1000 lb unit in the tesla gives a range of about 220 miles). The EV-1 had about 1/3 to 1/4 this energy density. This is one of the biggest stumbling blocks to electric cars. Recently, a Stanford Reasearchermade a huge breakthrough that could potentially revolutionize battery technology with a potential 10 fold increase in power density. That means your tesla could potentially go 2200 miles on a charge.
- Battery Charge time
Pushing enough energy into a batter to move a car is a difficult task. To put it in perspective, if you use a standard 115v three prong plug to charge your Tesla, it will take 40 hours. Tesla provides a charging unit that can do it in 3.5 hours, but it need serious output, not unlike the power required to run your electric clothes dryer. If we increased the capacity by 10 fold, as in the previous example, it would take 10 times longer to charge, and we're back up to 40 hours. So, in order to reduce charge times, we either have to have some sort of capacitor available to quickly charge the batteries, or we have to be able to swap out the batteries easily.
- Battery lifetime
This is a problem that's been mostly overcome. Modern Lithium batteries have a MUCH longer lifetime than the old Lead Acids (your car battery lasts about 3-4 years, and that's WITHOUT deep discharching) or even Nickel Metal Hydride. The specs for GMs upcoming Volt requires that the battery packs last 150,000 miles at 40 miles per charge. Like a car motor, the battery packs will eventually wear out.
- Battery cost
Batteries are still not cheap, though costs are continuing to drop. Plus, there are new battery chemistries on the horizon, such as Lithium Sulfur, that could be far cheaper than current Lithium technology with similar power density.
Advantages
- Ease of maintenance
There are several advantages in this department. Less break wear, since regenerative breaking takes some of the stopping duty away from the pads and rotors. No oil changes. No coolant system to worry about. No transmission required, since electric motors can rev far higher than ICE motors, and are efficient across their entire RPM spectrum. Breakdowns can be easily traced to either the motor, the controller, or the battery, and all can be built to be easily replaced.
- Acceleration
In a 0-60 run, with two cars with identical weight and power ratings, one electric and one gas, the electric will win every single time. The reason is simple - with an electric motor, not only do you get 100% of your torque at 0 rpm, you don't have the power losses of a transmission that has to shift during the process.
- Silent operation
Electric cars are very, very quiet, due to their efficient operation.
- Efficiency
Electric cars are about 80% efficient plug to wheel. ICE cars are about 20% efficient, and that doesn't include the energy required to get the gas to the pump in the first place. Also, electric motors are smaller and lighter than similarly power gas or diesel motors, and they are sealed units that require little maintenance.
What do we do in the meantime, as electric cars are developed?
Behold the GM Volt.
A serial hybrid is about the best idea GM has ever come up with. It takes advantage of current battery technology, mates it with a swappable auxiliary power unit, and leaves the platform open for new technologies, all while allowing them the needed experience with building electric cars. As a future proofing technology platform, it's nothing short of brilliant. Say the hydrogen infrastructure magically materializes. Great, swap out the gas motor and gas tanks with a fuel cell and hydrogen tanks. Or go green currently and install a bio-Diesel motor that runs on french fry grease. Or something more exotic. As long as it fits in the aux power plant space, it will work. And lastly, the platform is adaptable to most types of body styles. Minivan, station wagon, luxury car, all are easily doable on this platform.
The future is bright for electric cars and parallel hybrids. Just don't try to say that something was dead before it was ever really born.
UPDATE: Edited for technical error. Many thanks to those who pointed it out.