Important acronyms:
BEV: Battery Electric Vehicle – A vehicle that runs exclusively on the 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 world warming, belching car power plants that were used in the dark ages of the 20th century.
kWh: kilowatt * hour: unit of energy equivalent to 1000 watt * hour. 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 further on a single battery pack charge, compared 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 an onboard ICE and a fuel tank that can power the car if the battery pack is powered. batteries is drained.
What is the problem? You have read articles on electric vehicles. You have seen people with posters at demonstrations. You know a lot of people want major automakers to start building 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 EVs 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 power grid gets 80% of its power from dirty, antiquated coal plants. . In addition, the elimination of gasoline cars could eliminate our dependence on foreign oil. Getting rid of oil power would improve national and world security. As long as we depend on distant and politically unstable regions of the world for much of our energy supply, we run the risk of disasters. The world would be a safer place if each region produced its own energy in a sustainable and environmentally friendly way.
However, the bottom line 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 comfortable to operate.
Imagine your day if you were driving an electric vehicle. It would take you just a few seconds to unplug your car every morning. Since the car is powered from a socket in the wall, it would be easy to design a system that allows you to tell your car when to turn on the electric heater so that your seats and the steering wheel are nice and warm when you climb in. You would never have to queue at gas stations. The powertrain in an EV is much simpler than the powertrain in 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 electric vehicle is the car for you.
Driving an EV also costs less. For example, let’s look at an electric vehicle currently being made by California-based company AC Propulsion. Your eBox uses a first-generation Scion xB platform, with the original ICE powertrain replaced by its electric powertrain. A standard 2006 Scion xB had a combined fuel mileage rating of 31 mpg. At gas prices of $ 3 / gallon, the xB uses 10 cents of gas per mile. The eBox can travel 120-150 miles on a single charge from its 35kWh battery pack. If we assume that electricity costs 10 cents per kWh and the battery is completely drained 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 energy than a standard Scion xB.
Also, 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, brake pads and rotors last several times longer than an ICE-powered car. Since electric motors have much more torque at lower speeds compared to ICEs, transmissions in electric vehicles can be dramatically simplified. The simplified powertrain in an EV not only makes it more reliable, it also results in much lower maintenance costs.
Probably the most expensive part of an electric vehicle, in terms of maintenance, is the battery. All batteries manufactured today have a limited lifespan. Unless this changes, all electric vehicles will eventually need a new battery, which will cost thousands of dollars. However, companies like A123 and Altairnano are developing lithium batteries with a much longer lifespan than current lithium-ion batteries. People also drive electric vehicles much further than expected on a single battery. Skeptics originally predicted that the NiMH batteries in the Toyota RAV4 EV, available in the US from 1997 to 2003, would have to be replaced during the first 50,000 miles of travel, but the RAV4 EV has surprised the community of EV, with several of the original battery packs lasting over 100,000 miles.
It’s reasonable to expect replacement battery prices to drop to $ 2000 when mass-produced for a major automaker. If the useful life of these battery packs can be increased to 150,000 miles through technological development, the cost per mile for battery use would be 1.3 cents. Compare that to the cost of getting an oil change at Jiffy Lube every 3000 miles. Using a “synthetic blend” motor oil will cost you $ 49.99 per visit, at 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 shifts from ICE-powered vehicles to EVs powered by renewable energy sources, we can still reverse the heating trend that has been documented in recent years. This would not only save billions of dollars in the world; 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, electric vehicles are currently more expensive than motorized cars. ICE, and their limited scope makes them less convenient. “
Clearly, electric vehicles have yet to reach their full potential in terms of cost, convenience, and reliability benefits. For example, an AC Propulsion eBox would cost you roughly $ 70,000 ($ 15K for a used Scion xB plus $ 55K for the conversion) versus roughly $ 20,000 for a new Scion xB. Why is there such a price difference? Volume! Tom Gage, president of AC Propulsion, predicts that the company could reduce the cost to “a retail price equivalent to $ 10,000 per powertrain” if they were making between 50,000 and 100,000 units per year. If a major automaker built millions of transmissions each year, costs would drop 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 world” 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 almost doubled. The Tesla Roadster, slated for production launch in early 2008, has a published range of 245 miles. Other electric vehicles slated for production, such as the Chevrolet Volt that will be released in or around 2010, will be PHEVs. As such, homeowners will be able to plug in their volts and charge battery packs from an electrical outlet. The car will travel approximately forty miles on the energy stored in the batteries, but drivers need not worry if they drain the battery! The Volt will be equipped with a small generator and a fuel tank. The generator will automatically turn on before the batteries are depleted and provide enough electricity to power the car and recharge the batteries. The Volt will have a total range of 390 miles. If the fuel tank is low, just fill it up at a local gas 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 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 ahead. How do we make this golden age happen ASAP? Here are some ideas:
– Contact major car manufacturers and tell them you want to buy an electric vehicle. Let them know that you plan to put off buying a new vehicle until you can buy a BEV or PHEV. Car companies really respond to customer demands. Think how quickly their marketing campaigns have gone from praising the size of their SUVs to boasting about the gas mileage of their compact cars, now that gas prices are on the rise. Here is contact information posted by the Plug-In America group:
Ford (800) 392-FORD (or 800-392-3673)
Ford motor company
Customer Relations Center
PO Box 6248,
Dearborn, Michigan 48126
GM / Saturn (800) 553-6000
Customer support center
100 Saturn Parkway
MD-371-999-S24
Spring Hill, TN 37174
Honda (800) 999-1009
Honda car customer service
1919 Torrance Boulevard
Mail stop: 500 – 2N – 7D
Torrance, CA 90501-2746
Nissan (800) NISSAN-1 (or 800-647-7261)
Nissan consumer affairs
P.O. Box 685003
Franklin TN 37068-5003
Mitsubishi (888) MITSU 2007 (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 South Western Ave. Apt. WC11
Torrance, CA 90501
– Join an electric vehicle advocacy group like “Plug In America”
– Spread the word! Let your friends know that their lives will improve once they start driving electric vehicles!