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EVs In the Spotlight At West Coast Green Conference
DeviceGuru writes "Electric vehicles were prominent among the 'hot products' showcased at West Coast Green in San Francisco this week. The event's product expo featured an assortment of preproduction units, prototypes, and concept models based on two-, three-, and four-wheel designs, along with several of the vehicles' creators. Specifically, the EVs and plug-in hybrids that participated in the show included Wheego's Whip, Saba's Carbon Zero Roadster, Green Lite's three-wheeled plug-in hybrid, Brammo's all-electric Enertia motorcycle, and Mitsubishi's i-MiEV EV, which PG&E is evaluating for some unstated purpose. Notably absent were Nissan's LEAF, Chevy's Volt, Toyota's Prius Plug-in, and Tesla's sexy Roadster, though in fairness the conference wasn't an actual auto show. So how many Slashdot readers plan to switch over to a plug-in EV in the next few years?"
How about Better Place? The creator had a prominent TED speech. Fills up faster than a regular car, and cheaper to own. The only issue is that they plan on charging by the mile, but insist it's still cheaper than your gas guzzler.
Paid to stand in line and expect delivery by end-of-year. I nearly had an EV-1 back in the day, but backed out when they refused to sell them, would only lease. This time should be the charm. The charger location is approved by my HOA and the install estimate is done, so it's just a matter of when Nissan can get production ramped up enough. there's a set of legacy chargers across from my office, so I have the option of plugging in during the day. And the city gives free parking to EV owners in their garages, so it is even subsidized. They just need to update the AVCON plug to the newer version and things should be set.
Since we can plug in an electric car for repowering in our homes and at our offices (and other destinations), they don't need as far a range. And since we generally use our cars for much shorter trips than the maximum range, that range was wasted capacity anyway, except for rare trips. Trips for which we can rent a car more suited for it.
The main problem with our transit economy has been buying cars with much more capacity than we need, and then looking for excuses to use it. If the lower capacity of early electric cars gets Americans to change our driving habits to use less energy, plus they're more efficient, we'll have won on both the important fronts needed to use energy responsibly.
Once the technology can offer the same full range at the same price for the machines as combustion cars did, we'll largely have outgrown them. But to get there, we need more people to realize that these early versions are completely satisfactory for reasonable use. Which will increase consumption, deliver returns on the initial models' investment, and bring down prices while increasing performance.
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make install -not war
You actually have the right idea with the big car. Old toyota pickups full of lead acids are the mainstay of DIY EV converters (I'm not one, just an observer). Why? because they have a high MPG*payload product, and thus can handle the weight. Lead-acid is ready to roll, right now. Li-ion is just too expensive right now. LiFePO4 might be there but really hasn't been proven yet. NiMH might be the dark horse candidate. So we're stuck with lead-acid, for all its suckyness.
In terms of convertible vehicles, I like toyota pickups, vans, and toyota highlanders. Why? I wrote a simulator that simulates drag, battery effects, and a bunch of other stuff and figures out the range of an electric car. Vans, hummers, and the like came out on top in terms of range. Highlander had the highest MPG*payload product.
Responsibility is an addiction
Virtue is a temptation
Community is a cartel
People are mis-identifying their concerns, in my opinion. The average consumer is concerned about getting stranded because their vehicle runs out of fuel. In a gasoline powered fuel, you walk to the nearest gas station, fill up a container with gas, walk it back to your car, and you are good to go. If we could come up with a similar mechanism for an electric car, and help people feel comfortable that the need to employ it would be rare, then the concern would be mostly gone. I think the best suggestion I've seen so far is make sure the batteries used are modular, and easy to replace. If you run out of power, you can go grab a single replacement, which would get you to the station, where you could swap out the rest. That deals with the recharge rate - and might even be faster than refilling with gasoline, if it could be done correctly. The problem with that line of thought is that battery technology, and electric car technology - is not yet at a point where it is "good enough". And any educated market analyst will tell you that modularity in a market where the product isn't yet "good enough" will not compete well against integrated and proprietary product stacks that can be tweaked and changed more quickly in response to technological changes.
This one probably won't be true. Most wires just can't give out enough power. Recharging a car at speeds at which a gas car is charged takes around 5 megawatts. That means that 10 of my local costco gas stations = 1 powerplant.
It's not quite that bad. 1 megawatt is more like it. The Tesla Roadster battery has a capacity of 53kWh. Their "fast charge" is 3 hours, and requires 220V 80A, or 17.6 KW. To charge 60x faster, in 3 minutes, would require about 1 MW. (4KV at 250A, perhaps?)
It's been suggested that stations on weaker parts of the power grid might have local batteries, to level out their load. They could still charge a car in 3 minutes, but maybe only 5-10 cars per hour. Then they only need 100KW coming in.
Batteries that can take charge rates like that don't exist yet. There are claims from the "nanotechnology" crowd that they will be available Real Soon Now. We'll see.
15 minute charge, though, is feasible now. That can be addressed with marketing; the combo gas station/Burger King/Starbucks/grocery store might work. (Or not.)
Consider a service plaza on a major Interstate highway in an isolated area. A good example would be I-15 from LA to Vegas. Assume a range of 200 miles, like a Tesla roadster. Every 20 miles, there's a service plaza. Assume 10% of cars come in for a recharge at each service plaza. An expressway lane has a capacity of 2000 cars per hour, so an 8-lane freeway has 16,000 cars per hour at max. If 10% of those need a Tesla-sized recharge, that's about 50KWh per car, or 1600*50 KWH/hr, or 8 megawatts per service plaza per direction, or 16MW per service plaza, or 80MW for 100 miles of road. That's big, but not unreachable.
The average consumer is concerned about getting stranded because their vehicle runs out of fuel.
Another possible option: call a tow truck, have the tow-truck use its engine to recharge your battery to the point where you can make it to the nearest recharge station. Not really all that different from what a lot of people would do when their gas-powered car runs out of gas.
I don't care if it's 90,000 hectares. That lake was not my doing.
I thought you could have a standard charging interface a bit like USB. You hook up your car and it uses a data interface to talk to the electricity provider. They exchange account details and if that works then you get charging current. Devices like this could be installed on a lot of electricity poles. Pretty much anywhere you can safely stop you could charge from the grid.
http://michaelsmith.id.au
Or you could just buy a better gas car for a hell of a lot less and fill up in 5 minutes at a gas station.
Define "better", please, because I'm not seeing any definition of "better" that fits that description. Electric vehicles have as much power as gasoline vehicles, they're much quieter, they're just as comfortable... Tell me how a loud, smelly thing is better than a quiet, clean one. Please.
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The answer, of course, would have been an Aptera 2h.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aptera_2_Series
An electric that went 100 miles or so, and later a hybrid that has the same batteries but when it ran down, a tiny gasoline motor would kick in recharging them. It's the exact same principle as diesel-electric trains that has been around since the 30s. The plus side is you can still have power (electric DC motors are potent) but you don't need a huge gasoline engine whose size is only used to 100% effect at hard acceleration (and wasting gas otherwise) and instead gear towards the lowest possible gasoline motor (smaller is much more mpg friendly) whose maximum output will roughly match the average depletion of the batteries during normal driving. Maybe a tiny fraction more.
Hell, even the really advanced big motored cars are trying to save gas by turning of cylinders (some Mercedes and Cadillacs, maybe others), why not bypass all that mechanical complexity and go with a tried and true system that worked the last 70 years for big ass trains?
Jay Leno testing the all electric Aptera just to prove it's not 100% vaporware:
http://vimeo.com/5285448
It doesn't need to be aptera only, but I think the only thing holding up the system are the weenies that think it's better to reach Utopia first (no gas instead of, say 100+ mpg) forgetting their little envirobiles will be made of plenty of lightweight plastic (petroleum).
I mean, if you really have a hard on for an electric car but need range from time to time, the only other real solution is to buy some electric car and rent a gas car when you need it.
They're a real commercial product, it's just that the factory output is booked years in advance.
What we need then is for the evil Chinese to copy or buy the technology, and start making zillions of them in Shenzen or wherever they make those sort of stuff.
There are already millions of electric bikes in use in China: http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1904334,00.html
They're also planning to build more than 100 nuclear reactors. If they succeed that might help clear up the smog in their cities.
Say what you like about their Gov, but they appear to have a long term plan that might actually work.
These are some excerpts from Nissans FAQ about the Leaf
DISCLAIMER *Based upon EPA LA4 test cycle conducted in laboratory tests. See http://www.fueleconomy.gov/feg/fe_test_schedules.shtml . Gradual loss of capacity in battery will result with time and use. Actual range will vary depending upon driving/charging habits, speed, conditions, weather, temperature, and battery age.
depending on the conditions, when your battery is new your range may vary anywhere from 138 - 62 miles. range is most affected by:
Climate control – the more extreme the temperature is outside, the more energy used to heat or cool the cabin.
Speed – higher speeds require much more energy to overcome air resistance.
Driving style – smooth acceleration and deceleration will extend range while aggressive acceleration and deceleration will decrease range.
Cargo and topography – heavy cargo and driving up steep long inclines will reduce range.
EPA LA4 test cycle: 100 miles
The Nissan LEAF has been tested under the EPA Urban Dynamometer Driving Schedule, a laboratory test commonly called the LA4 test cycle, which represents city driving conditions. Top speed is 56.7 mph and average speed is 19.59 mph. Ambient temperature can vary from 68 - 86 degrees. Climate control is off. The Nissan LEAF easily achieved 100 miles.
DISCLAIMER *All above scenarios based on new battery life. Estimated range based upon specific variables studied through computer simulations.
Now lets compare the leaf to a vehicle in it's class.
Nissan Leaf - Nissan Sentra SE-R Spec V // The leaf will be slow to acelerate up to highway speeds. // The leaf will be even slower to accelerate once up to speed and not as fun to drive. // The Sentra will handle better.
MSRP: $32,780 - $20,080 -> Win Sentra
Horse Power: 107 - 200 -> Win Sentra
Top Speed: 90 - 130 -> Win Sentra
0-60 Time: 9-10s - 6s -> Win Sentra
Transmission: 1speed - 6-Speed low ratio manual -> Win Sentra
Suspension: Normal - Sport Tuned -> Win Sentra
Styling: Win Sentra
The Spec V get's 31/24 mpg so lets go with the 24 mpg figure. For the price difference of $13,700 assuming 4 dollars per gallon I would have to drive a leaf for 82200 miles before I would break even with the Sentra and that's not counting the cost of electricity, rental cars when I need to go beyond the cars range, hotel rooms when I run out of juice and have to wait for it to recharge. And that was taking the highest end Sentra. The low end sentra has an MSRP $15,520 I could buy two of those for the price of one leaf.
In every way the Spec V is a better car that will be more fun to drive.
Electricity is not subject to the taxes imposed on motor fuels. This artificially skews the cost comparisons being made. What happens if there is a substantial shift to electric power and states find that revenue from gas road taxes starts falling off? It makes sense to me that they will shift the tax burden to electricity use. This will cause some problem since electricity is used for many things other than transportation. A per mile tax on electric vehicles is the answer. Maybe. A legislative conundrum!
Sorry, but gray text on gray background is making my eyes bleed.
This is the approach being taken by the Chevy Volt, which isn't on sale yet but seems far more likely to see widespread adoption than the Aptera (based on marketing budgets and so on).