Electric Vehicles Can Meet Drivers' Needs Enough To Replace 90 Percent of Vehicles Now On The Road (phys.org)

An anonymous reader writes from a report via Phys.Org: Researchers at MIT have just completed the most comprehensive study yet to address whether or not existing electric vehicles could bring about a meaningful reduction in the greenhouse-gas emissions that are causing global climate change. Yes, they can. The study was published today in the journal Nature Energy. Phys.Org reports: "'Roughly 90 percent of the personal vehicles on the road daily could be replaced by a low-cost electric vehicle available on the market today, even if the cars can only charge overnight,' Trancik says, 'which would more than meet near-term U.S. climate targets for personal vehicle travel.' Overall, when accounting for the emissions today from the power plants that provide the electricity, this would lead to an approximately 30 percent reduction in emissions from transportation. The team spent four years on the project, which included developing a way of integrating two huge datasets: one highly detailed set of second-by-second driving behavior based on GPS data, and another broader, more comprehensive set of national data based on travel surveys. Together, the two datasets encompass millions of trips made by drivers all around the country. By working out formulas to integrate the different sets of information and thereby track one-second-resolution drive cycles, the MIT researchers were able to demonstrate that the daily energy requirements of some 90 percent of personal cars on the road in the U.S. could be met by today's EVs, with their current ranges, at an overall cost to their owners -- including both purchase and operating costs -- that would be no greater than that of conventional internal-combustion vehicles."

Comments

Driving yes, but charging?

[houstonbofh]

How about all the people that live in apartments with first come first serve parking? Or people that park in the street? Or way down the street? Overnight charging is not simple for everyone.

Re:Driving yes, but charging?

[Anonymous Coward]

The difference is that people don't have to sit at a gas station overnight. Because filling up your car only takes 10 minutes at a gas station (max), not everyone needs to have one. When you can pull into an electric charging station and leave ten minutes later with a full charge, people will start using electric cars. Also, when it becomes as cheap to buy an electric car with equivalent range (thinking about $12K Honda Civics that get 40mpg).

Re:Driving yes, but charging?

[Izuzan]

but how far can you drive on a 10 minute charge. im pretty sure the person spending 10 minutes to fill a tank can go 2 or 3x's the distance you can on a full nights charge.

Re:Driving yes, but charging?

[Izuzan]

good deflection.
It takes me about 3-4 minutes to fill my 65l tank in my charger. that allows me to go about 500km before a refill. that overnight charge of yours allows you to go how far ? from 100- to at best 170km at a go ?

Re:Driving yes, but charging?

[kheldan]

I arrive home, plug in and leave it.

How nice for you. However you're totally ignoring the original commetors' point: Not everyone lives in a HOUSE, many people live in apartments or other places where it becomes very very problematic to have to plug in a vehicle to charge it overnight. No apartments I ever used to live in would tolerate people running extension cords out their back windows every day, and that's assuming you could even park that close. No way the vast majority of property owners would ante up for EV charging stations, and in a large apartment complex there would have to be dozens of them to serve everyone.

The real problem boils down to infrastructure. We've had a hundred years to build up the infrastructure to refuel IC engine vehicles pretty much anywhere. EV charging stations are few and far between and even high-voltage high-current types like Tesla uses aren't as fast as dumping gasoline into your tank. It will take decades to build up the infrastructure to serve mass amounts of electric vehicles, and it still won't be anywhere near as fast as refilling a liquid fuel tank. It'll take decades more to progress battery technology to the point where it's as fast and convenient to recharge as it is right now to dump 10 or 12 gallons of fuel into a tank. That's assuming the idea ever catches on enough that a large enough fraction of the population moves to electric vehicles to force the changeover. Face it, we've got a long, long ways to go yet before electric vehicle acceptance is not only popular, but practical.

Re:Driving yes, but charging?

[bferrell]

The entitled are desperate to keep people from thinking about not having a garage.

Battery electrics basic assumption is that of entitlement... Everyone owns their dwelling and has access to a charger dedicate for their individual use. Just another way of saying "I got mine, so screw you"

Silicon valley is already seeing "charger rage" incidents where access to shared chargers just isn't working.

Re:Driving yes, but charging?

[tsotha]

People who don't have power where they park is a "fringe case"? That's daft.

Re:Driving yes, but charging?

[Anonymous Coward]

Electric cars _really don't_ have "just as much maintenance". Combustion engines are relatively high maintenance gear, they have a LOT of moving parts, which all wear out and need lubricant changes. An electric car drive train is much, much simpler, which means less to maintain. There are probably dozens of electric motors in your home, but you never think about "Man, when does the DVD player next need an oil change?" because they're low maintenance.

90% of time not 90% of vehicles

[Roger W Moore]

The oil industry and fossil car industries are desperate that people not realise how convenient it is to have a charger in your garage.

For everyday around town use the home charger is fine. The problem is that it is not really 90% of vehicles that the electric car could replace but a single vehicle 90% of the time (which is still 90% of vehicles on the road at any one time). ~10% of the time we used our car for going on holiday or taking long road trips for other reasons. This, along with the incredibly high price, is what makes an electric car impractical for me. The high price will probably get fixed with time but to go on holiday with the family I need a car with a large range that can be refuelled quickly. While I would love to have an electric car with that capability for around the same price as a petrol driven one that is not something I see happening any time soon.

the best way to lie to the public is to use %

[jellomizer]

Let's put it an other way so that 90% doesn't look so good.
They are about 365 days a year. There is 10% time an electric car won't work for you.
So that is being 36.5 days a year (over a full month) of times your electric car will fail you.
And most people will not have the luxury to buy a second car for those extra times.

In short that 90% number is saying that electric car technology and infrastructure isn't quite there yet. But packages in a way to fool people who do not want to dig into numbers.

They still need to work on longer range faster full charging. I would love to see the day where I can choose an electric car... However the technology and infrastructure isn't there yet.