Electric Vehicle Technology - Is It Enough?

by Robert L. Gisel

The competitive race in the commercial Electric Vehicles is starting to get interesting. While most of these are as yet not truly viable automobiles, the state of the art performance parameters of the commercial electric vehicles (EVs) are now closer to what is really needed to compete with existing autos. The question is will we get a road trip worthy plug in EV before we go broke on the price of gas at the pump.

The Nissan Leaf plug-in electric is now selling for about $25,000, after the tax credit, which is an attractive price. The downside of the Leaf is a range of 100 miles where an 8 hour fast charge is needed, or regular 120 volt home charge of about 16 hours (4days drive from Los Angeles to San Francisco). Speed and acceleration are not mentioned and the car is neo-Japanese styling,which to me, is rather on the ugly side of aesthetics. But it has only sold less than 500 since October and it has a long way to go to to be viable.

The good looking new Tesla Model S plug-in electric just announced for 2011 will have a range of 300 miles at a cost of under $50,000 and a spunky 0-60 in 3.7 seconds. Tesla currently sells it's high-performance electric Roadster that for about $100,000 and it can nail 0-60 mph in a mere 3.7 seconds with a top end up to 120 mph. It travels about 250 miles between recharging. The fast charge, however, can take up to 8 hours.

That stretches the 6 hour drive to Sacramento to 14 hours. That will never do. The high price and the range that is just short would account for the low sales figures since 2008, reported to be over 1500 in 30 countries.
With most current gas burners one can drive to Sacramento or San Francisco on one tank of gas, so paying top dollar for a car that won't make it there in one day is a tough sell, even for the pride of green pioneer exclusivity.

The Fisker Karma will be a 4 passenger Luxury sedan for the price range of $90,000 and an effective range of 300 miles in its gas and electric combo.  Fisker says it will be released in December. But only 50 miles of that range is electric, so it is a plug-in hybrid which delivers 67 miles per gallon. The Prius Hybrid will do that. Even the Volt hybrid performance is in that ballpark and for about half the sticker price.  However, the 0-6 in about 60 seconds and 125 mph top end are good performance statistics on a car which has good aesthetic appeal.

The GM Volt is probably a hybrid similar to the Karma, with on board recharging and an expected reach of about 300 miles, or effective mpg of high 60's, and priced in the $30-40,000 range. I don'e get how they have configured their fall-backi gas engine. The looks are American car  appealing, that is to say, not unpleasing, and it doesn't have the offbeat configuration that is typical to a lot of EVs and Hybrids in the Asian styling. Some areas have started selling this so that about 1500 have sold since October, 2010.

One should be able to drive from Los Angeles to San Fransisco without stopping for recharge, and if you do have to stop it can't take 8 to 12 hours to top up the batteries.

Last I looked the English Lightening was trying to get together a US model. For now the English release is expected to do 0-60 in under 4 seconds and have a top speed of 120 mph. The range is said be 188 miles, but here is the kicker. The high voltage recharge (220 volts) will effect an 80% recharge in ten minutes. (That's what they said.) Their secret is their own battery development. Making a Lithiun Ion Carbonate battery they claim to have overcome the temperature problem associated with previous batteries, which get too hot  in a fast recharge or are have to be warmed up to start in sub temperatures. An infrstructure is needed but we're getting closer to the real thing. Oh, did I mention, the price tag is around $240,000 USD for the Lightening. It is a great looking sports car though.

The industry overall has miles to go to measure up in its science. Battery Technology is still not up to speed, no pun intended, though there seems to be a race to get there. Tesla has contracted Pansonic to deliver a new battery to Tesla in 2012. My back-of-the-envelope calculations put this battery's expectancy at roughly 60% increase of what Tesla has now. Supposing that, and that Panasonic delivers, Teslas would probably make it to San Fransico without a recharge. It looks like in a few years the industry could go from almost to adequate.

Provided we make it past the Mayan apocolypse, superstition seemingly what the science is running on.
With my secret inventions I am postulating 400 plus miles and fast charge of 80% in 15 or so minutes in a Jeep retrofit affordably (depending on battery prices) that can even recharge 10 miles off road up Cripple Creek. You know, a real EV Rec Vehicle that can go somewhere. That is a stretch but doable (you haven't seen my secret weapon) and will put the EV into real competition on the automotive market.

I'm not necessarily trying to be the first there in these goals but for sure I want to force the standards to be more than an "almost vehicle", one where you can actually go somewhere in a plug-in EV. Only then can we begin think of being done with the gas stations.

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=--=-=-
Read My Blogs:

WhoWouldWrite.blogspot.com
OnceAnAlaskan.blogspot.com
FavoringLife.blogspot.com
ThinkTankMan.blogspot.com
LimitlessEnergy.blogspot.com
RightsFreedomsandRights.blogspot.com
DesignerGeodesics.blogspot.com
FreshAlaskanAir.blogspot.com