Until GM’s stylish EV-1 came along, electric vehicles (EVs) looked like they were made in shop class. Back then, very few people actually thought about owning an EV. Though many electric dreams have been literally crushed, green-thinking and/or peak oil-aware drivers now look to EVs as the natural successor to traditional fossil-fuel sucking and CO2 spewing motorcars. But are they worthy?
With standard nickel metal hydride batteries, no. Neighborhood Electric Vehicles (NEVs) demonstrate the best use– and limitations– of the technology. NEVs such as GEM and ZENN are fully functional, ready right now vehicles. But most of us would hesitate to (as in never) shell out $10K – $15K for a vehicle with a range of 30 to 35 miles and a speed of 25 to 30 mph– especially when we could get a Yaris or Fit for the same money.
The EV’s immediate and long-term future [still] depends on developing powerful, reliable and safe batteries. At the moment EV hopes reside in lithium-ion batteries, which are twice as powerful by weight as nickel-metal-hydride batteries.
Li-ion cells work great in our mobile phones and iPods. But automotive batteries must transfer much larger amounts of energy than a notebook battery. Safety, both real and perceived, is a huge problem. Fire can result from a ruptured separator: the electrically insulating porous polymer membranes that stop electrons (but let ions pass) between anode and cathode.
Automakers need high performance separators that allow greater ion flow and thus more power with safety membranes that close pores when overheated, thus stopping fire. Production is complicated; the Tesla Motor’s Li-Ion cooling system is a complex work-around with inherent risks and limitations, both practical and financial. Meanwhile, Evonik, Celgard, Asahi Kasei and even ExxonMobil are working on multilayer separators to make lithium-ion car batteries safe enough for soccer moms.
Even if they don't burst into flame, lithium-ion batteries are expensive. Their capacity often degrades in the first year. They don’t work well in cold temperatures. And they sometimes fail altogether after three years. Yet many EV startups confidently offer lithium-based electric vehicle conversions.
Hybrid Technologies lists a range of electric vehicle conversions. The Smart ForTwo becomes the $43.5K LiV Dash; the MINI Cooper becomes the $57.5K LiV Flash; the Chrysler PT Cruiser becomes the $55K LiV Surge; and most recently, the Toyota Yaris becomes the $39.5K LiV Wise. Hybrid Technologies claim 100 mile ranges, 70 to 80 mph speeds and at least 1500 charges.
Lion EV offers the $30K Ford Ranger EV, a $35.5K Ford Escape EV and a $37.5K Ford Escape Hybrid PHEV. They claim a base range of 120 miles for the Escape EV and 200 miles for the Ranger EV.
For serious EV shoppers, their manufacturers’ greatest weakness: you can pretty much forget about kicking the tires and taking your prospective purchase for a quiet spin. Hybrid Tech is looking for distributors other than the catalog at Sam's Club. LionEV claims their dealerships are home-based with no lots to visit. "How can I arrange a tour of your manufacturing plant?" asks the LionEV FAQ. "You can't," is the answer.
Prices for these unseen, untouched vehicles are expressed in general terms– many options cannot be specified before ordering. And ordering online requires paying an upfront deposit weeks, months and even years ahead of delivery.
Lion and Hybrid are two of the rare companies that actually let you order four-wheel electric vehicles with some expectation of delivery. The Tango looks great next to George Clooney, but it requires a $10K deposit and a two to three year wait (while Commuter Cars lines up investors). Phoenix and Think maintain Flash-y websites that promise breakthroughs, but never seem to have anything for sale (in the U.S., anyway). And then there’s Tesla’s Roadster. Or, as is the case, not.
Assuming that EV makers get their acts together and create lithium-ion batteries (or some better storage medium) that are powerful enough to offer the range and recharge times consumers demand, and safe enough to withstand America’s litigious society, the question remains: are EVs a suitable solution to our desire for personal mobility?
On the positive side, nearly everyone has electrical power in their homes and businesses. No question: there’s a lot of unused nighttime generating capacity. EVs run clean, run quiet (too quiet, according to advocates for the hearing challenged).
On the negative side, electrical energy has to come from somewhere, and that source is usually CO2-emitting, fossil-fuel-fired plants and/or the ever-controversial nuclear power plants. Except for the tiny contribution by wind and solar, and the modest contribution by hydroelectric, electricity is not clean power. Nor is electric power any more guaranteed to stay less expensive than oil and natural gas.
In short, EVs have a long way to go before they can go a long way towards transforming America’s transportation system.
Electric vehicle technology seemed to advance until about the early 1920s and then seemed to stagnate until the late 80’s/early 90s when interest picked up again. No manufacturer put too much time, trouble, and money into EVs until they were forced to deal with global warming, environmentalists, high fuel prices, etc. And the American public sure wasn’t lining up to buy EVs until it seems recently.
I believe electric cars can and will become real cars, not mere science projects, with time. There will be disappointments and setbacks, just like there were with IC engined cars, but in time, it can happen. Have faith brothers…
For a second I saw the headline and thought, “What’s the singer from Steely Dan doing writing about electric cars?”
You probably get that a lot.
Yes, even though he spells his name Donald Fagen, half the Dan sites on the internet spell it my way.
interesting. i would LOVE TO buy an electric, i commute about 20 miles each way, this would be perfect. I will not pay 57k for the privelege.
perhaps an electric car with a backup engine – would not have to be much of one – it would only be recharging the batteries. Isn’t Volvo working on such a system? There are alot of deisel electric locomotives – its not like there is no technology already in existance.
Oh well. Seems we are in the stranglehold of big oil – at gasoline at record highs and exxon mobil raking in the money, as well as lots of oil producing countries, we will be forced to continue tithing.
Also, electricity may not be perfectly clean, but its probably alot easier to clean up the emissions of a few hundred coal plants then a few million cars.
I had the same Steely Dan reaction.
I think a lot of these companies have faith in government imposed requirements for electric only vehicles. It is probably the only way these things are going to be sold in large quantities since the economics don’t add up. Just assume for a minute that your ok with the range and speed limitations, these cars cost a lot and don’t last as long as gasoline powered cars do.
I honestly don’t see EVs taking top spot in car sales, ever. I think some sort of hybrid with a liquid fuel will always be preferable to EVs because unless there is somme sort of government mandate, it would be very difficult to get all these EV companies to conform to a standard fast charging method that could be put in place at filling stations everywhere. With bio-diesel or bio-alcohol, the brand of car will not matter, refueling will be the same easy affair it is today and you can still have your plug in ability for shorter runs from your home base station.
jerseydevil, “… perhaps an electric car with a backup engine…”
jd, that’s exactly the concept behind the Volt. Whether or not GM can build it… that’s the question.
Lutz on the Volt Delay
Management of the battery and charging is a real problem. Notice the mention of zero-to-sixty times in a minute…
Lutz also describes the Coskata process in that video. Or I should say, Lutz describes what he imagines the Coskata process to be in that video.
I hope we get better than 60 miles out of a plug in in the future though.
Okay – I’m confused. The EV1 worked for over a 100 miles per charge in 1991 with 1991 technology. And GM crushed it. Didn’t even let the folks who wanted to keep their keep ’em.
Toyota became available in 1997 and some are still on the road and they still go over 100 miles per charge and almost certainly have an impressive number of miles on the odometer.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toyota_RAV4_EV
So what part of the EV technology doesn’t work??? GM and Toyota already did this once. They don’t work?
The Toyota RAV4-EV already can serve the needs of a good portion of the commuting public with 10 year old technology. Hell, I could commute for a whole week without recharging ina RAV4-EV.
I think this whole thing about waiting for the batteries to evolve is a smoke screen put out by the car companies and anti-EV crowd so they don’t have to build an EV right now. It allows them to continue milking technology already paid for (big engines, 15 mpg SUVs, etc). Part of the same business plan to give us big SUVs instead of station wagons. If they built GOOD station wagons people would buy them. You know, good LOOKING station wagons at a reasonable price.
All that internal combustion engine complexity and maintenance goes right out the window with an EV unless you have an EV with an on board ICE to charge the batteries (though I can’t imagine walking through the parking lots listening to two dozen 900cc engines running along at 2K rpm charging their batteries unattended…)
Start selling these things and the technology will evolve just like cellphones and laptops and whatever other gadgets we carry these days.
The EVs of our children will be another animal after a decade or two evolution, companies manuafacturing them, people hot rodding them, and other companies recyling them. Of course Champion spark plugs, Walker mufflers, Prestone antifreeze and a hundred other companies are going to feel the pinch. That is why we don’t EVs yet I feel certain. They and the car companies represent the status quo and they aren’t going to let things change too much too quickly so everybody can keep getting their paychecks.
Instead of spending billions on Iraq and other political “solutions” to keep the world order just so we can continue getting cheap oil, lets spend it here at home to alter what we do and how we do it.
Throw some of that money at solar and wind. Let them take the pressure off of hydro (we’ve had a drought around here), nukes and coal by supplimenting those energy sources when the conditions are right. Of course we’ll likely need to overhaul the nation’s grid to take advantage of these distributed energy sources that come and go with the clouds and the breeze. So now we’ve got excess capacity coming from roof tops all around us. Our pollution goes down.
Now start plugging in cars purchased with gov’t subsidies or cars with battery packs purchased with gov’t subsidies.
Now don’t get your knickers in a twist. For those of you who want to drive thirsty SUVS and muscle cars – just keep on doing that if you like. They’ll still be available for another decade though I don’t know if the smaller suppliers of all of that ICE equipment won’t need to raise the prices since they’ll be producing fewer sparkplugs, mufflers, and so on. They might shrink as companies, and turn out parts in smaller batches driving the prices up. Of well. At least the rest of us won’t be breathing as much exhaust.
This is a case of doing what’s right and not necessarily what is cheapest. Raise prices a little at the pumps, raise the cost of registration a little, raise the cost of utilities a little and there will be plenty of money to pursue big changes if the gov’t doesn’t squander it. It’s like the federal debt. We could get rid it if we really wanted to.
All of this can happen today. Take the average hybrid. What is the price premium for all that extra kit? $3000? $4000? $5000? Well take that same car, throw out the engine and related parts and install in it’s place a second/third/forth battery with a different electric motor (simpler one). A two speed tranny vs that complicated CVT affair. And THIS takes a vehicle from a mainstream company with it’s massive production and purchasing capacity to prices normally seen at Ferrari dealerships?
I think not.
Instead of spending billions on Iraq and other political “solutions” to keep the world order just so we can continue getting cheap oil, lets spend it here at home to alter what we do and how we do it.
It’s not really about having cheap oil, it’s about control of the oil supply. Nothing compares to oil energy. There is no military power without oil. Nothing else is going to power the planes and the tanks. Our leaders fear the power of oil in the hands of others and would rather we mindlessly consume it than allow those with competing interests to have all that power.
But you make some good points on EVs!
Busbodger – I completely agree. Where would we be today if instead of crushing the EV-1, they kept evolving it, or at least sold the design of it to an interested company. There’s even a scene in “who killed the electric car” where they talk about the next generation batteries and how they’d extend the range even further.
It is a mystery to me why no one can sell an EV even as good as the EV-1 right now. I think that largely ignored team at GM had more resources than most startups and simply did a much better job than GM expected. Just to clarify, the original 1997 (not 91) EV-1 had lead-acid batteries and claimed a range of 50 to 90 miles, but some users reported ranges in the 40s. In the Generation Two model, NiMH batteries increased the range to well over 100 miles. EV-1 Club reports flirt with a 200 mile range.
Here’s an anecdote from the EV-1 Club in 1998:
I live in Sunland which is at about 1700 feet above sea level. I drove to La Canada and turned left on to Angeles Crest Highway. Almost immediately I was overtaken by a Porsche 912, so natrually I decided to glue my bumper to his and off we went. Angeles Crest is a real drivers road. It is fast and curvy. On one side is the mountain and on the other is a several hundred foot drop. Oncoming traffic consists of street racing motorcycles and others driving sports cars very fast. There is a sign on the highway advising how many deaths and injuries have occurred in the recent past. This is a dangerous road. Mistakes are costly!
I don’t know how hard the Porsche driver was driving his car. I am sure he wanted to leave me behind.
He could not do it!
The improved EV1 with NiMH handles like a true sports car. At the same time it has the power reserve and the acceleration to exploit it’s strong suit. It doesn’t have as much cornering ability as some cars but it has instant acceleration. This means that in even in a small straightway you can close almost any gap. The Porsche didn’t have a chance at loosing me.
It sounds like a great ride, but we weren’t able to see how well the EV-1 and its NIMH batteries aged.
Well, the 912 is a 911 with a 4 cylinder, I believe some variation of beetle engine no doubt. If thats all you need performance-wise to be considered a “true sports car”… ;)
(Yes, I realize he was talking handling).
The 912 engine is basically a Type IV engine as found in the VW 411/412, the Porsche 914, and the VW bus starting in 1972. All of the engines were basically the same but they differed in fuel injection or carbs, head design, a laundry list of other small changes. I have modified one for my ’65 Beetle. It is a GOOD engine and much more stout than the engines originally found in the Beetles. Bigger engine case, bigger crank, larger bores, better heads, etc. Likes a higher gear ratio to be comfortable on the highway from the Karmann Ghia and Super Beetles (3.88 R&P).
My engine seems much more powerful than the original Beetle engine just because it makes more torque. Horsepower is similar to the Beetle (60-70 HP). The Porsche 914 could be had with a 100 HP (roughly) version at one point.
I towed a Hyundai from VA to TN with that Beetle and that engine but that is another story…
Very well thought out article, I don’t know a whole lot about hybrids or EV’s, but i’ve read that hybrids use gas to get up to speed, and then turbines to sustain that speed if I’m not mistaken. I believe that if the industry /really wants to perfect EV or Hybrid technology and make it mass producable, it definately will. Just look at our technological process during the moon race in the 60’s, and mankind’s ability to improve technology will become pretty apparent. Oh, and in case the username didnt clue you in, this is Kevin haha.
“depends on developing powerful, reliable and safe batteries.”
You can buy them now:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=GDHJNG2PngQ
“Fire can result from a ruptured separator”
Those are the old tech Sony batteries. Not the new stuff:
http://www.valence.com/technology/safety_video.html
“Automakers need high performance separators that allow greater ion flow and thus more power with safety membranes”
They are available:
http://www.currenteliminator.net/Current_Eliminator_V_Record_1.htm
“lithium-ion batteries are expensive”
http://www.evdl.org/archive/index.html#nabble-to14370825%7Ca14370825
“Their capacity often degrades in the first year. They don’t work well in cold temperatures. And they sometimes fail altogether after three years.”
I’m not sure any of that is one hundred percent true.
Hybrid Technologies
Don’t believe a word that man(Chaz Haba) says. He just issues press releases to get more investors and takes their money. He’s never delivered anything on his words(and never will):
http://www.hotstocked.com/message-board/about13.html
“Lion EV”
Not any good either….
http://austinfarm.org/homegrown/downloads/lionev.txt
Here’s something you can actually buy right now:
http://www.myersmotors.com/
This lithium video is pretty good:
http://homepage.mac.com/filmranch/iMovieTheater62.html
http://homepage.mac.com/filmranch/iMovieTheater63.html
“In short, EVs have a long way to go before they can go a long way towards transforming America’s transportation system.”
You’ll either be walking, riding a bike, or driving an EV as soon as(or if) Iran or South America(or Russia?) actually do something. Or the supply of oil gets a little thin.
http://www.theoildrum.com/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1973_oil_crisis
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1979_energy_crisis
Good article. I think some major manufacturers, (eg Mitsubishi) might propose some realistic EVs, but much will have to change before a market develops. Batteries need to improve, prices need to fall, but mostly, enough customers have to be willing to live with the sacrificed performance inherent in EVs.
There is some reason to believe that that may happen: people once accepted smaller cars in the 70s and 80s, fuel prices will probably grow faster than inflation and wages, and tax advantages might outweigh MSRP differences.
The main thing is that the first commercially successful EV will be able to convince customers that “slow and not very far” is okay. Cake-and-eat-it-too’s like the Volt and Tesla will always disappoint.
Hi, Kevin.
rtz, Thanks for the info on LionEV and Hybrid Tech.
Most people think of cars as having four wheels so for this article I chose not to cover three-wheelers like the Sparrow, Twike, Xebra, etc. The Sparrow, or whatever Myers calls it now, NiMG?, is fairly quick, but has only a 30 mile range.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iN0LQJLabqA
That’s the Top Gear Peel P50. There is such thing as too small for me (Sparrow, Xebra, etc). GRIN!
And three is not a good number of wheels to me (notice his turn on two wheels). Two or four or six for me! (Or eight in case of the Eliica!).
http://youtube.com/results?search_query=Eliica&search_type=
It’s true at the moment, vehicles we are used too that are electric cannot be bought new from an OEM.
In the mean time, we will just have to convert what we already have.
Saab:
http://saabrina.blogspot.com/
Jeep:
http://www.driveev.com/jeepev/home.php
Echo:
http://electric-echo.com/
Porsche:
http://evcl.com/914/
Mustang:
http://www.geocities.com/chris_b_jones@prodigy.net/EV/1.htm
Or search for other types of vehicles:
http://www.evalbum.com/
I’m sure others can do even better. Or have someone else do the conversion. How much performance? How much range? Have vehicle? Have money?
What’s the price of a new car or the price of a new(to you) used car? Converting your existing vehicle will be less. New motor and possibly no transmission(if you opt to go that route).
Good interior, good paint, good body?
Motor, charger, controller, batteries.. So simple, no maintenance..
http://leftcoastelectric.com/
http://ev-blue.com/
Consider the money spent on oil changes. What do you do about the air filter and spark plugs? Ever do anything involving the cooling system or fuel system? Exhaust? Alternator, water pump, serpentine belt? Ever paid to get a head gasket replaced? Any oil leaks?
The future is just slow to arrive. We’re just early. Want to be one of the first? A trend setter? A trail blazer, pathfinder, adventurer, explorer?
I know the EV is coming, but to where besides Sweden, Alaska and Canada? And with skinny tires, the use wouldn’t they just be seasonable?
Has anybody figured out how to produce the power to operate an AC in one off battery power?
Me and my fellow conspiracy theorists have a saying, “follow the money”. Who profits from a successful electic car? You and me and our future. Who has the most to gain from the failure of the electric car? Free of interference and undermining we could have a reasonably priced electric car in less than 10 years. It’s not unbelievable, look how far we have come with the cell phone in 10 years.