Electric Vehicles on Display at the Department of Energy
This week I’m taking a break from the ideal Southern California weather, and traveling on one of my regular East Coast tours. Today, I’m in Washington DC for the Electric Drive Transportation Association’s annual conference, where one of the day’s events was a press conference in which a few dozen of the currently- and soon-to-be-available EVs were displayed outside the Department of Energy Building. Energy Secretary Steven Chu, Rep. Edward Markey (D-Mass.) and a few others spoke to an enthusiastic audience. I was in the front row.
Markey is obviously very bright, and has the quick wit one expects of a Congressman who thinks of himself as progressive. “Many people have a theological belief in our abundance of oil. The problem is that oil isn’t about THEology; it’s about GEology. We have less than 2% of the world’s oil, while consuming about 25% of it.”
He also reminded us of the trip that George W. Bush and Condoleezza Rice made to Saudi Arabia a few years ago, the purpose of which was to make a request for an increase in oil production, thus a reduction in price on the world markets. In exchange for the Saudis’ agreement to consider the idea, we agreed to sell them nuclear energy generation equipment (as if they need it, sitting on all that oil, with their own gasoline at 9 cents a gallon).
“This was one of the low points in US history,” Markey told us, looking at his feet solemnly. “When Kennedy was president, he told Khrushchev, ‘We will use technology to dominate you in the Space Race.’ Why couldn’t Bush have done something like that? Why can’t we simply commit to innovating and developing technology that will establish US leadership in the field of energy? So much of this is right here, in our hands right now. The electric vehicles you see here today are a lethal weapon in our fight to end our oil addiction.”
Something to think about.
I took possession of a Nissan Leaf on February 24th after dreaming of having an electric car for five years. It is a dream come true and not unlike driving around in a flying saucer. It is a lot of responsibility driving around when you know you can blow anybody not driving a Tesla off the road.
That said, we specifically took a three-year lease instead of buying it in anticipation of the rapidly developing electric car technology in the next few years. We wanted to make sure that we were not wedded to the wrong technology should things change drastically.
But we LOVE our Leaf and there would have to be significant changes to get us to move in another direction.
Seattle, WA
I am looking into this…the lease is a good idea as I am full of questions:
1. How long does the battery “pack” last and when it needs replacing what is the cost and process?
2. What about that battery…is it toxic waste, can it be recycled or reused?
That battery pack is guaranteed eight years and may last the predicted 12 years then it is 100% recyclable, It is therefore not as toxic as the residue in your ash tray full of cigarette and cigar ashes. Lithium is actually used as a medication in some “Hyper activity” behavior modification treatments. Mercury and lead are as dangerous and poorly regulated. So Lithium is safer. The predictions now are that other chemistry or improvements in manufacturing processes will make battery cost per Kilowatt Hour improve in the foreseeable future. The price of motor fuel is rising. The efficiency of electric drive systems at more than five times more distance per energy unit virtually guarantee the Electric is a better choice. Just adding a motor/generator and a battery to a petrol fueled vehicle increases efficiency 15 to 20 % and that hybrid is charging up the battery with electricity generated from petrol or when slowing down in place of some friction brakes. Using utility supplied plug-in recharging saves much more. If one compares the total energy source consumption pollution resulting from making gasoline versus using coal to generate electricity for recharging; an electric car produces 48% less atmospheric pollution than a gasoline fueled car. and we can recharge our electric from solar or hydro too; but we waste 50 % of the energy in producing hydrogen so fuel cells will never be a viable alternative. Send them back to NASA and use them in space with excess rocket fuel…
In answer to your second question, Mike, it is not a matter of if we can, but if we will, and if we will do it right. For example, we can recover over 99% of the materials in a lead-acid battery, cleanly, with equipment available to us, here in North America. But a few years ago, 18 people in a village in Senegal died from lead poisoning. Why?
It seems we were sending batteries to them for “recycling”, because it was cheaper. The fishermen were hacking them apart with hatchets and scooping out the lead, for which they were paid a small sum. The women were sifting out the lead from the contaminated soil, resulting in airborne lead particles, which were breathed in by the women and children.
This is not an argument against batteries, but for being responsible for what we do- and for legislation where necessary to make it so.
This author and many others seem to believe that the policies and politics of the past were so great. But they are not here now, and they cannot be repeated because the problems are not the same. Neither are the officials in office. If the politicians admit there is a problem that must be solved, we will move vast distances in the way to a solution. Electric vehicles are but one way of many that may solve some of the many energy constraints we face. I believe thay are far to pricy for what they offer. Perhaps that is because of battery uncertainties, but I trust that will change in a short time. The Leaf should be well under 20K in price. It is a good, simple car. Just too expensive for larger market penetration.
Battery electric vehicles are a very promising technology. They may not be ready yet for huge mass production, but even so they already make sense in some situations. With all the battery research going on now, there is reason to hope for continued improvement.
Even with advanced battery technology, there is a limit to how many electric vehicles it would be practical to have without increasing electricity generation capacity. We will need more power, and it will have to be reliable, continuous, and economical power. That, combined with advanced battery technology, should make it possible to reduce oil importation substantially by using battery electric vehicles. However, that alone will not totally replace oil.
Probably airplanes will always require liquid fuel. But if we have abundant and cheap energy available, we may be able to manufacture an artificial liquid fuel for use in airplanes. We should also be able to reduce air travel substantially with electric high speed rail transportation.
Let us hope that we can end our dependence on oil, especially imported oil, before the supply is cut off and global warming becomes an even more serious problem.
Dennis, you are overstating the efficiency difference between an electric vehicle and a gasoline vehicle. It is about three times, not five, for both battery electric and fuel cell electric, as bourne out by EPA- published equivalent mileage figures for existing battery and fuel cell electric vehicles. That being said, refining feedstock oil into gasoline requires an electrical input equivalent to 20% of the gasoline’s energy, which would drive an equivalent battery electric vehicle about 60% as far as the gasoline vehicle. Further electrical input is required for the drilling, extraction, and transportation of the feedstock, so that if we made all of our vehicles electric and stopped gasoline and diesel production tommorrow, we would likely not have to expand our electric generating capacity at all.
A similar situation exists with hydrogen. 50% of our hydrogen production goes to the fossil fuel industry for gasoline refining and desulphurization of feedstock. Praxair alone has more than 310 miles of hydrogen pipeline, with underground cavern storage, for the purpose of delivering hydrogen to refineries for the desulphurization of diesel fuel (see Praxair’s website). Hydrogen is also used in the extraction process, espescially in recovery from tar sands. This hydrogen is produced from natural gas, as is about 95% of hydrogen currently. About a third of North American electricity generation is also from natural gas. The best gas-fired powerplants are aroud 60-65% efficient. According to GM’s investigations, conversion by conventional means of natural gas to 10,000psi hydrogen is about 60-65% efficient. Research here in Canada in fluidized bed reactors indicates we can do the job at 70-75% efficiency. Fuel cell electric vehicles are far from impractical, and refueling is faster and more convenient, as long as we get off our butts and put in refueling stations- which is the exact same situation that battery electrics face.
I would like to reinforce what Dennis said in his comment, and also that Nissan has comprehensive details on the future of their battery, its cost, etc. on their web site. At the EV conference late last year, the *most* conservative estimates on improvements in battery technology were around 8% compounded annually. I also saw presentation from a company working in a different technology, that has an order of magnitude improvement in energy per unit weight in a test situation. Warranty and regulatory environment notwithstanding, batteries for EV application seem to be on a very good trajectory.
I am delighted to read about the joy of owning an EV. I bought my first Prius in 2002. My wife liked the concept of using less gasoline per mile of travel with reduced emissions so she bought a 2004 model. I gave my daughter my 2002 Prius with 235,000 miles on it, confident in its reliability. My wife’s 2004 Prius now has over 218,000 miles on it. My 2009 Camry hybrid is getting over 45 mpg, after 50,000 miles of breaking in. BUT, they are not pure EVs. My wife is anxiously awaiting the Toyota EV in 2012. I lead a renewable energy company. Our technology converts solar energy stored in the surface of the ocean into elecricity. It can also be converted to concentrated liquid energy such as ammonia (NH3) or liquid H2. Through a modified Fischer-Tropsch process, a plant floating in the ocean near the equator can produce a significant quantity of jet fuel 24 hours a day, 365 days a year for 25 or more years. This gives the Navy a new mission related to protecting the sea lanes. Also, take note that anhydrous ammonia has three Hydrogen atoms. In a Photon Exchange Membrane fuel cell, therefore, ammonia give 50% more energy than H2 and releases Nitrogen, the dominant gas in our atmosphere, and Nitrous Oxide, often referred to a laughing gas, and sometimes used to boost power in an internal combustion engine. Ammonia is cheap, clean, and processing it through a PEM fuel cell only makes us Happy! Petroleum pollutes. Just look at the consequences of the HORIZON disaster of 2010, the EXXON VALDEZ, and similar oil spills.
We may get it right, yet. My friend is CEO of a company that makes rapid recharging stations. His company is teamed with another company to install these stations at strategic locations all over Hawaiian islands. Hawaii has a great incentive to go all renewable and rid itself of dependence on fossil fuel. Because it is an island state, without any organic fossil fuel production, it is hostage to fossil fuel price volatility. This costs the state and its residents over $900Million a year. So, imagine going to Hawaii, renting an EV, then enjoying the clean air and views, the quiet and peace of the islands. Who would want to return to the mainland?
One of the major barriers to EVs becoming common place is recharging. As I said earlier, fast, cost effective and efficient recharging technology exists. Check out the website for Aker-Wade, Inc. Imagine pulling into a recharging station where instead of opening your fuel tank cover and inserting a spout of a gas or diesel hose, a robot slides under your vehicle, attaches to your battery pack, nested under your car, and releases then withdraws it, then spins around and installs a fully charged replacement battery pack. You never touch a thing other than the payment keypad just as if you are at an ATM machine. Total process time – less than filling a 16 gallon tank with gasoline. Then you drive away, silently, unless you want to enjoy the exhilarating release of energy that accelerates an EV faster than a Corvette or Mustang, without leaving a cloud of toxic emission. Enjoy the ride. I look forward to the day we will all be driving EVs.
Excuse me but weren’t nitrous oxides a main ingredient in the smog in L.A.? They were produced at excessive temperatures in the combustion chamber so we all went to lower compression ratios (11::1 in place of 14::1) reducing engine efficiency as well.
There are other alternatives to battery swapping (Better-place?) just using a fast DC charger can give a reasonable 80% recharge in 15 to 25 seconds and that is just as fast as pumping 20 gallons into your gas tank. (Perhaps you need more knowledge of chemistry about laughing gas.)
Very interesting how this administrations agenda has set off a green movement that has been percolating through-out our country for over a decade. The battery technology both in terms of cost & range is only a minor issue over the next few years as technology knowledge and real time advancments are coming fast with each quarter. As a Green company that is in the process of orchestrating a ‘home depot’ if you will for electrics from global suppliers, (www.plugngo.us ) and building out the infra-stucture for point of sale distribution and servicing on a wide variety of all electrics to Main Street America at much more reasonable pricepoints for mass acceptance, we have an awnser for mass acceptance today on both the price points mentioned by Phil Manske (right on the money, to pricey overall) and on the ‘charging issue’ by Arlene. We have made a strategic decision to include both the J7112 standard charging prong, AND GFI 110-220 ‘plugin’ charging on all our lines, so charging can be done at home/work or anywhere there is a ‘plug’, while the charging time is a bit slower when you on the road (and waiting for the national charging grid to support longer range travel) our users can charge anywhere. Overall I agree that Warranty and regulatory environment notwithstanding, batteries for EV application seem to be on a very good trajectory.
Richard Awni
CEO E-volve
Richard@plugngo.us
The nations utilities have stated in the recent past that there is sufficient reserve in the peak supply after dark to recharge enough typical Electric Cars to replace 79% of the personal vehicles in the highways of the USA. So stop B.S.ing me about needing to upgrade the grid for 35 to 50 years.