Posted by Max Dunn
Wed, 23 Jul 2008 22:34:20 GMT | 2 comments
At Plug-in 2008, Andy Grove presented his vision of converting 10 million SUVs, trucks and vans to electric hybrid operation in the next 4 years. Many people in the audience doubted that this goal was achievable, and wondered if the technology to convert an existing vehicle over to hybrid electric operation was even feasible.
However, a company that was exhibiting at the show did exactly this. Hybrid Electric Vehicle Technologies based in Chicago had on the floor a Ford F-150 truck that they had converted to electric hybrid. They did this by leaving the gas engine alone and adding an electric motor to the back of the rear differential. Then the put a 12kWh battery pack behind the seat and used a controller that would regulate the power to the gas and electric engine to achieve hybrid operation.
The F-150 conversions are currently very expensive running $60,000. However, they hope to get the price down a lot as their volume of conversions increase.
Andy Grove should invest a lot of money in HEVT because their technology might be the key to achieving his vision.
Posted in Electric Vehicles
Posted by Max Dunn
Wed, 23 Jul 2008 22:21:21 GMT | no comments
Electric Vehicles (EVs) will have limited range at first due to battery limitations. To increase their range, they will use “opportunity” charging, which basically means trying to find a plug wherever they are.
To help with this, Coulomb Technologies announced at Plug-in 2008 their smart charging infrastructure for plug-in vehicles. One of their offerings is the Smartlet Charging Station so subscribers can charge their EV at any Smartlet station using a supplied smart card.
Let’s hope that Coulomb is successful and receives plenty of funds to continue operations while EV usage ramps up. These charging stations will be one of the keys that will make EVs successful.
Posted in Electric Vehicles
Posted by Max Dunn
Tue, 22 Jul 2008 18:28:28 GMT | no comments
Many of us EV advocates were disappointed by the ZEV mandate revisions that CARB enacted this year. So we are glad to hear that at the Plug-in 2008 conference today, CARB board member Dan Sperling said that he agreed that the revisions this year were too complex and too soft and next year they expect to simplify them and also increase the number of vehicles required – possibly by an order of magnitude. Wouldn’t that be great!
Posted in Electric Vehicles
Posted by Max Dunn
Tue, 22 Jul 2008 17:52:12 GMT | no comments
Another interesting tidbit of information that I got from Elizabeth from A123 Systems at the Plug-in 2008 conference was why A123 doesn’t sell batteries to hobbyists for use in electric vehicles. Her answer: liability.
A123 is worried that someone will put together an unsafe vehicle and then A123 would be sued when it catches on fire or someone gets hurt. This extends also to organizations like CalCars that is working on plug-in hybrids. So A123 only supplies batteries to OEMs and manufacturers where they can be sure the batteries will be used in a safe way.
Posted in Electric Vehicles
Posted by Max Dunn
Tue, 22 Jul 2008 17:46:26 GMT | no comments
One downside to current plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEV) is that the gas motor always turns on when first starting out. At the Plug-in 2008 conference I asked Elizabeth from A123/Hymotion why this was and she said that the engine needed to turn on for about 57 seconds when first starting out to warm up the catalytic converter, otherwise the car wouldn’t pass smog tests. It is too bad that on short trips the gas engine still needs to turn on, but at less than a minute this shouldn’t waste too much gas.
Posted in Electric Vehicles
Posted by Max Dunn
Wed, 09 Jul 2008 23:00:44 GMT | no comments
If EEStor can achieve what they claim, it will blow open the electric vehicle market which is currently held back only by battery technology. Here is what they claim:
- For a 52 kWh unit, an initial production price of $3,200, falling to $2,100.
- No degradation from charge/discharge cycles
- 4-6 minute charge time assuming sufficient cooling of the cables.
Currently, a lithium battery pack this size would cost more than $30,000, would last less than 2,000 cycles and takes at least a couple of hours to charge.
However, EEStor is a private company and is not releasing much information to be able to verify their claims. Let’s hope that they are successful!
(Ref: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EEStor)
Posted in Electric Vehicles
Posted by Max Dunn
Mon, 23 Jun 2008 18:44:32 GMT | 2 comments
You have heard of a “gas hog”? Well my eVolvo is an electron hog!
Most electric cars get between 2 and 4 miles per kWh. The ones that are light and streamlined and have efficient AC motors with regenerative breaking get the best mileage – and my car is none of these. It is a heavy car with a big DC motor and no regenerative braking. It does have a lot of zip, but at the cost of poor electron mileage.
Battery to wheel, I get about 2.5 miles per kWh. This is based on my maximum range so far of 25 miles, the battery pack of 15 kWh maximum, and a Peukert effect that reduces the useable energy from the lead-acid AGM batteries to about 10 kWh.
However, the Soneil 1206S chargers that are being used are not very efficient, probably around 75%. That combined with charging efficiency of the batteries which is probably around 85% gives a charging efficiency of only about 64%. So from the wall to the wheels I am getting about 1.6 miles per kWh. This figure is consistent with the data I have been collecting:
| Miles |
kWh |
Charge Time |
Miles/kWh |
| 22.2 |
14 |
– |
1.6 |
| 6.6 |
4.3 |
– |
1.5 |
| 4.6 |
3.4 |
6 hrs |
1.4 |
| 13.3 |
8.4 |
17 hrs |
1.6 |
| 18.3 |
11.9 |
– |
1.5 |
Posted in Electric Vehicles
Posted by Max Dunn
Fri, 20 Jun 2008 13:57:39 GMT | no comments
For those of you wondering what is in my eVolvo, here are the specs:
Posted in Electric Vehicles
Posted by Max Dunn
Thu, 12 Jun 2008 02:33:43 GMT | no comments
With all this talk about fuel cells, I have been wondering if it is possible to actually buy one. Here is one I stumbled across a reformed methanol fuel cell that puts out 25 watts. With the standard 12 oz cartridge of methanol, it will produce power for about 7 hours. One drawback is that it takes between 12 and 30 minutes to start-up, not very convenient if you need to get someplace quick. However the real kicker is the price – $5,000! If you wanted enough of these to power a car which takes about 15,000 watts, it would cost over $3 million! Or course this is a methane fuel cell and not a hydrogen one, but it provides another reason to believe that fuel cells are not the answer to the future of transportation.
Posted in Electric Vehicles
Posted by Max Dunn
Sat, 07 Jun 2008 02:06:37 GMT | no comments
ZOOM: The Global Race to Fuel the Car of the Future
by Vijay Vaitheeswaran
I wanted to like this book – I really did. With a name like "Zoom" and the promise to show the car of the future, I was excited to read it. But in the end, the book turned out to be at best a dud, and at worst misleading and harmful to the future of transportation.
Read more...
Posted in Electric Vehicles, Global Warming