This title really in the form of a question is quite appropriate to the Electric Car status as of mid-July 2013. The writer has composed several BLOGS comparing the pure electric vehicle, EV, to the Hybrid and now to the PHV, Pluggable Hybrid Vehicle. We are defining an EV as a pure electric drive vehicle with no ICE (Internal Combustion Engine)and are dependent on commercially available recharging stations and in particular the existence and operation on a cost effective basis on a 24-7 basis i.e. 24 hour a day and 7 days a week. This can be helped by the owner providing charging station in his garage etc. but that is another matter.
Currently here on LI there are 5 Plug-In hybrids: 1) the Chevrolet Volt, 2) the Ford C-Max Energi, 3) the Ford Fusion Energi, 4) Honda Accord Plug-In, and 5) Toyota Prius Plug-In.
A second group is the Pure Electrics or EV and includes 6 offerings. 1) Ford Focus Electric, 2) Honda Fit EV, (3 Mitsubishi i-MiEV, (4 Nissan Leaf, 5) Tesla Model S/Roadster, and (6 Smart For Two Electric. A hard sell on SUV-loving Log Island, are finding new buyers as automakers offer new models and sweetened deals. In the next 18 months, six of the models listed will join the 11 already available here now.
Sales of EV, Electric only have been hampered by shortened driving ranges, high prices and few public recharging stations. But the steady pressure of gasoline prices makes the interest continue to grow.
Brief Recap: The first Prius did not have plug-in capability, at least as offered by Toyota. Recognizing this limitation from a selling point several groups, particularly in California offered the “California Option” as an aftermarket item. The way this was done was to replace the original NiMh battery with a Li-ion design. Toyota immediately made no bones about it—all warrantees were void for the vehicle. Even so many, many conversions were done and the plug-in performance quite good. Frequently the owner of the converted Prius charged overnight and the range of nearly 100 miles on the first charge made the “drive by day—charge by night” work well. Excellent for LOCAL driving. It was the success of “California Prius” that pushed the Plug- in Hybrid to the front.
AN ASIDE: The original PRIUS made no provision for externally recharging the NiMh pack from 120-240 VAC. The original thought was that charge could be put into the NiMh by the ICE burning gasoline, to power an alternator put charge into the NiMh. The theory was that the NiMh would be charged during regenerative braking. Indeed testing by Toyota showed that about70% of the braking energy normally lost to heat could be recovered. In this manner, Toyota engineers had good control over how the NiMh pack was charged and discharged and they restrict the SOC (status of charge) from the 20% to the 80% range and achieved excellent life for the NiMh pack. Warrantees for NiMh cover 8 years and 150,000 miles. It was the warrantee concern that caused Toyota to go very slow on the PHV (Pluggable Hybrid Vehicle). The California PRIUS definitely on a daily basis put the SOC above 80% and as near to 100% they could go without ANY overcharge. This worry to the driver of the PHV was a serious concern.
Well now the PHV feature is in solidly in place and the anxiety about the SOC of overcharge will destroy the warrantee is not real.
THE SECOND CAR: From the writers experience using the EV as a second car works well. The implication here is the second car will be used for LOCAL driving and experience says that the daily mileage will be between 20 mile per day and perhaps up to 60 miles per day. In the writer’s experience a 240 VAC charger was installed in my garage and plugged in overnight. Fully discharged the battery would require about 3 hours to recharge. Partial recharges took less time. A display on the garage wall by the charger case displayed the SOC at that instant in time so the driver knows how much range he had. A scheme is being offered for buyers of the Nissan Leaf as a packaged deal.
WHERE TO FROM HERE?; Experience with these several offering will on average steer in some particular direction so far as how the market will develop. The significant driver is the fact that electric power even at the very high prices of LIPA on LI still can provide the energy to charge a LI-ion battery capable of giving up to 100 miles range. It works out that the energy cost in electricity to provide the battery charge is about $3.50 at LIPA rates or the equivalent of a gallon of gas. This is pretty amazing and almost assures the car designers are going to try hard to use as much electric power as possible. But it does seem that the PHV, which can drive the car on electric OR gasoline has a huge physiological (anxiety) advantage. Marketing people are betting a lot on that.
INTERESTING--