Electric Vehicle Fans

Been getting regular feeds from Zoomi Life for the last couple of weeks - all the latest electric vehicle news. Highly recommended:

http://www.zoomilife.com/

Idea for Car Dealer

I have great sympathy for all those car dealers who are looking at forecourts full of unwanted cars. Well here is an idea for you. Get a dealership for electric cars and learn how to service them and offer this package: You buy an electric car from us and you get free membership of our car pool. Anytime you want a larger car just park your electric car here and we'll put it on charge for you and you can pay by the mile (sorry, kilometer) from a choice of any of this range of cars. If the car pool gets popular, you can offer to take cars in part exchange if they are suitable for the pool, and offer the pool service to others, who can also choose to take an Electric car from the pool if it suits their needs.

Then you can start offering a special electricity tariff especially suited to electric car users who will be charging overnight and get a commission on use from your supplier of choice.

Then you can offer electric motorscooters and motorbikes and vars and buses.....

I have at least two customers for you already if you are based in West Cork.

And just in case you thought electric cars all looked like motorised shopping trolleys:

Japanese prototype that does 0-62 in 4 secs and top speed of 230mph!


And of course the Tesla:

More on the Electric Vehicle Theme

Two items today on this theme:

A great article at this new blog Next Generation of Energy Ideas on electric cars and how the future is going to be hybrid electric plugins and the commenters make some good points, including the idea of utility companies owning the batteries and leasing them to car owners, and the idea of standardising on batteries to we can hot swap them.

An taking the opposite view, Boone Pickens youtube video on how the US can replace the power stations that are using imported natural gas with windmills and use the natural gas in cars instead (because cars must run on liquid fuels).  I think he needs to consider the big picture of electricity supply and the need to balance wind with quick start (gas) fueled power stations and also the electric car concept.  But nevertheless, great to see a businessman with a vision and sharing it with us. 

Hydrogen vs. Electric Cars

It seems to me the "Hydrogen Economy" has gone a bit quiet and I wonder if that's because people have been doing some sums. Assume you start with 100kWh of wind power and you can either use that to create hydrogen for your hydrogen car or put into a battery for your electric car. Which is more efficient?

This diagram from Ulf Bossel of the Lucerne Fuel Cell Forum (see their reports). Because of the number of processes involved in converting electricity to hydrogen, compressing and transporting it and then converting it back to electricity, the process cannot beat the simplicity of the battery approach, even with significant improvement. That's not to say battery power for cars is without problems (weight, environmental) or that hydrogen doesn't have a big advantage (you can recharge in 5 mins). But to me the sums do not add up, especially when the additional infrastructure cost of getting hydrogen to filling stations is added.

Interestingly, reviewing other blogs comparing hydrogen with electric, many are keen to point out how electric cars are not really green because they are charged using electricity from coal etc. They don't seem to question where the hydrogen comes from though.


Hear a podcast by Ulf given to The Watt here: http://www.thewatt.com/node/78

Electric vs. Combustion Engine Efficiency

Today I'm trying to get to grips with future vehicles and wade through all the bad information out there. So starting with Electric cars vs. petrol/diesel. The combustion engine car is inherently inefficient, mainly because of the heat losses of the combustion process, but also losses through the drivetrain and additional load such as air conditioning. Out of town, efficiency improves with 20% reaching the types.




The overall efficiency of the electric car depends most signficantly on the source of electricity. If you electric car is recharged from your own windmill, the efficiency can be as much as 80%, but if power station losses and grid losses are also included that may drop to as much as 28%. Still better than the petrol car though.

Electric-Powered GM EV1	Gasoline-Powered Acura .2TL

Start with	1 million BTUs	Start with	>1 million BTUs
Energy left after generation (39% efficiency)	390,000 BTUs	Energy left after refining (92% efficiency)	920,000 BTUs
Energy left after charging losses (88% efficiency)	>343,000 BTUs	Energy left after transport (95% efficiency)	874,000 BTUs
BTUs per kilowatt-hour	3412 BTUs	BTUs per gallon of gasoline	115,400 BTUs
Electricity available	100.6 kWhr	Gallons available	7.6 gallons
Energy efficiency	0.19 kWhr/mile	Fuel economy>	24 mpg
Miles per million BTUs	529.5 miles	Miles per million BTUs	182.5 miles
Equivalent mpg	69 mpg	Equivalent mpg	24 mpg

From http://www.electroauto.com/info/pollmyth.shtml a bit out of date


This would suggest, even with current technology, that you are greener to buy an electric car and charge it off the grid then drive an equivalent petrol car.



Here is a more entertaining comparison of electric vs. petrol. Mythbusters converted a petrol go-kart to electric and it performed almost as well as the petrol one, which considering it was nearly twice as heavy with the batteries, wasn't bad going.

http://www.popularmechanics.com/home_journal/workshop/4264026.html?page=2

Mad Idea - Electric Vehicle Rally in Cork?

Quentin Gargan has for some time had an electric van, my cousin Alexander Skeaping in London has G-WIZ and Mike Hobbs in Dunmanway is getting an electric motorbike. So how about have an electric vehicle rally in Cork during Mobility Week (used to be car free day) in Cork in September? Not sure how many days it would take for my cousin to get from London, but it would be great to show people that electric cars are here and in use. Anyone know anyone with an electric vehicle who might want to join in the fun?

Cousin Alexander on TV!

My multi-talented cousin (2nd once removed I think) is becoming THE spokesman for the G-WIZ. He has been interviewed several times for Japanese TV and this morning appeared live on the BBC to go head to head with a 'petrol head' journalist! He is a piano tuner, among other things, and darts around London in his G-Wiz avoiding congestion charging and parking fees.

Typically, he made friends with the journalist who shared a mutual love of Masterattis and untypically didn't talk that much in the interview! I await the recording with interest.