The Inconvenient Electric Car

This post is a continuation of a previous post concerning the true energy crisis that will affect our modern society within the next few decades, the depletion of worldwide crude oil. About two weeks ago, I saw a Tesla electric sports car in downtown Austin. It was a beautiful ride! It costs over $100,000 making it out of the reach of average Joe and Jane. The car can go from 0 to 60 in 3.9 seconds and goes up to 244 miles per day. It may be unfair to judge the future of electric cars by this one extreme example. The technology that would go into a mass produced electric car (i.e. the Chevy Volt) would be similar, but cost restrictions would create many drawbacks. The lack of capability is sourced from the vehicle's energy storage.

We are going to first talk about where electric cars currently stand. I have a friend, Brian, who converted a 2002 Saturn from gas to electric power over a period of about a year. AustinEV is a nonprofit organization which aided my friend during the conversion. The amount of work required to complete the task was significant. All components that had use with the gasoline power were removed from the car. This included the gasoline engine, gas tank, alternator, radiator, air conditioner (needs mechanical power), old 12 V battery, power steering and other gas engine dependent systems that I am leaving out. In simple terms, the Saturn was gutted. New DC powered components were then installed in the Saturn. These included an electric engine, 1000 pounds of lead acid batteries, new controller, 1 F capacitors, air conditioning, and all the actuators were made DC compatible. Once assembled, it was quite a novelty. The car that plugs in and drives. It keeps up with city traffic and actually has significant acceleration. Our converted Saturn performs just like any gasoline powered vehicle until the batteries are drained after traveling 50 miles.

Converting the Saturn required about $28,000 in capital. The main expenses were purchasing the Saturn, the electrical components and the batteries. Labor was minimal in cost. This price tag is a little high for what the average driver is willing to pay for a automobile. If an electric car was mass produced in the future, the cost would be reduced through reduction in labor and purchasing of parts in large quantities. Technological improvements would also reduce cost. It is safe to say that an electric car would resemble this Saturn. The only main variation would be batteries with a higher energy storage density would be found on commercial cars, such as NiCad or Li ion cells.

This brings us to issue one with the electric car, lack of energy storage. The Saturn goes about 50 miles per charge carrying not much more than two passengers. 50 mile range would get an average person around an area of a medium sized city such as Austin for transportation purposes exclusively. Brian uses the Saturn to commute and do tasks like buy groceries or to go visit friends, events and etc. In Austin, this is fine. Someone living in a highly urbanized place like Southern California or Washington DC would barely have enough charge for a commute (maybe, commutes in many areas are longer than a 50 miles round trip). That's it! If any emergencies arise or desires to travel further within a day overwhelm an electric car owner, tough luck. The way around this is to use more advanced batteries with higher energy density. Production costs would soar as these are not cheap. This is why the Tesla is so expensive, Li ion batteries. Consumers are going to stick with the gasoline automobile if the gas car is significantly cheaper. The first new development electric cars require for a commercially competitive vehicle are inexpensive batteries capable of dense energy storage.

The lack of energy storage could be overcome with repeated charging. Charge the car at work, the local store or at a communal charging station. This sounds good, but it takes 6-8 hours to fully charge the batteries. This may be possible at work (no trips to the local Chinese restaurant), but it is not possible during brief stops. Driving down the road and stopping for a charge is not like gassing your current car. Long road trips are out. Many consumers would find this unacceptable. This is a larger technological hurdle than increased battery storage density since it affects all current battery technology and may limit the electric car's potential.

This post was to evaluate the electric automobile as a potential candidate replacing all current gasoline powered vehicles. Using the two obvious issues raised with energy storage in electric cars, here what I believe the future of electric cars will become.

The electric automobile will NOT:
1. Replace heavy transportation such as 18-wheeler trucks
2. Be used as interstate transportation
3. Used as a work vehicle, i.e. dump truck

The electric car will BE:
1. Practical automobile for local, light transportation
2. Drag racer (yes)

The reality of the electric car hinges on development of a cheap, high energy density battery. Until this occurs, the technology fights an uphill battle. This is why I believe the future fuel replacing crude oil derivatives will be in a liquid form. It will fulfill all of the practical uses gasoline vehicles currently do.