Page 90 - ElectriCar Magazine

All-Electric Vehicles continued from page 1
must be replaced about every four years. Efforts are under way to advance our vehicle technology. Automakers and the U.S. Department of Energy have formed the Advanced Battery Consortium, a $260 million cooperative project, to investigate more efficient types of batteries such as nickel-iron, sodium-sulfur, and zinc-air batteries. On the policy front, the state of California will require automakers to sell zero-emission vehicles. California law is intended
to force technology development and hasten widespread commercial introduction of electric vehicles. California is requiring Zero Emmisions Vehicles to be two-percent of annual sales, phasing up to 10 percent.
Hybrid Electric Vehicles have bat- teries to provide electric power but
are also equipped with a small internal combustion engine. The engine provides power boost and/or can be used to recharge the batteries. Unfor- tunately, the extra engine substantially increases pollution from the vehicle, erasing many of the air quality benefits of pure electric vehicles and increases weight for the electric engine, which of course drains addiotional power from the battery syestem of the vehicle.
For the most part, driving an electric car feels very similar to driving a gaso- line car. Without the internal combus- tion engine, electric cars have the po- tential to be quieter. Drivers are able to recharge their cars by plugging them in overnight to an electrical outlet at home and scientists are doing research
on batteries that can be recharged quickly. There may be less room for cargo and passengers in some of these Electric Vehicles. Early Electric Vehicle will likely be used by fleets which can recharge vehicles at night and by commuters who drive short distances in urban areas or who use an electric car as a second vehicle.
Many of the shortcomings, such as lack of infrastructure to “plug into,” range on a full charge and battery lifespan, are finally being overcome. Today some experimental Electric
88
Vehicles can even give you almost 300 miles per charge and have the option of fully charging the battery in less than four hours. “That is a lot” but if you
get in the habit of recharging your car every time you stop in your home, you may never have to wait the four hours. American automobile makers are wonderful innovators and have been moving into Electric Vehicle manu- facturing over the last several years, pushing Environmental Protection Agency to come up with a new label.
This is creating a healthy competition that will bring more affordable Electric Vehicles to the general public and will likely give people greater confidence
in these cars. Is an Electric Vehicle better for you than the combustion engine cars of today? Answering this is very subjective because it depends
The annual fuel cost
is based on two assumptions:
An annual mileage
of 15,000 miles and projected electricity price and the two ratings that apply to each vehicle
on your needs. The environmental benefits of Electric Vehicles are grow- ing, such as zero emissions of pollution and lower noise levels. Do you think that an Electric Vehicle could replace
a combustion engine car? The answer is simple; “Yes, it will, someday”.
The next big thing for Electric Vehicles might be designing them in such a way that they can be dis- assembled and their components reused or recycled easily when the vehicle reaches its usable life, mini- mizing waste for generations.
Environmental concerns and energy issues have led to the mass transfer of effort in the automotive industry from the internal combustion engine vehicle to an Electrical Vehicle as the prime source of transportation. The issues
of air pollution in urban areas, internal combustion engines being the second highest contributor to global warming with approximately twenty-one percent of greenhouse gasses emissions and the depletion of fossil fuels and their increasing prices, have significantly amplified interest in Electric Vehi-
cles. This is due to the advantages of Electric Vehicles as clean and silent technology, as well as their offering better efficiency than internal combusi- tion engine vehicles and electricity be- ing a cheaper energy source than fuel.
Numerous simulation and modeling packages have been developed to study the operation of electric and hybrid powered trains, such as CarSim from AeroVironment Inc., SIMPLEV from the DOE’s Idaho National Laboratory, MARVEL (Argonne National Laboratory), V-Elph (Texas A&M University)
and ADVISOR (DOE’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory, US).
Butler, Ehsani, & Kamath in their study present a four-vehicle drive train vehicle modeling, simulation, and analysis package for an Electric Vehicle, parallel hybrid Electric Vehicle (HEV), series Hybrid
Electric Vehicle, and conventional ICE, using Matlab-Simulink.
More detailed information can be found on the label produced by the EPA for All-Electric and Hybrid Electric vehicles later in this magazine which covers several aspects of various vehicles available to the public today. •Comparing Fuel Economy
•You Save or Spend More
•Fuel Economy
•Fuel Consumption Rate
•Estimated Annual Fuel Cost •Greenhouse Gas Rating
•CO2 Emissions Information
•Smog Rating
•Driving Range
•Charge Time
ElectriCar Magazine