Nissan Leaf – photo by cliff1066™ (source: Flickr Creative Commons)
Will 2010 be the year when we all shed our fossil fuel addiction, become vegans and take to the streets in silent, shiny new plug-in electric cars while Enya lilts – at a reasonable volume, of course – through the vehicles’ stereo systems? I doubt it, but there is certainly an electric buzz about this new decade and it’s not just coming from all those new wind farms which seem to be popping up all over place, destroying rich people’s views.
According to an article in the Christian Science Monitor, more and more Americans want plug-in hybrids, like the Chevy Volt (Ampera in Europe) and fully electric cars such as the Nissan Leaf; the latter able to cover distances of up to 100 miles (160 km) before needing an overnight charge. Joining the fully electric fray are German automaker Daimler and China’s BYD Auto, while wealthy mid-lifers can avail themselves of Fisker Karma’s $87,000 plug-in hybrid sports car.
…this year will be the first chance to see what it’s really like: plugging a car in at night and gliding off to work in the morning using little or no gasoline for weeks or months. It’s a reality shift that’s already sending chills up the spines of greenies and neocons alike – the prospect of saving the environment and cutting oil imports, too.
–Christian Science Monitor
Getting off foreign oil, benefiting the environment and saving money in terms of what is called ‘Total Cost of Ownership’ (TCO) are all factors that add to the appeal of electrics and hybrids. Tax incentives help too – and besides they’re neat-o.
But according to those smart killjoys at the Economist, recharging electrics and hybrids presents new challenges:
Unlike the Prius and its ilk—which use their petrol engines, along with energy recovered from braking, to recharge their batteries while motoring—plug-in hybrids and pure electrics have to be recharged direct from the grid. The popular assumption is that they will be plugged into a wall socket in the garage late at night, taking advantage of cheap off-peak power. Unfortunately, things are not that simple.
–Economist
Pure electrics will partially have to rely on networks of rapid-charging stations and will need 220 volt wiring – as opposed to the 110 volts most American homes currently have – in order to be truly efficient vehicles for daily use. Peak electricity rates also make daytime charging more expensive than doing so overnight. One worry is how electricity grids will cope in areas where electrics and plug-in hybrids are expected to sell big initially, namely progressive American cities like Los Angeles, the San Francisco Bay Area and Washington, DC. Hopefully the already outdated American power infrastructure will catch up by the time electric cars become mainstream.
by Graham Land
Additional resources: