Anaheim, California—What a difference a year makes!
Yesterday, a Congressman spoke up from the floor at EVS—for the first time ever, said a startled moderator. It brought home just how much has changed in the world of electric vehicles. And how fast that has occurred.
This year’s Electric Vehicle Symposium (EVS-23) saw more than 450 people spend all of Sunday at a workshop on plug-in hybrid electric vehicles in the usual windowless hall. Automakers, electric utilities, regulators, and even lawmakers debated the complex issues involved in designing, building and selling vehicles with electric drive.
Oh, the Congressman? That was US Representative Jay Insley (D—Washington), who detailed a bill in the House to eliminate oil-industry tax benefits as one way to encourage development of electric vehicles. (He was also touting his new book, Apollo’s Fire: Igniting America’s Clean Energy Economy.)
To understand how far things have come, consider: A year ago, the Chevrolet Volt was unknown. It would have been breathtaking to learn that General Motors intended to build and sell a four-seat vehicle with a 40-mile electric range. A month later, at January’s Detroit Auto Show, that very thing happened.
And consider: The demand for plug-in hybrids has exploded, far beyond the supply. Small conversion shops share information online, and charge a handful of customers $10,000 or more to enable them to plug in their Priuses to accept charge off the grid—extending its all-electric range from a mile to perhaps 10—was still far out on the radar.
Now, grumbled the City of Vancouver’s Brian Beck, “I’m ready to change the building code to require electric plugs throughout parking garages, but automakers tell me I can’t get their plug-in prototypes—so I have to look toward private conversion companies just so we can test plug-ins in our fleet.”
And how many plug-in hybrids exist today, in the world? Less than 100.
The challenges of making electric-drive vehicles a reality are enormous. There have always been true believers, but when five major automakers come in with large, expensive displays on the exhibit floor—Ford, General Motors, Honda, Mercedes-Benz and Toyota—something real may be happening.
I’ll be posting every day from EVS-23 from now through Wednesday. If anyone has specific issues they’d like me to explore, please contact me: J V [dot] spectrum [at] ieee [dot] org.
Comments (2)
As a 2006 Toyota Prius owner I am becoming increasingly interested in Hybrid technology and its ramifications. I too support a cleaner more sustainable environment, however, there are some questions I have about this technology that don't seem to be addressed. At least in my own limited research experience.
On Dec. 2, 2007 I attended the EVS-23 Trade Show as a guest and was quite excited by what I perceive to be a fledgling industry. Recent experience drove me to several cost of ownership questions for hybrids when Toyota told me it would cost $350.00 to upgrade the map software in the car. Unfortunately I discovered this may have been only be the tip of the iceberg .
Walking the EVS-23 showroom floor as a novice consumer I believe these questions arose and are "pure" in the since in that they come from outside of the industry and don't seem be addressed. My numbers may be off, but please consider them "average" or "for the sake of debate".
Please consider the following:
A car battery may last up to 250,000 miles or 5 to 6 years (give or take) after which it will require replacement. I tried pinning down on some of the "experts" but I finally got anywhere from $6,000.00 to $15,000.00 for another battery. Driving a car in LA as a commuter I do 30,000 to 36,000 miles in a year. My car will hit 250,000 in about 6 to 7 years. I have a 5 year car loan (due to the cost of these cars), so in about 1 to 2 years after I finish paying for my car I am going to have to "finance" another battery (because I don't have 15K laying around). This scenario assumes I'm not going to go buy another "sustainable" vehicle and keep the one I have, now that I finally finished paying for it. I heard talk of battery "leasing" but such programs do not exist for current EHV owners at this time. To date, "fuel savings" will not cover that new battery.
Another question I came up with at the show revolved around the "retrofit" battery packs to extend mileage in current production Prius cars.
All of the Prius battery retrofit packages I saw at the EVS-23 show were installed in the Prius "trunk" (if you can call it that). I asked several of the engineers about the installation, the switches and wiring that needed to be installed, wither the car software would accept the auxiliary battery, etc. All questions were answered quite completely except one.
Where do you put your spare tire?
One manufacturer quipped that I could tie it on the roof. However "roof mounting" would seem self defeating since it would create quite a bit of drag on the car thus decreasing fuel/power efficiency. Another just told me to "through it in the back seat". However my daughter didn't like the idea of riding in her new dress with the spare. Has anyone considered this aspect of where to safely stow the spare tire and the jack, where you can get at it? The tire can become rather dangerous in an accident if it got to bouncing around the inside of the car, not to mention the jack. And where does the rest of my car junk go?
Please don't forget,
What about my map upgrade? In my tirade back to Toyota US on their $350.00 map software upgrade. I commented that I hoped some independent enterprising software engineer should come up with their own map/system upgrade program. I'm hoping someone is working on the software for these cars. The OEM's continue to price service and support of the advanced electronics in these cars out of sight. Where is my Chilton manual? I need to rebuild my neutron flux capacitor. I have it all apart in the garage floor and I can get it back together. What is being done about maintenance technical data on these EHV's. I cant work on my car without killing myself.
I'm considering duct taping a Garman or Magellan over the map screen, their cheaper and they fit.
I have several other neophyte owner questions if you would care to hear them.
David Peterson
Aerospace Manager, Product Development & Technical Support
kalaniokai@aerthlink.net
Posted by David Peterson | December 3, 2007 5:53 PM
Posted on December 3, 2007 17:53
As this is the first time I have looked at this site, I am encouraged to see a Prius owner's reflection. I am a working class guy, who wouldn't or couldn't purchase a Prius. On the sidelines I have studied the product, and came the conclusion this person did, "What's so effecient about the prius. It is not economically viable, or effecient in terms of it's carbon footprint. The production of the new fleet of cars alone would place more hydrocarbons in the air then if I were to run my 88 bmw into the next ten years. So as a casual observer I am happy to see toyota try, and happier to see that the people that purchase it are getting a real world education in effecientcy. Maybe when the car does come along they recognize it (plug in electric, or hydrogen) and spend out a similar ridiculous cost of ownership. Hopfully creating a secondary market when working class people like myself can buy it instead of financing it.
Posted by Aaron Bryant | February 8, 2008 11:32 AM
Posted on February 8, 2008 11:32