Click for
EVnut.com_home page
EV FAQ 2
Another take at commonly-asked questions and common myths.
Q: Why would I even want to plug a car in?
A: Plugging in to tap renewable electricity such as solar, wind, tidal or other,
allows you to drive without contributing to the pollution that sickens and kills
hundreds of thousands of Americans every year, providing you with virtually
pollution-free driving. Electricity is much cheaper than gas (~a third of the
current cost of gas) and allows you to opt out of giving your money to oil companies,
the politicians they support and the middle eastern tyrants. It allows you to
drive silently so that you don’t contribute to the din of thousands of
internal combustion engines moving throughout your community. It allows you
to drive without participating in wars over oil.
Q: Isn’t plugging in an inconvenient chore?
A: Not at all. Plugging in literally takes less than 5 seconds of your time.
There is no going out of your way to a gas station and jockeying for a pump.
You can charge anywhere there is an electric outlet.
Q: Aren’t fully electric cars impractical?
A: Not at all. EVs with a 150-mile range could be built and sold in quantity
at a profit today for $25,000. Ranges exceeding 300 miles on a charge exist
today, but with the cost of batteries as high as they are, it is impractical
for most cars at this point. Most people, when educated as to the benefits of
driving with electricity, will be well served by a car with a range of 100-180
miles. Well over 90% of daily driving is well under 100 miles. Any long distance
driving can be done with a second car that is a plug-in hybrid (PHEV), or by
renting or borrowing a PHEV.
Q: What is a plug-in hybrid (PHEV) and why do you support that technology over
vehicles that run on biodiesel or ethanol?
A: A plug-in hybrid (PHEV) is like any normal hybrid, but with two important
differences. It has a larger battery capacity and is able to plug in to the
electrical grid to charge the batteries. Instead of a battery with a capacity
of about 1 kWh of power like an ordinary hybrid, these batteries will have a
capacity of 9-10 kWh of power. This will enable the PHEV to drive like a fully
electric vehicle for up to 40 miles before the gas engine kicks in.
We support any clean fuel that is not oil. However, it is clear that electricity
is the cleanest, cheapest and a ubiquitous source of domestic energy for moving
cars and trucks. We understand the need for multiple sources of energy to replace
the oil we use, so all alternatives will have their place as we transition away
from oil.
Q: If I were to drive a plug-in hybrid (PHEV), how much would my gas mileage
improve?
A: Your gas mileage could improve to several hundred miles per gallon, plus
electricity. If you had a PHEV with a 40-mile range in EV mode, and you rarely
drove over 40 miles without charging, then you would almost never need gas.
Most people will find that if they have an EV with 150 miles of range, they
would not need another vehicle for any of their daily driving. For longer trips,
you could rent or borrow a PHEV. For families with two vehicles, one would be
an EV, and the other a PHEV. For those families, they would only need gas when
they drove over 40 miles in a day.
Q: You may not spend as much money at the gas pump, but wouldn’t the electricity
bill go through the roof?
A: Your energy bill will be less overall by driving with electricity. EVs are
so efficient that the cost, per mile driven, is significantly less. For instance,
a 2002 Toyota RAV4 will travel 100 miles on 4 gallons of gasoline. At $2.50/gallon,
this is $10.00. A 2002 Toyota RAV4 EV will travel 100 miles on 30 kWh of electricity.
At 10 cents per kWh, this is $3.00.
Q: Could a solar system produce electricity for a plug-in car?
A: Yes, easily. EVs typically can travel 3-4 miles (or more) per kWh. If you
drive 12,000 miles per year, you will need 3,000-4,000 kWh. Depending on where
you live, you will need a 1.5kW-3kW PV system to generate that much power using
about 150-300 sq. ft. of space on your roof. In fact, many EV drivers recharge
their cars from rooftop solar panels today, generating virtually no pollution
for their local driving.
Q: Are plug-in vehicles dependable?
A: Battery Electric Vehicles are the most dependable vehicles made. Well made
production EVs have the potential to last as long or longer than gasoline automobiles,
with less regular maintenance. There are many fewer moving parts in an EV, and
therefore less ongoing preventative maintenance. Brake life is significantly
extended since the motor is used to slow the car, recapturing the kinetic energy
and storing it back in the battery. While replacement batteries may be required
during the life of an EV, newer battery chemistries are demonstrating very long
lives.
Q: What happens when the batteries run out of power?
A: You charge them back up. When EVs and PHEVs are commonplace, charging stations
will be everywhere. Restaurants, grocery stores and other retail establishments
will offer free or low cost charging as enticements to get customers. Parking
meters will be charging stations where you will plug in, swipe a card, and when
you unplug, your account will be debited with the energy used and the time at
the meter. Of course, anyone with access to a plug at home will charge there
over night when cheap surplus power is readily available. Studies indicate 80%
of Americans have ready access to plugs where they park at night.
PHEVs, of course, will not need to be charged since their internal combustion
engine will allow virtually unlimited range for long trips. However, to minimize
pollution, cost and other ills associated with the use of oil, one would do
well to plug in whenever possible to maximize the use of the electric grid,
hopefully sourced with renewable electricity.
Q: How long does it take to fully charge a plug-in hybrid or electric car?
A: It would depend on the amperage of the charging system. From an ordinary
120V socket, you would need overnight to charge a battery EV fully. With a fast
charger, you could fully charge in 5-10 minutes. A plug-in hybrid could fully
charge in 6-9 hours from an ordinary outlet.
Q: How often do you have to replace the batteries?
A: Nickel Metal Hydride batteries (NiMH) are proving to be very long lived.
Several cars with over 130,000 miles have been reported with virtually no range
degradation. Estimates of 150,000 – 200,000 miles are predicted. Lithium
Ion (LiIon) is thought by most experts to be the chemistry that will supplant
NiMH. The testing of battery life is continuing, but it’s too early to
tell how long LiIon will last.
Q: What if electric cars get their energy from dirty sources like coal –
how clean are they then?
A: The Argonne National Labs have looked into this issue and report that the
mix of power in the electrical grid, not all of which is coal, results in a
32% decrease in greenhouse gases with EVs. The other pollutants similarly meet
the stringest standards for the cleanest gas cars today, even charging completely
from an ordinary coal plant. Many states such as California are much cleaner,
with a grid mix at 29% coal. EVs also allow you to use 100% clean renewable
electricity from sources such as the sun or wind. In addition, EVs get cleaner
as the electrical grid gets cleaner. Gas cars only get dirtier as they age.
We support replacing all “fossil-fuel” electricity generation with
clean and renewable generating methods.
Q: Aren’t all those batteries full of toxic chemicals and precious metals
that will just end up in a landfill?
A: Not at all. Every car in the world has a lead-acid battery, the most toxic
metal used for batteries. Even with its low value as scrap, the recycling rate
for lead-acid batteries is about 98% in the U.S. EVs will use newer chemistries
such as NiMH and LiIon. Both of these metals are inherently more valuable than
lead, and since the batteries are quite large, the value of the spent battery
packs will be such that the recycling rate will approach 100%. It is illegal
to dispose of these batteries in a landfill and their value will ensure that
is not their fate. Nickel, while mildly toxic, will be reclaimed during the
recycling process. Lithium is even less toxic and more valuable than nickel.
Q: How viable are hydrogen cars? Many seem to think they are the "cars
of the future.”
A: There are two types of hydrogen cars. Fuel cell vehicles (FCVs) are EVs,
but instead of getting their electricity from batteries charged from the grid,
they get their power from fuels cells using hydrogen as the energy carrier.
FCVs use four times as much electricity on a per mile basis as a battery EV
if the hydrogen is obtained through the process called electrolysis. So you
would need four times the number of solar panels to go the same distance as
you would in a battery EV. Hydrogen obtained through reformation of hydrocarbon
fuels releases massive quantities of CO2 into the atmosphere, and even that
dirty process uses more energy than merely charging a battery. FCVs have many
seriously difficult and expensive engineering challenges to solve before they
will ever be widely available, and even then, the energy required per mile will
probably still be substantially higher than with battery EVs.
Internal combustion engines (ICE) can be made to burn hydrogen instead of gasoline.
Even these fairly simple conversions are expensive, and the energy required
is again, much higher per mile than with EVs. In addition, ICE burning hydrogen
(H2) cars still have some emissions albeit low but they cannot be considered
ZEVs, not even taking into consideration how one gets the hydrogen.
The bottom line is that there is no advantage to using FCVs or H2 ICE technologies
over battery EVs.
Paul Scott
www.PlugInAmerica.com
|
Click for |