Advantages of electric car
A hundred-year-old idea is finally gaining traction
Some of the advantages of electric car ownership should be obvious to folks who pay attention to the news, what with climate change and peak oil being two of the biggest potential problems of the 21st century.
Let's face it, our addiction to fossil fuels is filling the atmosphere with so much CO2 that major upheaval is already underway. The Northwest Passage is now open for business, polar ice sheets are melting, the oceans are turning more acidic due to all the extra CO2 they're absorbing, and many species are seeing their ranges move towards the poles. Climate scientists are predicting a heatfest in the next 50-80 years that could see ocean levels rize as much as 15 feet and temperatures climb by 4-10 degrees Fahrenheit.
Now for the good news. Since about 20% of worldwide energy
consumption is used in transportation, we can put a big dent in our CO2
output by moving away from gasoline based cars towards electric
vehicles. I already made this switch - at least partly - in 2006, when I
bought a BionX electric bike kit
Let's look at the advantages of electric car ownership first, before we cover some of the disadvantages.
Efficient use of energy
Considering how much of our electricity generation comes from coal - particularly in places like America, China, and Australia, which have vast reserves of coal and don't seem interested in curbing greenhouse gas emissions - you might be surprised to learn that it's actually more energy efficient to travel by electric car using electricity generated from coal, than to drive a gas-powered car.
Getting the maximum use out of your share of the world's finite energy sources is one advantage of electric car that benefits both future generations and your pocket book. Although only about a third of the energy contained in coal actually makes it to your wall socket as electricity (the other two thirds being lost to waste heat at the power plant, and a small amount due to transmission losses), and some of the electricity used to charge your car battery is lost to battery 'leakage' and heat during charging or discharging, an electric car motor is extremely efficient compared to a gasoline powered engine.
For example, when you hit the brakes on a gas car, the energy of the car's momentum is converted into heat in the brakepads. In an electric car that energy is returned to the battery through regenerative braking. My Bionx bike does the same thing when I brake - the motor in the back wheel recharges my battery.
Because of this increased efficiency of electric cars even if every kWh of electricity generated for car use were produced from coal, we would still come out ahead in terms of how much energy we use for transportation than with the current gas-powered fleet.
Some people have pointed out that a massive push towards electric cars could strain the already fragile electrical grid to the point of major failure (in terms of its ability to move electricity from power plant to end use). Electric cars could suck up so much electricity that electricity producers might not be able to keep up. And environmentalists have raised the spectre of electric cars causing a rekindling of nuclear power generation, because if every adult on the planet had their own electric car, driving those cars could consume over 10% of all the energy consumed by humans each year.
The trouble with this argument is that it ignores market forces. The more electric cars hit the road and start using up available electricity supplies, the more expensive electricity will become. Supply and demand - cost factors - will limit how many people switch to electric cars, and how many switch from sustainable means of transportation - walking, biking, public transit, car pooling - todriving an electric car.
One advantage of electric car ownership in terms of electricity supply is that electric cars can actually soak up excess electricity from the grid at times when production exceeds demand. Electricity demand fluctuates constantly. If 50 million Americans open their refrigerator to pull out a cold one during half time at the Superbowl, the compressors on50 million refrigerators can kick in within minutes. Power plants can't suddenly increase production the second that extra demand happens, so they model energy use and anticipate it, and alwaysproduce more energy than there is a need for, so they can handle these spikes.
Industrial users of electricity pay a floating market rate for the power they consume, and believe it or not, there are actually times when the electric utility pays them to consume electricity. For example, in September 2010 in Ontario, the hourly bulk price per mWh (megawatt hour - 1,000 kilowatt hours) varied between a low of -$38.02 (meaning bulk buyers were PAID about 4 cents per kWh to use up excess electricity) to a high of $319.34 (meaning a cost of nearly 32 cents per kWh - bulk rate). Why do they get PAID to consume electricity? Because the electricity has to go somewhere. If it's generated, it has to get used, immediately.
Now imagine that there are hundreds of thousands of electric cars sitting in driveways, carports, or garages plugged into the grid for overnight charging. With careful, computerized, connected power management across the grid (a so called Smart Grid), these electric cars could be continually monitoring current and forecast electricity prices, and do the bulk of their charging when electricity is at its cheapest (or even better, when they can make money charging - although this is an unlikely scenario at the consumer level). This not only reduces the cost of driving an electric car, but makes use of electricity that is otherwise not needed.
In fact, you could even imagine a very smart grid in which your electric car knows how far you plan to drive tomorrow, and when, and uses that information to make you money, so you get paid to drive. Electric cars have fairly high capacity batteries; a typical battery might hold as much electricity as a typical North American household consumes in a day. So your car could be charging the battery up to full at times when power is cheap, and then, at peak times when electricity prices can be 2 to 10 times higher, it pumps some of its stored power back into the grid at a higher price. It recharges again when prices drop, always making sure you'll have enough power left so that if you decide to hop into the car right now for a spin you'll have enough electricity. (Or, in the case of an electric car like the Chevy Volt, you could always use the backup gasoline engine to make a trip when the battery doesn't have enough charge left.)
Environmental benefits
There are several environmental advantages of electric car use over gasoline car use. An obvious one is that it is possible to charge your electric car with green electricity - produced from sources such as wind, solar, hydro, or biomass. And one of the biggest problems with some forms of renewable energy, especially wind and solar, is that their generation is unpredictable: it can be windy, or sunny, one minute, and still, or cloudy, the next. If your car is plugged into a local renewable source, such as a solar panel on your roof or a wind generator in your back yard, you'll make more efficient use of this energy than the grid does.
Driving on electricity means you can travel without producing carbon dioxide. Since CO2 is the leading greenhouse gas behind climate change, one of the key advantages of electric car use is the reduction in CO2 emissions from electric car use.
One of the advantages of electric car I've seen others cite is the fact that electric car batteries are fully recyclable. I don't really buy this as an advantage of electric car use because gasoline cars, being mostly made of metal, are also highly recyclable. An electric car battery is the equivalent of the empty gas tank of a gas powered car, in terms of recyclability: both score full points there.
But as for other costs related to disposal, electric car motors should last longer than their gas-powered counterparts, which reduces environmental waste. More on electric car durability a little later.
Enjoy the ride!
The first time I hopped onto my Bionx electric bicycle was an absolute thrill. Acceleration was excellent, and the bicycle was completely silent. Acceleration and noise levels are two advantages of electric car driving over gas car driving: you get much faster acceleration with an electric motor than a gas engine, and an electric car makes virtually no noise.
In fact, electric car manufacturers may need to start putting speakers on the outside of electric cars to make enough noise that others can hear the car coming. Perhaps the prercorded sound of a gas motor running would be enough to alert pedestrians that a car is coming towards them! I know several Prius owners who say they find people don't hear them coming, if the car is operating in electric-only mode. (The Toyota Prius is a hybrid gas-electric car, which runs onlyon electricity at certain times, and uses a gas engine at others both to power the car, and to charge the battery.)
Electric motors generally provide much better acceleration than even a turbo-charged gas engine. In fact, this is the main reason that Honda came out with a hybrid version of the Accord in 2005. Fuel economy of the Honda Accord was only marginally better than that of a conventional Accord; the electric motor was there mainly to provide outstanding acceleration.
Another of the advantages of electric car driving is that in some areas, electric cars (along with gas-electric hybrid cars) can use special high-occupancy-vehicle lanes, on city streets and thruways, that are reserved for public transit vehicles and cars with more than one occupant. In my home province of Ontario, for example, electric and plug-in hybrid cars will receive special green license plates and will be entitled to drive in any HOV lane reserved for cars with more than one occupant. There are also HOV lane advantages of electric car use in Norway, and in 6 US states (Arizona, California, Florida, Georgia, New Jersey and Utah).
Some commercial establishments are starting to provide plug-in parking spots as well. Just yesterday at my local Home Depot I discovered that three of the parking spots closest to the entrance (sandwiched between the disabled parking spots and the maternity parking spots) were three spots for battery or plug-in hybrid cars. As more of these plug-in parking spots appear, this will become one of the biggest advantages of electric car ownership - someone else will cover part of the cost of your driving!
These advantages of electric car driving are a great reason to switch to an electric car - quieter driving, excellent acceleration, and privileged road access. But the enjoyment doesn't stop there. How about enjoying the money you'll save by not having a gas tank to fill?
Economic advantages of electric car use
Electric cars are still quite hard to come by - either built by specialty outfits in very low volumes at a high price, or planned - but rarely delivered - by the big automakers. The Tesla Roadster is a very high performance, high efficiency electric car with a starting price of $125,000! At that price, you're not buying it for the environmental advantages of electric car driving - since you could buy a Toyota Yaris for about a tenth as much, and put the remaining $110,000 into a wind farm!
Sticking with a more basic electric car, if you buy it outright you are still looking at nearly double the price of an equivalently featured gasoline-powered car. Batteries are probably the biggest expense in the sticker price of a new electric car, because they have to be much bigger than the lead-acid battery used in a gasoline car, since they are the only (or at least primary) power source. (The lead acid battery in a regular car has enough power to move you only about a mile or two on an electric motor.) Because lead-acid batteries are so heavy, many electric car manufecturesrs have found there are advantages of electric car batteries made from more expensive, but more lightweight materials. Lithium ion batteries are the current favorite: they are highly rechargeable and have about three times the power density of lead acid batteries.
In fact large lithium ion batteries are so expensive that many electric car manufacturers (current and future) are planning to sell their cars and lease the battery packs. An electric car battery has a much more limited lifespan than the car itself (there's a limit to how many times you can recharge the battery before it stops effectively holdinga charge). That means that car buyers first face a large up-front cost for the battery, and then another charge ($5,000-8,000) to replace the battery two to five years later. By leasing the batteries, electric car manufacturers hope to make the sticker price on electric cars more attractive.
But I expect prices to come down over time, and those electric cars with a backup gasoline moter, such as the Chevrolet Volt, should do well even in the short term. And where the advantages of electric carwill really be felt is in the cost per mile driven.
My own electric bicycle gets about 12 km on a full charge with no pedalling (although I almost always pedal to help out). At 4 cents a kilowatt hour to charge the battery, that translates to a cost of about 0.33 CENTS per kilometer, or half a cent a mile. Electric cars obviously cost more to drive - they're quite a bit heavier - but you're still looking at substantial savings over gasoline.
For example, the Chevrolet Volt has a 10.4 kWh usable capacity in its 16 kWh battery, and has a range of 40-80 km (25-50 miles) on battery power alone. In Ontario I pay about 20 cents a kilowatt hour (including generating costs, distribution costs, and in my case an additional 3 cents for buying green electricity). That meas a full charge of a Chevrolet Vlt battery would cost me $2.08. At a 25-50 mile range that means my cost per mile is between 4 and 8 cents a mile. Given gasoline at a cost of $2.86 per gallon (as of 11/8/2010, across the Continental US), 4-8 cents per mile is the equivalent of between 35 and 71 miles per gallon. 35 MPG isn't exactly the most fuel efficient vehicle, but that is at the lower end of the range, and 71 miles per gallon is pretty darn good!
Other economic advantages of electric car ownership include lower maintenance bills and the potential for tax rebates and other government incentives. An electric car motor has very few moving parts. There's no combustion, which means less opportunity for the by-products of combustion to get stuck on or corrode engine parts. There's no oil bath, no coolant system, no spark plugs, no alternator or fan belts. In fact there's really just one moving part, plus any associated gearing. That translates into much lower wear and tear, and much lower maintenance expense.
A typical gasoline motor can last 100,000 to 200,000 miles (our 1985 Toyota Corolla lasted 200,000 miles and its engine was still going strong when we sold it in 1998). The motor in an electric car can last a million miles or more.
The last of the advantages of electric car ownership I want to mention is tax credits and rebates. Many federal and state/provincial governments offer generous financial incentives to people who buy electric cars. (In other places, such as in China, electric car incentives are paid directly to the manufacturer.) The US Government plans to offer a $7,500 tax credit for EVs purchased in or after 2010; Colorado offers a tax credit of up to 85% of the vehicle purchase price; Georgia residents can get a credit for up to 20% of the electric car cost; Illinois offers 80%; Louisiana offers 20%; and so on. In Canada, some provinces offer sales tax rebates on hybrid vehicles; these rebates are most likely also available (or will soon be) for pure electric vehicles. Current hybrid rebates are $1,000 for Quebec, $2,000 for BC, and $3,000 for PEI. Ontario meanwhile plans to offer incentives of up to $10,000 for electric car purchasers.
Disadvantages of electric car ownership
I'd be remiss if I talked only of the advantages of electric car ownership; there are some obvious disadvantages as well, including range, charging time, and the cost of electricity charging. I've also implied some disadvantages above, such as the potential grain on the power distribution grid, and on generating capacity, if huge numbers of people were to switch to electric cars.
Range is a big disadvantage of electric cars, because batteries just don't have nearly the power density of gasoline. Most pure electric cars have a range limit of 40 to 100 miles. That's fine for most of the driving people tend to do - commutes to work (by the way, your electric car doesn't waste energy idling while you're stuck in traffic), trips to the store, dinner with friends. But it's not much good for a drive to the cottage or a summer vacation. And not too many of us have the financial means or the garage space to buy yet another car just for those short trips.
On the other hand, if you don't mind renting a car for the occasional longer trip, you can overcome the range disadvantage. Or you can take the approach plug-in hybrid cars take - the car is a true gasoline / electric hybrid, but you can also charge the battery overnight to increase the range you get on the battery.
The Chevrolet Volt is a great example of an electric car that has partly overcome the range problem. For most local driving, as long as you remember to charge the battery overnight, the Volt should provide you with 100% electric driving. For those longer road trips, the Volt has a small gas powered motor that provides enough power to keep you moving at a reasonable highway speed without requiring a recharge. So you can take those 500 mile road trips without running out of juice; of course, you'll want to recharge when you stop at a motel for the night.
Charging time (speaking of recharging for the night) is another disadvantage of electric car ownership. You can fill a gas tank in a minute or so. Even the high-powered electric chargers for electric car batteries take at least ten times longer than that, and if you want to just plug your car into a 120 volt extension cord from your house, it'll take hours and hours and hours.
And speaking of high powered electric chargers, another disadvantage of electric cars is the cost of these devices. You'll really want one in your garage or driveway if you buy an electric car that you use daily; you just won't be able to get by on a slow charge from a 120V line alone. And the high-powered electric chargers can cost thousands of dollars - budget $5,000 to $12,000 depending on the model. They'll charge your batter fast all right - and drain your bank account even faster!
No matter what, electric cars will prevail
Over a hundred years ago the advantages of electric car models was quickly eroded by the greater range of gasoline powered cars and by progressive improvements to the internal combustion engine. But as gasoline prices keep rising, oil reserves keep dropping, and evidence of the perils of climate change becomes ever more alarming, it's pretty clear that if we are to keep on driving cars, many of those cars will have to be electric.
I think there are a lot of things we could do to avoid using cars as much as we do; that might be an even better way of coping with an oil-poor and CO2-rich future. But electric cars need to be at least a part of the solution. And that's one of the advantages of electric car ownership I'll leave you with: they give us a future worth dreaming about.
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