Electric vehicles under investigation
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Aberdeen University’s Centre for Transport Research has been awarded funding by the UK Energy Technologies Institute (ETI) to explore who will buy and use battery-powered or hybrid vehicles.
Other subjects to be investigated include: how much people will be willing to pay for such a vehicle, how it will fit into their current travel patterns and whether they have any anxieties about the new technology.
Identifying the types of people who are most likely to become early adopters of electric vehicles — such as the plug-in car — will also be a key focus of the research.
Dr Jillian Anable, who is leading the Aberdeen study, said: ‘Identifying the key factors that will influence consumers to purchase electric vehicles and plug-in hybrid electric vehicles will be crucial to successfully rolling out the concept to the wider market.
‘We hope our research — which will take place throughout the UK — will identify the type of person that may become an early or future adopter of the technology.’
Aberdeen University is one of six partners undertaking research as part of ETI’s £11m low-carbon vehicle plan to support the roll-out of plug-in electric vehicles to the UK market.
The project is led by Ricardo and also involves the Transport Research Laboratory, Shell, Element Energy and Sussex University.
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Readers' comments (28)
Anonymous | 22 Mar 2010 1:59 pm
Surely this research is bettter done by car manufacturers, and haven't Nissan already done it, as they've just announced a £420m investment in the Leaf electric car?
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Tim | 22 Mar 2010 2:49 pm
Why the rush for electric cars?
Cars charged from the grid will be an additional burden on an already strained system.
Electricity is a refined product with over 50% of the primary energy lost by the time it arrives at the consumer. In a car you then have additional losses brought about by friction, aerodynamic losses etc.
Until local generation and consumption is possible then electric cars make no environmental sense. Just becauee the pollution doesn't come out of the exhaust pipe, doesn't mean that it doesn't exist.
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Anonymous | 22 Mar 2010 3:03 pm
Rather than a burden to the grid electric cars (or rather the batteries in them) can be a huge pool of electric storage when they are connected for charging.This would help smooth out the peak demands that really stretch the system. A truly smart grid with storage capacity!!
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Anonymous | 22 Mar 2010 3:06 pm
Tests and simulations have shown virtually no impact to the grid. Current draw is very small and will likely be primarily charged at off-peak times.
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Anonymous | 22 Mar 2010 3:09 pm
Cars charged from the grid will be an additional burden on an already strained system.
I've often wondered about that - energy is energy - it's got to come from somewhere (and I'd rather see it from an internal combustion engine than a coal-burning plant).
There's a point to the "off-peak" charging, but aren't we just robbing Peter to pay Paul?
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Anonymous | 22 Mar 2010 3:42 pm
Gas motors in cars are about 18% efficient in converting the energy in gas. Coal fired plants are about 33% efficient in converting the energy stored in coal to electricity and electric motors are about 90% efficient alow for 60% line loss etc and you get 18%, so it is approximately even up.
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Tom Russell | 22 Mar 2010 3:49 pm
Maybe since internal combustion vehicles pump most of their energy out through the radiator, electric could actually be more efficient due to greater efficiency at the generating station?
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Anonymous | 22 Mar 2010 3:51 pm
Power to weight battery capacity still needs a big breakthrough. What unequivacal battery life guarantee will the car maker give us? What will the cost of supplying and fitting a new battery, removing /disposing of the old be, etc? How will global warming affect battery life? How long will the battery in a car having a 60HP motor take to charge from a 230v, 13A, socket take to recharge 100%? I fear honest answers without spin will not make a purchase attractive compared with conventional power plants.
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HCS | 22 Mar 2010 3:55 pm
Just send all the natural gas to power stations instead of wasting it on cooking and heating. Losses in distribution system must be huge. Simply lighting the stove or gas fire in millions of homes allows loss, not to mention all the leaky pipes in the network. Bring on the electric car sooner the better.
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Russell James | 22 Mar 2010 4:27 pm
PLEASE - Informed comment or Nothing.
ICE cars are HORRENDOUSLY inefficient (by a factor of 100s) compared even to burning coal to mass-produce power.
Coupled to the fact that as Power Stations (Coal,Gas,Nuclear,Hydro,Wind,Wave,Geothermal etc.) get upgraded so does the ENTIRE TRANSPORT SYSTEM - get it?
I build & use a long-range Hybrid push-bikes on a daily basis. If & when I can afford to prototype cost-effective electric retro-fits for EXISTING CARS I will be doing that too.
When we can trust the Auto-industry to take the existing off-the-shelf components available for the last 30+ years & just Build - FULLSPEC, HIGHWAY electric vehicles. Then they can do the research & it will be worth listening to their findings... GM EV1-crushed, Toyota's Laughable EU Prius & US Rav4-illegal to OWN, go figure
Electric systems are Great, Cheap & Fully recyclable RIGHT NOW. I know, I use them.
Can you imagine how good they would be if the Auto-industry had invested 100 years of research into them - instead of ICE, which in 1900 was the WORST available technology, taking 70 years to even get it to work reliably. I'm sure we can all remember 1970's British Leyland cars...
So please, can we silence this 'doesn't the grid pollute?' nonsense & Get a Grip.
The answer is stupifyingly simple...
YES IT DOES - but HUNDREDS of time less than Your Fossil-fueled Car.
Period.
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