Tesla has unveiled technology that can swap a battery pack in 90sec — quicker than a conventional car can be refuelled. What will be the best way to ease range anxiety issues on EVs?
Technology innovation remains the overiding concern for respondents to last week’s poll, with 42 per cent believing a breakthrough in battery technology is required to alleviate range anxiety. A third of respondents believe standardised batteries and a ‘hot-swapping’ network was key to the issue, with a further 10 per cent opting for dynamic inductive charging. 15 per cent of respondents are of the opinion that the best way to allay range anxiety is the availability of widespread fast-charging points at service stations and car parks. This portion of respondents will be pleased to learn that £37m was made available earlier in the year by the government for the roll-out of electric vehicle charging points in Britain.
What’s your opinion on electric vehicles and range anxiety? Let us know below.
This is a multifold challenge ~ you have the range issue (I have a 52 mi.(84km) commute), cost of re-charging I have not read anything in regards to the amount of electricity needed to charge batteries, & cost of original product. Even the current hybrids cannot compete with the total cost of ownership of traditional gas powered cars even at $4/gal US ($3.8/L). Long way to go.
Using an ICE vehicle as the performance standard for an EV seems unproductive.
Why try and make it into something it is not? Efficient, high density, electrochemical energy storage is neither cheap nor fast. Is a motorcycle owner deterred by winter anxiety? I don’t by a wrench to drive a nail. Subways are not impractical because the tracks don’t run to my specific destination.
An EV in an urban setting with a fixed charging location is already proven.In urban delivery fleets, EVs can be more profitable than ICEs.
I dare say a cost effective fuel cell will be developed long before these swap and charge strategies become economically viable or the “battery breakthrough” happens.
I leased a Citroen C Zero fully electric car last November for a 3 year period and although it certainly has range limitations I can truly say it has so far met all my expectations. Around town I drive it like a normal automatic car and it easily keeps up with the traffic flow. The turning circle is exceptional and puts a London cab to shame. Although small it has four seats which fold flat to give more carrying space when needed and has room for shopping in the space above the battery packs in the boot.
The longest journey I have undertaken to date on one battery charge is around 75 miles. This requires careful driving to avoid rapid acceleration and anticipation to avoid sudden stops and maximise regenerative charging during slowing and keeping the speed under around 50mph where possible. Wearing a warm coat and gloves in the winter and using the heater sparingly as it takes a lot of battery power and reduces the range is also necessary when endeavouring to stretch the range from a single charge. Fortunately having driven old cars in the 60’s when heaters were an optional extra this is not such a hardship for me.
The battery is lithium of 16 kWh capacity. It can be fully charged at home (240V in the UK) or in an office car park from a standard domestic electric socket in 6 to 8 hours. My night time low rate electricity cost is around 6p/kWhr so I can fully charge the battery for one pound for 75 miles driving. With petrol/diesel currently at over £6/UK gallon at the pump this is equivalent to some 450 miles per UK gallon for an ICE vehicle.
I voted in the recent Engineer “range anxiety” poll for more high rate charging points as these would greatly extend my journey range. My car is fitted with both a 10 amp charging point for home charging and an approx 100 amp high rate charging point that can charge the battery to 80% full in half an hour. I have been searching for these high rate and they appear to be very few and far between in the UK at the moment. I was most surprised recently to find that even the new multi million pound motorway service station at Cobham near Guildford on the M25 around London doesn’t have a single electric car charging point although I did come across one at Ikea in Wembley.
If they could be installed quickly I would opt for dynamic charging using buried cables in sections of motorways and trunk roads with inductive pads fitted to the underside of vehicles in preference to fixed charging points. Due to the slow take-up of electric cars I would imagine however that these will be a long time coming and hence my preference at this time for clusters of high rate charging points at motor way service stations and other convenient places in city centres where I can simply plug in and wait half an hour and drive on to the next point. Not high speed transport but much much cheaper than in a petrol or diesel vehicle and leaving home a few hours early to allow for the slower speed and the extra stops is not a problem for me. On second thoughts I am not so sure my average speed would be so much slower based on recent travels up and down the congested M1 and M6
Railway or bus “park and ride” car parks where commuters park their cars all day do not really need charging points as commuters usually live fairly close to the station and should be able to drive from their home to the car park and home again on a single charge and then recharge overnight at home. However where home charging is not possible or expensive to arrange such as where there is no off steet parking then fast charging points at shopping centres would be useful in the interim until dynamic charging becomes the norm.
I do not see battery size being such an issue requiring a “breakthrough” as the ramge of currently available batteries will be perfectly fine if high rate dynamic charging systems (DCS) were to be made available on all motor ways and trunk roads across the country. You would then be able to drive along the DCS sections and recharge while commuting to work and drive under your own power from the DCS to your place of work in the morning and back to the DCS again in the evening. Similarly on leaving the DCS when approaching your home you would have enough battery power to drive home and back to the system the following day. This would avoid the need to re-charge at home which would remove a major constraint to increased electric vehicle ownership where home charging is not possible where off street parking is not available.
It appears to me that conversion of existing small roadworthy ICE cars to electric power, which is not very difficult, is the only way to rapidly accelerate affordable electric vehicle ownership given the current very high costs and low sales of new electric vehicles. The resulting increased electric vehicle ownership will then lead to economies of scale and technology breakthroughs as was the case with home computers in the 80s.
I noticed a news item a week or so ago announcing the arrival in the UK of the first 60 BYD e6 all electric cars from China with a claimed range of 186 miles. Warren Buffet of the USA owns 10% of BYD’s shares. Reminds me of the arrival of the first “nifty thrifty Honda fifty” moped from Japan in the 60’s which marked the start of the end of the UK motorcycle industry.
Mike Brooks, thanks for taking the trouble to share your experience with EV’s. Very interesting. I was just wondering what you thought of “Hot swapping”. At least until DCS was available.