That’s the point Bill Shanner wanted to get across to me this week as we talked for nearly an hour about the realities of the electric power industry; why some types of utilities like the idea of electric cars and others very much don’t.

All of us in the developed world expect that each and every time, regardless of the time of day, we throw a power switch, the electricity will flow: lights will glow, microwaves will run, air conditioners will cool and computers will go ‘ping” as they boot up. Live in other parts of the world where the grid is wobbly at best or just doesn’t exist and it’s a different story.

The problem and the opportunity — depending on your perspective — with adding millions of grid-charged vehicles, be they plug-in hybrids, extended range EVs, or pure battery EVs, is that they do add load. Yes, there is currently sufficient overnight generation capacity, but from the utilities’ perspective, in order to keep a comfortable reserve they have one of two options: build more capacity — especially on the transmission and distribution side — or buy power from someone else, typically at rates, Shanner explained, 10 to 100 times what it costs the utility to generate its own, which is, on the global average, about 2¢ a kilowatt hour. But buying power from someone else doesn’t solve the problem of distribution.

There is, however, a third option emerging: the smart grid, but Shanner’s view is a bit different than what you’re used to hearing. The reason utilities are interested in the smart grid is so they can shift the risk of electric power availability to the consumer. There are very pragmatic reasons for this having to do with how the utility industry has evolved.

The industry is divided into essentially three types of power producers: investor owned utilities or IOUs, electric power cooperatives and municipal power companies; and depending on which you are colors your view of electric cars.

As Shanner explains it, grid-connected electric cars are a lot like air conditioners in that their load is fairly unpredictable, largely because despite incentives to shift charge times to off-peak hours, EV owners are going to charge when and where they feel they need to. I can appreciate that because even though most of the time I usually plug in our converted Prius after 10 pm in the evening and unplug it before 8 am in the morning, there have been several times when I’ve wanted to charge it during peak hours. Now, with one such car in the entire state, and region for that matter, this isn’t a problem. Even a few thousand grid-charged cars wouldn’t be that big an issue for the grid. Millions of such cars, however, will be.

It is the unpredictability of this load that is worrisome to electric power planners. Enter the ’smart grid,’ which from my confidant’s perspective is the electric power industry’s way to get the consumer to accept more of the capital investment risks that heretofore in a more monopolistic, vertically integrated power industry, the utility would have to bear.

Case in point: Vehicle-to-Grid (V2G) electric vehicles. It isn’t the utility that is buying all that energy storage capacity, it’s the car owner who is assuming the capital costs. Solar PV on your house? Same story. You’re assuming the investment risk, though even here, you’re counting on the grid to swap power with you: expensive solar during the day for cheap coal, natural gas and nuclear generated power at night. You’re still bearing the lion’s share of the cost. In fact, renewables like wind and solar don’t reduce the need for grid capacity, they increase it because of their intermittency. A million solar roofs may work fine to help ameliorate some mid-afternoon air conditioning load, which is really what all the excess capacity was built for. It’s like that 100,000 car per year plant that most of the time only turns out a few tens of thousands of cars annually. And since most of those solar PV installations haven’t invested in banks for back-up batteries to handle night-time loads, the grid still has to provide all those homes with power after the sun goes down or when its not shining, like it’s been here in eastern Nebraska for what seems like weeks now.

According to Shanner, two-thirds of the capital costs of the grid are T&D, transmission and distribution. It’s all those wires, towers, poles and substations needed to get the ‘juice’ from the generator to our wall outlets. It’s all those millions of neighborhood transformers that once two or three Volts and Leafs start to appear in a neighborhood will need to be replaced every 12 years instead of every 17 on average according to Arizona State’s Power Systems Engineering Center.

Two nations, Korea and Denmark, have begun developing strategies to deal with the problem. They realize that the grid needs to be managed much closer to the load than it presently is. Under our current regime, utilities manage in 100MW blocks of energy, either in terms of production or buying and selling on the spot power market. In Denmark’s case, Dong’s wind power is sold to a central power pool and then resold to individual substations. What’s happening is that the power company is starting to practice the same production strategies car makers adopted decades ago: lean [power] production, just in time [power] delivery and activity based accounting.

In effect, what Korea and Denmark are doing is moving energy management down to the substation level, making each a separate profit and loss center in their business model. But ultimately, that means increased electric power costs, not less; costs being borne more and more by the power consumer.

In fact, for any of this to work, it is Shanner’s contention that there needs to be a complete transformation of the electric power industry business model; and the price tag to do it will run into the trillions of dollars; a lot of it being spent to buy up stranded utility assets, as well as expand and upgrade the T&D system. What’s needed is both improved macro and micro management, plus a far more heterogeneous power grid instead of the hodgepodge we now have to live with.

To illustrate his point, he said that Intel has three production facilities in Silicon Valley, one in San Jose (PG&E), one in Santa Clara (a well run muni) and one in Sunnyale (a cooperative). All three charge Intel different power rates. You can probably figure out which charges the highest rate. There are 2000 distinct electric power monopolies across America, and each has a different business model and consequently a different view of the coming of electric cars. The IOU’s (and their investors), as well as coops, generally speaking, see EVs as another profit stream because they make their money on the margins, around 12% Shanner estimates. If their net revenues go from $1.5 billion to $1.515, so much the better. The more power they sell, the more profit they can make. For the municipal-run utilities like Omaha Public Power District that produces the power to keep my lights on, iMac running, and Prius recharged, electric cars are a liability requiring more capacity that has to be built at the expense of the rate payers for whom they work.

I won’t pretend that I understand all the delicate nuances of a very complicated industry, but Bill Shanner certainly seems to have a good grasp of it and if he’s right and we don’t do this carefully, in his words, “the cure could be worse than the disease.”

By Bill Moore

That’s how Steve Dallas’ wife characterizes his latest passion, a stylish, two-seat electric car that I got my first look at this evening here in Montreal. Felix Kramer, the founder of CalCars, and I were strolling the indoor mall of the Hyatt Regency after the opening night reception and noticed the bright yellow car pictured above being positioned in what will be the exhibit area of the PHEV ‘09 conference.

The car is a from-the-ground-up design that Dallas, who owns Toronto Electric, has been working on for the last two years. His firm builds industrial cranes and electric motors, so building an electric car from scratch wasn’t totally outside of his skill set, but he was also smart enough to hire the best available talent in his community to style the car, engineer and assembly the chassis, and program the electronic controls and telematics, which includes its own onboard WiFi system.

For styling, he turned to noted race car designer Paul Deutschman, who has designed cars for LeMans. The chassis was engineered from tubular chrome moly steel by a firm that builds Nascar racers. The 49kW AC drive system comes from Azure Dynamics and the 29.2kWh, 307 volt lithium ion battery pack from Valence.

Fresh out of the shop, the car is getting its first public debut for the opening of PHEV’09. Steve tells me that he hasn’t even developed a web page for it yet, but this much we know right now, the car is a one-off design due to Transport Canada regulations. While it sounds like Dallas would like to offer the series production models for sale, he is still mulling over his options, so it may, or it may not proceed beyond the point at which it is this evening.

In terms of performance, everything for now is largely theoretical. Acceleration is expected to be 0-60 mph in 4 seconds, comparable to the Tesla. Efficiency is targeted at 128 Wh/km or 207 Wh/mi. At 80% depth of discharge, that would equal a driving range of 100 miles. Top speed is rated at 99km/h (61 mph), largely because Dallas intended the car to be used in urban settings; the next step above a ZENN or comparable neighborhood electric vehicle (NEV).

Empty, the car weighs 700 kg ( 1543 lbs.) and has a payload of 460 kg. The 321 kg battery pack sits under the passenger cockpit, so tipping this car over should be next to impossible; and even if you did, it has a Nascar-style roll cage that will prevent the roof from caving in on the occupants.

The car has two digital display screens; mechanical analog instruments are so last century. The driver’s screen displays the speedometer and other vehicle data, while the telematics screen includes GPS and Google maps.

I really think a lot of people could get pretty excited about this the car, which Steve refers to in his spec sheet handout as the TE Option 1, highlighting the fact that the car could accommodate a variety of drive system options from hub motors to range-extended hybrid drives.

For now, though, Mrs. Dallas and her enterprising husband own the most expensive car on their block… and one of the nicest little electric runabouts yet to hit the bricks on either side of the Canadian-U.S. border.

Hyundai and Kia, Korea’s top two car makers, will display the small electric car, the i10, at the Frankfurt Motor Show scheduled for Sept. 15 to 17, said the flagship companies of the Hyundai-Kia Automotive Group. The exhibition is in line with the group’s push to manufacture cars that don’t emit carbon dioxide, the prime culprit of global warming.

According to industry watchers, the group’s showcasing of an electric car at the global motor show indicates it has made considerable headway in its “green car project.”

On Friday, the group made public a master plan to develop environmentally friendly cars in an effort to become one of the world’s four largest green car makers. Under the plan, Hyundai and Kia will push to produce hybrid and hydrogen fuel cell vehicles within two to three years and start selling plug-in hybrid electric vehicles in the United States in 2012. Yonhap ]]> http://carbonanotubebattery.com/hyundai-kia-to-unveil-a-new-electric-car/feed/ 0 http://carbonanotubebattery.com/arizona-firm-set-to-help-usher-in-electric-car-era/ http://carbonanotubebattery.com/arizona-firm-set-to-help-usher-in-electric-car-era/#comments Thu, 06 Aug 2009 22:49:18 +0000 http://carbonanotubebattery.com/?p=287 Scottsdale company plans to build 12,800 charging stations in 5 states

By Ryan Randazzo – Aug. 6, 2009 12:00 AM
The Arizona Republic

A small Scottsdale company will play a major role in the biggest-ever U.S. launch of electric cars after being handed nearly $100 million in stimulus grants to build charging stations.

Scottsdale’s Ecotality Inc., which owns Electric Transportation and Engineering Corp. in downtown Phoenix, will roll out 12,800 charging stations in Arizona, Washington, Oregon, California and Tennessee with the $99.8 million grant announced Wednesday.

The chargers initially will support the Nissan Leaf electric car when it goes on sale late next year. The Leaf will be the first mass-marketed all-electric car available for consumers since the late 1990s.

The Ecotality/ETEC grant is just a fraction of $2.4 billion in stimulus money that President Barack Obama announced Wednesday to help promote electric cars and create jobs as part of the administration’s efforts to cut reliance on fossil fuels.

The funds will support U.S. battery and vehicle makers, infrastructure projects such as ETEC’s, and workforce training.

“If we want to reduce our dependence on oil, put Americans back to work and reassert our manufacturing sector as one of the greatest in the world, we must produce the advanced, efficient vehicles of the future,” Obama said in a statement announcing the awards.

The ETEC charging stations will make it easier for other automakers to sell electric cars, which most major companies are planning to do in the next three years.

“Electric vehicles are wonderful,” Ecotality President and CEO Jonathan Read said. “But, if you don’t have a place to charge them, they don’t work for people.”

Nissan’s plan to offer 5,000 five-seat Leafs would be the largest-ever commercial rollout of electric cars in the United States. By comparison, General Motors released about 1,100 of its first model of the landmark EV1 vehicles that launched in 1996.

Japan-based Nissan, which is retooling a Tennessee plant to build the electric vehicles by 2012, plans to sell 1,000 Leaf cars in each of the five states.

The cars will be able to travel 100 miles on a single charge. Buyers who are willing to share their data on vehicle, battery and charger performance will get a free charger for their garage.

Many of the vehicles also likely will be sold to business fleets.

The home chargers normally would cost about $500 and will be able to recharge a battery in four to eight hours for about 90 cents worth of electricity, much faster than a standard plug and far cheaper than a tank of gas.

Among the other grants were more than $400 million for General Motors, Ford and Chrysler for their electric-vehicle projects.

The automakers agreed to use a standard charger that will work with all car models.

All the companies receiving grants will match the amounts with their own funds, including ETEC, which has about 40 partners, including Nissan, working on the charging-station project.

“Nobody is making money on it,” ETEC President Don Karner said of the initial infrastructure.

One of the project partners is BP America Inc., which could see charging stations installed at some Arizona am/pm gas stations, Read said.

ETEC, which has about 20 Phoenix employees, will benefit from the project because it will be in a good position to sell stations once Nissan and other major automakers begin releasing electric vehicles in other markets.

The charging-station project should support new jobs, 750 nationwide by 2012 and more than 5,500 by 2017, ETEC officials estimate.

“We will be paying people to build the charging stations, we will be paying laborers to install the stations,” Karner said. “All that money will be spent in the local economies.”

Various city and county officials said in April that they planned to set up charging stations between Phoenix and Tucson so electric cars would be able to make the trip. The grant will accelerate that plan.

Phoenix Mayor Phil Gordon said he and City Council members pushed to get Phoenix into the Nissan launch.

“Let me summarize: jobs, saving the environment and saving us money. It’s a triple win,” Gordon said.

The plan for Arizona is to have 1,000 home charging stations; 1,000 public stations at stores, movie theaters, restaurants and parking garages; and 250 quick-charge public stations that can replenish 80 percent of a battery’s power in 15 minutes.

“That’s enough time to get a cup of coffee while you charge up,” Gordon said.

ETEC also will work with retailers such as Starbucks and Walmart to determine if they can make money off charging stations, either by charging money for parking or by driving traffic to the locations.

ETEC has been involved in every major electric-vehicle project, including the General Motors EV1 before automakers pulled the plug on that and other electric cars for consumers earlier this decade.

But ETEC continued to develop batteries and chargers for applications such as the support vehicles that Southwest Airlines uses at Sky Harbor International and other airports.

For people to get a free home charger with the Nissan Leaf, they will have to agree to answer surveys about their driving and vehicle performance as well as maintain an Internet connection that will allow the companies to track the vehicle, battery and charger performance.

Learning how people use the vehicles and recharge the batteries is important to estimate the electricity demand utilities must meet if many thousands more people ever drive electric cars, Karner said.

Source: EV Worldwire
Class: EVWORLDWIRE

SYNOPSIS: Automotive Engineer commissions Lotus to design electric city car.

Better known for their high performance racing machines — and the starting point for the Tesla Roadster and Dodge EV — Lotus Engineering took a crack of designing the next generation urban/city electric commuter for Automotive Engineer.

Since the car is intended simply to operate on city streets shuttling the driver and his passengers from home to work, school or out to eat, the design exercise gave it a 37 kW (50 hp) electric motor and a smallish lithium battery pack that gives the car a range between recharges of 30 miles, which suggests the pack has a capacity of around 10kWh. This could translate into a reasonably priced car once lithium hits the $250/kwh cost target — it’s now estimated around $750-$1000.

Like the Reva or G-Wiz as its called in Britain, the car can handle two adults, with two children in the back seats, which can be folded down to accommodate groceries or packages.

According to UK’s Car Magazine, it took just two weeks to develop the design, one-tenth the usual amount time it takes to work up a concept. Unfortunately, it is likely remain just that, a concept, since Lotus was simply commissioned to do the study, not engineer an actual car.

It was an electric day for the Corsa Motorsports team when it accepted an invitation from the U.S. Department of Energy to display the team’s No. 48 GZ09-SH electric/hybrid Le Mans P1 Prototype racecar on the L’Enfant Quad at the U.S. Department of Energy’s headquarters building in Washington DC.

The Corsa hybrid is the first such car to feature an advanced vehicle technology alternative-fueled hybrid propulsion system which received its final homologation from the FIA in Paris last week. The car has the ability to run on one of three propulsion systems – an alternative-fueled normally aspirated V8 engine, a 35kw electric motor powered by an advanced lithium-ion battery recharged using a kinetic energy recovery system or as an ultra-hybrid employing both systems in a parallel hybrid configuration. The Corsa exhibit featured a video presentation explaining the system technology and was particularly insightful for high school students who attended the exhibit from the Baltimore/DC area Engineering Academies of the National Academy Foundation. In addition to the students, management and staff from the Department of Energy as well as the EPA had the opportunity to closely inspect what is one of if not the most sophisticated cars on the planet.

The highlight of the exhibit was the attendance of Daniel Poneman, the U.S. Deputy Secretary of Energy who was able to get into the car’s cockpit and receive a complete debrief on the car’s systems and technology from the driver’s perspective. Said Secretary Poneman “I only wish my 15 year old son could have been here to see this”. Also in attendance were representatives from most of Utah’s congressional delegation including Sen. Orrin Hatch’s office who has been a strong proponent of advanced viehcle technologies.

“The opportunity to exhibit what we are doing at the very center of government policy and to provide awareness and education to the administration based on what we perceive as a part of the solution to domesticating the components and technology necessary to make these technologies not only sustainable but evoke a consumer response was exceptionally rewarding” said Corsa Team Principal Steve Pruitt. “I believe what we had a positive impact on the Department’s personnel and the role that we can play in helping the administration see the electrification of transportation through our vision.” Deputy.

With the car now homologated, it will have its inaugural competition with fully functional hybrid power this weekend at the fifth round of the American Le Mans Series at the Northeast Grand Prix at Lime Rock Park in Lakeville, Connecticut where Johnny Mowlem and Stefan Johansson will become the first drivers to pilot an LMP1 car with the revolutionary propulsion system.

About Corsa Motorsports: Corsa Motorsports is a Salt Lake City, Utah based race team that competes in the highest class of sports car racing series in the world’s premier racing series – the American Le Mans Series – with the world’s first alternative-fueled electric/hybrid/energy recovery propulsion system using advanced lithium-ion battery and power control systems.

For more information on Corsa, please visit www.corsamotorsports.com or call Tere at 801.231-6976.

Source: Corsa Motor Sports
Class: PRESS RELEASE

That’s assuming a report in overseas magazine Solo Scooter is correct, of course.

The putative BMW machine will apparently have a top speed of 120kph (75mph) and a range on a full charge of its lithium-ion battery pack of around 250km (155 miles).

This wouldn’t be BMW’s first flirtation with urban-specific two-wheel transport. Back in 2001, it launched its C1 scooter, a semi enclosed feet forward twist-and-go machine that sadly only found 13,000 buyers in its two years of production, leading to the premature cancellation of the entire project.

Though BMW designed the C1, it was built by Italian engineering and design concern Bertone. But with global car sales in the toilet at the moment, it’s likely BMW has some excess production capacity it could put to use.

A new niche product like a leccy C1 could be just the ticket to help take up the production slack and give BMW engineers some more real world EV experience. ®

The players included the Zero X motorcycle and the Quantya Track model.  The battle took place at a special event for the two electric bikes.  The event was part of the halftime show at the AMA Maxxis MiniMotor Supercross race.

Zero produces their motorcycles here in the U.S. while Quantya is based in Switzerland.  The battle proved to be a battle between bike makers and countries as both vied for the top spot in electric motorcycles. 

The winner, by a wide margin was the Quantya Track.  Quantya managed to place in first and second while Zero’s best finish was third.  Each company had 5 bikes in the competition.

Both companies could meet again soon on the street.  Zero has already released their Zero S street bike, and Quantya is getting their version for street use ready. 

The rivalry between both companies and the show down to make the best electric bikes could intrigue other makes to attempt to take on the competition.

Source:  Zero Press Release

PRESS RELEASE:

 AMERICA’S TOP ELECTRIC MOTORCYCLE MANUFACTURER TAKES ON ITS EUROPEAN COMPETITOR IN A LAS VEGAS SHOWDOWN

 – Zero Motorcycles Meets Europe’s Quantya for their First Ever Public Race –

LAS VEGAS (April 28, 2009) – The world is about to witness a landmark moment in the electric vehicle industry. Today Zero Motorcycles announced a showdown with its European competitor. Ten fully electric motorcycles will compete in a dirt bike race, five from Zero and five from Quantya. The race marks the first time in history that any two electric motorcycle manufacturers will go head to head. It will take place in Las Vegas on May 1st at the Orleans Arena during the halftime show of the AMA/Maxxis MiniMoto Supercross race.

Absent will be the pungent smell of gasoline and the ear splitting noise of engines revving, but all around the Orleans Arena competing racers will be spraying up dirt and catching air as they vie for the title of fastest electric motocross bike in the world.

It will be the third year that Zero Motorcycles, a cutting-edge Santa Cruz based company, will participate in the race. However, this is the first time they will race against their all-electric European rival.

“Races such as this spark innovation in the world of electric motorcycles. This is the future of racing,” says Neal Saiki, founder and CTO of Zero Motorcycles. “The Zero X competed well in last year’s race and we are excited to showcase our new 2009 model.”

The race has drawn significant attention in the past. Previously, 2006 National Motocross Champion, Hall of Famer, and TV commentator Jeff Emig competed in the exhibition race against Dirt Rider editor, Jimmy Lewis. Both were riding Zero X prototypes. After the race Jeff Emig remarked, “I’m expecting the production version (of the Zero X) to have a huge impact in the motorsports industry.”

Electric motorcycles are starting to make a significant impact in the motorcycle industry and Zero is leading the way. This event marks a transition point in the greater motorcycle industry and signifies a big step into mainstream culture. The excitement is clearly growing. Ed Fields, a rider from Zero Motorcycles’ 24 Hours of Electricross, expresses it well. “These electric bikes are sick! They go like crazy and can take an incredible pounding.”

The electric showdown between Zero and Quantya will take place mid-show at this year’s AMA/ Maxxis MiniMoto Supercross on May 1st.

Zero Motorcycles is the next step in motorcycle evolution and represents the ultimate electric motorcycle technology. Unencumbered by conventional thinking about how they design, manufacture, and sell high performance electric motorcycles, Zero is on a mission to turn heads and revolutionize our industry by combining the best aspects of a traditional motorcycle with today’s most advanced technology. The result is an electric motorcycle line that’s insanely fast, and environmentally friendly.

 For information on Zero Motorcycles: http://www.zeromotorcycles.com

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