What holds back the electric car, and who made Steve Gutenberg a Star? I will attempt to answer one of these questions in this post.
Steve Gutenberg had a cheeky smile that suited some roles during the 1980s furthermore.....
Just kidding. There are currently moves to encourage electric car ownership, with government attempting to get a network of plug in points assembled across the country. This has seen some success in London where the GeeWhiz electric car has been quite successful as a small commuting vehicle.
Electric cars have also evolved from their predecessors which often lacked speed and range. Indeed it is often said that an Electric Car's bigges weakness is the weight of its batteries and the amount of energy it spends hauling those around. However I disagree. Range is now just about comparable to a tank of petrol and speed isn't an issue with cars like the Tesla proving that it is possible to build an exciting electric car.
Nope, the electric car's biggest hindrance is charging time. Take a petrol car, when you run low on petrol you stop at a petrol station and fill up the tank, this usually takes a few minutes. Batteries take hours to charge. This is irrelevant when you are driving your car to work, plugging it in for 7-8 hours, driving home and plugging in again, but what if you want to make a trip that is outside the range of your batteries, you may need 3.5 hour stopovers every time you run out of power, making long journeys longer.
So, what are the solutions. Well, most practical is the Hybrid, cars such as the Toyota Prius, which carry a petrol engine which can run the car and charge the batteries at the same time. Its not the ideal solution, the car is heavy with the weight of an engine and batteries, and this seriously affects the engine's fuel efficiency when running on petrol. There is a plug-in version available, which allows you to charge the batteries by plugging in, but the hybrid really is a stopgap.
Far More promising is the Hydrogen fuel cell, which has been perfected, it uses a clever chemical reaction from hydrogen to generate electricity. The only by-products, water. of course, the down side is that at the moment it costs more energy to produce Hydrogen than you ever get out of it, but that's merely the next hurdle.
Finally, there have been some encouraging experiments done in fast charging batteries. in short re-chargeable batteries that could run for 3 hours and charge in 30mins. Suddenly all an electric car does is make you take regular breaks.
Providing people are willing to invest and promote new technology I foresee a future where nearly all of us drives either a Hybrid or and Alternative fuel car
:squee:
16 years ago
I was watching Robert Llewlyn's Machine of the Week (he's a huge Tesla fan) and he was talking about some of those fast-recharging batteries. Sounded very promising.
ReplyDeleteI can see electric cars really taking off in the very near future. The fact the Government is talking financial incentives to buy them (albeit not for another 2 years), as well as installing plug points throughout London, coupled with the new developments in battery recharge technology means they're going to become very practical in the near future.
Heck, the technology is already proven and sound. For most people needing a basic commuter car the only problem is they're ruddy expensive to buy. Its only really long-haul journeys that the batteries become an issue.
On a related note, the other week a Prius past me on my way to work. This may not seem like a big thing, but its the first time I've had one drive past, on a quiet backroad, with no other traffic around, so the only noise it made was the tyre noise on the road. Quite scary actually experiencing how quiet they are.
Robert LLewllyn's tweeted saying one of his upcoming Carpools will be with a big supporter of electric cars/hydrogen fuel cells. Should make for interesting viewing.
ReplyDeleteBut can you imagine how much nicer a city centre would be with more electric cars and trolley busses. Gods those hulking great deisels in busses alone are deafening.
ReplyDeleteThe electric cars are at their best as inner city runabouts, and If charging points were common (Preferably 1 at every parking space) then it woudl be a real incentive to buy a small electric car as a runaround (Like out to braehead, or to johnstone station) and keep a larger car (Like our scenic) for longer trips (Like out to Largs or Edinburgh or beyond) It woudl be interesting to see if the fuel saving offset the increased insurance costs (IIRC electric cars are very low on road tax) Of course, the tax breaks and incentives on electric or hybrid cars will only last while they are the exception rather than the rule. I can't see the government loosing all that fuel duty and road tax
In fact, I was reading the other day about the Government thinking about resurrecting the pay-as-you-go motoring idea and applying it to electric cars to recoup the money lost in fuel duty, once they take off.
ReplyDeleteWell, that makes some sense, after all, the normal pay as you go method of fuel tax will be redundant. It goes to show teh tax breaks will be a temporary saving though
ReplyDeleteDefinitely. The minute they actually take off, the Government will find a new way of taxing them.
ReplyDeleteThis week's Machine of the Week report is talking about a company setting up electric car plants in the UK (and in various locations across the globe). I want to say its Newcastle, but I'd need to double-check. Obviously they're taking off if companies are looking to go into large-scale production.
The same report also talks about them wanting to weave in a recharging infrastructure.
Ah, just found the link. Its Nissan that's doing it, although it sounds like its just a feasibility study at the moment:
http://www.channelflip.com/2009/05/05/the-mower-electric-car-plants/