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Unread 11-05-2008, 20:09
Tristan Lall's Avatar
Tristan Lall Tristan Lall is offline
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Re: Electric Vehicles, in favor of? or disapprove?

No way.

The main factor is the price point: it's nice to be nice to the environment, but not at a premium of tens of thousands of dollars. I could have a bicycle (a moderately-nice one), an efficient-but-tiny subcompact (like a Hyundai Accent) and an efficient-but-full-sized sedan (maybe a base-model Nissan Altima) for that price, all bought new. That way, I could balance environmental impact versus practical needs. Or, if I felt especially philanthropic, I could put the spare tens of thousands to something more useful toward environmental protection.

Also, you haven't specified how much energy it consumes. If I get my energy from a coal-fired generating station, 200 km away, are the emissions and transmission losses on par with the efficiencies and emissions associated with operating a conventional engine? If not, then it's very difficult to make the case that the vehicle is environmentally-friendly at all.

And how long does it take to charge it? If it's a 30-minute deal when supplied from a special high-current charging station, then the range may be marginally acceptable for short trips between charge points. (Hopefully I would get one of these charge points installed for free, with electrical service upgrades as necessary, upon purchasing the car.) But if it needs to stay overnight, plugged into the wall, that range is unacceptable. Many people drive 20 km or more to work: if you use a third of the range on the way to work, and another third on the way back, are you going to be happy about not being able to get to and from robotics in the evening?

How will the battery will perform over its lifetime? What is the battery's lifetime? I don't want to pay replacement costs, unless it's very cheap. And I don't want to find myself with 25% less range in three years.

And is the top speed a governed speed that it can reach easily, or is it a drag- or powertrain-limited speed that it can barely manage? Traffic often travels at 130 km/h on major highways in Southern Ontario. 100 km/h must be reachable within about 20 s, for it to be safely driveable on the highway, given the length of most acceleration lanes.

All of these things can be compromised to some degree in the design of the vehicle, but when most, or all of them are sub-par, it's not going to be acceptable to anyone.

Fortunately, none of the electric vehicles currently marketed suffer from so many deficiencies. If a 60 km range is advertised, you'll get a subcompact city car, or perhaps a souped-up golf cart ("NEV"). It won't cost $50 000.

By the way, the solar angle is a dead end, at least for a car that needs to be used as a daily driver. What do you do when there's a centimetre of ice and snow on the car? Scrape the precious solar cells? Use more energy to defrost them? What happens when it's cloudy, or it's night? Purpose-built solar racecars exist that can reach 120 km/h, and sustain that speed in continuous sunshine. But they're worth hundreds of thousands of dollars, and seat one (small) person in a reclining position with virtually no visibility, no cargo capacity, no amenities and minimal crash protection. (The driver of the University of Toronto's solar car team was killed in a road accident a few years ago: he stood no chance against the two-tonne minivan that destroyed the solar car.)
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