Posted by
rycK on Friday, March 06, 2009 10:53:02 AM
Hokum, Blow and the
Electric Car Follies Exposed
The
left-loonies have floated on iridescent gossamer threads across the skies
spreading the good news that we can save our planet by using electric cars and
other zero-growth nostrums. Our vaulted and intellectually gifted vice
president, Joe Biden,
is now in charge of new ‘technologies’ for the green future. We are so lucky to have such a wonderful future
in mind. We are offered the opportunity to quit drilling for all that nasty oil
and not buying oil from those Islamo-Fascisti from the Middle East and other garden spots like Venezuela. We are on a mission to save the
world by becoming EcoNazis. Let us take a close look at the current electric
car technology and find out where we are in the magnificent quest for
alternative energy options for our automobiles.
So, to
begin with, what are the details of this brilliant shift from nasty old smelly
gas guzzlers into the pristine world of obedient electrons and emissions-free
transportation?? The facts, as currently evaluated, seem to give a somewhat
less rosy view of what is possible with plug-in electric cars when we listen to
politicians who know nothing of science or technology like Al Gore.
He has closed the scientific matter. It is done.
Firstly,
we need to get some definitions out for analysis to begin discussions and then
bring in some technical factors about battery sizes and driving distances. I am
a retired Senior Research Scientist in chemistry from a major chemical company
with a solid background in electronics, inorganic chemistry, and product
development and have 6 patents.
I will address this matter not from the perch of politics, passion, frustration
or expediency, but from a scientific and cost basis. This specific battery technology
is outside my specific interests but close enough to my scientific training for
me to wonder why these cars have not been produced for decades if they can do
what they claim. It is also interesting that Europe is not wildly manufacturing such
cars even thought they have been paying from $6 to $12 dollars per gallon for
years to date. I intend to find out the answers to these questions.
We must
begin by stating up front the metrics for the energy content of batteries and
how that translates into a driving range along with costs. We can go to
Wikipedia for a good explanation of batteries and the concept of the EVB or
electric vehicle battery.
The first definition
is that of the Kw-hr or kW·h or convenient
unit of energy content
of the battery and is expressed in ampere-hours.
The energy is the same for a given amount but the a-h changes with battery
voltage, something we can ignore in these proceedings. I cited the tacky technical details for batteries in
the reference below and have abstracted the pertinent data. The important
numbers for car batteries are the Kw-hr per battery and the cost and the
weight. Obviously, the car must haul around the battery. What we need is a light weight battery with a heavy charge
that can deliver about 100 kW·h to
compete with the fuel-based cars. The numbers vary by efficiency factors and car
weights and battery efficiencies but here are several critical pieces of
information:
Here is what we get after looking
at the final product: a battery driven car:
[1] The Toyota Prius
when outfitted with a 10 kW·h battery energy provides a driving
range of about 20 miles.
[2] The Chevrolet Volt has a range of 50 miles with a fully- charged 12 kW·h battery.
[3] The cost of a 10 kW·h battery is currently about
$6000. The Chinese claim they can make such a battery for $2000 in the future.
[4] The batteries are augmented with fuel
engines such as we see in the various cars from a 2007 article about the Frankfurt
motor show, The charge
time varies from about 45 min to 3 hours.
This is why Europe is not
making these cars. I cite numerous articles, talks and a book and a series of
articles by P. Werbos, Econometric
Techniques: Theory Versus Practice, Energy: The International Journal,
15 (3/4), 1990, p. 213-236. I add a rather piquant comment by Al Sobey [retired
from GM and in the middle of the decision making process on electric
cars]. Sobey was asked the following
question: Who killed the electric car?
He replied: “It was me.”
Costs and details of the latest
technology:
California electric-car manufacturer Tesla Motors Inc. will sell [as of Mar 3, 2009] its Tesla Roadster to Canadian customers for $120,000, half down
paid up front. This car has no fuel-based engine on board and has no tail pipe. Its range is ‘about’ 220 miles with a 100,000 mile battery
lifetime with lithium ion battery technology without a recharge which
takes 3.5 hours. I couldn’t find the replacement cost for the battery.
The bottom line:
Some of
the reviews are not good.
[a] GM’s GEM car
will be low cost at $7,000 to
$13,000, but
will only have a 40 mile range with a 6-8 hour charge time. It looks like a
pregnant VW.
[b] The
Canadian Dynasty iT Sedan
with a cost ranging between $14,000 to $25,000 requires a charge time of6 hours
and a range 30 miles with a top speed of 25 mph.
[c] The
ZENN
costs $16,000 with a charge time of 6-8 hours, a 30-50 mile range and a top
speed of 25 mph.
[d] The 3
wheeled Zap Xebra @$11,700 with a charge time of 6 hours and range of 25 miles
is the fastest at 40 mph, although this appears to be a motor cycle.
Conclusion:
The
electric car is very far away in terms of a viable substitute for our
automobiles and the urgent and frantic media blitz is political in nature. Nobody, like Europe, mass produces these inefficient
things because it makes no economic or financial sense. The batteries are now only 10% of what they
should be in terms of weight and energy storage. The quest for a
quantum leap in battery technology must be weighted in terms of the solemn fact
that we have been studying and making batteries since 1800.
To think that we can throw taxpayer’s money at car batteries in order to find
some magical substitute for oil only makes political sense and has little to do
with the truth. This effort is a political freak show at best. Al Sobey was correct when he killed the electric car at GM. It is a
joke without a decent battery.
The only
people who will benefit from a state-mandated supply of electric cars are the
Marxists and zero-growth socialists who can get political power for this folly.
The American people must realize that this is a cheap Ponzi-like scheme to tax
energy in all forms so that the left can redistribute wealth. That is all there
is to this. Hopefully places like California and Sweden will ban all combustion-type
engines and allow only electric cars so we can study and publish the results.
That will be amusing.
Don’t buy
anything ‘green.’
These are political products and are more like gangrene.
Down we go……….. rycK
Comments:
ryckki@gmail.com
Where is the ‘patriotic part’ of
this mindless plea? Where is the Plugs the Buffoon on this matter?
“"You got it. It’s time to be patriotic, Kate. Time to jump in, time to be part of the deal, time
to help America out of the rut, and the way to do that is they’re still gonna
pay less taxes than they did under Reagan."—Joe Biden, plagiarist and a person who
cheated his way through Law School at Syracuse. This link has Joe talking away on TV: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cX5nlKcTzvU&eurl=http://americansforprosperity.org/index.php?id=6409