Posts Tagged EV
Vehicle to Grid - How Electric Vehicles Interact With a Smart Power Electricity Network
Posted by admin in General News on December 21st, 2009
Vehicle to Grid - How Electric Vehicles Interact With a Smart Power Electricity Network
By Richard G Watson
What is Vehicle to Grid
Also called Vehicle 2 Grid or V2G, Vehicle to Grid is the process of connecting your electric car into the transmission electricity network. If you have an electric vehicle then you will definitely want to consider setting up V2G through a simple metering system and contract with your local electricity supplier. Read the rest of this entry »
Green Guise: Chevy Volt’s 230 MPG rating is misleading.
Posted by Jeffrey in Green Guise on August 17th, 2009
Chevrolet announced on Aug. 11 that the upcoming Volt will get 230 miles per gallon. Don’t get too excited though—that number is a bit misleading. In fact, even the EPA has said that it is yet to confirm that number.
The Volt will have an electric-only range of about 40 miles. After the batteries are drained, a gas-powered generator will start up and recharge the batteries as the vehicle is driving. Chevy says that with the gas generator the range will be extended by about 300 miles. So, the total range is 340 miles on a full battery and a tank of gas, which is expected to be about eight gallons. That is, if my math is correct, about 43 mpg.
But what if you drove 30 miles every day for a month and recharged the vehicle every night? That would be about 900 miles without using a drop of gasoline. How do you calculate the mpg then?
So, how did they come up with 230 mpg? That number is a bit complicated. The EPA has a draft method to convert electricity usage to a miles-per-gallon equivalent. This calculation is more of an energy usage comparison to help consumers get an idea of the cost to operate the vehicle. The EPA realized some time ago that consumers needed a way to compare energy consumption of standard vehicles to alternative fuel vehicles, such as plug-ins and EVs. That’s where this formula comes in. Unfortunately, I don’t fully understand it, so if you do, please help us out.
There has been tons of chatter on the internet about Chevy’s 230 mpg marketing, including this and this. Certainly, Chevy nailed their viral marketing leading up to the announcement. Plenty of forums had people guessing, and some people did some real investigation trying to undercover what the vague 230 ads were talking about.
Actual range and electricity costs for the Volt will vary significantly depending on driving habits and utility rates. If you start with a full charge and a full tank and then drive a very long distance, then you’re going to rely more on gasoline. If you keep all your trips short and recharge as frequently as possible, then you’ll be relying on electricity.
However, maybe Chevy is doing us a favor? If we’re trying to compare energy consumption, then the EPA formula is something to consider. For the average consumer, will the Chevy Volt really consume 1/10th as much energy as a car rated at 23 mpg? As far as I can tell from the absurdly complex EPA document, I think that’s what the formula, and the Volt’s massive rating, is trying to tell us.
Ultimately, be ready for mass confusion when consumers think they’ll get 1,880 miles of travel off an eight-gallon tank and a full charge.
McDonald’s: would you like a charging station with your order?
Posted by Jeffrey in General News, Green Cars on July 6th, 2009
McDonald's first "green" restaurant
It looks like McDonald’s is going to start cleaning up its image and install EV and Hybrid Plug-In charging stations at its restaurants. McDonald’s first charging station will be at a new restaurant that will be opening July 14 in Cary, NC.
The charging stations will be part of the ChargePoint Network. The stations can either be free, or require a subscription. The press release didn’t mention if charging would be free at McDonald’s, but it doesn’t really make sense to pay for a full charging session if you’re just stepping into have a Big Mac. (You can look up other ChargePoint station locations here.)
The new restaurant in Cary, NC is McDonald’s first “green” restaurant in North Carolina, and only their third such restaurant in the United States. The other two green restaurants are in Savannah, GA and Chicago. Aside from the new restaurant’s charging stations, it will also feature other environmentally-responsible aspects:
- Use of solatubes and LED lighting fixtures designed to use 97 percent natural light during the day
- Highly efficient, energy and water-saving restroom and kitchen fixtures
- Dedicated parking spaces for hybrid vehicles and plug-in charging stations for electric vehicles
- Table and decor walls incorporating rapidly renewable materials like sunflower seed board, wheat board, bamboo and kirei board
- Some recycled building materials
- Drought tolerant landscape plants
- Energy Efficiency Education Dashboard in dining area informing guests about the economic and environmental benefits of the building
Maui: Beautiful Beaches and an Electric Vehicle Infrastructure?
Posted by Jeffrey in General News, Green Cars on June 23rd, 2009
Image from BetterPlace.com
Hawaii is planning on converting Maui to an all electric vehicle island. The Hawaii Clean Energy Initiative hopes to decrease the state’s dependency on oil and focus more on renewable energy. According to the initiative currently 85% of the state’s energy comes from oil. Hawaii hopes to become more self sufficient by introducing electric vehicles to the island of Maui. According to this article the government hopes to have 3,000 electric cars on the road by 2010 and 50,400 electric by 2015.
Hawaii is a perfect place to introduce an electric vehicle network; people living in Hawaii pay some of the highest gas prices in the country, so driving an electric vehicle will likely be a much greater value than in other states. The geography is also conducive to an electric vehicle system since most of the islands are not that large.
To implement their electric vehicle system Hawaii has partnered with Better Place. Better Place will build up to 100,000 battery charging stations around the island of Maui by 2015. While you can still charge your vehicle at home, you have the option to subscribe to their battery swapping service, which sources their electricity from renewable energy resources. The cost is expected to be up to 8 cents per mile. Just last month Better Place unveiled their trial battery swapping station in Yokohama Japan. The article also includes a video demonstration on the process, which at one minute and fifteen seconds is quite impressive.
While no production vehicles are currently compatible with the battery-swapping stations, Better Place is working with auto manufacturers to ensure future electric vehicles will work with their system.
It will be interesting to see the effects the electric vehicles have on Hawaii’s economy once the network has been well established. Better Place is also working on implementing electric vehicle networks in San Francisco, Australia, Israel, and Denmark. To read more about Hawaii’s energy plan visit www.hawaii.gov/gov/energy.
Smart Car knock-off in Uruguay!
Posted by Jeffrey in General News, Green Cars on June 16th, 2009
I’m currently on vacation and have enjoyed seeing what kind of cars are in other countries but not in the United States. Today I am in Montevideo, Uruguay. While taking an afternoon stroll, I happened to pass an auto dealership with a vehicle that looked very similar to a Smart Car, so I stopped in to get more information.
The car is the Noble, and it’s a Chinese-made car from the Shuanghuan Auto. Like I said, it looks quite similar to the Smart Car. It’s about the same size and also comes in similar color schemes. I talked to an employee there, and he gave me a brochure with the specs:
- Comes in three models and six colors
- 1.0 liter, 1.1 liter engines
- Max Speed: 77 mph, 87 mph
- Torque: 53 ft-lbs, 65 ft-lbs
- Fuel Efficiency (@ 25 mph): 97 mpg, 105 mpg
The employee told me the price was about $17,000 USD, but a little browsing on the internet showed that the price will vary depending on the country.
That’s not all, apparently the car was designed to be a knock-off of the Smart Car. I guess that explains why I thought it was a Smart Car! Chinese manufacturers have done well at cloning desirable products. Just look at the Apple iPhone and the iClone.
For a knock-off, I was quite impressed with this car. It looked nice, and the interior was impressive. Of course I didn’t take it for a drive, but I imagine that’s where the biggest differences will be between it and the Smart Car.
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