Everything You Need to Know About Electric Car
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May The OVE books Everything you need to know about electric car www.observatoire-vehicule-entreprise.com Electric vehicles set to boost mobility Consumers’ and manufacturers’ decision makers’ expectations and behaviour are changing rapidly under the combined influence of several factors, including: - The rise in energy prices in 2008, which has made people realise that the world’s reserves of oil will be exhausted sooner or later, and that this form of energy will inevitably become more expensive. - The rising cost of raw materials and awareness these too are not in inex- haustible supply. - Growing awareness that global warming is a real threat, and that we cannot go on doing nothing about it. - Urban traffic congestion and the increasing frustration of just getting around town. - Awareness campaigns organised by persuasive and charismatic speakers like Al Gore and Yann Arthus Bertrand. Although we are still far from seeing 100% of decision makers wanting to Philippe BRENDEL convert their companies into producing less harmful forms of transport, the- re is already a huge groundswell of environmental issues within the public opinion and some manufacturers and public authorities are already planning changes. For example easy availability of multiple purpose vehicles for use on a short- term basis (e.g. a van used for moving furniture or for other family needs a few weeks a year) would leave more room for smaller, less polluting cars that meet drivers’ daily needs. For family holidays, or for driving longer distances, drivers could resort then to short-term vehicle hire, to car sharing or to com- binations of various forms of transport (e.g. train + car). Electric vehicles are well suited to meeting the needs of our now largely urban or suburban population, and considering all the other advantages at- tached to this type of vehicle this is likely to accelerate change. An electric vehicle means silence, no pollution, flexibility and an answer to daily travel, which mostly involves journeys of less than 40 km. Naturally all this will mean changing our habits, we will have to remember to recharge our cars more often that we used to refill them with petrol, but how satisfying! It is safe to bet that in twenty years time we will be wondering how we ever managed to put up with the noise and stench of today’s internal combustion powered traffic. Philippe Brendel Director Observatoire du Véhicule d’Entreprise [email protected] www.observatoire-vehicule-entreprise.com Table of contents Introduction – Background 6 Electric power – a profound change in the automotive industry 7 Short history of developments in the 1990s 9 Categories of hybrid and electric vehicles 13 Micro hybrids – the stop-start function 15 Mild hybrids – a powerful electric motor 17 Parallel hybrids 19 Rechargeable, or plug-in hybrids 21 “All electric” vehicles 23 Electric cars – ideally suited to urban life 29 Electric quadricycles, with or without a driver’s license 31 Electric commercial vehicles, a segment in its own right 35 Powertrain technology 37 Electric currents, from socket to engine 43 “Filling up” 45 Carbon emission figures for electric and hybrid vehicles 47 Short and medium-term prospects 49 Vehicles available in spring 2009 51 www.observatoire-vehicule-entreprise.com 5 www.observatoire-vehicule-entreprise.com Everything you need to know about electric cars Introduction – Background Internal combustion cars in the light of rising petrol prices and pollution A rapid change in the automobile market is underway. Increasing economic and environmental pressure is leading drivers to use less polluting, less petrol-hungry cars with lower running costs. This revolution in the market is due to several factors: • First factor: the inexorable rise in the price of fossil fuels linked with dwindling supplies. As the French minister Thierry Breton said in the autumn of 2005, “We have entered the age of scarce and expensive oil”. Whereas there was a sudden decrease in demand linked to the global economic crisis, this situation will not last. Fossil fuel prices will begin their inexorable rise again. • Second factor: climate change. Emissions of polluting gases and the greenhouse effect are changing the atmosphere’s self-protection system. • Third factor: the consequences of this pollution on human health. Particles of pollutants from the combustion of fossil fuels are a danger to man. Restrictive measures for motorists We have entered a critical era, a turning point with profound changes to come. We will have to take restrictive or even drastic measures in response to the dangers we face. Our economic and political decision makers are aware of the drawbacks and polluting nature of internal combustion engine emissions, and have begun to make decisions. These include limits on exhaust emissions (air pollution law of 30th December 1996), traffic restrictions in towns, speed limits, congestion charges and bonus/malus coefficients. Solutions for urban traffic: electric and hybrid cars Today, given current technical and economic realities, to provide a sustainable answer to environmental problems, the most efficient vehicle for short journeys and for urban and suburban traffic is the electric car. Electric propulsion is gaining rapid ground in the car industry. Following years of R&D the automotive industry is now making use of the advantages of electric propulsion. These advantages include energy efficiency, high levels of efficiency of engines, reduced greenhouse gas emissions, reliability and silence. www.observatoire-vehicule-entreprise.com 66 Electric power, a profound change in the automotive industry All categories and all segments of the market are being transformed. A multitude of new players in the electric vehicle industry are appearing, including large investors, specialised research departments, new battery start-up companies and innovative small manufacturers. All this activity has extended the range of supply and accelerated the demand for existing models. Every few months sees a batch of new products on the market, from micro urban vehicles to standard saloon cars, and from light commercial vans to medium-weight goods vehicles. Since the 1990s, following increased environmental and economic pressure, we have seen a significant change: elec- Electric power is transforming the current difficulties of tric motors have become more and more common in cars, an industrial sector into change for the better. not only to drive luxury features like sunroofs, seats, rear view mirrors and air-conditioning, but to propel the cars. The rapid spread of electric engines We are no longer surprised to see saloon cars such as the The trend towards electrification has accelerated since Toyota Prius gliding silently through town. Several thousand the year 2000, with the search for more efficient internal drivers, mainly institution and company employees, have combustion engines with a view to reducing emissions been driving more than 5,000 “all electric” 106, Saxo and of greenhouse gases and lowering fuel consumption. To Berlingo cars produced by PSA between 1995 and 2002. lower fuel consumption electric motors were added to “assist” the internal combustion engine, giving rise to People in La Rochelle, France are familiar with “EVs” the first “hybrid” cars. (Electic Vehicles). For the past ten years the town has had a pool of about 50 self-service electric cars available at The Toyota Prius I in 1997 and Honda Insight in 1999, seven centres. All over Europe, Asia and the USA, bold and followed by the IMA Civic, were the pioneers of this new innovative development programmes are turning experi- technology on the global market. These hybrid cars, like ments into practical applications. “Concept cars” and pro- the electric cars produced by small manufacturers, have totypes give rise to mass-produced models, and electric one of the main advantages of electric motors, which power is being standardised and extended. is high energy efficiency. It is an undeniable fact that 7 www.observatoire-vehicule-entreprise.com Everything you need to know about electric cars Electric power, a profound change in the automotive industry modern electric motors perform much more efficiently Moreover, electric motors have other advantages: they than internal combustion engines, whether the latter are reliable, cheap, need little maintenance and are light. be petrol or diesel driven, or use gas (such as LPG and They produce tremendous torque as soon as the engine CNG). is started and have a very wide range of speeds, which in most cases makes transmission simpler. Electric motors Energy efficiency to speed up change are fed by high-performance batteries. These are the ve- hicle’s “energy reservoir” and have given rise to profound In optimal conditions, internal combustion engines have technological and economic changes. a maximum efficiency* of around 35% for petrol driven cars and around 40% for diesels. The automotive industry, aware of these changes, is manu- facturing an increasing number of electric motors to drive As a general rule, cars are used for short journeys in urban a new generation of vehicles available on the market. areas in far from optimal running conditions, which further reduce energy efficiency to levels of only 15% to 20%. By contrast, the efficiency of electric motors is over 80% *The energy efficiency of an engine is calculated as a percen- and may reach 90%. The power electronics that control tage of energy produced. them are also highly efficient (nearly 100%). In any engine, varying amounts of the energy used is transfor- med into heat. An efficiency of 15 to 20% means that 80 to 85% of the energy consumed by the engine is wasted and is not used to propel the vehicle. In terms of fuel consumption this means that out of a 50 litre tank of fuel only eight to ten litres are used to propel the ve- hicle. The rest is turned into heat and wasted in the internal running of the engine.