The Wonder Car

Probably the two biggest topics in the news these days are technology companies’ IPOs and electric vehicles. While the former is out of the scope of this blog, despite their fantastic performance, I deem this a good time to write about electric cars in my post this week. The question that comes first to my mind is, where do I begin?:)

An electric car, per Wikipedia, is an automobile propelled by electric motors, using electrical energy stored in batteries or another energy storage device. Electric cars are not something new and they have been around for more than a century now. In fact, as Wikipedia has it, electric cars were preferred to gasoline cars at the dawn of the 20th century and only the rapid advancement in internal combustion engines coupled with the significant reduction in oil prices drove them out of the market. The vigor with which new models of electric vehicles are being rolled out, it seems that the time has come to right that wrong!

The most memorable push for electric vehicles in living history was during the 90s and mostly centered on California. California Air Resources Board (CARB), their emission control agency, mandated the development of zero emission vehicles which led to the development of EV1 by GM and RAV4 by Toyota. (Side note: GM swiftly, and almost shockingly, canceled their EV1 program, something that has been beautifully documented in the must-watch documentary “Who Killed the Electric Car”.) Toyota sold just about 1500 of RAV4s and cost and range limitation were cited as issues with the car.

Around the same time as RAV4, Toyota also started selling its hybrid car, the Prius. A hybrid car is one which can be powered by both gasoline and electricity. Typically, the distance such a car can be propelled by electricity is much smaller and the gas power takes over when this car is driven longer distances. The Toyota Prius uses a small, regenerative battery having a driving range of no more than a few miles. Charging of the battery is done internally by the gasoline engine and the energy generated in the car by the braking process. This car was hailed as an engineering breakthrough as it seamlessly combined the electric and gasoline fuel to propel a car. The smaller electric range in the car was just enough for the needs of the urban dweller, with enough miles to cover his/her trips to the grocery store. This is the reason why more than 2 million Priuses have been sold globally, so far.

It could be argued that the Prius used its battery power to supplement its gasoline engine. Lately, the major car companies have come up with models which have a markedly higher battery power, most prominent among them being Tesla Roadsters, GM’s Volt, Nissan’s Leaf and Toyota’s re-designed Prius. These cars have either significantly increased their mileage from electric power, like Volt and the reformed Prius, or have gone completely electric, like Leaf. The electric range of Volt is about 35 miles while the new Prius can take you upto 13-14 miles on its batteries. The all electric Leaf, on the other hand, can go about 73 miles with a single charge. The amount of power provided by a battery varies a lot with weather and driving conditions. So this number will go down if you are driving on a hot, humid day in dense traffic.

The most critical design element in these cars is the size of the battery, something whose impact cannot be undermined. Battery technology available today is really not capable of meeting the intense demands of electric transportation. The low energy density of batteries necessitates packing more volume of them to get a higher output. This greatly increased both the cost of a car, the cost of battery alone for Leaf is about $18,000 and the volume to fit the larger battery.

There has been a global push in research to drive down the cost of these batteries while also increasing their energy density. So, if you have an idea for a battery that is cheap and packs in a great energy, run straight to one of the car manufacturers! You could choose not to work for the rest of your life:)

Despite all the constraints, there is a definite tailwind behind electric cars, not only because of the generous subsidies provided by governments around the world but also because the common public is getting increasingly intrigued by the concept of charging a car like they charge their laptops or mobile phones. I knew that this topic will take up more than one blog post and I look to follow this up with more on battery technologies. I look forward to making one of you filthy rich!