Electric cars: Charged up for the future

Nissan's plug-in electric hatchback, the Leaf, is expected to cost around $37,500 and have monthly repayments and running costs similiar to a same-sized family hatchback. Photo / Supplied

Fast forward to the future in a new suburb south of Auckland, a showcase environmental satellite. A family of four moves into the day.

The two children board an electric train to school. The train runs on power from an electro-magnetic cable under the narrow-gauge track.

Their father takes the same train to a bus station at a junction near State Highway One, then transfers to a plug-in electric 10-seater company shuttle which whisks him to work.

His wife leaves home in a three-door electric car, but not before confirming that the electro-magnetic coil in the garage floor has fully charged the vehicle overnight. Besides ensuring the vehicle is ready to cover its 320km range, the wireless set-up runs a check - brakes, lights, tyre pressure, safety systems.

Any problems and a service centre is advised. Self-correcting instructions follow, wirelessly.

The small, two-speed - forward and reverse - hatchback can be topped up from quick-charge electric "bowsers". They look like parking meters, only bigger.

The vehicle has another clever feature - a "fast dial" key on the dashboard touch screen which links to a home smart system to set the central heating and pre-heat the oven.

The family also owns a six-seater hybrid station wagon: a lithium-ion pack working in tandem with a turbocharged three-cylinder combustion engine running on natural gas. The vehicle delivers 70 miles to the gallon, or 4 litres for every 100km.

Far-fetched?

Not at all. The electro-magnetic coil in the garage and quick-charge stations outside supermarkets and shopping centres are being trialled.

The electric car will go far beyond the family. Bet the house on it.

K-J Dillon is the Electric Vehicle Programme Leader (her corporate title) for power supplier Meridian Energy. Meridian has had a programme in place for four years and Dillon says she has driven more than 40 EVs in test evaluations.

"Meridian is interested in EVs because we think they are a great sustainable choice for New Zealand," she says. "We also know that Kiwis are really keen to embrace EVs - our customer research groups tell us that. "Electricity is a far more efficient fuel when it comes to transportation. Because we travel such short distances, we will only to need to charge up twice a week, maybe three times.

"The cost of refuelling with electricity is about a fifth of what it costs in petrol at the moment. In these times when everyone is starting to worry about how to manage their household costs, being able to knock back by 80 per cent big ticket items like a fuel bill has got to be good for consumers."

Dillon says the biggest challenge New Zealand faces is convincing carmakers to supply us with EVs ahead of other countries.

"Unlike other nations we have got a lot of infrastructure in place already. We have garages with outlet sockets that have one key advantage that Japan or the United States don't have: we are on a 230 volt mains system. Japan and the US are on 110 volts. What it means is that the car that might take 14 hours to recharge in other countries, in New Zealand will take seven hours or less."

That's with existing lithium-ion batteries. Second and third-generation lithium-ion will charge quicker again, perhaps two or three hours.

Says Dillon: "We are already seeing lots of very exciting research and development happening in that space. I wouldn't even assume that lithium-ion is going to be the eventual end-point either."

American engineer Raynor Handelman is the Global Electric Vehicle Co-ordinator for carmaker Nissan, which has steered away from hybrid technology in favour of EVs. She has worked on programmes with the Tennessee Valley Authority in the US; with electricity companies in Japan; with Project Better Place (EV projects with Nissan parent Renault) in Israel and Portugal. Before joining Nissan she worked with Ford and General Motors. She was in New Zealand to talk to politicians - local and national - about how best to sustain EVs, mainly within city limits.

"It's about education, consumers, infrastructure, suppliers," she says. "I am in touch with countries you would not believe would want electric vehicles. It's not about selling cars. It's about a better future. It's about lifestyle changes, to enhance what you are doing."

Countries Handelman talks to want their cities emission-free. Hydrogen-powered fuel-cell vehicles leaving an exhaust trail of pretty much only water vapour will one day manage that, say experts. Meantime, says Handelman, EVs are 90 per cent more efficient than petrol or diesel vehicles.

"The gains are incredible. Second-generation lithium-ion batteries have an increased power density to the point where there is twice as much power in the same-sized battery. Fuel cells are not there yet. The infrastructure is not there yet."

Handelman says the Renault/Nissan alliance aims by 2020 to have 20 per cent of the world's vehicle fleet made up of EVs.

Again, it's not just about selling cars, she says. More about geo-political stability. In a word: oil. "The oil companies want in," she says. "They are looking at reinventing themselves. They are searching for a role in the new EV world."

But what is the new EV world? Will power suppliers, often struggling to meet demand on a cold day, also have to reinvent themselves? Where is the extra electricity going to come from? Updated hydro plants? Wind turbines? Solar systems? Tidal technology?

Dillon and Handelman aren't saying. There is much technological secrecy; billions of dollars are at stake. But a study by America's Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) found that there is already enough generating capacity in the US to replace as much as 73 per cent of the nation's conventional fleet with EVs - but only if the charging of those EVs is carefully managed.

The city of New York, for example, reckons its power companies will be able to handle the added power demand for EVs without building new plants or straining transmission power grids - as long as EV owners plug in overnight.

"If New York motorists start plugging in significant numbers of plug-in hybrid vehicles (PHEVs), we will see new demands on the grid," said Stephen Whitley, president of power supplier the New York Independent System Operator.

Fully electric vehicles and plug-ins are expected to increase power demand in New York state by 2 per cent by 2030.

"However, if deployed with technology and incentives to encourage favourable charging patterns, PHEVs can offer valuable new ways to store electricity produced in off-peak periods," says Whitley. "That energy storage potential could enhance the grid's use of wind power."

But wind power the world over has its environmental opponents.

Carmakers and utilities say it will be the second generation of plug-in cars that will take advantage of the "smart" use of power - two-way communication to stem power use when it is costliest and most stressful for the grid.

PNNL researchers say they've come up with a way to recharge electric cars that won't strain the power grid. The smart charger controller is a device that automatically figures out the best and cheapest times for drivers to recharge cars. The technology communicates with the power grid and can temporarily stop charging when there is stress on the system.

Electric car owners could programme the controller to charge at a specific time of day or night, such as midnight or 3am, rather than plugging right after work, when it's likely others would do the same, or when it may still be a peak period.

If time-based pricing is available, the device would use wireless technology to download the latest prices and decide when to charge based on the lowest costs.

So what happens in the future commercial world of EVs? Do quick-charge bowsers and supermarket loyalty programmes have a place in a Dillon scenario? "There definitely are some commercial opportunities," she says. "In time you will see some of those. Certainly Meridian has had a lot of interest from shopping malls, car park operators, keen to install that type of infrastructure in time.

"From an electricity retailer point of view, we are more excited about some of the packages we will be able to put together for our customers."

Any examples? "We can't let the cat out of the bag yet - we need a few more cars on the ground and then we'll have a bit of fun. "

MITSUBISHI I-MIEV

Carmaker Mitsubishi's plug-in i-MiEV - the first electric vehicle to receive Australian Design Rule approval - is already doing the test rounds here and will arrive in greater numbers over the next two years. Production has begun in Japan, where the car will cost around $70,000, much of it in battery production. A Japanese government subsidy brings it down by about $15,000. But once production goes up, the cost of batteries comes down. EV supporters say it's a very good argument for economies of supply.

TESLA EV

The US-built Tesla EV - based on the two-seater Lotus Elise sports car - has a range of 360km. But greater range comes at a cost: the Tesla starts at US$109,000 ($158,000). In the medium term, says the EV industry, 160km is more than enough for the average day-tripper, certainly in New Zealand where most people only do 40km. Americans cover an average of 150km a day.

NISSAN LEAF

Nissan's plug-in electric hatchback, the Leaf, is expected to be available for lease in Auckland by 2011, through car rental company Europcar. Nissan expects the five-door to cost around $37,500 and command monthly repayments and running costs on a par with a same-sized family hatchback. Toyota NZ is next year planning to trial a plug-in version of the latest hybrid Prius. All three cars will offer a range of around 160km between charges. Lithium-ion battery technology already more than doubles that.