We’ve heard it over and over: range anxiety, the fear that electric vehicle batteries can only survive short trips, is a major roadblock to EV adoption. Newer electric vehicles boast stronger, more efficient batteries, and EV manufacturers make bold claims about the mileage each can travel before recharging. The company’s website states that the Nissan LEAF battery should be able to travel at least 73 miles on a single charge (and up to 100 miles depending on speed). It also claims that the battery should retain 80 percent charging capacity for up to seven years. Yet those entering their second or third summers with the car noticed that their mileage per charge is plummeting, and fast. Online complaints quickly reached Nissan’s ears, but the company merely stated that it was investigating the issue and ‘would make things right.’

Months later, EV owners were tired of waiting to see results from this “investigation” so they decided to orchestrate a test of their own. Just days ago, twelve LEAF owners gathered in a Tempe parking lot that featured several charging stations. Some of the vehicles were practically brand new, while others had odometer readings of up to 29,000 miles. Starting with fully charged batteries, each car drove mapped route until their batteries literally ran out of juice. According to a summary published on InsideEVs, the newest of the cars, those with the lowest mileage, lasted about 80 miles on average. Older cars, however, and those claimed to have suffered battery degradation were doing far less than that with one only getting 59.3 miles out of a full charge.

Confronted with the news, Nissan has pointed to the annual mileage and driving style of  LEAF owners as an explanation. Upon an internal investigation, the company found that most of the LEAFs covered much higher mileage per year than the 12,500 miles Nissan used to estimate the rate of battery capacity loss over time. Under these conditions, Nissan’s Mark Perry told Green Car Reports, “The cars and the battery packs are behaving as we expected.” However, that likely comes as small consolation to EV drivers looking for a reliable vehicle that can truly replace their gas powered cars.

Featured photo credit: Dongliu/Shutterstock

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EVs and certain other zero-emission vehicles that run on hydrogen fuel cells and compressed natural gas are already eligible to drive in carpool lanes even when they only have one passenger, as long as they get a special sticker from the state. The program used to be even bigger, including hybrid cars like the Toyota Prius, but after successfully encouraging mass adoption of hybrids, that part of program expired. Now the state legislature is focused on encouraging consumers to buy even lower-emission cars.

Assembly Bill 2405, authored by Assemblyman Bob Blumenfield from Los Angeles, would allow every car that currently qualifies for carpool lanes to also avoid tolls. In some cases, the roads are both carpool and toll lanes, and in others, roads that are purely toll lanes would be affected. Critics in the government have argued that EV drivers should have to pay tolls, because the tolls are an important part of paying for some new roads.

Some have also argued that letting a single EV driver ride in a carpool lane actually encourages pollution, because the situation leads to more congestion on the road overall. That was a common argument made against allowing hybrid cars in carpool lanes, too. But a fascinating new study last year found that the opposite was actually true: When hybrid cars were banned from carpool lanes, congestion increased. The carpool lane became 15 percent slower. Researchers speculated that the reason was safety concerns — as regular lanes became more crowded, carpool drivers slowed to make passing in and out of the lane safer.

Just as carpool lane exemptions helped get hybrids on the road, the same can be done with electric cars. Exempting EVs from tolls is an extra push, and a good idea.

Main image: Model S by Tesla

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The infrared (IR) heating systems work by directly warming each passenger through radiant heat. Unlike an ordinary heating system, which warms air and then uses fans to blow it around the car, the IR system doesn’t need to move air. Without fans, the car stays quieter. The system also helps conserve electricity. Electric cars rely on more electricity to power ordinary heating, because the car doesn’t have an internal combustion engine to provide waste heat. Each watt of power that can be saved in heating stays in the electric engine to help the car drive longer distances.

The system has the advantage of working quickly. On a winter day, someone can step inside the car and be warm in less than a minute. Because the heating is based on the locations of each passenger, it’s possible to save energy by only targeting specific seats — such as only heating the driver’s seat on a solo drive. Individual passengers could also adjust their own heat for personal comfort.

The company says radiant heat is also more comfortable than typical car heating. “Much like the heat from an open fireplace, the thermal radiation generated by infrared heating surfaces provides an extremely pleasant, cozy type of warmth,” BMW writes. The infrared heating surfaces could be placed in door panels, footwells, and on the dashboard. The automaker says it may work best as a supplement to a conventional heating system.

BMW is also experimenting with heat pump technology, which works by pulling heat out of ambient air. This type of technology can help reduce the need for electric heating, perhaps by as much as 50 percent.

Main image credit: BMW Designworks

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It appears that electric cars are part of the social ranking system in the global auto industry. All the cool kids are doing it, and if you’re an auto maker that isn’t working on adding EVs to your lineup, you might find yourself sitting alone at lunch. A lot.

Hoping to keep pace with its global competitors, Russian automaker Lada recently unveiled its first all-electric concept at the 2012 Moscow Auto Show. Boosted by Renault and Nissan, which are 50 percent owners in the company, the car’s design builds on the already existent Kalina model. Instead of a combustion engine, however, the El Lada will feature a Chinese lithium battery they claim will allow 93 miles of travel on a single charge, with a top speed of around 80 miles an hour.

According to Technologic Vehicles, the El Lada’s specs do not indicate a vehicle for a cross-country travel, but rather an efficient compact car for Russian urban centers with problematic air pollution. Inside Line reports that the car is mainly intended for taxi use in the Caucasus region of Russia.

Although taxi cab companies will love the fuel savings of the El Lada, experts say individual drivers might not be as enthusiastic. A regular Lada Kalina costs between $8,000 and $10,000, while the El Lada will cost the equivalent of $31,148. Still, Nissan doesn’t sell the LEAF in Russia, so Lada may have the advantage of an open market, at least for the time being.

Main photo credit: Avtovaz/Green Car Reports; video credit: Lada

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The Cayman Department of Vehicles and Licensing will now register electric cars on the island after previously barring them from its roads. The announcement came at the first ever Caribbean International Electric Car Show held at the Cayman Motor Museum. Among the vehicles on display was the Wheego, a two-seat compact car that runs about 100 miles on a single charge. The Wheego starts at $32,995 and qualifies for a $7,500 federal tax credit. The company is in the process of expanding its network of dealers to other Caribbean nations, including Jamaica and the Dominican Republic. The cars are currently sold in 13 states, Japan and now the Cayman Islands.

In Cayman, officials are planning to construct more than a dozen new solar-powered charging stations across the territory to help support the newly legalized electric cars. Cayman Automotive, the first car dealer in the territory to sell electric vehicles, has hopes of selling as many as 3,000 electric cars by 2018, the Caribbean Journal reports.

Electric cars offer buyers environmental and long-term cost benefits. But the industry faces several hurdles that have slowed adoption by the mass population. Fully electric cars take a long time to charge — the Wheego, for instance, takes 10 hours to charge from zero to 100 percent — and the relatively low availability of charging stations makes it difficult to travel long distances.

While no one expects instantaneous, widespread adoption of electric cars across the Cayman Islands, officials there say any reduction of carbon emissions will be beneficial to the territory’s fragile environment.

“We are thrilled to be able to introduce this technology to the Cayman Islands in an effort to further preserve our treasured ecosystem,” said Hon. McKeeva Bush, premier of the Cayman Islands, at the end of last year when the solar charging stations were announced. “Our natural environment, including the Mastic Trail, the Blue Iguanas and our pristine waters, is a source of national pride, which we plan to maintain for years to come. This development is crucial to our success.”

Main photo credit: Shutterstock.com

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According to data released by PlugShare, a mobile and web application developed by Xatori which helps EV owners find charging stations, the average driver of an electric vehicle spends just $30 on charging expenses to travel 1,050 miles per month. Compare that to how much gasoline-powered car owners have to shell out to go the same distance – $105 – and it’s easy to see why EV owners love their cars.

In addition to the cash savings that EV drivers see, there is an additional benefit for the rest of us as well. By choosing an EV over a conventional automobile, each month of driving means about 360 pounds less of CO2 emissions released into our atmosphere. They are a win-win for everyone, even for those of us who can’t or won’t make the jump to electric vehicles.

While PlugShare was initially created to help drivers find a place to plug and included just 500 charging stations, it now covers 11,000 charging stations across the U.S. It currently has over 100,000 users, providing valuable – and much-needed – data about EV owner demographics and behavior. It also has determined which cities North America are the most EV-ready and not too surprisingly Portland, Oregon tops the list followed by Dallas, Nashville, San Francisco and Seattle.

“PlugShare’s success is largely thanks to the EV community at large, and we’re committed to helping provide new products and services that help engage with them,” said Xatori Founder and CEO Forrest North. “With the information we gather on charging stations and driving behaviors, we hope to inform the EV industry to continue to develop solutions that support and further the shift to electric vehicles.”

By showing the public that owning an EV can save thousands of dollars a year on fuel costs while significantly cutting emissions, the data should encourage others to jump at the chance to go electric while pushing manufactures to further develop the technology.

[Source: Domestic Fuel via Autoblog Green]

Image Credit: CoreForce/Flickr

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The array of sensors and computers needed to operate these vehicles means that there is a lot of data available about the car. The dashboards of these vehicles typically have much more information available to the driver about the power generating state (whether the car is charging or not), momentary and overall efficiency, and a range of other data, but that is just a small fraction of the information that is collected about the vehicle.

Connecting cars to the electronic world we inhabit was one of the major trends at this past year’s North American International Auto Show. Many manufacturers are developing applications for smartphones and finding ways of integrating the car and the driver’s lifestyle. Along with this, more and more data about the vehicle is available to both the owner and the manufacturer. Car owners can access some of this data through subscriptions, like a monthly email report from OnStar for owners of the Chevrolet Volt.

The manufacturers of several electric vehicles not only offer data to the car owners, but also are using this data internally. Although the various manufacturer programs are strict about privacy concerns and do not share the data with others, their engineers are certainly using this collected data about vehicle performance to learn more about how these relatively new vehicles are performing in the real world. There have even been cases where a problem with a vehicle was identified through anomalous readings, enabling the manufacturer to contact the car owner in order to fix the problem before it became a more serious issue.

As with software that sends the developer a crash report when it fails, to allow it to be improved and debugged, automotive engineers are also able to learn from the data that is reported from these vehicles. This information will assist with both the maintenance of existing vehicles as well as providing a better profile about vehicle use that will be helpful in improving new models of electric vehicles and learning how to make improvements in range and performance for subsequent models of these cars.

Main photo credit: rudisillart and Mariordo/Wikimedia Commons

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Not so.

Wireless tech giant Qualcomm acquired innovative New Zealand startup HaloIPT late last year and has announced that they will soon begin testing the new inductive charging technology in London. The company has kept the original name, dubbing the technology the Qualcomm Halo.

According to Think Progress, “San Diego-based Qualcomm Inc. recently announced that it has partnered with the automaker Renault for a field trial of its new wireless electric vehicle charging system later this year in London.”

How does the inductive EV charging work?

Wireless electric vehicle charging (WEVC) technology uses magnetic induction to couple power from a base charging unit (BCU) to a vehicle charging unit (VCU). Power is transferred to the VCU pad via magnetic coupling, and is used to charge the vehicle’s batteries. Communication between the VCU and BCU ensures minimal impact on the grid.

The interesting thing is that the charging capability is equal to plug-in charging, does not interfere with other electronics, and does not require precision parking to work effectively.

But why stop at inductive charging at home?

The goal of the trial is test both the technical and the commercial viability of the wireless electric vehicle charging system. One thing is for sure, HaloIPT (and not Qualcomm) has never set their sights merely on static charging pads.

As a matter of fact, as distantly as two years ago HaloIPT was planning on electrifying part of London’s M25 Roadway for testing of dynamic inductive charging. According to Qualcomm’s Halo mini site, the plans for dynamic charging are still in the works. Establishing the WEVC technology at stationary locations is a huge step in building infrastructure, but implementing dynamic inductive charging into roadways would completely eliminate “range anxiety” commonly associated with electric vehicles (EVs) and plug-in electric vehicles (PHEVs).

Hey, between solar-energy generating roadways and dynamic inductive EV charging, maybe we have a clean energy existence in our near future after all.

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The Sanya Skypump, a collaboration between Urban Green Energy and General Electric, was introduced earlier this week in Barcelona at the headquarters of Cespa, an environmental services subsidiary of Ferrovial Servicios. It combines UGE’s 4K vertical wind turbine with GE’s Durastation EV charging technology in a single tower, making it an all-in-one energy generation and EV charging station. At a height of 42 feet, the vertical-axis turbine requires winds of at least 7 MPH in order to generate electricity.

“Since launching the Sanya Skypump, we have received inquiries from companies around the world that are looking to embrace sustainability,” said Nick Blitterswyk, CEO of UGE. “The Sanya Skypump is one of those rare products that enable institutions to demonstrate their commitment to the environment while providing a really useful service as well.”

This is the first of many Skypumps to be installed this year with more coming online soon at shopping malls and universities here in the U.S. and in Australia. In addition, I would think that many EV owners would be interested in having a Skypump of their own, skipping the higher electric bills that often come with grid-tied chargers. And because Urban Green Energy’s website states that the company has “designed our Sanya line for quick and easy assembly of all its components” in just two hours, are fully self-enclosed, and installation is “is far from rocket science,” it may not be too far off that EV owners can have a private Skypump right in their own backyard.

[via Autoblog Green]

Image Credit: Urban Green Energy

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In February of this year, two engineers set out to prove that long distance travel was possible in a commercially available electric vehicle. Full of ambition, Xavier Degon and Antonin Guy planned to circumnavigate the globe in a Citroen C-Zero EV, which is the French version of the Mitsubishi i. Their Electric Odyssey would take them through 17 different countries and across 15,534 miles of terrain. They estimated it would take about 8 months and hundreds of stops to charge the car, which can only travel about 60 miles on a full charge.

Inspired by Degon and Guy’s adventure (and also by a desire to show them up) a second world-traveler set out to catch them in his own EV three months after the duo departed from France. Rafael de Mestre chose the Tesla Roadster as his steed, however, and planned to complete his trip around the world in (you guessed it) a mere 80 days. The Tesla Roadster can go upwards of 200 miles per charge, so de Mestre planned on making far fewer pit stops.

According to Chris Demorro over at Gas2.org, de Mestre has already crossed most of Europe and all of North America, and is well on his way to tackling China. Last we checked, Degon and Guy were in Japan with the majority of their trip still ahead of them. It’s highly likely that although they set out first, the Frenchmen will be the last to finish this unofficial, two-car race.

Regardless of which team wins, it’s fun to watch their progress. Once finished, they will have dealt a fatal blow to our lingering range anxiety. If they can make it around the world, surely the rest of us can make it to work and back, right?

Main photo credit: Electric Odyssey

Secondary photo credit: 1e-race.com

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