Rhaomi
07-01-2007, 07:30
Brace yourselves, everybody -- I put a lot of time into this and it's a bit longer than I intended it to be...
Plug-in Hybrid Electric Vehicles (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plug-in_hybrid_electric_vehicle) (PHEVs) are supposed to be the wave of the future. Basically, you plug the car in at night, then drive on electricity all through the next day (at an equivalent of $0.60 per gallon), switching to gasoline only when the charge runs out. You can also choose to run solely on electricity or gasoline at leisure. It's completely flexible.
As can be clearly seen from the chart below (provided by the Sierra Club), such a vehicle would, if mass-marketed, dramatically reduce our gasoline consumption.
http://img297.imageshack.us/img297/1516/phevth1.png
Unfortunately, as Wikipedia describes (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plug-in_hybrid_electric_vehicle#Issues_for_wide-scale_commercialization), current battery technology poses problems for the PHEV:
Issues for wide-scale commercialization
Unlike a conventional hybrid electric vehicle current PHEV implementations use the full charge cycle of its battery, which reduces the life of the battery. Mass-produced Hybrid electric vehicles by design avoid a complete or near complete discharge of the battery. Some argue that current PHEV implementations aren't practical on a large scale because of reduced battery life, which is not true of commercial hybrids. However, see "Hybrid Vehicles Gain Traction", in the April 2006 issue of Scientific American, in which the authors argue that PHEVs will soon become standard in the automobile industry.
Here are the design issues and trade-offs that need to be solved:
1. Battery life, which should be sufficient to maintain at least 85 to 90 percent of initial operational capabilty for at least 150,000 miles (240,000 km)
2. Capacity to store electric energy. Affects vehicle weight, range, acceleration, and top speed. Energy density by weight for gasoline is 60-85 times higher than for a Lithium Ion battery so a 50 litre tank of gasoline (40 kg) carries as much energy as a Lithium Ion battery weighing 2400 kg or more. However internal combustion engines are vastly inefficient compared to electric motors.
3. Heat dissipation of larger capacity batteries, especially when batteries are fast charged, which may require active liquid cooling devices (these devices may double for cabin air cooling and heating)
4. Weight issues with increased batteries: slower acceleration, reduced gas mileage when used for long trips, increased strain on system components such as brakes, etc..., many of which can be addressed by appropriate system design such as increased regeneration capability (to save brakes), and larger electric motor (for acceleration).
5. Costs
6. Safety, owing to the greater total energy storage, but not significantly beyond that imposed by a conventional hybrid vehicle
For example, if the current Prius were made plug-in capable using its existing small battery pack its range would only be a few miles with low acceleration and low top speed. Alternately, using unsophisticated technology, a very heavy battery would be required which would cause other design problems. These limitations are expected to be resolved within a few years by employing modern batteries. To solve this one can:
1. Increase the number of batteries of the type currently use: Adds weight and only increases range mildly
2. Use the full charge/discharge of a battery: Reduces the life of the existing battery
3. Use alternative battery technology: Currently expensive, but under heavy research. Life expectancy unknown but expected to be greater. For lithium-ion (Li-ion) batteries Toyota reports a heat dissipation issue.
So, PHEVs are inherently limited by their batteries. Limited in such a way that might prevent their mass commercialization and adoption by the general public -- which, if it occured, would reduce our dependence on foreign oil and improve environment health.
Fortunately, there is an alternative.
http://www.evworld.com/images/stan_ovshinsky.jpg
One Stanford R. Ovshinsky (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stanford_R._Ovshinsky), a kindly octogenarian scientist/entrepreneur and founder of Minnesota-based Energy Conversion Devices, has in recent years perfected a powerful new nickel-metal hydride (NiMH) battery that would greatly increase the capacity and range of PHEVs. This new Ovonic Battery would mitigate many of the issues outlined above, and would be a boon for the mass-marketing of the plug-ins.
Unfortunately, this happened instead (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plug-in_hybrid_electric_vehicle#Stranglehold_on_battery_technology.3F):
The oil company Chevron controls key battery technologies and battery manufacturing facilities, through its subsidiary, Cobasys. According to the website ev1.org, during the development of the battery-electric vehicle (BEV) EV1, General Motors made a controlling investment in Ovonics's battery development and manufacturing, with particular interest in the patents and trade secrets controlling the manufacturing of large nickel-metal hydride (NiMH) batteries. This interest was subsequently sold to the oil company Texaco, which was acquired in its entirety by another oil company, Chevron. The "large format" NiMH batteries are no longer available to U.S. electric vehicle converters or lightweight BEV manufactures. The manufacturing unit, Cobasys, is currently declining to manufacture and market these batteries for battery electric automotive use in the US and has shut down (through patent control) Panasonic's large format battery importation to the US. The Cobasys web page concerning transportation applications addresses only large multi-passenger hybrid vehicles. In order to use NiMH batteries without violating Chevron's patents, hybrid automobile manufacturers are required to design vehicles which are at least 50% powered by gasoline; otherwise, they are limited to the use of "D" cell-sized NiMH ("small format") batteries.
So, there you have it. An oil company bought controlling interest in the one technology most vital to the development of clean, efficient, energy-independent vehicles, and has blocked their usage or importation for such purposes unless the cars in question artificially perpetuate the use of gasoline engines.
Sure, this won't cripple the rise of electric and hybrid vehicles, but it is just one more instance of how Big Oil is actively working to hinder the implementation of newer and better technologies. All these companies care about is money -- to hell with the environment, national security, the war in Iraq, and the economic future of this country.
So, for this and many other reasons, damn Chevron and all of its accomplices.
In light of all this, do you think it's possible to break the oil companies' near-stranglehold on American (and world) transportation? Will alternative fuels succeed before it's too late?
See Also: "Who Will Power Tomorrow's Cars? (http://www.fool.com/portfolios/rulebreaker/2001/rulebreaker010306.htm)", from Fool.com
Plug-in Hybrid Electric Vehicles (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plug-in_hybrid_electric_vehicle) (PHEVs) are supposed to be the wave of the future. Basically, you plug the car in at night, then drive on electricity all through the next day (at an equivalent of $0.60 per gallon), switching to gasoline only when the charge runs out. You can also choose to run solely on electricity or gasoline at leisure. It's completely flexible.
As can be clearly seen from the chart below (provided by the Sierra Club), such a vehicle would, if mass-marketed, dramatically reduce our gasoline consumption.
http://img297.imageshack.us/img297/1516/phevth1.png
Unfortunately, as Wikipedia describes (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plug-in_hybrid_electric_vehicle#Issues_for_wide-scale_commercialization), current battery technology poses problems for the PHEV:
Issues for wide-scale commercialization
Unlike a conventional hybrid electric vehicle current PHEV implementations use the full charge cycle of its battery, which reduces the life of the battery. Mass-produced Hybrid electric vehicles by design avoid a complete or near complete discharge of the battery. Some argue that current PHEV implementations aren't practical on a large scale because of reduced battery life, which is not true of commercial hybrids. However, see "Hybrid Vehicles Gain Traction", in the April 2006 issue of Scientific American, in which the authors argue that PHEVs will soon become standard in the automobile industry.
Here are the design issues and trade-offs that need to be solved:
1. Battery life, which should be sufficient to maintain at least 85 to 90 percent of initial operational capabilty for at least 150,000 miles (240,000 km)
2. Capacity to store electric energy. Affects vehicle weight, range, acceleration, and top speed. Energy density by weight for gasoline is 60-85 times higher than for a Lithium Ion battery so a 50 litre tank of gasoline (40 kg) carries as much energy as a Lithium Ion battery weighing 2400 kg or more. However internal combustion engines are vastly inefficient compared to electric motors.
3. Heat dissipation of larger capacity batteries, especially when batteries are fast charged, which may require active liquid cooling devices (these devices may double for cabin air cooling and heating)
4. Weight issues with increased batteries: slower acceleration, reduced gas mileage when used for long trips, increased strain on system components such as brakes, etc..., many of which can be addressed by appropriate system design such as increased regeneration capability (to save brakes), and larger electric motor (for acceleration).
5. Costs
6. Safety, owing to the greater total energy storage, but not significantly beyond that imposed by a conventional hybrid vehicle
For example, if the current Prius were made plug-in capable using its existing small battery pack its range would only be a few miles with low acceleration and low top speed. Alternately, using unsophisticated technology, a very heavy battery would be required which would cause other design problems. These limitations are expected to be resolved within a few years by employing modern batteries. To solve this one can:
1. Increase the number of batteries of the type currently use: Adds weight and only increases range mildly
2. Use the full charge/discharge of a battery: Reduces the life of the existing battery
3. Use alternative battery technology: Currently expensive, but under heavy research. Life expectancy unknown but expected to be greater. For lithium-ion (Li-ion) batteries Toyota reports a heat dissipation issue.
So, PHEVs are inherently limited by their batteries. Limited in such a way that might prevent their mass commercialization and adoption by the general public -- which, if it occured, would reduce our dependence on foreign oil and improve environment health.
Fortunately, there is an alternative.
http://www.evworld.com/images/stan_ovshinsky.jpg
One Stanford R. Ovshinsky (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stanford_R._Ovshinsky), a kindly octogenarian scientist/entrepreneur and founder of Minnesota-based Energy Conversion Devices, has in recent years perfected a powerful new nickel-metal hydride (NiMH) battery that would greatly increase the capacity and range of PHEVs. This new Ovonic Battery would mitigate many of the issues outlined above, and would be a boon for the mass-marketing of the plug-ins.
Unfortunately, this happened instead (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plug-in_hybrid_electric_vehicle#Stranglehold_on_battery_technology.3F):
The oil company Chevron controls key battery technologies and battery manufacturing facilities, through its subsidiary, Cobasys. According to the website ev1.org, during the development of the battery-electric vehicle (BEV) EV1, General Motors made a controlling investment in Ovonics's battery development and manufacturing, with particular interest in the patents and trade secrets controlling the manufacturing of large nickel-metal hydride (NiMH) batteries. This interest was subsequently sold to the oil company Texaco, which was acquired in its entirety by another oil company, Chevron. The "large format" NiMH batteries are no longer available to U.S. electric vehicle converters or lightweight BEV manufactures. The manufacturing unit, Cobasys, is currently declining to manufacture and market these batteries for battery electric automotive use in the US and has shut down (through patent control) Panasonic's large format battery importation to the US. The Cobasys web page concerning transportation applications addresses only large multi-passenger hybrid vehicles. In order to use NiMH batteries without violating Chevron's patents, hybrid automobile manufacturers are required to design vehicles which are at least 50% powered by gasoline; otherwise, they are limited to the use of "D" cell-sized NiMH ("small format") batteries.
So, there you have it. An oil company bought controlling interest in the one technology most vital to the development of clean, efficient, energy-independent vehicles, and has blocked their usage or importation for such purposes unless the cars in question artificially perpetuate the use of gasoline engines.
Sure, this won't cripple the rise of electric and hybrid vehicles, but it is just one more instance of how Big Oil is actively working to hinder the implementation of newer and better technologies. All these companies care about is money -- to hell with the environment, national security, the war in Iraq, and the economic future of this country.
So, for this and many other reasons, damn Chevron and all of its accomplices.
In light of all this, do you think it's possible to break the oil companies' near-stranglehold on American (and world) transportation? Will alternative fuels succeed before it's too late?
See Also: "Who Will Power Tomorrow's Cars? (http://www.fool.com/portfolios/rulebreaker/2001/rulebreaker010306.htm)", from Fool.com