I came across this interesting story in GreenTech media today
that highlights some of the challenges and opportunities
surrounding all-electric vehicles. It's clear that
entrepreneurs and investors will continue to focus time and capital
on solutions that alleviate the rate-limiting factors surrounding
rapid, wide-scale adoption of all-electric vehicles including
storage, power electronics, infrastructure (both grid and
charging), etc. NTEC is doing our part to help prime the
innovation pump with emerging technologies that will accelerate the
development and growth of the electric vehicle ecosystem.
Michael Kanellos: June 3, 2011
Range Anxiety is Real, Say Stranded Leaf Drivers
PALO ALTO, Calif. --- New owners are generally enthusiastic
about their all-electric Nissan Leafs.
They are also finding themselves stuck on the side of the road
occasionally when the battery runs out.
Three different participants at Charged 2011, a two-day
symposium on electric transportation sponsored by the Silicon
Valley Leadership Group taking place this week at SAP's offices in
Palo Alto, shared stories about how their Leafs ran out of power at
inconvenient times.
While the speakers weren't anti-EV, the first-hand anecdotes
underscored the need for public charging networks and stations, the
need for new EV owners to think about their routes and energy
consumption, and the need for EV manufacturers to beef up their
technology.
Ironically, two of the drivers got stranded leaving the
conference.
John Boesel from CalStart, a clean transportation advocacy
group, drove his Leaf 65 miles from his home in Marin to Palo Alto
on Thursday. The Leaf had only been charged to about 85 percent
when he left, but because the Leaf only has an 80- to 100-mile
range, the need to charge in Palo Alto was unavoidable.
None of the parking lot chargers were available at SAP, so he
went to Better Place around the corner. He plugged in at noon, but
had to stay until around 7:30.
Boesel declined to bring his Leaf to the conference on the
second day.
In a similar situation, Rami Branitzky, managing director of SAP
Labs, left SAP after 10:00 pm on Thursday. Around 10:30 p.m, the
indicator light that warns of a low charge in his Leaf began to
blink. He called a friend in Los Gatos, parked the car at his
friend's house, and got back home with an old-fashioned gas
car.
He's going back today to get the stranded Leaf.
Branitzky said the Leaf is a "fantastic" car, but adds that it
comes with the "mother of all range anxieties."
Dhaval Brahmbhatt, CEO of PHY Chip, a startup producing
electronics for charging networks, had his Leaf conk out at night a
few weeks back. During a rainstorm. At night. In a somewhat dicey
section of Oakland. He had to get towed.
"My wife said, 'Give it back,'" he told me.
The Leaf, Brahmbhatt added, has a maximum range of about 96
miles -- if one drives it extremely cautiously and conservatively.
Realistically, the range is more like 80, he said. But, because
dealers recommend not fully depleting the battery, the range might
even be closer to 60 miles, he argued.
(Side note: this discussion wasn't part of the agenda. Their
comments came during a Q&A session during a panel I was
moderating. None of the speakers were panelists.)
Are there solutions? Sure. EVs could come with larger batteries
and more powerful chargers. Coda Automotive, for instance, will
insert a 36-kilowatt-hour battery in its sedan toward the end of
this year and a 6.6-kilovolt charger, said Aaron Cohen, director of
marketing strategy at the company. A 6.6-kilovolt charger
allows for faster charging. Ford also put a 6.6-kilovolt charger in
its all-electric Focus.
The Leaf has a 24-kilowatt-hour battery and a 3.3-kilovolt
charger. Boesel said he has heard that Nissan may insert a
6.6-kilovolt charger in the 2013 Leaf.
Plug-in hybrids also help ameliorate range anxiety. CalStart has
a Volt, says Boesel. The organization recently drove it from the
Bay Area to Pasadena just north of Los Angeles. It averaged 42
miles a gallon.
The Volt, he added, mostly gets used as an electric car. A total
of 750 miles of the first 1,000 miles that CalStart's Volt has
traveled have been in the pure electric mode. (The Volt has two
modes: it drives on electricity for the first 40 miles of driving.
After that, a gas engine/generator kicks in to recharge the
batteries.)
Felix Kramer, who runs CalCars, owns both a Leaf and a Volt. He
likes both, but admits the Volt is the one that is more useful as
an all-around vehicle. (See his review here:
http://www.greentechmedia.com/articles/read/the-leaf-or-the-volt-which-is-better/.)
Another option: battery swapping. Although the idea remains
controversial with many, battery swapping allows drivers to get
back on the road. Jason Wolf, vice president for North America at
Better Place, said more car manufacturers are now studying
producing cars with swappable batteries.
Renault will produce cars for Better Place's EV networks in
Denmark and Israel. (These networks will go live in 2012.) Better
Place has also begun to work with Chery for EVs with swappable
batteries in China. But other manufacturers will surely follow.
"All of the OEMs are starting to look at it," said Wolf.
And of course, having access to greater
numbers of higher-powered charging stations would help as well.