On Sep 14, 2014, at 11:29 PM, EVDL Administrator via EV <[email protected]> wrote:
> As I see it, we really have only two ways to go. Either we look for ways to > make EVs that match those massive ICEVs in utility, or we concentrate on > making great EVs that do other things really, really well. Actually, there's a third way, though I realize that it's one that's not so popular with the readership here. Plug-in hybrids. If a "puffy" SUV or truck were outfitted with something analogous to the Volt's drivetrain but appropriately "up-sized," even with the same size battery pack, at worst it'd still have a ~20 mile all-electric range. As a marketing bonus, that electric motor will have lots of low-end torque, and that metric is the one the marketing departments love to use for these vehicles. For many, that would make it a pure BEV for 80% of trips. Even those putting an hundred miles a day on the vehicle would still be driving 20% of their miles electrically...and that's the equivalent of turning one out of five "puffy" vehicles purely electric. I think most of us here realize what it would mean for one out of five "puffy" vehicles to be pure electric, and most would jump for joy at the possibility. So why not a vehicle that's not pure electric but 20% electric? And _especially_ why not when, again, on average, it'll really be 50% - 80%+ electric? I think it's pretty clear that the only real technological challenge facing electric vehicles is the battery. Motors aren't a problem; today's electric motors absolutely smoke their fossil fuel counterparts. And the way to improve batteries is to sell more of them. And the way to sell more of them is to put them in more cars, even if those cars also have a fossil fuel tank. A transition from an ICE-only vehicle to a 20-mile PHEV to a 40-mile PHEV to an 80-mile PHEV to a 150-mile PHEV to a 300-mile BEV is much easier for the industry to manage and practically a natural from a consumer and marketing perspective. That 20-mile PHEV is a really big "value-add" for the consumer: save big on fuel and get a performance upgrade. What's not to love? The next generation has double the range, enough for most people to only hit the gas pumps every few months. (As a practical matter, this would be more than enough to solve all our vehicular fossil fuel problems.) The 80-mile generation after that is effectively a BEV with an emergency reserve tank of a few hundred miles. The 150-mile PHEV really is a pure BEV save you can use it to tow the boat to the lake on the other side of the state rather than having to rent something for the trip. And the 300-mile BEV, assuming it can get to 80% charge in 15 - 20 minutes and an adequate charging network, is the final na il in the ICE coffin. ...but, of course, we're still at the front end of that transition, with 20- to 40-mile PHEVs being the limit of practicality. But that's still an absolutely amazingly wonderful improvement over the ICE, and worthy of celebration and definitely something to encourage! Or, "TL/DR": Don't let the perfect be the enemy of the fantastic. Cheers, b& -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: signature.asc Type: application/pgp-signature Size: 801 bytes Desc: Message signed with OpenPGP using GPGMail URL: <http://lists.evdl.org/private.cgi/ev-evdl.org/attachments/20140915/2351c6e1/attachment.pgp> _______________________________________________ UNSUBSCRIBE: http://www.evdl.org/help/index.html#usub http://lists.evdl.org/listinfo.cgi/ev-evdl.org For EV drag racing discussion, please use NEDRA (http://groups.yahoo.com/group/NEDRA)
