[email protected] wrote: > In reply to Jed Rothwell's message of Wed, 17 Dec 2008 14:49:08 -0500: > Hi, > [snip] >> The Chinese battery company BYD Group lives up to its name, "Build >> Your Dreams." This week it began selling a $22,000 PHEV with a huge >> 62-mile battery range (not 80 as misreported) to fleet customers in >> China. > [snip] > This is understandable, but demonstrates once again that managers have no > knowledge of science. Fleets are precisely the *worst* market for PHEVs. > This is because fleet cars are frequently driven all day long.
Depends on what the fleet is used for. If it's a fleet of delivery vehicles in a large city the total range needed may not be that large. I seem to recall that delivery vans for I-forget-which company were once electric in Philadelphia. This was about a century ago. They didn't go very fast, and made an awful lot of stops. The lead-acid batteries of the time were up to the job, but just barely; the range of the vans was just about equal to what they were expected to do in a day. This tidbit comes from a half-remembered story told by my grandfather, who lived in the era of horses, solid tires, and (yes indeed) electric trucks. A car used for deliveries which is driven in a "star" pattern, always returning to home base between trips, might not be such a bad choice for a PHEV. (OTOH a car used by a traveling salesman, or a taxi driver, would obviously be a terrible choice for a PHEV.) > It is precisely > the family car (or second car) that should be a PHEV. Personal transportation > is > mostly used for commuting or shopping, where the total distance traveled per > day > is within battery range. > > Regards, > > Robin van Spaandonk <[email protected]> > >
