Monday, May 19, 2014

Why was the electric car made?




Diana


or factors that occurred to encourage the creation of the electric car.


Answer
"1834: Thomas Davenport invents the battery electric car. Or possibly Robert Anderson of Scotland (between 1832 and 1839). Using nonchargeable batteries." http://electricandhybridcars.com/index.php/pages/electriccartimeline.html At the time the only alternative was a steam car also in early development, rail transportation and the horse and carriage. Petrol and diesel powered vehicles were not invented until later.

By 1900 there were more steam and electric cars on the roads than petrol vehicles. Electric cars were favored in cities by their ease of operation and as an alternative to another pollution problem. In NYC alone more than 10,000 dead horses had to be removed from the city streets each year. But by 1910 the petrol vehicle had become an electric "hybrid" with the new electric starter and became the dominate vehicle.

Small numbers of electric vehicles have been built over the next 80 years, the largest fleet may have been English milk delivery trucks: http://www.milkfloats.org.uk/

By around 1989 GM had won a Solar electric car race in Australia and designers were challenged in house to build an electric car. The result was the prototype called "Impact." It was on display in California. After one display to the California Air Resources Board (1) The GM official quipped "I hope you are not going to make us manufacture this vehicle." That is exactly what CARB did. Seeing that a Zero Emissions Vehicle was technically not only possible but already prototyped they wrote the law requiring a small percentage of each manufacturers vehicles should be ZEV. It became known as the ZEV mandate. Car manufacturers complied and sued CARB as a board and individually. The tactic worked and at a hearing 2003 where they essentially ignored cries to keep the ZEV mandate they modified it and the manufacturers promptly collected and crushed their vehicles.2

GM sold the rights to the NM HI battery to Chevron who refused to allow its use in a "pure" electric vehicle. But they were used in all the hybrids and proved very durable in the RAV4ev. A great deal of misinformation about EV was published. The "Oil" president of the US called for "hydrogen cars." (Hydrogen is mostly made from fossil fuels.)

Then came 2008 and gas prices went through the roof. Suddenly peak oil and global warming seemed like very good reasons to put electric vehicles on the road. Every manufacturer had in the development or prototype an electric car. The 2006 Tesla roadster eliminated the question any question if electric cars could be made fast. Corporations are less motivated by adverse publicity and so cautiously begin to embrace electrics for their delivery fleets due to the savings in operating costs. Electric cars were not "killed" and did not die but their widespread introduction and expansion into the marketplace was delayed by 10 more years.

Which countries now have full-electric car technology besides China and Japan?

Q. BYD e6 electric full-size SUV: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BYD_e6

Nissan LEAF compact electric car: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nissan_Leaf

* Chevrolet Volt is not full-electric besides it needs gasoline as fuel.


Answer
It depends upon what you mean by "full-electric car technology" and by asking "which countries"...

Electric cars are not a national phenomena. They are things. National policies can promote electric cars but to my knowledge no country has nationalized an electric car building company and is producing electric cars on their own. Corporations may give some a feeling of national pride or identity but many corporations are multi national and may hold allegiance to no country.

Countries and areas that promote electric cars with incentives are more likely to attract corporations that are making electric cars. Such companies are in some ways not very different than other corporations. If an area will provide certain grants, property, utilities, or tax incentives then companies are more likely to build a plant in that location. Having cheap labor and reasonable lines of supply are also a plus. Selling their products may require a different set of incentives to attract buyers.

A case in point may be "Better Place." http://www.betterplace.com/ This company does not make cars. They sell a battery swapping service. They have several international initial target locations including: Israel, Denmark, Australia and Hawaii, San Francisco and Canada. The nissan leaf was to be a part of their system and may be in the future. For now they are swapping batteries on the Renault Fluence ZE. http://www.betterplace.com/ By some measure this might be considered a "full-electric car technology," but to what country are you going to attribute this technology? Shai Agassi, the companies founder and CEO has lived in California and Israel.

The Tesla Roadster is an American company and a media success. It is now selling their cars internationally, but the actual number of vehicles sold is presently just over 1000.1 Their are many lessor known electric vehicle companies that may happily sell you a vehicle that is hardly a production run. For a full production run of a full electric vehicle (BEV: battery electric vehicle) that is fully highway capable in the US we are looking to the Nissan Leaf as a first. Zap vehicles have been built in China for years and sold by an American Company internationally as motorcycles but we might not necessarily put these in the same class as the Nissan Leaf. The same may be true of other of the ess expensive Chinese cars.

I would agree that the Volt is not a "full electric" vehicle, but it is more electric than the more parallel hybrid prius. From a purist point of view perhaps even a BEV is not a pure electric vehicle as it uses chemistry in the batteries. A pure electric might use ultracapacitors for storage or something like this: http://electric-vehicles-cars-bikes.blogspot.com/2009/08/korean-researchers-develop-electric.html




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