There is a lot of media publicity about new types of propulsion methods for cars with bio fuels and electricity being the most popular. As with many technologies, electrically propelled vehicles are not new and designs have been around for over 170 years. The first electric carriages were designed in the 19th century in Europe and many early cars were electrically propelled – even from Studebaker and others.
With the advent of petrol based cars that were more powerful and cheaper to build and buy, the electric cars died off and many companies foundered. So for 50 years or so, petrol and diesel engined cars were the norm. Then in the 70s, around the time of the 73 oil crisis, the larger manufacturers started to look at the concept again.
The main problems with electric cars have been centred around the range of the vehicle and the size and weight of the batteries to power them. The battery technology was not well developed to make them small and powerful. The early cars had lead acid or nickel-iron batteries which were very heavy and dangerous.
One of the first modern all-electric vehicles was GM’s EV1, of which about 1,000 were built in 1997 and used mostly in California and Arizona. The first batch of 600 units used lead acid batteries and were leased to consumers rather than an outright purchase. The next 200 units (known as Generation 2) used nickel metal hydride batteries and many Gen 1 cars were retrofitted with the new batteries.
By 2003, GM decided to scrap the cars and rather than finish building cars for the waiting list, they recalled all of the vehicles and destroyed them. Their decision after spending a rumoured $1B on the development astounded many of the people leasing the cars – they were happy with them and it lead to many conspiracy theories being circulated as to why GM wouldn’t continue development through the decade. But of course now we find out that they were developing the Volt which is due for production in 2010.
The Volt, like the EV1 is a true plug-in, not a hybrid. The difference is in the technology – Lithium Ion batteries and a small on-board petrol based generator that recharges the car on the fly. And it looks like a normal car! Most electric cars from the 70s onwards have looked awful with no design or styling influences and they typically looked like an amateurish attempt at creating a vehicle.
To follow the EV1 and Volt in concept, Chrysler is also going to deliver its EV badged cars around the same time. These are also plug-ins with a small generator on-board.
Two other US based cars are the Tesla, which has just launched their sports car which is partially built by Lotus in the UK and Fisker Automotive. Tesla is hitting the opposite end of the buyer spectrum than the Volt or Chrysler EV models. Whereas the expected pricing of the Volt is around $30,000, the Tesla costs more like $90-100,000.
The Fisker Karma is a four door sports saloon that like the new Lamborghini, looks like a competitor to the Maserati Gran Turismo and the larger upmarket GTs. Henrik Fisker who ran a coach building company before this venture says that the car is the height of a 911, the length of a Merc CLS and the width of a 7 series. Clearly Fisker (a Dane) loves German cars – he did design the BMW Z8 and several Astons to balance things out!
Fisker use Q Drive from Quantum Technologies which uses a small petrol generator to power an electric motor that drives the vehicle. This appears to be not so dis-similar from the approach that GM and Chrysler have taken where the generator kicks in when the batteries are going flat!
In the UK the Lightning Car Company is building another very swoopy, sexy GT using technology from Altairnano in the US who have developed the NanoSafe battery. These batteries use no heavy metals or acids and last around 4-5 times longer than current batteries. The batteries take 10 minutes to charge instead of the trickle charge of other types. Only 30 are used in the car as opposed to the 1,000s of Li-ion’s used in other vehicles.
The Lightning uses Hi-Pa Drive from a British company, PML, that mixes the motor and electronics in one unit that is built into the wheel assembly, therefore no heavy drivetrain. You can pre-order one at which point they’ll tell you the price and expected delivery date!
Phoenix Motorcars in the US use the same battery technology as the Lightning and sell two models, the SUT and SUV. At no stage do they say that the SUT is in fact a SsangYong Sport Dual Cab and the SUV is a SsangYong Actyon, both built in Korea. Phoenix will “manufacture” these vehicles in Canada – by manufacture I suspect they mean add in the batteries and motor to the imported three-quarter built car.
Presumably these models were found to have the best under floor storage for the batteries although having the original engine swapped for a small electric motor driving both front wheels would seriously unbalance the vehicle! Unlike the Lightning, the Phoenix uses just one electric motor.
So the future looks like it will be a combination of plug-in and hybrid motors and the companies to invest in would be Altairnano and A123Systems who are developing the technology for the Volt and other cars. Clearly as plug-ins become big sellers, the value of these companies will grow exponentially!