Electric Vehicles Charge Into the Future

Well, now, this week we’ve been intrigued by the most unlikely of duels: General Motors http://www.gm.com/ capped an interesting teaser campaign by announcing, on Tuesday that the Chevrolet Volt www.chevrolet.com/Volt will return the equivalent of 230 mpg, based on its own EPA-related fuel economy testing and, just a day later, Nissan http://www.nissanusa.com/ trumped GM by announcing that its own electric automobile, the Leaf EV www.nissanusa.com/leaf-electric-car/ , will hum along at the equivalent of 367 mpg based on DOE-related energy use standards. Certainly some zoot here to blog about.

First, bear in mind that neither of these cars are “traditional” – if that word might be properly used here – hybrids, like the Toyota Prius http://www.toyota.com/ or Honda Insight http://www.honda.com/.

The Volt has been developed as a plug-in electric car, powered by an on-board battery pack, with a small internal combustion gasoline-fueled engine. The Volt is intended to be charged, at most times, “from the grid” – i.e., plugged in – and, if the batteries are depleted while in use, the engine turns on only to charge the batteries and provide electricity to the Volt as needed. The gasoline engine does not drive the wheels, leaving that work to the electric motor and driveline – and the hybrid part of the equation is that it carries with it the ability to keep itself charged and running as necessary, giving it a range of about 40 miles on a full charge, and 300 or so miles with a full charge and a full (six gallons) tank of gasoline. In this way, its closest relative is the most ubiquitous of all hybrids, the diesel-electric locomotives that have been ruling the rails for more than six decades. Heck, the Volt’s distant relatives would also include such zooty things as nuclear submarines and warships. All use the same principle: an on-board power source that generates electricity to charge batteries and operate electric motors. The Volt has been under development by GM for the last five years or so. GM’s viral marketing campaign included a cute logo and tight lips about who and what was “230/8-11”, miniscule ad spots, and tee-shirt giveaways. GM’s 230 mpg figure comes from calculations GM did based on current EPA-testing requirements for hybrid vehicles.

Meanwhile, Nissan’s one-upsmanship came in the form of an announcement, just a day later, that its own pure electric plug-in vehicle, the Leaf EV, would return the equivalent of 367 mpg, based on different testing criteria created by the Department of Energy. So, one might wonder if we’re talking apples and oranges. And, to be fair, we probably are.

In this case, the Leaf EV is purely and electric vehicle - no onboard gasoline or alternative fuel motor, no on-board electricity generator. The Leaf EV’s battery pack and powerplant are designed to give it a fully-charged range of about 100 miles, significantly greater than the Volt. However, whereas the Volt carries its own electricity-generating capacity to extend its range, the Leaf EV does not. Moreover, while GM has positioned the Volt to enter the market in about a year, at a price point close to $40,000, Nissan claims the Leaf EV will be more affordable, in the sub-$30,000 range. Boiling it down a bit, the Leaf EV is a matured electric golf cart – really, really matured into a full-fledged car – that uses plug-in power only to send it down the road before it needs plugged in again. The Leaf EV bears a family resemblance to other Nissan and Renault products, most notably, Nissan’s Cube www.nissanusa.com/cube, more upright and squared-off, while the Volt’s Chevrolet heritage shows through in decidedly lower and swoopier packaging. They represent very different approaches to the same quest: wringing out the most from the new Electric Power Generation.

So, while the Volt touts not only its electrically-powered driveline, but its range-extending on-board generating station, the Leaf EV stresses its greater range without fueling up and, thus, its apparently greater efficiency. Again, apples and oranges, as the Leaf EV will never actually use gasoline or any other fuel directly to power itself, while the Volt will carry with it the designed ability to do so. Thus, while the Volt will only go 40 miles fully charged before the gasoline generator kicks in to extend that range another 300 miles, the Leaf EV will carry its passengers 100 miles before it runs out of juice, and will need access to a charging station or electrical outlet to recharge. These may appeal to very different markets.

As GM well knows, when it attempted the first “modern” roll-out of a purely electric vehicle, the late and lamented EV1 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/General_Motors_EV1 , from 1996-1999, it learned a great deal about what the driving public will embrace, and what it will reject. The EV1 initially had a range of 50-75 miles, which was eventually extended to 75-150 miles with updated battery packs, and, at the time of its debut, was the most aerodynamically-efficient production car ever produced, with a drag coefficient of just 0.19. While GM made and leased less than 2,000 EV1s, and while the program was officially terminated by GM in 2003, citing costs and the failure to gain the public’s broader interest, the EV1 nevertheless developed a cult-like following that generated protests, lessees trying to hide or keep their EV1s, fan websites, conspiracy theories, and, ultimately, a 2006 documentary film entitled "Who Killed the Electric Car?" http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Who_Killed_the_Electric_Car%3F

So, one might say we have a zooty future in electric vehicles – of many shapes and sizes, and in many varieties – coming down the pike. From the looks of things, it would appear that market acceptance and market capacity will determine doom or boon for each such entrant, and the variety of offerings just might be what saves the day for one or more of the automakers. This should provide a little fodder for the filmmaker's intended sequel, "Who Saved the Electric Car?"