WHY DRIVE ELECTRIC?

NewEnergyNews: The following is a fine piece of writing about something everybody wants to know more about these days:

Bagatelle-Black: “What’s the big deal? You’ve read articles about electric vehicles. You’ve seen people carrying signs at demonstrations. You know that a lot of folks out there want the major automakers to start building electric cars for the masses, but you don’t know why. What are the benefits of electric vehicles? Why would someone choose an electric car over a gasoline-powered vehicle?
The two primary reasons to drive an electric vehicle are simple: cost and convenience.

“What’s that?” you might ask, “I thought electric vehicles were all about saving the world!”

And you would be making a good point. Studies have shown that a mass shift from gas-powered cars to EVs would result in lower pollution, including lower emissions of greenhouse gasses even if the utility grid gets 80% of its power from dirty, old-fashioned coal plants. Additionally, eliminating gasoline-powered cars could eliminate our dependence on foreign oil. Getting rid of oil power would improve national and global security. As long as we rely on distant, politically-unstable regions of the world for much of our energy supply, we risk disaster. The world would be a safer place if every region produced its own energy in a sustainable, environmentally-sound manner.

However, the bottom line is that our lives would generally be better if everyone switched from ICE-powered cars to EVs. We would save money, simplify our lives and make our automobiles more convenient to operate…”

EV Basics III – Why Drive Electric?
Forbes Bagatelle-Black, November 4, 2007 (EVWorld)

WHO
Forbes Bagatelle-Black, engineer and author

Meet Alex. He's driving an electric car now. Will he be able to drive one when he grows up?

WHAT
- EV: Electric Vehicle – Any vehicle that uses electricity to provide some or all of the power to its wheels.
- ICE: Internal Combustion Engine – The smog-belching, globe-warming automobile powerplants used in the dark ages of the 20th Century.
- PHEV: Plug-In Hybrid ElectricVehicle – A vehicle with an electric motor and a battery pack that can be charged from a home electrical system, but which also has an on-board ICE and fuel tank which can power the car if the battery pack is drained.
- BEV: Battery Electric Vehicle – A vehicle powered exclusive from energy stored in its battery pack.

WHEN
Bagatelle-Black: “…Imagine your day if you drove an EV. It would take you only a few seconds to unplug your car every morning. Since the car gets its power from a plug in your wall, it would be easy to design a system that lets you tell your car when to turn on the electric heater so that your seats and steering wheel are nice and warm when you climb in. You would never need to wait in line at gas stations. The drive system in an EV is much simpler than the drive system in an ICE-powered car, so your EV would be much more reliable and would require much less maintenance…”

For now, this is the answer to the personal transportation question.

WHERE
Bagatelle-Black: “…no discussion of EV cost savings would be complete without the mention of the large-scale cost savings associated with the prevention of global warming. If the world moves from ICE-powered vehicles to EVs powered by renewable energy sources, we can still reverse the heating trend which has been documented in recent years. This would not only save the world trillions of dollars; it could save millions of lives as well…”

WHY
- Bagatelle-Black: “…If you want a car you almost never have to worry about, then an EV is the car for you…Driving an EV also costs less…an EV never needs an oil change. It never needs new spark plugs. Since it gets most of its stopping power from a regenerative braking system, brake pads and rotors last several times longer than those in an ICE-powered car. Since electric motors have much more torque at lower speeds when compared to ICEs, transmissions in electric vehicles can be drastically simplified. The simplified drivetrain in an EV not only makes it more reliable, it also results in much lower maintenance costs…”
- Bagatelle-Black: “…The most expensive part of an EV, in terms of maintenance, is likely to be the battery pack. All batteries currently manufactured have a limited lifespan. Unless this changes, every EV will eventually need a new battery pack, which will costs thousands of dollars. However, companies such as A123 and Altairnano are currently developing lithium-based batteries with dramatically longer lifespans than those of current Li-Ion batteries. People are also driving EVs much further than previously expected on a single battery pack… It is reasonable to expect that replacement battery pack prices could be brought down to $2000 when they are mass-produced for a major auto manufacturer. If the lifespan of these battery packs can be brought up to 150,000 miles through technological development, the cost per mile for battery use would be 1.3 cents. Compare that to the cost of getting an oil change at Jiffy Lube every 3000 miles. Using a “synthetic mix” of engine oil will cost you $49.99 each visit, for a cost per mile of 1.6 cents. Additionally, there is much discussion in the EV community about the possibility of renting or leasing battery packs, which would effectively allow EV owners to spread out the cost of battery replacement over the life of an EV…”

In the long run, this is the answer.

QUOTES
- Bagatelle-Black: “Contact the major auto manufacturers and tell them you want to buy an electric vehicle. Let them know that you plan on postponing a new vehicle purchase until you can buy a BEV or a PHEV. The car companies really do respond to customer demands. Think about how quickly their marketing campaigns have gone from extolling the size of their SUVs to bragging about the gas mileage of their compact cars, now that gas prices are spiking…”
- Bagatelle-Black: “Here is some contact information published by the group Plug-In America:
Ford (800) 392-FORD (or 800-392-3673)
Ford Motor Company/Customer Relationship Center/PO Box 6248/Dearborn, Michigan 48126
GM / Saturn (800) 553-6000
Customer Assistance Center/100 Saturn Parkway/MD-371-999-S24/Spring Hill, TN 37174
Honda (800) 999-1009
Honda Automobile Customer Service/1919 Torrance Boulevard/Mail Stop: 500 - 2N - 7D/Torrance, CA 90501-2746
Nissan (800) NISSAN-1 ( or 800-647-7261)
Nissan Consumer Affairs/P.O. Box 685003/Franklin TN 37068-5003
Mitsubishi (888) MITSU2007 (or 888-648-7820)
Mitsubishi Motors North America, Inc./PO Box 6014, Cypress, CA 90630-0014
Toyota (800) 331-4331
Toyota Motor Sales, U.S.A., Inc./19001 South Western Ave. Dept. WC11/Torrance, CA 90501

There's one more way to get involved: Plug-In Partners
Deputy Coordinator: Austan Librach, P.E., AICP
c/o Partnership Services Coordinator
721 Barton Springs Rd./Austin, TX 78704
(512) 322-6511