The electric car is happening September 17, 2015
Posted by Maury Markowitz in electric cars.add a comment
Thank you Elon for making this happen.
There’s a point where you realize something that was formerly fantasy has crossed a threshold and is really going to happen. The moon shots circa 1967. The internet circa 1994. And today it became clear to me the electric car, circa 2015.
It was the rapid-fire stories on Ars Technica that did it for me. When three major car manufacturers all announce a long-range “Tesla killer” in the same few days, well, what else do you call it? The real, uncompromised e-car has finally arrived.
Yeah, these are still rich kid toys. But they won’t be in 2020. And since our Toyota keeps refusing to die, and that slope is moving ever downward every day, who knows, maybe even a schlub like me will end up in one sooner than later.
EV battery prices falling rapidly April 5, 2015
Posted by Maury Markowitz in electric cars.Tags: electric cars
add a comment
Price declines in large battery packs are faster than expected.
A recent paper in Nature Climate Change attempts to track the real costs of electric car batteries, and find they are already well below the most wild-eyed predictions for 2020 made only a few years ago. If the trends continue, batteries will fall below a critical threshold around 2020, meaning that electric car lifetime costs will be lower than gasoline cars, in spite of higher up-front costs.
Electric cars and carbon intensity April 1, 2015
Posted by Maury Markowitz in electric cars.Tags: electric cars
2 comments
You evil car you! You’re so… so… oh gawd I want one.
As the regular readers of Energy Matters -the world’s most beautiful supermodels- are no doubt aware, I have a thing about electric vehicles. So when a story on the topic came up on CBC Radio One the other day my ears perked up. And when it turned out the story in question starts right here in Toronto, well, I’m off to the races!
Lies, damb lies, and misleading graphs – electric car efficiency in the AAAS February 21, 2015
Posted by Maury Markowitz in balonium, electric cars.Tags: electric cars
add a comment
Shouldn’t they have a caption here?
So someone slashdoted this story in the AAAS. Along with it comes the fancy graphic on the right.
Looking at that graph, it seems that the energy use of electric cars anywhere outside the deep south is terrible! And it looks that way until you read the small-print caption under the graph…
The average energy consumption per mile for an electric vehicle fleet over a full year. South Florida and the Pacific Coast boasted the greenest rates (170 Wh/km), whereas the upper Midwest fared the worst in terms of energy efficiency (196 Wh/km; red).
That’s right, the difference from green-is-good to red-is-bad is 26 Wh/km, or 13%. Wow, nice graph, AAAS. What’s worse, they fail to mention that gas powered cars also suffer from the same sorts of milage degradation in the cold, only worse. My Civic Hybrid gets about 53 mpg (US gallons) in the summer and only 38 in the winter. That’s a 28% drop, over double the amount.
I suggest everyone take a bit of their time and read my previous article on the topic. Running an electric car in the red area is still twice as efficient as a gas car in the same region.
Phinergy’s battery: energy storage, problem solved? June 6, 2014
Posted by Maury Markowitz in electric cars.Tags: batteries, electric cars, energy storage
3 comments
Sporty!
You hear stories of new battery tech all the time, and I’ve generally learned to tune them out.
A company makes grandiose claims long before they’re bending metal, and then run into some sort of impossible problem and that’s it, they’re done. You know, like EEStor.
So why am I writing about one now? Because this is Alcoa, and they’re on the road.
If this pans out, and that’s always a big if in battery tech, then basically the storage problem is done, for cars. There are several serious limitations, but it does neatly solve the major problem of providing long-distance driving.
But is this for real? Read on! (more…)
Wells to wheels: electric car efficiency February 22, 2013
Posted by Maury Markowitz in electric cars.Tags: electric cars
47 comments
One common argument against electrifying the car is that all it really does is move the engine from one place to another – from your car to a power plant. There’s an advantage to moving that exhaust away from people, but overall, it’s argued, the effect is pretty limited.
Guess what, it’s math time! (more…)
Energy Matters 