The following is a clip out the book I am working on to better inform the public on how to get off of fossil fuel. Please let me know what you think. Thanks!
Electric Vehicle Buying and Understanding the Electric Vehicle
Common Electric Vehicle Questions and Answers
I believe most people would not wish to perform a ?deep dive? on electric vehicles to really understand all the issues. The Questions and Answers section is to address a number of false ideas about electric cars In addition, it addresses false information where the reader may not have the analytical tools and background to evaluate and dispel any false information concerning Battery Electric Vehicles (BEV).
Q: Why would one want to spend extra money for a car that does not have much range?
A: Many newer electric vehicles have plenty of range on a charge to do most any task within an American city. If a person can charge from home (or can use a free charger), the cost of fuel is generally 3% to 25% of what gasoline costs. Savings on fuel will eventually outweigh the additional upfront cost of a Battery Electric Vehicle (BEV) if the initial cost is not too high.
Q: Doesn?t an electric vehicle simply shift all the air pollution from the car engine tailpipe to the power station?
A: Not at all. The thermal efficiency of the conventional gas powered car (ICE-Internal Combustion Engine) is about 20%. A Battery Electric Car (BEV) is around 80% thermal efficient including charging losses. Long range power transmission costs about 15% of the energy. The biggest utility polluting power source in the US today is the coal fired steam power plant that is about 37% thermal efficient. Only about 22% of the power generated in the US comes from coal. Other sources such as a combined cycle gas fired plant runs from 50 to 60 percent thermally efficient. Around 60% of the US electric grid energy comes from fossil fuel. This means that around 40 percent comes from sources that do not pollute the air at all. If all cars were battery electric within the United States, there would be a vast reduction in air pollution around big cities as well as a vast reduction in CO2 emissions.
Q: Can I leave town with an electric car? Where will I charge it up?
A: In my opinion, the remote charging is the biggest issue currently in the US. Many states such as California, Oregon and Washington have a great charging network. Other states such as Arizona really lack ?fast charging? stations so you might be limited on where you can go in the state.
The types of connections for electric cars are the Combined Charging System (CCS), CHAdeMO (Japanese trade name used mainly on Nissan Leaf) and Tesla Type 2. Tesla owners can use an adapter to charge from a CCS connector. Across the US, there is not much of a problem in driving a Tesla electric car anywhere because of the vast charging network that is currently in place. This is not true for the cars that use the CHAdeMO type connector. There is no adapter for the CHAdeMO charging connection to use a CCS type connection. This means that any trips across the country with a Nissan Leaf may not include fast charging. To many people this greatly limits the usefulness of the car. Nissan is changing over to the CCS connection in at least some of the 2023 electric cars.
Slow AC type charge in nearly everywhere in the US. Any place with an electrical outlet can fuel up the BEV. Fast DC charging is needed to avoid moving at ?wagon train? speed when on the road away from home. If not driving a Tesla, always check for DC fast chargers on your route away from home. Make sure you have the range needed between charging stations and perhaps enough to skip a station if it is not working.
The fast DC charging stations have different capacities to charge battery driven electric vehicles. For example, the Hyundai Ioniq 5 battery car can charge very quickly if the charging station is rated to provide 350 Kilowatts of power and can charge the 800 volt battery system. By comparison, my 2022 Chevy Bolt can only charge at a rate of 55 Kilowatts and that is only if the battery is at less than 40% charged. So if I want another 200 miles of range, I will need to charge for at least one hour or more. So on short trips like from Phoenix to LA, this extra time is not much of a problem. I found that it does not make much sense to travel more than 350 miles in the Chevy Bolt per day when faced with significant headwinds because there are so many stops for charging. In contrast, the Ioniq 5 charging time is only a little more time than putting gasoline in an ICE car.
Some hotels do have charging available from battery electric vehicles so that does help some on a longer trip to start out with a fully charged battery. The Chevy Bolt would not be the best vehicle for covering a lot of ground in one day because of the slow charging rate. However it has a large price advantage over other long range BEVs and it does other things very well.
Q: Will I have to replace the battery once the warranty has expired? Will it cost 20K to do so?
A: Most all engineering efforts on EV lithium ion batteries have been focused on getting the cost down and extending life as long as possible. There is a small risk that a battery would need to be replaced. This risk can be mitigated by saving all the money associated with operating an ICE car and putting it into something like an S&P 500 indexed stock account. When buying a BEV be sure that the battery has cooling and heating. Non conditioned batteries like with the Nissan Leaf have had significant performance issues and I am very happy I did not buy one. Typical life expectancy of a long range BEV is 300,000 to 500,000 miles. Ongoing data seems to support these numbers.
Also it appears that the cost of manufacturing replacement batteries is going down year over year ?so it may not cost 20K by the time the battery needs to be replaced. It should be noted that used batteries can be used for fixed power applications so they still have value.
Q: What if I am in an accident with an electric car. Will it catch fire?
A: A quick online check of how well electric cars fair in an accident shows that the overall safety is very good for car crashes. Yes a BEV can catch fire, but compared with gasoline spreading around a crash site, one is better off with the battery in my opinion.
Q: Why is there no recycling of lithium ion batteries? Don?t lithium ion batteries represent a huge environmental issue?
A: Lithium ion batteries are recyclable but processing centers are not widespread at this point in time. It is nearly always more cost effective to ?mine? the existing products for the raw materials than taking them from raw ore.
Lithium mining is not environmentally friendly and nether is the mining required for producing an ICE automobile. For the most part mining is a dirty business.
Q: What if I get stuck in a snow storm?
A: While the ICE car is a heater on wheels, it uses a lot of energy to keep the engine running. With a long range BEV, and you keep the heat level reasonable, you will survive much longer than you would with an ICE car. If you have a heat pump in the BEV, you would be able to go many days with the battery energy.
Electric Car Charging
In some areas of the US the availability of fast charging stations for battery driven cars is a big issue. This applies to folks who do not have charging available at home as well as for people who like to travel out-of-town. In Washington, all one has to do is drive down the street to a fast charger and go shopping at the same time.
In Arizona, there are not nearly enough charging stations available to the public, Check your area for DC charging before purchasing a BEV. If you do not have charging available, purchasing a BEV does not make sense.
