Resurrecting The Electric Car

The Age

Saturday June 28, 2008

Joshua Dowling

The race is on to reinvent the car to ease the reliance on fossil fuels. Joshua Dowling reports on what's coming and when.

THE types of cars we drive will change dramatically in the next five to 10 years but, meanwhile, we will see more hybrid vehicles as we move to what the industry calls "the gradual electrification of the motor car".

In other words, the petrol engines will get smaller and electric engines will get bigger until, eventually, we have the electric-only car. That's about 10 years away. A lot will happen between now and then.

In the coming years there will be countless calls for governments to reduce fuel excise and other taxes on fuel. There will be road blockades by truck operators here and overseas.

But these will not stop the inevitable.

Some experts reckon unleaded petrol will be $2 a litre by the end of the year and $3 by the end of next year. Freaking out? Petrol is still cheaper here than in Europe and Britain.

The admission this year by the world's biggest car maker, General Motors, that oil was indeed running out was the clearest sign yet of the change in the makers' attitudes.

The company that killed the electric car is now going full speed ahead on electric vehicle development. It has announced the closure of four pick-up truck factories in the US and is considering selling off the Hummer brand.

Car makers hate being hostage to unstable oil prices that play havoc with their business plans. Cars take five years to develop from a clean sheet of paper. So manufacturers are making decisions on the types of cars we want to drive at least five years before they're in showrooms.

As we've seen, the world can change a lot in that time, as it has in the past two years, let alone the past five.

Sure, we may see brief reprieves in oil prices when the oil-producing nations want to boost their cash reserves but, in the end, it's a finite resource that the world is using more of at a time when we are nearing the end of easily accessible, good quality crude.

High-performance cars and other gas guzzlers won't die but will become increasingly expensive as demand diminishes with time.

There will be no single solution to propelling our cars but several.

To date this has been a problem as the world's leading car makers have gone off in different directions and tried to cover as many bases as possible.

Hydrogen was tipped as an ideal solution - the only thing leaving the tailpipe is water clean enough to drink - and it is still in the picture but establishing effective distribution networks is an ever-present hurdle.

It's a chicken-and-egg dilemma.

Which comes first: hydrogen refuelling stations or hydrogen cars?

Fed up with waiting for hydrogen suppliers and governments to get their acts together, car makers have most recently embraced electric power. It's readily available and battery technology has developed so fast that motorists won't have to sacrifice too much range.

Environmentalists no doubt will say electric cars simply move the emissions from the tailpipe to coal-fired power stations. They'd be right. But consider this: what has the power industry done to reduce its emissions during the past 50 years compared with the car?

Passenger cars emit 7 per cent of Australia's greenhouse gases. Energy production, namely burning coal, accounts for 50 per cent of Australia's greenhouse gas emissions.

So why are cars the scapegoat in the energy debate? Why not move the onus on to energy producers? As the biggest polluters, they have most to gain. Instead, we've been playing at the margins with cars.

It is true that the most environmentally friendly car is one you don't buy. And, in theory, hanging on to an old banger may be better for the environment even though it emits more pollution than a modern car, because each new car built leaves a sizeable carbon footprint. Then safety comes into the debate. As we reported recently, many of today's small cars are safer than large sedans that are barely 10 years old. So, assuming new cars are better for our health and safety, what can we expect?

To recap, hybrid cars are a stepping stone. The recent announcements that Toyota would build 10,000 hybrid Camrys in 2010, and that a hybrid Holden Commodore will not be far behind, has sent some people into a spin.

But there is nothing to fear. Hybrid cars drive just like conventional cars, and you don't have to plug them in, but the rumble of the engine is replaced with an eerie silence when stopped at the lights or moving at a crawl in stop-start traffic.

Today's hybrid cars still have petrol engines under the bonnet but their power is supplemented by electric motors.

Toyota's Prius hybrid, of which more than 1 million have been sold, and the Camry counterpart, use an electric motor to start. Then the petrol engine kicks in seamlessly about 40 km/h. Starting is the action that uses most fuel. Conversely, coasting at freeway speeds is when petrol engines are most efficient.

A large battery hidden under the floor or in the boot powers the car's radio, air-conditioning and other electric functions when it is stopped in traffic. The battery is recharged automatically when coasting or braking.

The batteries in hybrid cars are designed to last the life of the vehicle, said to be at least 10 years. Toyota Australia has not yet had to replace a hybrid battery under warranty. The batteries are removed and recycled when the car is eventually scrapped.

Hybrid power tends to make sense in medium or large cars because the extra weight and cost can be absorbed into the vehicle.

Petrol-electric hatchbacks the size of a Toyota Yaris don't make sense because the extra weight (hybrid systems add up to 200 kilograms) would reduce their efficiency, the extra cost would diminish their appeal, and the basic models are relatively fuel-efficient anyway.

Would you pay $25,000 for a hybrid Yaris that used only 1 or 2 litres/100 km less than the standard $17,000 model?

Didn't think so. It would take about 10 years to make up the price premium in fuel savings.

A Prius uses about 4.5 L/100 km, a Yaris uses about 6.0 L/100 km.

In comparison, a Camry hybrid is expected to use about 7. A Holden Commodore V6, Australia's biggest selling car, uses about 11.

Critics of hybrid cars say they're not efficient at freeway speeds and it's true this is when they should be least effective. But real-world experience shows a worst-case scenario of 5.5L/100 km.

I know of several Prius owners who travel long distances on country roads and routinely get 900 kilometres out of each tank, equivalent to using 4.5 L/100 km. The beauty of hybrid technology is that you're not using fuel while the car is stopped in traffic.

Not long after the hybrid Camry arrives, we should see the hybrid Commodore, although Holden is yet to confirm it. Holden's Asia-Pacific boss let slip a couple of weeks ago that a hybrid Commodore was due "in a few years" but executives have since tried to pretend the comments were never made.

But what we know is this: Holden is not only working on hybrid technology - to be shared with GM vehicles in the US, which is how the company can afford to develop it - but also a range of more efficient petrol and LPG engines.

The Commodore's new direct-injection petrol engines, which use less fuel than conventional fuel-injection systems because they spray the petrol into an even finer mist - and a dedicated LPG system should be in showrooms in 12 to 18 months.

But imagine an LPG hybrid Commodore. Holden has not spoken about this publicly but, surely, the boffins at Holden are likely to be working on one as we speak. In terms of cost per kilometre, such a vehicle could be even cheaper to run than a Camry.

By about 2012 there should be at least one car on sale in Australia that you'll be able to recharge overnight.

More will follow.

General Motors in the US is developing a car called the Volt that has a battery-only driving range of about 64 kilometres, equivalent to the average distance most Americans drive to and from work every day. It takes about eight hours to recharge.

For longer drives, the Volt has a built-in petrol engine that powers a generator to recharge the on-board battery, kicking in automatically as the system senses battery power is running low.

The petrol engine switches off again when the battery is fully recharged. This brings the maximum driving range to 1030 kilometres.

An electric car that could be driven from Sydney to Brisbane between recharges would be quite a feat.

Of all the technology that's imminent, this is the one I'm most excited about. It's especially surprising that it is coming from the same company that killed its earlier electric car, the EV-1 of the 1990s.

It may just show big corporations aren't as silly as we think.

The Volt sounds like science fiction but it's coming. The car, about the size of a Holden Astra, will be on sale in the US in 2010 and GM executives say exports, including to Australia, will follow.

Nissan has recently jumped on the plug-in bandwagon and declared its belief in electric power for commuter cars.

Other makers are no doubt working on similar technology now that GM and Toyota, the world's two biggest brands, have announced their intentions to head down the electric car path.

The most economical and safe conventional cars are models such as the Toyota Yaris and Mazda2. They cost between $15,000 and $22,000, use about 6.0L/100 km and come with side and curtain airbag options for $750 and $1100 - including stability control - respectively. If you don't need a big vehicle, they make a mockery of hybrid cars.

ONLINE

- Read more at drive.com.au/hybrid

THE OPTIONS: PROS AND CONS

HYBRID

Makes sense in medium and large cars because the extra weight and cost can be absorbed into the rest of the vehicle. Drives like a normal car, uses fuel like a normal car but runs silently when stopped or moving slowly. The batteries last the life of the vehicle and are eventually recycled when the car is scrapped. However, a hybrid car doesn't necessarily make financial sense. A base Camry fourcylinder (9.9 litres/100 km) costs about $30,000. A hybrid Camry (about 7.0 L/100 km) is expected to cost about $37,000. To make up the $7000 premium in fuel savings would take at least five years, using the Australian average motor vehicle distance travelled as a guide.

PETROL

Unleaded petrol engines are most efficient when cruising between 80 km/h and 100 km/h. Hybrids are so efficient because the electric motor starts the car. Ethanol-blended fuel is not the magic bullet everyone thinks it is. Ethanol burns faster than standard unleaded so you get less driving range out of each tank.

DIESEL

Makes financial sense only in large four-wheel-drives and heavy vehicles, especially now that the price is about 22 cents a litre higher than unleaded.

Diesel cars may be more efficient and better for the environment than petrol cars but even so-called "clean diesels" are bad for our health.

LPG

One of the unsung heroes of the energy debate. It's cheaper than unleaded (for now) but you burn about 50 per cent more LPG to travel the same distance as a petrol-only car.

Holden is said to be working on new LPG technology which, if combined with the Commodore's hybrid system due by 2011, could be a more cost-efficient alternative to the Camry hybrid.

© 2008 The Age

Back to News Index | Back to Home