Electric dreams

You may think that electric cars are a recent fad, but they were around more than 100 years ago. So why did they virtually disappear by the 1920s? One word - oil. The rise of the gasoline engine ensured the rapid death of the electric car and before long all vehicles were petrol or diesel-powered.

But this meant that all development work on electric engines and power-trains in cars stopped. Car-makers concentrated on perfecting their gasoline engines and indeed in a little over 100 years, the engines have a long way in terms of fuel efficiency, emission levels, noise levels and many other parameters.

Just imagine what would have happened if the car-makers did not stop developing electric power-trains. Electric cars would have been everywhere by now. With a century of development, they would have become almost perfect.

However, we must also remember that parallel branches of science and engineering also moved on during this period and some of the chemicals and materials available now would not have been available to those developers. Thankfully, the oil crisis has awakened both car-makers and governments to the danger of relying too much on petroleum resources. Quite simply, the oil is going to run out sometime in the future, probably within the next two-three centuries or even sooner. Hence the need for alternative power sources for everything from cars to homes. There is a bigger focus on solar and wind power for buildings, but these would be clearly impractical for moving objects such as cars.

It is in this context that the electric car is coming back – in two guises: all-electric and hybrid (allied to a petrol or diesel powerplant). The advantages of electric cars are manifold – they are virtually silent and emission- free. Thanks to a prudent policy decision made by the Government to slash duties and taxes on hybrid cars, there are plenty of them on our roads now. They are no doubt helping to cut down our US$ 5 billion-a-year fuel import bill and the owners too must be having more change in their wallets. We hope that the same concessions would be extended to all-electric cars and cars equipped with technologies such as fuel cells which are likely to be commonplace before 2020. Many other countries are already giving grants and concessions for purchasing all-electric vehicles - one example is the Plug In Car Grant in the UK.

Charging

Worldwide, the development of the electric car is going ahead at a rapid pace. Car-makers, battery makers, chemical companies and universities are joining hands in this exercise. Within just five years, all-electric cars should be as common as hybrid cars are today. Plug-in charging models (where you can plug the car into the household mains supply) are going mainstream, with manufacturers turning to rapid and even wireless charging.

The Geneva Motor Show, now under-way in Switzerland, is the best place to gauge the success of these efforts.

These ‘Green’ cars are receiving a lot of attention from the press and the public at the show, one of the biggest motor shows in the world. But if you need just one example for where the industry is heading, go for the VW XL1.

Newly confirmed for production, the futuristic looking XL1 plug-in hybrid is easily one of the most intriguing new cars at the Geneva show. Weighing just 795kg, fuel economy is expected to be an astonishing 133 Km per litre, which is way beyond what even the best diesels can manage at present.

If you automatically think ‘battery’ when someone mentions a hybrid or electric car, you might have to think again. Citroen has ditched the bulky battery altogether and gone for compressed air to store energy in its revolutionary new C3 Hybrid Air model developed in conjunction with parts maker Bosch. (In Sri Lanka, you are more likely to come across the equivalent Peugeot model 2008 Hybrid Air). This shows that car makers are literally thinking outside the box when it comes to alternative means of propulsion.

In the all-electric category, the all-new Nissan LEAF is poised to become the first mass market product. The new, refreshed LEAF boasts a longer driving range, more comfort options and an optional 6.6kW charger to half recharging time. All-in-all, there are over 100 improvements to the new electric super-mini which will be sold at a fairly affordable price point. Tesla, a dedicated all-electric brand (as the name clearly implies) has also presented a new, cheaper saloon that could bring electric motoring to more people.

It is always a good thing when premium brands venture into new technologies, because these eventually filter down to the less expensive cars. Thus BMW’s all-electric sub-brand presents a new opportunity for the Bavarian car-maker. Due to launch later this year, the i3 fully electric super-mini will become the first car to launch under BMW’s new ‘i’ electric sub-brand.

Fitted with a 125 kW/170 hp electric motor and a lithium ion battery pack the model can accelerate to 100 Kmph in less than eight seconds. The top speed is 150 Kmph. Its range should be around 160 Km per charge, enough for a trip to Matara from Colombo.

Promising

The other major technology - hydrogen fuel cells - is even more promising. (Hydrogen is the fuel most commonly used in fuel cells. A fuel cell is an electrochemical device, which converts chemical energy to electrical energy without combustion. Unlike a battery, a fuel cell will continuously produce electricity as long as fuel is supplied and the catalyst remains active).Hyundai has becomes the first car-maker to begin mass production of fuel cell vehicles and the car-maker will display the very first model off the assembly line in Geneva.

Around 1,000 cars (of Tucson model) will be made by 2015. Many of these first vehicles will be leased to fleets in Europe ahead of a step-up in production in two years’ time, which will market the start of deliveries to private customers too. That will truly start a revolution in motoring and other manufacturers are already lining up their fuel cell plans.

But many challenges remain for both electric and fuel cell vehicles. One is charging infrastructure. Today, vehicles can be refuelled at filling stations located every few kilometres. Car-makers will have to define standards for electric charging stations in the same way and work with government authorities to establish them.

And how is that electricity generated in the first place? If it is by burning fossil fuels, there is nothing green about using electric cars. For electric cars to be completely green, our mains electricity too must be generated through renewable energy. But there is hardly any doubt that we are getting there.The future is electric and it is here now.