Future is electric

Pramod de Silva

A couple of weeks ago, we focused on hybrid cars, which are becoming increasingly common on our roads. But what if you give up the gasoline engine altogether and keep only the electric battery and motor? Well, then you have an all-electric car.

I have seen only variant of an electric car in Sri Lanka, called the Reva which was made in India. It is unfortunately not being imported anymore, but there are many electric motorcycles on our roads. It’s really simple – you just plug in your car or motorcycle overnight and take it for your commute the next day. You instantly cut down on the fuel bill and also save the environment – these cars have little or no emissions.

Electric cars are not new – they have been around since the early 20th Century. But they virtually disappeared when mass-produced petrol cars became cheap. Now that fuel prices are on the rise – along with the greenhouse gases – electric cars have found favour again. Nearly all car manufacturers are in the fray, with Governments too granting concessions for purchasing and using electric cars.

If this year’s ‘Detroit Motor Show’ is any indication, electric cars will be commonplace by around 2020. Technology breakthroughs are being reported almost every day in this exciting field.

The European Car of the Year 2010 Nissan Leaf, Tesla Roadster, Mitsubishi iMiEV and the upcoming Ford Focus are among the prime examples for innovative electric cars. There will be an all-electric RAV4 by 2012. GM will unveil a plug-in Cadillac SRX as well as a prototype designated EN-V (Electric Networked Vehicle) that can even park itself. Mercedes has an electric SLS AMG, of all things, in the pipeline for 2013.

But there are some challenges that have to be overcome before electric cars go mainstream. The main limitation is (lithium ion) battery size and driving range. There is a bit of a paradox here – electric cars are primarily thought of as small city cars, so they do not have space for a very big battery. The key, then, seems to be increasing battery power and efficiency while also reducing charging times.

The new Nissan Leaf does around 130 Km on a single charge, which is respectable. Obviously, the goal is to drastically increase this range. Engineers are working on new battery technologies to make that happen. For example, Toyota is working on a magnesium-sulfur battery which will be capable of holding twice the energy of lithium-ion cells in use today. Auto engineers are also trying to take the heat off the battery by having solar panels to power auxiliary devices such as the A/C and audio/video/navigation system.

The other problem is the recharging infrastructure. If you take a Leaf to Galle and run out of battery juice, is there a convenient way to recharge it? At some point in the future, there will be a need for electric ‘filling stations’ where motorists can recharge their electric cars by paying a small fee. Oxford, UK already has such a system – the newly commissioned 20 recharging points already recharge a fleet of MINI Es. The car battery can now be fully charged in three hours at these 23 Amp points.

There is one other major problem with electric cars – they make no noise. This can be deadly to other motorists and pedestrians including deaf and blind persons. Carmakers are working on this issue, at least to create some kind of artificially generated noise to warn others about the presence of an electric car. US President Barack Obama has signed into law a requirement that hybrids and electric vehicles emit noises the blind and pedestrians can hear to avoid being struck. Nissan has programmed the Leaf to automatically alert pedestrians when the car is operating at low speeds. The

Chevrolet Volt has a chirping sound the driver can activate.

Electric cars have a very exciting future. We can hope to see a lot more electric cars on our roads within the next few years and they should indeed be very common in a decade or so once automakers iron out the remaining problems and limitations. The glory days of electric cars should be back, well within our lifetime.