Again, this is “current state”. Future state may include options like solar charging stations or batteries that aren’t as dependent on the power grid.
But the fact does remain that it is easier for me to bring a gallon of gas to you (in an OSHA approved container of course) than it is for you to bring a dead EV to a working charging station.
Why do we think that series hybrids won’t become the dominant form of EV in America? This would be an EV with a substantial battery pack, enough for 150 miles or more of pure EV range. And a gasoline engine that can act as a generator. Might be a 2 cycle engine, would probably be air cooled. This solves the range problem without compromising EV efficiency too much. 8 gallons of stored gasoline = 50 lbs, plus the tank and the engine. Maybe 400 lbs added to a 2500 lb vehicle. Not too large a loss of EV efficiency.
Might be problems with emissions, though, which could be a serious problem. Manufacturer wouldn’t want to pay to install a catalytic converter for an engine that almost never gets used.
I don’t believe hand pumps are standard equipment at pretty much any gas station. Short of a post-apocalyptic Walking Dead scenario, good luck getting the Shell station operator to give you access to the underground tanks so you can pump it yourself.
Perhaps not, but wiring up a generator is not difficult to do in a pinch. Technically, if it’s a generator that provides 240 volt with a center tap transformer, and if the gas station has a 240 plug inside, it can be done with a male to male plug in 2 minutes. Just turn off the main breaker, connect the male end to the wall socket, tape it down well, turn off all the breakers, and start the generator. Not code legal but it will work and is safe if done correctly.
I can’t deny, and you can’t deny, that you’re not going to be driving 3200 miles in an EV without a lot of stopping at chargers that may be full or may not work.
The charger infrastructure just isn’t practical for long evacuations. And it will never be. Fast charging requires very expensive and substantial equipment per car that is charging, and the equipment has to be serving just that car for around 30 minutes. (reducing the time means making the equipment even more substantial)
So it makes economic sense to have a moderate number of superchargers, even if everyone has EVs, since most people will do most of their charging at home. Of course, this does mean that apartment complexes will need to provide (paid) EV plugs.
This almost has to be a legal requirement, in the same way an apartment has to provide a refrigerator, because you cannot reduce air pollution from motor vehicles if half the residents in a city don’t have the option of using an EV.
This is not a hypothetical. The Chevy Volt is the series hybrid of which you speak; it includes a gasoline internal combustion engine with appropriate exhaust aftertreatment that allows it to meet existing emissions regulations. Part of what gets the cost down is that it’s a small engine (1.4 liters, smaller than some motorcycles), so it doesn’t need a very big/expensive cat.
There’s a substantial difference between evacuating and moving a large piece of furniture: when you need to move a large piece of furniture, there aren’t a few million other people in the same basic area that also need to move a large piece of furniture.
Renting a van to move large furniture is a reasonable option for everyone who doesn’t own a vehicle large enough to transport it. Renting a higher-range car to evacuate from a hurricane isn’t a feasible option for many people, since any large population evacuating is going to outstrip the rental supply by many orders of magnitude.
Obviously, right now, while EVs are a small portion of the total vehicle base, and in most cases are second cars, this isn’t much of an issue. And, certainly, owning an EV is better than owning no car at all. But if EVs become a substantial portion of total vehicles, they’ll largely be replacing existing gasoline-powered vehicles, and we’ll have to deal with the fact that evacuations just got a lot harder, even though furniture moving is still easy.
Volt is a parallel hybrid. It still has a transmission, and a lot of additional weight and complexity from an engine designed for torque. This is a series hybrid : BMW i3 - Wikipedia
Agree with this.
The majority of the population of condos and apartments will never have EV charging infrastructure until it’s either required by law or the complexes are torn down & replaced in the normal course of urban evolution. That’s a real hefty fraction of the total populace and is skewed heavily towards the urban/suburban areas most amenable to EVs.
I’m a nearly ideal candidate for a pure EV. But our condo association would never vote to install charging infrastructure unless it was either free or legally mandated. Absent that we’d need to get 75% of our members ready to buy an EV all at once before there’d be enough simultaneous support to pass such a spending initiative.
:dubious: So the Volt’s Wikipedia page is completely wrong?
Not sure about pure EVs, but hybrids are wonderful in this kind of situation. A friend of mine evacuated from Katrina in a Prius. He was stuck in a 100 mile long traffic jam getting out of the area-he chose his route poorly. He very slowly passed many many cars off the side of the road after having run out of gas idling in the the traffic jab. When he finally got to his destination he still had half a tank of gas. Apparently the battery lasts a long time when you spend most of it just sitting/crawling along.
What does
even mean? The reality is that EV owners are still a tiny minority and they are used to dealing with the lifestyle adjustments needed with their vehicles. I reckon they did fine during Irma, whether it was by using a second, ICE, car, evacuating earlier, or something else. As mentioned, as EV popularity grows, the infrastructure will scale up to meet the demand.
One thing I’ve wondered about is whether any sort of battery technology could eventually be used for EV charging. Something like a very large battery pack charged via solar or wind, stationed along highways. The sun or wind charges the battery and anyone with an EV can pull up and pay to use the battery to charge their car. There would be some down time while it recharges, but there could be multiple batteries at each station and status indicators to tell how much of a charge remains and the rate of recharging based on current sun/wind conditions. We already see a smaller version of this technology being used for other roadside equipment (solar) and for charging handheld devices (disposable batteries).
The Wikipedia page is correct where it says: “When the engine is running it may be periodically mechanically linked (by a clutch) to a planetary gear set, and hence the output drive axle, to improve energy efficiency.”
But most of the time, it works as a series hybrid, because the engine doesn’t even come on until most of the battery capacity is used up. So it’s not completely wrong to call it a series hybrid.
This may sound complicated, but a pure series hybrid still needs an engine, generator, and drive motor. The Volt just adds a few clutches so these can be connected in different ways. This video explains all the different configurations.
This electric bus has a range of 1100 miles.
The current best prediction is that most future vehicles will be self-driving on-demand fleet vehicles, not personal vehicles. The exact timing of that transition is obviously up in the air.
A legal mandate to install EV charging infrastructure at individual residences would probably be a massive waste of money in most cases, since that charging infrastructure will likely only be useful for a relatively short period of time. Fleet vehicles are (probably) not going to charge overnight next to apartment buildings.
Fleet vehicles might make the evacuation problem even worse (imagine if everyone had to evacuate by taxi). On the other hand, they might not, since the fleet at least could be managed more effectively. How many evacuating vehicles normally have empty seats that could be carrying other evacuees?
Without a working cash register, either, although they may have procedures in place to keep selling gas if they lose internet access.
When the majority of cars are electric the charging stations will by necessity be augmented by batteries to even out energy distribution during the day. And as a matter of security there will be need for significant numbers of peak use generators to back that up.
Our energy infrastructure has never operated in a vacuum. We didn’t switch from coal to gasoline overnight. Energy in whatever form it takes will be stored for emergencies. We do this now with a variety of fuel sources.
In Florida, the law actually requires that certain gas stations be wired to use a generator. They’re not required to have generators, though, so in practice it’s pretty useless.
Not completely wrong, but the actual detailed description on the wikipedia page show’s it’s not a series hybrid. It has “modes” that are sort of like it a series hybrid but planetary transmission, adding tons of complexity and cost.
Not really? The power to run a gas station isn’t much, if you leave the A/C off and just try to run the lights, pumps, and register. Any old ~5kW generator would do it, and you obviously won’t run out of generator fuel until the gas station is out of fuel.
Only the tiniest inverter generators can’t put out enough power. Maybe I’m underestimating how much power the gas pumps use.
It wouldn’t even cost that much. Even 120 volt 20 amp receptacles would be better than nothing, that would let you regain about 30-40 miles of range in 10 hours of charging. Just a hand dug trench filled with conduit, an extra breaker in your main electrical panel, a lockable receptacle. I assume your condo has a parking spot right in front, such that an extension cord makes it just fine, you just can’t use that permanently because people would trip over it and the lawnkeeper would probably run over it.