Green car fans are enthusiastic about the Volvo JNI echoes in 2009 will be released a plug in diesel hybrid. This is the consideration that the Volvo V70 Plug-in Hybrid safe, stylist and highly efficient functional. Driving electric power of 30 miles instead of diesel engines. Media reports this will happen in the year 2012.
Volvo CEO Stephen Odell said in a press conference that a significant leap beyond the initial plans with plans to offer regular hybrids to market in 2012. To achieve this goal, he was very excited. Do you not know that Volvo came recently when the plug-in Read the rest of this entry »
It’s commonly reported that lithium ion batteries will usher in a new era of electric cars and plug-in hybrids. Not exactly, says John German, the engineer who literally wrote the book about hybrid cars for the Society of Automotive Engineers.
After 11 years at Honda, German now serves as a senior fellow for the International Council for Clean Transportation. In an interview with HybridCars.com, German said the next wave of lithium ion batteries will not significantly reduce the cost of electric cars, but they could make conventional hybrids ubiquitous.
In German’s view, the chief benefit of new lithium ion batteries is their greatly enhanced power capabilities—the rate at which energy can go in and out of the battery. “But they don’t store any more energy than the current lithium ion batteries do,” said German, “What we are looking at is a battery which is perfect for conventional hybrids.”
HybridCars.com: Why will the new breed of lithium ion batteries be a bigger benefit to conventional hybrids rather than plug-in hybrids and electric cars?
German: The next generation of lithium ion batteries will reduce the cost of the battery pack for conventional hybrids, but they’re not going to reduce the cost of the battery pack for plug-in hybrids and electric vehicles. In effect, these batteries will increase the cost differential between conventional hybrids and plug-in hybrids. That’s going to make it harder for plug-in hybrids to compete with conventional hybrids.
Walk me through the energy and power requirements for the two different categories of vehicles.
For plug-in hybrids and electric vehicles, it’s all about the range. You need a certain amount of energy to drive a certain distance [before needing to recharge]. That’s independent of the battery chemistry. If the new lithium ion chemistry doesn’t store any more energy than your old lithium ion chemistry, then you need just as much battery to drive that distance.
And with conventional hybrids, you don’t need nearly as much energy.
The battery packs in all existing hybrids, up until the new BMW ActiveHybrid 7 are oversized. The reason they’re oversized is that with nickel metal hydride [the technology used in today’s hybrids], you’re limited in how fast you can take energy in and out of a battery without causing significant deterioration. So these batteries are not sized for the energy [storage] requirements. They are sized for the power requirements, so they can deliver enough power without significant deterioration. As a consequence, they hold a lot more energy than they really need to.
With the new high-power lithium ion batteries, they can cut them down to their actual energy requirements and still get all the power they need.
So, with the new lithium ion batteries, the difference in cost between conventional hybrids and gas-powered vehicles could come in line?
In another 10 to 15 years, we should be at the point where the mainstream customer, the average customer, will accept the cost of a hybrid system.
Meaning, maybe a couple of hundred dollars more than a conventional car?
Well, $1,000 to $1,500 more. There’s enough benefit for mainstream customers to accept it.
How rapid will the transition from nickel metal hydride to lithium ion batteries be for conventional hybrids?
It’s a function of sales volume. The current generation of lithium ion batteries is not any cheaper than nickel metal hydride. And they’re not proven. With a lot of the lithium ion chemistries, just sitting and doing nothing in hot weather will degrade the battery pack. The batteries will not last as long in Phoenix as Minneapolis. There’s risk with durability and reliability.
In lower volume applications, new hybrids just coming out, carmakers know they’re not going to be able to capture larger market share right away. So they’re going to be lithium ion batteries starting tomorrow [See Mercedes S400 Hybrid and BMW ActiveHybrid 7]. You don’t have a large volume, so your risk is minimized and you’ve gained experience. It’s going to be cheaper in the long run, and you want to gain experience. So, you’ll see very few new hybrids using nickel metal hydride.
The problem is with high volume existing hybrids. When you’re selling hundreds of thousands of Priuses globally every year, if you encounter something wrong with the lithium ion battery pack, your exposure is enormous. The high volume hybrid applications are going to go to lithium ion last. But even the high volume ones will get there by 2015 or so.
What’s your feeling about the cost per kilowatt-hour of lithium ion batteries? What are they now and where do they need to be?
I thought they were $1,000 per kilowatt-hour, but I’m hearing that it may be more like $700. It’s hard to determine the long-term price potential. They shouldn’t have much trouble getting down to about $320 per kilowatt-hour. It’s going to take a while, but with higher volumes and better production methods, $320 is achievable in the 2018 to 2020 time frame.
The real question is how low can you drive it. I’ve seen some people suggest that the lowest could be $250 to maybe $175.
At $250, doesn’t mean that plug-in cars become affordable?
No. At $250 per kilowatt-hour, the pay back is roughly similar to the hybrid vehicles of about five years ago. So there’s your market, about 3 percent.
If lithium ion batteries bring the plug-in market to 2 or 3 percent, where will conventional hybrids go?
I’ll stick my neck out and say that by sometime around 2025 or 2030, conventional hybrids will be over 70 percent of the market.
And a fairly steady ramp up from now until then?
Yes. It will be a curve. Something like a doubling of hybrid sales every three to five years. There’s no doubt in my mind that by 2030 that hybrids will be in more than half the vehicles sold in the US. I would be astounded if they weren’t. By 2020, I would say we’d be somewhere in the 10 – 15 percent range.
And President Obama’s goal for 1 million plug-in hybrids by 2015?
From its inception, the Chevy Volt was designed to travel 40 miles without using a drop of gasoline. General Motors drew the line in the sand, citing studies that show the majority of US drivers, on average, travel less than 40 miles per day. In a refrain repeated over and over again by GM executives, and bandied about in advertising, the company has held firm to its promise of 40 miles of electric driving before the small onboard engine would be called into service.
However, one year prior to its release, journalists are discovering that the Chevy Volt will fall short of the 40 miles of all-electric range under a number of conditions.
Edmunds’ John O’Dell yesterday took a brief test drive of the Chevy Volt, and grilled Chevy Volt Chief Engineer Andrew Farah. O’Dell discovered that the 2011 will indeed deliver 40 miles of battery-only range on the EPA city cycle, a driving circuit with an average speed of just under 20 mph. But the Chevy Volt’s battery range will be diminished under these conditions:
Aggressive acceleration
Sustain high-speed driving
Exceptionally hot or cold ambient temperatures
Driving in hilly or mountainous terrain
O’Dell writes, “If you pull out of the driveway with a full charge, hop on an uncrowded freeway and motor away at 65 miles an hour, you won’t get 40 miles on battery power alone.”
Does It Matter?
From the beginning, the 40-mile number seemed arbitrary. After all, how many Volt owners are going to complain if the engine comes on after 38 miles or 35 miles? The Chevy Volt is expected to be the only mainstream relatively affordableplug-in hybrid on the market—it goes on sale in late 2010—with anywhere near 40 miles of all-electric range for quite some time.
But if Chevy Hybrid Cars does fall short of 40 miles of electric range, and 35 or 30 miles proves to be enough for satisfied owners, it begs the question of how much all-electric range is needed after all. Earlier this year, researchers from Carnegie Melon University found that the extra cost and weight of batteries needed for 40 miles of all-electric range are cost-prohibitive. Researchers said, “Large-capacity plug-in hybrids sized for 40 or more miles of electric-only travel are not cost-effective in any scenario.”
This Chevy Hybrid Car is expected to cost about $40,000. Could GM reduce the cost of the Volt—and potentially sell more units maybe even at a profit—by downsizing the battery pack to allow for 30, 20, or even 10 miles of all-electric range? Does it strike a better balance between cost and EV-range to tap into gasoline when needed throughout the driving cycle—the “blended” approach expected from Ford and Toyota, as well as GM’s own future plug-in hybrid SUV? Or maybe those who must have a long all-electric range would be happy to pay $10,000 less and give up the ability to take their electric car on long-range trips? The Nissan Leaf is expected to sell in the low $30,000s and will never use a drop of gasoline, because it’s purely electric and doesn’t have a gas engine.
The new era of plug-in hybrids and electric cars will bring these questions and many more. Perhaps the biggest question—at least for GM one year before the release of the Chevy Volt—is whether or not it should continue to make the 40-mile claim when it might not be true for many of its owners.
Toyota Prius plug-in hybrid? Yes, the company is targeting release Toyota Prius plug-in versions in 2012.
Currently Toyota is starting to promote the company’s future eco friendly technologies. With a concept to paving the way for the next generation of eco friendly vehicles, Toyota Prius plug-in cars will ‘like cars charged at home’.
Those five words ‘like cars charged at home’ is a big signal that Toyota ASAP will moves forward with plans for Toyota Prius plug-in hybrid. This plan has a great response from Toyota’s hybrid followers. They are cheering the company’s intention to plug-in hybrid. Toyota Prius plug-in will boost mileage on a Prius to the equivalent of 75 mpg or so – normally Prius’s mileage of 50 mpg.
Starting in January, the consumers from European, American, and Japanese will ‘test drive’ this plug-in hybrid cars. The company has put 150 of the test vehicles in the United State and placing 500 official plug-in priuses in Japanese, American, and European road. Toyota Prius plug-in will use lithium ion batteries in this plug-in hybrid.
The company need about three year (from 2009 to 2012) to get data on how Toyota Prius plug-in cars fare in the real word – how these cars charged, what sort of mileage they get, and how their batteries perform. After that the company will release this plug-in hybrid in 2012. Irv Miller, the vice president for Toyota Prius United State Sales, at a LA conference said that they are going to study the challenges of consumer demand.
Here some basic stats from the Prius Plug-in at the 2009 Frankfurt Auto Show:
The battery need about an hour and a half to full recharging from a 230-volt supply
Extended EV (electric) driving mode of up to 12.5 miles at speeds up to 62 mph
This plug-in hybrid will cut less than 60g/km CO2 emissions.
