Solar Powered Charging Station in Portland

EV Charging Station at Farrell & Associates is Live!

Oregon is a eco-friendly state. With electric vehicles (EVs) like the Nissan LEAF arriving this year, it will be getting even greener. One business is getting ready for customers with EVs and plug-in hybrids like the Chevy Volt and Plug-in Prius that are expected in 2012.

The company is Farrell & Associates Inc. They are a real estate and property management company. They hope to attract eco-friendly customers with their new solar array and plug-in car charging station.

Mark Farrell, Principal Broker and Owner of Farrell & Assoc., said that they are doing this to be good neighbors and because it matters to customers in this region. Their business area has several recent green renovations and they are looking to stand out. Solar panels and an EV charging station help them do just that.

The solar photovoltaic (PV) system is made up of 40 solar panels and is 9.8 kilowatts in total. The PV array will generate enough energy to power an EV such as the LEAF nearly 40,000 miles per year. These solar panels are more than enough to charge any cars that plug in here while still greatly reducing the electricity bill of the business.

Solterra Systems installed the solar panels and partnered with Charge Northwest for the plug-in vehicle charging station.

Farrell said that they would not have been able to take these steps without the state and federal incentives.

The charging station has both level 1 and Level 2 charging and is open to the public free of charge!

Name: FARRELL & ASSOC / STATION #1
Address: 4772 N Lombard St, Portland, OR 97203, USA

Photos courtesy of Solterra Systems and Farrell & Associates

Turning Over A New Leaf in 2011: Nissan LEAF Innovations

With dozens of patents to my name, I consider myself an innovative person. I enjoy looking to the future and wondering how it will be different. So while watching the Lance Armstrong commercial for the 2011 Nissan LEAF, when I heard the tagline "Innovation for the Planet. Innovation for all." it commanded my attention. Searching for LEAF innovations I found a quote from Jon Brancheau, Nissan N. America Marketing VP. He said the LEAF is the "poster child of innovation". Beyond a slogan and marketing guy's word, what innovations does the LEAF really have?

The obvious first thing that someone might call innovative about the LEAF is that it is all-electric. However, I would argue that point. My simplistic definition of innovation is the "introduction of something new". All-electric cars are not new. Production EVs were on the road in the early 1900s, in the 1990s, and there are EV conversions, forklifts, golf carts, the Tesla Roadster... The new thing about the LEAF is not the electric motor.

Innovation: Little Things
There are many small LEAF innovations such as noise reduced wiper blades and wiper motors, the shape of the headlights to move air around the mirrors to further reduce wind noise and the navigation system that shows the vehicle's driving range based on the current battery charge. These are things that make the vehicle more usable. They are not enough in themselves to label the vehicle as a poster child for innovation, but they are nice icing on the cake.

Innovation: Price and Availability
Nissan claims the LEAF will be the first freeway-speed electric car with 10,000 vehicles on the road. Worldwide Nissan is building five factories for the LEAF and its batteries. They're investing around $6 billion into this vehicle's production.

In Oregon, the after-incentive price is $23,780. In Cali, the after-incentive price is $20,280. That is a price that new car buyers can afford.

Before the LEAF, the options for freeway-speed EVs with more than 70 miles of range were limited to the few RAV4 EVs, expensive DIY or professional conversions, or an expensive sports car. The big innovation in the LEAF is the affordability and availability of an all-electric but otherwise very "normal" car. The LEAF is the first affordable, mass produced, EV with the size, speed, and range performance to meet a large percentage of people's driving needs.

The price of the LEAF is a game changer for the would-be EV industry. It will force the makers of vehicles like the Mitsubishi iMiEV, Wheego Whip, Smart ED, and others to reconsider their pricing. There is no significant market for a 100% electric vehicle that performs worse than the LEAF without that vehicle being priced notably cheaper. A smaller EV with less range cannot have a price tag equal or higher than the LEAF and expect to sell many vehicles. Even the Chevy Volt team needs to consider the LEAF when they price the 2012 model year Volt. How much of a price premium is an on-board generator worth? Far less than $9,000, IMHO.

Innovation: Batteries⁽¹⁾
For innovations, the batteries of the LEAF are a must mention. One of Nissan's advantages is that they make their own batteries. Nearly every other auto manufacturer that is coming out with a PEV in 2011 or 2012 is getting their batteries from someone else. This means that those manufacturers have to share their profits and/or charge a higher price for their vehicles. Nissan has been developing Lithium batteries since 1992 and they are the only company that used Lithium batteries in their 1990's EV (the Hypermini). Just as the biggest LEAF innovation was the business model for affordability and availability, again, in the batteries I assert that there is innovation in the business model. Nearly two decades of lithium powered vehicle experience and their own lithium battery production is unique in the industry.

Let's look at the battery tech itself. Nissan is not babying their lithium manganate packs in the LEAF. Whereas other EVs give the batteries better environmental conditioning than the passengers, Nissan says their batteries can take whatever Mother Nature dishes out anywhere but the worst corners of the globe. The batteries are not liquid cooled or heat pump conditioned. Others in the EV industry have said the lack of an active thermal management system makes it "under engineered" and that relying on a simple passive cooling system is "primitive". It may be but this passive system further reduces the vehicle's price. Will the gamble pay off? The batteries are covered by an eight-year/100,000-mile warranty, so we'll find out. And if this turns out to be "under engineered", Nissan will pick up the tab, not the customer.

Innovation: Connected Car
Next on the innovation list is the "connected car" or CARWINGS features of the LEAF. With this, your car becomes a smart phone accessory. The LEAF's smart phone app connects you to your car so you can check the charge, or turn on the heater or air conditioning. When the car is plugged-in, this feature allows you to use grid power to precondition the cabin. This way you can jump into a nice temp car, ready to drive and while you are driving, little or no energy is taken from your range to condition the cab.

Another connected car feature allows you to set the time that the car starts to charge at night. This allows you to plug it in as soon as you get home, while still paying off-peak rates (if you are on a tiered rate).

This communication path can go both ways. You can have the LEAF email or text you if it is not plugged in by a certain time such as 10PM. This is a little reassurance that you won't walk out to the garage in the morning to find an uncharged car.

And if you want to compare your driving efficiency with other LEAF owners, you can upload your data and see if you rank in the platinum, gold, silver, or bronze category. A little hypermiling social competition can help encourage efficient driving.

Innovation: LED Lighting

Nissan LEAF LED Headlight Assembly

In a traditional gasoline vehicle, the alternator is a small drag on horsepower that is always there. In return it provides power to recharge the starter battery and to run the accessories. In an all-electric vehicle the accessories such as the headlights are powered by the same batteries that are used to propel the car. So it is important that the accessories be efficient.

The LEAF's headlights use two LEDs per headlamp in normal (low beam) operation. This uses only 50 watts of power. This is significantly better than Halogen bulbs that use about 130W. And still better than the 90W LED bulbs that are used in other new vehicles today.

Do these low power lights mean that you won't be able to see the road? At 500 lumens and 5500K color, these wide beam lights ranks very similar to other production HID lamps.

Innovation: Recycled Materials
Last on my innovation list is the extent to which the car is both designed for recycling and made with recycled parts. The seat fabric is made from recycled water bottles and other interior plastics come from recycled material too. The majority of early LEAF adopters will be eco-minded, so this is good marketing, but it is more than just that. It is a smart way to get material for more cars.

Nissan claims that when a LEAF has reached the end of its life, it has a recoverability rate of 99%⁽²⁾. That is that to say that only 1% of the car will go to a landfill. The other 99% will be reused or recycled. Sure the metals and plastics can be recycled but what about the batteries? There are 600 pounds of them. What happens to them?

To address the batteries, Nissan has formed a new company called 4R Energy Corp. 4R will accept defective and worn-down batteries. Batteries that are no longer sufficient to power a car can still have a long "stationary" life such as storing renewable energy for the grid. 4R will examine each battery that arrives and, depending on its condition, it will be resold, repaired, or recycled. (That is 3 Rs, what is the 4th R?) The LEAF batteries are a combination of lithium, manganese and graphite, which means there are no toxic materials in the batteries making them easier to recycle than some other battery chemistries.

To anyone that is concerned that EVs trade foreign oil dependency for a lithium dependency, I must point out one significant difference. The lithium in a battery is not consumed. When the battery is no longer useful, the lithium can be made into new batteries. This means that not only will the next generation of lithium batteries be lighter and hold more energy, but they will also be cheaper because there will be a steady supply of 'used' lithium. Let's compare this to something a little more familiar. When was the last time that you had a can of soda? If it was recently, than that aluminum can likely included metal that had been an aluminum can hundreds of times before, and possibly some aluminum that was last year's iPod case and yet more that was an old airplane structure. My point is that metals like aluminum (and lithium) can be reused indefinitely.

Again Nissan's innovation is not the technology (they didn't invent recycling), but it is the business model that takes advantage of it in a way that allows them to deliver an affordable product profitably. In 4R, they have established a source for recycled lithium to be used to manufacture their next generation battery packs. This will help them maintain a profit and price advantage compared to other EV manufactures that are buying batteries from 3rd parties or mining for virgin material. 

Conclusion
Nissan is uniquely positioned to be able to deliver an all-electric car in volume, at an affordable price, while still making money on the transaction.This is primarily due to planning they have been working on for decades. They knew the time for EVs was coming and they were not going to miss the critical technology inflection point where market leaders and laggards are determine.

As an engineer, I assume everyone from marketing is a Dilbert caricature and I hate to agree with them. However, this time I will say that I do agree with Nissan's Jon Brancheau that the LEAF is a "poster child of innovation". Nissan has ambitious production goals, new ways to get materials, make cars, and price EVs and the LEAF has many new features that make it easier to use than previous generations of EVs. Nissan is "all in" with their bet on EVs. They have the technology and the innovative business plan, to make that a winning bet.

References:
1) Nissan Batteries
2) LEAF Recoverability Rate

Nissan LEAF Was My Idea

Have you ever seen the commercials for Windows 7 where a user has an idea for an OS feature? In the ad, Windows 7 came out and it included that feature. The user then proclaims "Windows 7 was my idea." That is how I feel about the Nissan LEAF.

The first Nissan LEAF cars are being delivered to customers this week. This is a historic time for EVs. In October of 2008, I was selected to take part in a small focus group of EV-drivers with Nissan. We met with several people from Nissan including Mark Perry, director of product planning and strategy for electric vehicles. This was the first time that I had ever met anyone from Nissan. I had no idea if Nissan was serious about EVs, or if they would really listen to what I had to say. I had been reading a lot of press about EVs at that time and I had not seen a product that focused on what I thought were the right things. A chance to talk to a car company, any car company, was an opportunity to share my thoughts.

During the session, I was one of the last participants to address the Nissan team. Most of the other members talked to them about how great 100 miles would be and about deploying charging infrastructure. As I have discussed recently, I don't think charging infrastructure is the priority. Rather, I focused on what I thought the *car* should be. Obviously I am biased, but it seemed to me that the Nissan team was far more engaged when talking with me than with the other participants. They had several direct questions as well as open ended discussion areas. Here are some of the many things we talked about.

Set Realistic Expectations
Their opening statement was "We will be selling an affordable, mass market, 100-mile range, fully electric, freeway capable car. It comes to market in late 2010. What do you think the car needs in order to be successful and what do we as a company need to do to make it work in your region?"  I was skeptical. Remember this was 2008. It is easy to make big claims like this and no one had ever delivered on them. Every EV that had been brought to market up till that point had been a niche vehicle. Even the highly priced Tesla Roadster had slipped its delivery date multiple times in 2007 and in 2008 only a handful of Roadsters had been delivered. It was the only freeway capable EV being sold at that time, and with the $100k price tag it was a niche vehicle. With Tesla having CEO troubles, it was not clear if the little up-start would survive and ever make it to their "Blue Star" project. In 2008, wildly hyped vaporware was the norm in the EV world. I suggested that they take the opposite approach and "under commit and over deliver" rather than fall into the hype-cycle syndrome. If the vehicle was really only going to get 70 miles of range in real-world driving, start saying so now.

The rule of thumb is that an EV must exceed the 70/70 point to have any hope of broad appeal. That is minimum of 70 miles range in real world conditions and minimum of 70 MPH top speed. If the goal truly is a mass market vehicle, they must surpass these minimums, or go back to the drawing board.

Range Anxiety
Our next topic was range: One hundred miles of range was the stated goal. Many of the participants in the room talked about how great that was and how it is more than enough for most people, even if they don't know it. And while I agree with that, the important thing is to make sure the vehicle alleviates range concerns whenever possible. Make the vehicle to sell to the customers as they are; not how you want them to be. People currently are concerned with range. When I am showing my EV, the most common question is how "far will it go?". Right or wrong, some people will be concerned about range until EVs can drive the 300+ miles per charge, comparable to a typical full tank of gasoline.

To address range concerns, Nissan must give drivers the range data in a clear picture. My recommendations were:

1. Show how far the current charge level will take the vehicle. Not with just a number, but I wanted to see on the map if the place I want to go is within my currently available range. I wanted to be able to check this even if I had not entered my destination, because most of the time I know where I am going and do not need to enter an address.
2. Include charging station locations in the navigation system maps. This seems obvious now, you can find Google mash-up maps of just about anything, but back then (over 2 years ago) it seemed like a great idea.
3. If I enter a destination beyond the range, suggest charging points along the way.
4. Have a "Find Nearest Charging Station" button that is prominent. The button should be on the steering-wheel or a fixed button near the navigation system. I don't want to have to go through levels of menus to get to this. This is the "Oh no, low battery!" button.

Charging station locations will be added frequently over the first few years that the cars will be on the road. It is a pain to keep car navigation system maps up to date. You have to download files, burn a disc or use a thumb drive, take it to the car... Forget all that, it is a hassle and I would not want to do it on a frequent basis. Rather, I said they should include a telematics system that automatically updates the maps in near real-time.

Size
When they asked what size I thought the vehicle needed to be, I told them the story of buying our first hybrid. Early in 2000 our Subaru Outback had been totaled. We wanted a fuel efficient car to replace it. After some research we had found that Honda and Toyota were coming out with hybrids within the next year. These were the top two candidates. A few months later, a nearby Honda dealership had an Insight that we could test drive. It was not a good fit for us. The 2-door felt crowded and impractical. Based on that test drive, we went to Toyota and put down a deposit on the 4-door Prius, sight unseen, no test drive (there were no cars in our area to drive yet).

We were on a waiting list to get one of the first Prius sold in the US. It was 9 months before the car arrived. During which time my wife took the bus to and from work. She was determined to get a car that used less fuel and was already loyal to a car that she had never driven.

What does this anecdotal story mean to Nissan for their (then yet-to-be-named) electric vehicle? If they truly want it to be mass market, make it a 4-door. I also mentioned that the car should be sized for Americans; we are big people and generally need a little more room than people from other parts of the world.

Naming
Multiple participants asked in various ways what they were going to call the vehicle. They did not give us any hints. When the name topic came to me, my only suggestion was that they have a dedicated EV name. E.g., they should not launch with an "Electric Altima" or an "Electric Cube". My example was again the Prius. Prius sales were far better than Hybrid Camry or Hybrid Civic. If they wanted electric versions of their existing line, they could do this later. They must have an EV flagship product first.

For early adopters especially, part of the experience of buying a new breed of cars is being part of something special. This does not mean the vehicle has to stand out as weird, but it does have to be recognizably badged as an EV. It has to be its own brand and not "just a sub-brand". Owners will want a name they can rally around, with their own fan sites and discussion groups. They don't want to be some sub-group on a gasoline car forum. 

Ford's hybrid badge uses a leaf

Later after the name LEAF was announced I found out why they did not give us any hint at what the name might be. They wanted a single worldwide name for the vehicle and Nissan's various countries could not agree, primarily Japan and the USA offices could not agree. Japan would suggest something like "the Nissan Plug" and the USA office would point out how that name has no excitement and would be subject to ridicule. Other names ran into copyright issues in one or more countries.

Toyota's Prius marketing used a leaf

The name LEAF even had some trouble. First Nissan could not get the rights to use a leaf symbol. Check out their early marketing. They use a blue tree. Whereas both Ford and Toyota use a leaf symbol (see pictures to the right). The name LEAF is an acronym (or more likely a bacronym) of Leading, Environmentally-friendly, Affordable, Family car. The use of the name as an acronym likely cleared some final region's legal hurdle.

Gas Car Rental Partnership 
About one week before this meeting with Nissan, I was talking to another member of the Oregon EV Association about what he drives and I was surprised to hear that his only car was an EV, whereas in my household the EV was just one of three vehicles. When I asked what he does when he needed to drive farther than his EV would take him, he said he was a member of Zip Car and that there was a car that parked in a dedicated spot at his work and several cars were within EV range of his house. He could take the Zip car whenever he needed it. I found this model of EV ownership and ride sharing interesting.

I suggested that Nissan should consider a partnership with ride-share companies and car rental companies to give Nissan EV owners discounts on occasional gas car use. 

Roadside Assistance
Soon before attending this meeting with Nissan, I received an email from AAA of Oregon stating that they were adding roadside assistance for bicyclists. If you get a flat or bend a fork, you could call AAA and get repair help or a ride back home for you and your bike.

If AAA were willing to add bike assistance, what could they do for EVs? If you were to run out of battery power, could they bring a 240V generator to you and give you enough of a charge to get home or to the nearest charging station? It is unlikely that this service would be needed often, but the point of a roadside assistance program is peace of mind. Also, if this further alleviates range anxiety, it would be a good idea to work with road side assistance companies to support EV drivers.  

Under The Hood
As I have mentioned before, I show my EV a few times each year at various events. People often want to see under the hood. In a conversion EV there are usually interesting things to see, like where parts were mounted and how various wires were run. My EV, however, was factory build as electric by GM. It has a large heat-sink that covers most of the visible area under the hood. Frankly, it is boring. Yet, people are curious and so the hood is up and it leaves them underwhelmed.

I told them that early Nissan EV owners are going to be advocates for these cars. People will approach them and ask questions, and based on my experience they will want to see under the hood. So Nissan should consider adding a little more visual appeal here than they normally would.

LEDs
I have written in this blog several times about LEDs. A couple months before this meeting, I changed the tail lights in my EV to LEDs because they illuminate faster and they are brighter. If a vehicle were designed for LEDs, they could also use less power. I suggested that the Nissan EV use LEDs wherever they could.

Regen Breaking Level
Many people that are into electric cars love regenerative braking, so much so that they want to feel it kicking in as soon as they lift their foot off of the accelerator. I prefer to coast when I can. Coasting maintains momentum and if the obstruction ahead clears or the light turns green, you can keep on going rather than stopping and starting. Even if you have great regenerative breaking, coasting is better than regening and then accelerating again.

My recommendation to Nissan was that this a "religious war" that they don't want to get in to. On one hand they might want the car to feel like most cars on the road today (light regen). On the other hand, they will want to have a heavy regen option to appease the many EV enthusiasts that think that there is no such thing as too much regen.

The best option is to have this be user settable. This would allow people to set the regen to the level that they like.

Solar Panel
My final item to them was to mention that they should consider adding a solar panel, but perhaps not for the reason that you think. Yes, I am a solar advocate, but I am an engineer first. If you want a solar powered EV, currently the best way to do that is with solar panels on your house, not on a car. There simply is not enough roof space on a car to make it practical today.

So if I know the math does not support it, why did I suggest that they have an option for a solar panel? Nearly every time that I am displaying my EV at an eco-event, someone will suggest that it would be great if I could add solar panels. I used to explain the available surface area and angle and efficiency details, often during this explanation their eyes would glaze over. Now I just say "Well, I have solar on my house. It works better there since I never park my house in the shade."

Nissan could avoid a deluge of email in their inbox from well intentioned, uninformed people by adding a solar panel; even if it is just a single small panel that is only offered as an over-priced accessory. It does not need to add any range it just needs a token function such as running a cooling fan. This gesture would make them happy.

Again, this is about selling to the customer that is there, not some ideal person. And explaining to someone that they have a bad idea is generally not the best way to start a customer relationship.

Conclusions
After the meeting, as we are leaving and shaking hands with the Nissan team, saying thanks and goodbye, Mark Perry from Nissan takes me aside. He said something like, "I really liked what you had to say today and I have made some notes to take back to the engineering teams". I am sure that many of the things that define the LEAF today would be exactly the same as they are even if I had not attended this meeting. And I am sure they don't make any decisions based on input from one guy in a customer roundtable session. But once the LEAF did come out, and I saw that it had many of the things that I had suggested, it felt good. It felt like they really listened and that I helped make this generation of EVs a little better.

To this day when I see a review of the LEAF and someone says "I really like this nav system. It shows me exactly how far I can go with this circle and it shows me all the charging stations around here," I think "That was my idea. I'm glad you like it."

Comparing the LEAF to my suggestions
So how did Nissan do with the LEAF compared to what I thought an EV should be? Some of that is covered already, but I'll do a point by point breakdown in another blog post soon.
 

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C-Net Review of the LEAF

EV Infrastructure: What Kind and How Much

In the recent Chicken-and-Egg posting about EV charging infrastructure, I claimed that a vast charging infrastructure is not required for EVs to be highly useful for a large number of people. If you have a dedicated outlet where the car is parked overnight, you don't need a charging station at the bank, movie theater, or coffee shop. Having them is nice, but not a requirement.

“	Public charging stations should be used as a convenience, not as a requirement.

While I assert that they are not 'required', that does not mean that they aren't nice to have. A PEV driver is far more likely to stop at a place that allows them to plug in than at a neighboring competitor that does not have a plug. And once stopped, that driver may stay longer knowing that their batteries are getting juiced up. That could mean buying another coffee, soda, or whatever wares that the shop sells. Businesses that want to court plug-in vehicle drivers will install charging equipment.

Level 2 Public Charging Station in Portland

In addition to these businesses, some local governments will be installing charging stations too. What criteria will be used to determine where these charging stations will be installed and what type will they be? In many cases, that will be up to local policy-makers. Do they have the right information to make these decisions? 

Just as journalists have incorrectly claimed there was a chicken-and-egg problem, some policy-makers are setting out to solve this problem with millions of dollars being spent on public charging infrastructure. My last posting accused journalists of having little more than a few test drives as the sum total of their EV driving experience. For these policy-makers, their EV experience is likely less. In fact, it may consist only of reading articles by these under-informed journalists. Pike Research reported that more than 5 million charge points (nearly $6.5 billion in revenue) will be installed worldwide by 2015. ECOtality said it would install more than 1,100 Blink charging stations in the Portland, Salem, Eugene, and Corvallis areas, making Oregon a major hub in the company's $230 million plan. The US Federal government plans to install more than 15,000 charging stations across six states over the next three years. I hope this money is spent in the right way.


Consider this: A policy-maker with no EV experience receives some of the above grant money and wants EVs to succeed in his/her region. They are tasked with making an "EV success plan". They don't know where to start or what the challenges will be, so they begin to research and read press articles. The vast majority of articles state that EVs cannot be successful without a charging infrastructure. A-ha! Now they have a problem they can solve. They read on and are told that level 1 charging is too slow. After some research they determine that DC fast chargers are too expensive to be densely deployed. So they make a plan to blanket the region with level 2 charging stations and EVs will take over.

Now the plan framework is complete, it still needs details. Unfortunately, this is the wrong plan. A plan that consists only of blanketing a region with public charging stations, misses many important issues. EVs have had a couple false starts already (1910s, 1990s). Poor planning and bad policies could kill them a 3rd time. It is important that local governments are focused on the right things.

What are the right policies? Cars spend most of their time parked at home. This is where they are most likely to be recharged. So this is where the emphasis should be for charging infrastructure deployment. During this period of infrastructure growth, for every EV that is sold in a region, there should be about 1.2 charging stations installed. That would be one charging station installed where the car will be parked overnight and the other fraction to support a shared public charging station. For example, if 500 PEVs are sold in a region, then there would be 500 home charging stations and 100 public charging stations installed in that area.

“	A regional EV success plan is more than blanketing a region with charging stations.

Charging stations are just part of the picture. Here are the things that I think policy-makers should be considering.

1. New home codes to support EVs: 



SAE J1772 Connector - Supports Level 1 and Level 2

• Require pre-wiring for charging stations. A two car garage should be wired to support two charging stations. Home electrical service panel, a.k.a. circuit breaker boxes, should have pre-dedicated circuits for charging stations.
• Sufficient Home Amperage. That same two car garage should be able to support the load of two EVs charging (while the AC, dryer, and water heater are running, while the plasma screen TV, game consoles and computers are on and a hair dryer is running). Modern homes demand a lot from our energy grid.  
2. Apartments and Condos: 
• Accommodations for high-density living areas must be made too. Require charging facilities in all new apartment building and condo complex parking areas. Charging facilities where cars are parked overnight is what is important. EVs cannot only be for people that own homes.
• Create incentives for retrofitting existing apartments. These should be done in such a way that encourages pay-as-you go business models for charging. An apartment dweller is not going to pay $500 or more to have a charging station installed. They may, however, pay $40 extra per month for a dedicated parking spot that has a charging station. 
3. Hotels/Inns
• Add charging stations where guests' rental cars are parked. This would allow EVs to be rented for local driving during vacations and business travel. Again this could be a premium upgrade parking space, or part of a partnership with the car rental company.
4. Usage Incentives 
• Put policies in place to make your region EV friendly, such as:
• HOV access
• Dedicated parking city spots
• Don't add "EV taxes": Some politicians are concerned that EVs don't buy gasoline; therefore owners do not pay fuel taxes which are used for road maintenance or upgrades. This concern is overblown. Any alternative road tax can be delayed until EVs are a meaningful number (say 5%) of vehicles on the road. Until then they can be taxed at the same rate as bicyclists and pedestrians that use the road, zero %.  
5. Broader Network of Cheaper Plugs
   

   “	Level 1 charging is the best solution for many cases.

   When considering public charging locations, it would generally be more effective to have a lot of level 1 (standard outlets), than to have a few level 2 stations, or a single DC fast charge station. I think level 1 charging is being dismissed, when it could be the best solution that we have. If you are installing a charging station in a long term parking area for example, that car is likely to be there for several days. It will be full when it is picked up, regardless of the charging level. This is one clear example, but there are several other use cases where level 1 would be preferred.  There are several advantages to having standard (level 1) outlets: 
1. For the cost of a level 2 charging station, you can have far more level 1 outlets. If a location has only a few stations, then it is more likely that they would be occupied. Rather, if you have a parking lot that has 8 outlets on every lamp post, PEV drivers will easily be able to find a spot to plug in. 
2. No monitoring needed. If there are only a few level 2 stations, then a potential user might want to be able to check the status of the stations online to see if they are operational and available. This means that the stations have to be managed. This further adds to the cost discrepancy between level 1 and level 2. Rather if there are as many outlets as there are parking spaces, availability is not a concern.  
3. Lower energy cost. Level 1 plugs dispense energy at about one quarter of the rate of a level 2 station. If a business is installing a station only as a customer convenience, then there is no need to attempt to fill the vehicle up all the way during a short stop.
4. Lower grid load. Since public charging stations are more likely to be used during the day than home (over night) charging stations, making them level 1 reduces peak-time grid load.
5. Any electrician can install or repair them. Level 1 parts are simply the outdoor plugs that homes already have, they are cheap and available at your local home store if repair or replacements are needed. 
6. They can be used for purposes other than EVs. Since level 1 is a standard outlet, these plugs can be useful for other things such as engine block heaters, holiday lights, and dead starter battery charging. Near outdoor seating areas they could be used for customers' computers... 

Outdoor Level 1 Charging Outlets on Bike Lock Posts

For EV infrastructure the initial focus for charging stations should be to get them to locations where cars will be parked overnight. The stations that I have seen installed so far in my local region have been in curbside parking and daytime use lots. These are not locations where cars are left overnight. These are nice for public visibility and ribbon cutting ceremonies, but they are not the locations needed for most effective utilization.

Indoor Level 1 and NEMA 14-50 (level 2) Charging Station

Here is an idea for an EV charging station company: team up with apartment complexes and install Visa swipe pay-as-you go charging stations. If the charging station company pays for the station and the installation, the apartment complex can pay for the electricity. The charging station company gets the revenue until the charging station is paid for, then they enter into a revenue sharing agreement.


For full disclosure, I must mention that I was selected to receive a free level 2 charging station in my garage. This was from ECOtality and funded by a U.S. Department of Energy grant of $99.8 million. While I am making the case that level 1 is usually sufficient, I am not going to say 'no' to a free level 2 charging station. In return for the free station, data from my vehicle such as distances driven and charging habits will be collected for a national labs study. 

Level 3 DC Fast Charge Station

The U.S. Department of Transportation gave Oregon a $2 million TIGER II grant for Level 3 stations. The funds will provide up to two dozen DC fast charge stations in northwest Oregon. That is $83,000 per station. Two million dollars could install a lot of level 1 outlets rather than just 24 fast charging stations.

The obvious counter point here is that there are areas where fast charging can be very useful. A drive from Portland to Hood River is 70 miles. So a round trip is beyond the capability of a 100 mile range EV. However, if Hood River had a DC fast charge station installed, then you could drive there and back on a day trip to wind surf in one of the world's best places to catch the wind.

However, if you plan on driving an EV from Portland to Hood River, I would argue that you are attempting to force a square peg into a round hole. Trips like this are not what 100 mile range EVs are designed to do. Don't let that stop you though. If you are the adventurous type it might work out fine. However, be prepared to stay a few hours if the fast charge station is not available.

Level 3 DC Fast Charge Connector

I don't expect this one lone voice to be well heard against the mass of press. The message here is also not a simple one. If I had just said 'yes we need charging stations', I could find support. If I had said 'these are a waste of money', that message too could find a receptive (although different) audience. However, this message is neither of these extremes. Instead, it is about the efficient use of the planning resources and funds that we have available for infrastructure deployment.

Revenge of the Electric Car

I drive an EV today, in part because of the 2006 documentary, Who Killed the Electric Car? I saw the movie in late 2006 and then purchased my first EV in Feb 2007. Later that same year I put solar panels on my house to power that EV. That year changed the way I see the world. I have been an EV and solar advocate ever since. Now I have blogs, twitter feeds, and facebook pages dedicated to solar power and EVs.

So when Chris Paine, the director of Who Killed the Electric Car?, recently wrote a Huffington Post article asking the EV blogosphere to start spreading the word about his new movie, I jumped at the chance. The new movie is called Revenge of the Electric Car and it is scheduled for release in the Spring of 2011.

If you want to see a trailer for the movie, it is going to be premiered on the movie's facebook page when the page reaches 10,000 fans. As I write this, they currently have over 6000 fans. They have added over 1000 fans in the last week and they are growing fast.

The Story Behind "Who Killed The Electric Car?"

Jeff Thomas of EV Bones was interviewed by Radioactivity. Jeff discusses his contributions to putting electric vehicles on the road and how he helped the makers of the Who Killed the Electric Car? documentary.

You can hear the interview here. Jump to the 70 second mark to skip the wrap-up of the previous program.

Plug-in Hybrid Types Compared

One year from today, you should be able to walk on to the lot and buy a Chevy Volt or a Nissan Leaf or one of many other cars that have a plug. There is a lot of confusion about the new world of plug-in cars.

In this Green Car Reports article, the author attempts to clear things up by saying that the Chevy Volt is not a hybrid. He is wrong; it is a hybrid, just not the same type that have been in the market. In the comments, he is corrected and admits that he was trying to simplify things by avoiding "technically accurate esoteric" terms that "the general car-buying public" would not understand.

If you are reading this, I am going to assume you are smart and can handle technically accurate and esoteric.

First, there are a lot of different ways to propel a vehicle including flywheels, fuel cells, compressed air and many many more. This discussion will only focus on internal combustion and battery electric (and the combinations thereof) because these are the car types that are planned to be on the mass market in 2011.

When examining vehicles, we'll look at two things:

• The Fuel(s): the external energy inputs to the vehicle.
• The Drivetrain: the engine and/or motors that propel the vehicle.

Fuel(s)		Drivetrain(s)		Name or Example
	Gas		Gas	good ol' internal combustion (ICE)
	Gas	Electric	Gas	HEV - Toyota Prius	Hybrids
Electric	Gas	Electric	Gas	Plug-in Hybrid Electric Vehicle* (PHEV)
Electric	Gas	Electric		EREV - Chevy Volt
Electric		Electric		Battery Electric Vehicle - Nissan Leaf

Line 1 ICE - Gas fuel powers the drivetrain: this is simply the internal combustion vehicle that dominates our roadways today. No explanation needed.

Line 2 HEV - Fuel = Gas, Drivetrain = Both: This is the Hybrid Gas-Electric Vehicle. The "gas" portion of that description is usually just assumed, leaving it label HEV. These came to the US with the Honda Insight and the Toyota Prius in 2000. At the time this writing, HEVs are still less than 3% of new vehicle sales, but you surely have seen one by now. These vehicles are parallel-series hybrids meaning that the power from the gasoline engine can be directed to either drive the wheels or to run the generator to charge the batteries. Even though this vehicle has batteries, the initial source of all of the energy comes from the gasoline put in the tank. Electricity is generated from regenerative braking and running the engine as a generator.

The two above are mass produced cars that are on the road today. The rest of the list is rare and generally less understood.

Line 3 PHEV: this is the plug-in version of the HEV. To make a point the complete name would be plug-in parallel-series gas-electric hybrid vehicle (PPSGEHV). You are not likely to see that lengthy description used anywhere else, so just stick to PHEV. The simplest way to explain a PHEV is start with an HEV and add more battery capacity and a charger to charger them.

Line 4 EREV: is the Plug-in series hybrid. It is also where the Chevy Volt sits. GM has branded this category the Extended Range Electric vehicle (EREV) and their internal technology as "Voltec". Chrysler refers to this category as Range Extended Electric Vehicle (REEV). This category has only an electric drivetrain. All propulsion is provided by an electric motor. The batteries provide power for an initial range and then a gasoline (or diesel or ethanol) generator provides the electricity for operation. The generator runs at an optimal speed that is independent of the vehicle's demands. Any surplus energy that the generator creates is sent to the batteries.

Although the generator does provide energy to the batteries, it does not charge them up completely. Doing so would use gasoline and reduce the MPG of the vehicle. That defeats the purpose. So, if the batteries become replenished due to the generator and regenerative breaking to a threshold above "customer empty", then operation returns back to battery powered mode. The generator and fuel act as a safety net range extender, not as a complete battery charging system.

These transitions of the generator turning off and on will not be readily noticeable to drivers or passengers. If you have driven an HEV like the Toyota Prius, then you know the engine turns on and off often based on driving speed. The transitions of the EREV generator will be related to the battery charge level, rather than the vehicle speed.

Line 5 BEV: This last line is the battery electric vehicle (BEV). These vehicles are not a hybrid. They are fueled by electricity and propelled by an electric motor. This category includes Tesla's Roadster and Model S and the Nissan Leaf. The vehicles have a fixed range and must be plugged in when the batteries are depleted.

Categories

The vehicles can be categorized in many ways:

Internal Combustion: ICE

Hybrids: HEV, PHEV, & EREV

Plug-in: PHEV, EREV & BEV

Plug-in Vehicles: The last 3 rows include "electric" as a fuel type. Put simply, these are cars with plugs. This is a useful categorization for discussing the electrification of personal transportation. Depending on the design of the PHEV or EREV, they can use electricity for just the few miles, up to most of a days driving. And BEVs are completely propelled by electricity. What all the Plug-in vehicles have in common is that they use grid electricity to displace liquid fuels.

The Plug-in Vehicle category includes Plug-in hybrids such as the BYD F6DM and Hymotion modified Priuses. And it includes EREVs like the Chevy Volt and the (now cancelled) Chrysler ENVI line.

There you have it. If the vehicle uses more than one fuel type OR has more than one propulsion engine type, it is a hybrid. That is a simple definition; the complexity is in all the ways that these can be combined.

Berkeley on Electric Vehicles

The University of California Berkeley has released a study examining the electric vehicle market. It includes the economic and environmental benefits of mass-market adoption. The study shows rapid EV adoption will decrease America’s dependence on foreign oil, increase employment, and reduce transportation emissions.

The study also predicts:

• A net gain of up to 350,000 new jobs by 2030 related to EVs
• Reduced emissions by as much as 62% from 2005 levels
• Healthcare savings up to $205 billion from emissions reductions
• Reduced oil imports up to 3.7 million barrels per day (equivalent to Persian Gulf and Venezuela import rates)

Worldwide growth in energy demand could drive 2030 U.S. gasoline prices to $6 per gallon. Widespread EV adoption could be a significant factor to reduce demand and keep gasoline prices at a lower $4 per gallon.

The complete study is available here.

Electric Dreams

Abundant wind power, electric cars, and an eco-minded population.

PBS's NOW investigates how Denmark and Better Place are working together to put electric cars into the hands of as many Danes as possible.

Denmark could be a global inspiration to a new way to live this millennium.

PBS NOW Page

Dell's Solar Grove

Parking lots are vast, often hot and ugly. Envision Solar has a new vision for the parking lot and the latest one they have transformed is at Dell's headquarters in Round Rock, Texas. Dell has installed an Envision "Solar Grove". The Solar Grove provides shade for 56 parking spaces while providing renewable energy.

The installation will generate 130,000 kWh annually.

The project includes more than just solar technology though. It also includes electric vehicle charging stations from Coulomb Technologies. When plug-in cars like the Nissan Leaf or the Chevy Volt park here, they'll be drivin' on sunshine.

Via EcoGeek

Electric Vehicle, How Does It Work? Video

Electric Vehicles at Best Buy

The Aptera is featured in the video. Makes me wonder when Best Buy will be selling them.

Toyota iQ EV

Toyota debuted an electric iQ concept car at the North American International Auto Show in January. Concepts can be interesting technology, but unless the car is planned for production, it is not worth talking about outside of the auto-industry, IMHO.

The iQ electric has just made the transition from concept to planned production vehicle. Now we're talkin'.

There is little information released yet, but the production EV is expected to be launched in 2010 with styling unique from the gas version of the car that is currently in Japan and the UK.

The car is a 2-door, 3 seater was designed by Toyota in collaboration with Aston Martin. The electric version will be powered by lithium ion batteries made by Panasonic. It will be propelled by four in-wheel motors. This provides more room in the car than its small size would suggest.

The car is expected to travel up to 150km (93 miles) on a full charge. Toyota estimates that recharging should take about eight hours, but the exact time will depend on a number of variables.

Below is a quick video of the gas version of the car.

Ironically, only days after making this announcement Toyota executives dismissed the coming electric cars from Nissan and GM. Toyota's statement included the comments:

• The time is not here for electric cars
• Batteries aren't ready
• Electric cars are going to be expensive, with low margins
• Car company profits are down, now is not the best time to burn money on unproven technologies
• The mass market is not ready for an electric car
• Hydrogen! Toyota is developing a better alternative car technology

Those are interesting statements for a company that just announced an EV. Toyota has an enviable position in the hybrid market. One they have a vested interest in protecting. Talking down about upcoming technologies that could knock Toyota's Prius from its king of the green hill is just smart business.

However, the iQ EV is Toyota's hedge. It allows Toyota to develop expertise in EVs. If the market accepts EVs and Nissan Leaf, Mitsubishi iMEV and/or the Volt begin to encroach on Toyota's market, then they can quickly respond with the iQ and possibly a plug-in Prius.

Unless driven by the competition, Toyota seems happy to shift innovation into low gear, milk the HEV, and bash the innovations of other companies. I find this ironic since the shoe was on the other foot when Toyota brought the Prius to the US.

What is the Volt's MPG?

In August '09 GM launched the "230" marketing campaign. They claimed that the Chevy Volt will get 230 MPG. Soon after GM launched the campaign, the EPA said that it could not support these claims, and Nissan pointed out that using the same calculation scheme the all-electric LEAF would rate at 367 MPG.

Plug-in hybrid cars are scheduled to be on the market in 2011. They promise to have significantly better gas mileage than traditional hybrids. These will be partially 'fueled' from the electrical grid with the balance of propulsion coming from gasoline (or ethanol). If a car uses electricity and gasoline, how do you rate its MPG when not all of the Ms are using Gs? How can an all-electric car even have an MPG?

PHEV, EREV, REEV; what are they?

The above questions are further complicated by the fact that PHEVs come in two different types. There are parallel-series plug-in hybrids such as the plug-in Prius and BYD cars and there are series plug-in hybrids such as the Chevy Volt or the Chrysler Envi line. Plug-in series hybrids are referred to as extended range electric vehicles (EREV) by GM and range extended electric vehicles (REEV) by Chrysler.

A series plug-in is propelled exclusively by an electric motor. The electricity comes from batteries for an initial range and then after the batteries are exhausted, the electricity comes from an on-board generator.

• AER-All Electric Range
• CSM-Charge Sustaining Mode (i.e. the flex fuel generator provides most of the electricity required to propel the car.)

For a parallel plug-in, it is not as clear when the gasoline engine will run. It will run when the batteries are low just like a series plug-in but it can also run when the vehicle is at high speed, during acceleration, or when climbing hills.

Given that multiple fuels will be used, how can you measure fuel efficiency? Some methods include: energy equivalence, pollution, and cost. Since the focus is currently on the MPG ratings, we'll use energy equivalence.

disclaimer

For the rest of this article, let's examine the 2011 Chevy Volt as presented in the sticker above from gm-volt.com. It is unofficial but matches all the data that is known at this point. I must point out, that despite the big 230 MPG marketing campaign, real answers about the Volt's performance are still being held close to the vest, so many of the assumptions below may turn out to be incorrect. I'll leave comments below if/when I am made aware of any discrepancies.

assumptions

The first thing to note is that GM claims a 40 mile electric range for the Volt. However, to ensure the battery life they are only going to use ~10kWh of the 16kWh pack for the electric mode. This means that you can only get the promised 40 miles in city driving (or congested freeway driving). Aerodynamic drag and rolling resistance reduce the efficiency at higher speeds. For this exercise we'll assume that all 40 miles can be traversed with just 10kWh using the better city performance values. Note that if your first 40 miles of daily driving includes some high-speed driving, you might not get the full 40 miles before the generator kicks in.

Since we are already dealing with the complexity of two fuels, let's assume a 50/50 split of city and highway driving for the charge sustaining portion of the drive. Averaging the 50 city and 45 highway yields 47.5 miles per gallon after the battery is depleted. Given that the car changes operating modes at the 40 mile mark, we'll need to examine different distances. I'll use 25, 50, 100, & 200 miles assuming each starts out fully charged.

While these single trip numbers are helpful illustrations, a month of driving with commuting and an occasional longer trip is more interesting. For this example month, Mon-Friday driving will be 30 miles (all-electric). On most weekends, we'll use 25 miles per day unless we go for a longer drive to the beach or the mountains. For these long weekend journeys, we'll use 200 miles round trip and assume that you can charge at your destination.

Example Month:

23 weekday commutes = 690 miles electric

6 short weekend trip = 150 miles electric

1 long trip weekend = 200 miles = 80 miles electric + 120 miles gas

Example Total = 1040 miles = 920 miles electric + 120 miles gasoline

Miles	Electricity (kWh)	Gasoline Used (gallons)
25	6.25	zero
50	10	0.2
100	10	1.3
200	10	3.3
1040*	230	2.5

* one example month

energy equivalence

This method of comparison converts all fuel sources, be it watts-hours or gasoline, to an energy unit such as Joules. One gallon of gasoline is 132 mega-Joules. A kilowatt-hour of electricity is 3.6 mega-Joules. With this you can convert the battery energy and gasoline used on a given drive to get a Joules per mile rating. Most people don't have an intuitive feel for Joules per mile, so this would generally be converted back into MPG and noted as MPGe, regardless of the energy source or how silly that result sounds. While this does give you an interesting efficiency number, it hides the sources of the energy. It is an over simplification that often adds confusion especially when the 'e' is missing. The energy source is an important factor in both the cost and pollution of those miles. And in cases where majority (or all) of the 'fuel' is electricity, stating a MPG rating is just not right, as Nissan illustrated when they stated the all-electric LEAF would rate at 367 MPG.

These are not exchangeable items; it is like reporting how many miles per banana it gets. But MPG is a unit that the public is used to hearing and anything over 100 MPG is attention getting. That is impossible for the marketing types to resist. Don't be fooled by this, demand to know the consumption numbers in both modes and do your own math for your driving patterns.

Here is our table of examples expanded to add energy consumption:

Miles	Electricity (kWh)	Gasoline (gallons)	Total Joules (MJ)	Miles per Megajoule	MPGe **
25	6.25	zero	23	1.1	147
50	10	0.2	62	0.8	106
100	10	1.3	208	0.5	64
200	10	3.3	472	0.4	56
1040	230	2.5	1158	0.9	119

** use MPGe with caution, and please don't drop the 'e'

You can see in the table above that there is no MPG equivalent that is close to the 230MPG that GM is reporting for the Chevy Volt, not even the all electric 25 mile trip. While I could not find the exact calculations that GM used, I think I found the cause of the discrepancy. The DoE formula includes a multiplier, called the Gasoline-Equivalent Energy Content of Electricity Factor (Eg), to compensate for upstream efficiencies in the fuel source. Currently, the government is promoting the idea of getting off of foreign oil (sounds good to me), so this compensation factor is very favorable for electrically powered transportation (you can read the full EPA explanation here).

The value being used for Eg is 2.42 in 2000 and it might be higher in the 2008 version of this specification currently in use. This means that the electrically powered mileage is getting extra credit at a significant rate.

Applying this factor and you can see in the table below that the 230 MPG number that GM is reporting is achievable for a trip just around 50 miles.

Miles	GM MPG
25	355
50	226
100	100
200	72
1040	267

This is much closer to what the 230 campaign is claiming (as incorrect as that might be). And you can see how the Nissan Leaf scored over 360 MPGe. My understanding is that the EPA test track is a 10 mile loop with various speed, acceleration, stop & start zones. For a plug-in car like the Volt, they will drive it until the batteries are depleted and then do one more lap around the track with the generator running. This corroborates that the 50 mile calculation is the one closest to the magic 230.

The 106 MPGe for the 50 mile trip in the second table or the one month of driving example at 119 MPGe would still be a very impressive number to launch a marketing campaign around and it would not have the backlash that quickly branded the 230 MPG campaign as unrealistic hype. You can see the reception that Conan O'Brien gave it on The Tonight Show in the video below.

If you are a regular reader of this blog, you know that I support plug-in vehicles. And I have discussed the importance of "well-to-wheel" consideration. Well-to-wheel is looking at the full life-cycle of the fuel that you use. However, hiding this in a single MPG number is not the right thing to do. This is really more of a pollution value than a vehicle fuel efficiency value. Presenting it simply as MPG, sets up unrealistic expectations. I like the idea of a pollution indication per mile, especially if were applied to all vehicles. On a regular gas powered car with a 32 MPG rating, when you look at all the energy used to process, refine, and move the fuel, you might see that it has a pollution rating of 120 pounds of CO2 per 100 miles. Whereas a grid powered 110 MPGe PHEV might have only 15 pounds of CO2. That would stop the "long tailpipe" argument quickly. And as crude moves from easy to extract light sweet crude to the to deeper and heavier forms, the gasoline numbers will get worse, whereas as the electricity grid will improve as new wind turbines, geothermal and solar thermal plants come online.

The consumer could decide how important each the fuel economy value and pollution factor value is to them and shop according to their own values. They might decide that only one of the numbers matters and simply ignore the other or they may try to find a balance.

Despite the fact that GM has greatly oversimplified things and shown the best possible MPG that they could (without using all electric), they just might be able to get away with this. Looking at the example month, there is 1040 miles of driving, using just 2.5 gallons of gas. If one were to ignore all the watt-hours used, 1000 miles on 2.5 gallons is 400 miles per gallon of gasoline used. Miles per gallon of "gasoline used" is not the same as MPG, but if this is the number that people are seeing, they may just feel like they are getting more that the 230MPG promised. And if your concern is the reduction of oil use (and not vehicle efficiency), this is a valid number to consider.

conclusions

With plug-in cars, the game has changed. People are used to a single MPG number and change can be difficult for some. The marketing departments are going to want to fly these great MPG(e) numbers on a high flagpole, even if they don't apply to the real world because people will ask and they are great numbers. GM and other companies making plug-in vehicles should strive for integrity and rise above the temptation to hustle these as facts.

Consumers are going to have to consider more than just a single MPG number. There is a learning curve. Auto companies can help by creating tools such as a webpage where prospective buyers could input their driving patterns and information such as can they plug-in at work, etc. Then this webpage could generate a custom report with cost, consumption, pollution and other relevant information. Hymotion has a web tool to do just this for people that are considering a PHEV conversion. I hope GM creates one for the Volt too.

Now you are more aware and can be an informed skeptic when confronted with only an MPG number for a plug-in vehicle. Decide for yourself what aspects are important and do the math.

Links:

So Much For That; EPA Will Not Back Up GM's 230 MPG Claim

230 MPG? Stop the Madness! How the EPA Should Rate

Auto X Prize Throws Water on GM's 230 MPG Claim

Ignore the 230 MPG Claims by GMGreen Car Congress

Volt Specs

Argonne Study

Boston.com