The Volt

I just read an article in the Atlantic about the Chevy Volt.

I am - and am not - a fan of the Volt.


The Good: It's not just a hybrid, it's a plug-in hybrid. It's a game-changer with a focus on electricity.

The Bad: It's still a hybrid, not really a purely electric car.

(To be fair, it's not like other hybrids, or even like other plug-in hybrids. Other PHEVs are gas-driven cars with an electrical assist to improve mileage. The Volt is an electricity-driven car with a gas generator that recharges the battery.)

The Ugly: GM can't seem to decide if it's a family sedan or the batmobile.




And, of course, it's not available until 2010 at the earliest.

Pet PEV - My next car will be electric-only

In a previous post I wrote about my excitement regarding PHEVs - Plug-in Hybrid Electric Vehicles.

I think I've done a one-eighty on this issue. Actually, a ninety. I've gone in a slightly different directions. A few days ago I was somewhat excited about the PHEV-future. Today I'm even more excited about the PEV-present.

Plug-in Electric Vehicles. This is happening now. In America. These are cars that an American consumer can buy, now, as I type this!

(They're really just EVs, I suppose. The "Plug-in" is a given. It's assumed. For reasons of my own, though, I still like calling them PEVs instead of EVs. That's just me.)

PEVs aren't hybrids, because they don't do gas. They don't have to carry a large internal combustion engine. They're still reasonably heavy - the batteries are pretty massive - but at least they're not carrying an internal combustion engine AND the batteries.

Did I mention this is happening now?

Tesla Motors started delivering its luxury electric sportscar in April. It seats two. It goes 0 to 60 in 3.9 seconds. It has a range of 220 miles. It gets the equivalent of 256 miles per gallon. ("Conversion from electric consumption to gallons of gasoline equivalent is calculated using the Department of Energy equivalence factor documented in the Code of Federal Regulations, Section 10, Part 474.")

Oh, and it costs one hundred thousand dollars.

But it exists! And it's a pretty sweet looking car. It's a proof of concept, and as it leads others will follow.

At least, I hope so. Every other manufacturer of PEVs for the American market - and there are a few of them - has been making some odd-looking cars.

Phoenix Motors is selling electric-only trucks and utility vehicles at around $40,000 each. Their cars look like bulky Priuses. (Pri-i?)

Zenn Motor Company is selling its ZENN (Zero Emissions No Noise) vehicle, and it's actually pretty affordable at $22,000. It's limited to 40 miles per charge, which is perfectly adequate. But who wants 40 miles when you can go over 200?

And it's ugly. I mean, the Phoenix cars are kind of ugly, too, but there's something about the ZENN that really bugs me.

Maybe it's the fact that the ZENN is only a two-seater.

I suppose it's kind of an electric SMART car. But Smart cars revel in their small size. That's the point. The ZENN seems to be masquerading as a larger car.

The same is true of the ZX40S from Miles Electric Vehicles, which retails for just under $20,000. It looks a lot like a typical SUV, but it's really a compact car. Unlike the ZENN it has a range of 60 miles.

Oh, the ZX40S and the ZENN are both limited to a top speed of 25 miles per hour, which is just really not fast enough. Understand, I'm an advocate of slowing down and taking it easy. But that means I'm talking about staying off the highway and limiting my top speed to, say, 45 miles per hour. 25 miles per hour is just not acceptable as a top speed.

That's why these particular cars will fail. That, and did I mention they're ugly?

Failing ugly, why does an electric car have to look so different from a regular car? Aptera Motors, for instance, makes a 3-wheeled vehicle that is oddly reminiscent of a svelte manatee...

As I search the web it seems as if nearly every car company - large or small - has a more typical-looking electric sedan, compact, or SUV "in the works".

I don't care about what's in the development pipeline, though. I want my electric car. And I want it now.

And I want it to be attractive. And I want it to go at least 45 miles per hour. And a range of 200 miles would be nice.

And I don't want to pay one hundred thousand dollars for it.

I guess I still have to wait until next year.

PHEVs

I'm really, really looking forward to PHEVs. Plug-in Hybrid Electric Vehicles. They're not a final step to reducing our individual or collective carbon footprint, but they're a really good step along the way.

Hybrid is not the cool part. Electric is the cool part.

PHEV's currently have an electric-only range of about 40 miles. Most of us drive less than 40 miles a day, so that's okay. For most people, most of the time, all we really need is electric cars. We can charge them at night when electricity is cheap, drive them up to 40 miles during the day, and come home and charge them again at night.

Hybridization is what allows you to go more than 40 miles one day, if you have to. When your electric battery runs out of juice as you're tooling down the road then your gasoline motor automatically starts up, allowing you to go the extra mile and charging your electric battery in the process.

If you commute during the week but on weekends you do a lot more driving, then you could probably use absolutely no gasoline during the week, and probably use only a fraction of the gas that you currently use on a typical weekend.

Let's run some numbers here.

Let's assume you drive exactly 40 miles each weekday, and then maybe 50 miles on a weekend day. That's 300 miles a week. At a generous 30 miles to the gallon that's 10 gallons of gas.

Okay, now let's say you've got a PHEV. (I think I'm gonna start pronouncing this as /feev/) In your PHEV you're able not to use any gas at all for 5 days of the week, and then you're still able not to use any gas for 40 of 50 miles on each weekend day. You only need gas for 10 miles a day for each weekend day. That's gas for just 20 miles a week. At a still-generous 30 miles to the gallon that's 2/3 of a gallon.

Yeah, I'm really, really looking forward to PHEVs.

Technically you can have a PHEV now. You would need to buy a regular HEV (heave?) and pay to have it converted into a PHEV, but it's doable. It costs an average of eight thousand dollars. That's on top of the initial cost of the hybrid.

And, see, here's where it gets tough. Let's assume that you are the theoretical driver above who stands to reduce your gasoline consumption significantly by owning a PHEV. At $4 a gallon you'll save about $37.50 a week by driving a PHEV. But at an initial cost of $8000. So it will take you over 4 years to recoup the cost of converting your HEV (did I mention you'd already paid a lot of money for a hybrid...?) into a PHEV.

Oh, and meanwhile you'll be consuming a lot more electricity. Low-rate night-time electricity, but still. So it ends up costing a LOT of money to save a lot of gas:

• You buy a hybrid.
• You spend an additional $8000 to turn your HEV into a PHEV.
• You use a lot more electricity (hopefully electricity generated by wind, but still it's electricity) for which you have to pay.

Something is wrong with the system when you can't afford to save gas.

In a few years, though, you'll be able to buy a ready-made PHEV. Whenever you find yourself in the market for a new car then I suggest you check and see how much a PHEV is then. It will probably be worth it. Especially if the price of gas keeps going up.