Right now there's a lot of confusion about the kinds of activities that various future grid-powered vehicles will support. Today, everybody is used to the idea that you can drive as far as there are gas stations, and that there are gas stations all the way to the ends of the earth. Which isn't quite true, but close enough!
Electric vehicle manufacturers argue that the vast majority of travel isn't multi-day drives through the tundra, but within twenty or thirty miles of home. So plug-in-hybrid manufacturers hope you will make most of those trips mainly running off stored grid power. The fully electric vehicle manufacturers hope that by extending range further, to one or two hundred miles, you can make all your trips fully electric. It’s worth looking at this landscape in more detail.
Shopping trips are short, local round trips of less than about 20 miles. Both plug in hybrids and full EVs have no problem with battery capacity for these short hops. Even unconventional options like compressed air cars can also handle these frequent, short trips with no problems.
Commuting trips are longer, regular trips. A typical round trip is 40 to 60 miles, but could be up to 100 to 120 miles per day. A plug-in hybrid would probably switch to gasoline power for a part of many of these trips. A full EV might have enough battery capacity for the regular commute, depending on its length, but perhaps not enough for a side trip on top of a long commute. This is the territory where another thirty miles on the round trip can make a substantial difference. Buyers of first generation EVs, in a time when charging infrastructure away from home may be spotty, will have to count their miles carefully.
Traveling trips are weekend journeys, road trips, and the three-hour drive to your aunt. Right now, hybrids will make these trips on gasoline to all intents and purposes. A plug-in hybrid battery will help for the first fifty miles, but after that it will be operating primarily on gasoline. Electric vehicles have real problems at this distance, and there are several opinions about what to do at this range. For the moment it may be as simple as "rent a gas car for the weekend."
See our companion piece on the future of the road trip at our new sister green blog "BritsOnGreen"
Posted by Vinay Gupta and Joseph Simpson on 19th May 2009
Comments