xcel
03-06-2006, 02:33 AM
Wayne Gerdes - CleanMPG.com (www.CleanMPG.com) - March 6, 2006
Hi All:
What is a PHEV or Plug-in Hybrid Electric Vehicle? A PHEV is an HEV (Hybrid Electric Vehicle) with an added battery that can be plugged into a 120/240-volt outlet/receptacle and charged. At lower speeds and shorter commuting distances, a Prius II or Escape HEV could run on nothing but the large plug-in capable battery pack thus not using any liquid fuel while still having the ability to travel its full gasoline only range when the large battery packs SoC (State of Charge) has been depleted. A person who commutes a distance shorter than the car's electric range and below its built in ICE-On (Internal Combustion Engine - On) limitations would never have to use gasoline at all in fact!
EDrive Systems Prius II PHEV
http://www.cleanmpg.com/photos/data/506/EDrive_prius_image.jpg
©2006 EDrive Systems LLC.
PHEV technology is viable today and the Electricity supply infrastructure is mostly in place. The only detriment is the current cost of the large battery packs themselves as well as electricity supply once PHEV’s are manufactured in mass. With mass production of Li-Ion batteries for Cel Phones, Laptop’s, and other small electronics, Li-Ion cells are falling in price on what appears to be a monthly basis. The cost of large Li-Ion PHEV packs consisting of these same small cell’s bundled into larger modules and bundled yet again into a battery pack are falling in concert. Utilities should be able to supply the increased electricity demand given the profit potential but it will take some time to increase base load capacity or run off-peak with more and more expensive electricity production as is done during peak hours today. The PHEV offers us part of the solution to Peak Oil and/or our dependence on Foreign oil supplies with domestically produced electricity for energy independence, reduced GHG (Greenhouse Gas Emissions), and much lower fuel costs.
How does the cost of fueling a PHEV compare to a regular ICE based car (Electricity vs. Gasoline) most drive today? With the cost of gasoline in the neighborhood of $2.25/gallon nationwide (http://www.eia.doe.gov/oil_gas/petroleum/data_publications/wrgp/mogas_home_page.html) last week and the average national electricity price to the consumer at approximately $0.09/kWh (Kilowatt-Hour) ( http://www.eia.doe.gov/cneaf/electricity/epa/epat7p4.html ), a Prius II - PHEV ends up costing the equivalent of just $0.75 - $0.85/gallon! Given ½ the cars in the US drive less then 25 miles per day, a PHEV-20 (20 mile EV capable) in everyone’s drive could theoretically reduce our daily fuel consumption by > 50%!
Unlike the Hybrid Electric Vehicles most are familiar with, the PHEV does not rely on the gasoline ICE to charge the battery pack. The PHEV can either supplement the power of the ICE or run off its own internal power in EV (Electric Vehicle) mode to take you from point A to point B depending on the commuting distance and your speeds encountered to traverse that distance. This is accomplished using electricity taken from the grid. In other words, the PHEV combines the best of both the HEV and a pure EV while reducing GHG’s, SMOG forming emissions, and lowering our actual transportation costs. Nothing compares to the energy efficiency, performance, and range capability of the PHEV today. As for charge times, a 20 mile capable PHEV (PHEV-20) can be charged in approximately 3 hours on a std. 120 V home circuit overnight.
Currently, automakers are indifferent at best to produce a full fledged PHEV despite its many advantages to the ordinary consumer. This has most to do with the advanced batteries costing many thousands of dollars more then the average consumer is willing to pay over and above the price of a hybrid, let alone the non-hybrid’s most purchase today. As stated above, with the almost monthly price drops seen for Li-Ion storage batteries for small electronics, expect to see these same battery cel’s packed in much larger modules for PHEV pack’s at ever decreasing prices as time moves forward. Taking a look at advanced Li-Ion packs, cost projections from EPRI show < $500/kWh/10,000 units available today. Expect to see even lower costs into the future.
Cost projection courtesy of the EPRI
http://www.cleanmpg.com/photos/data/506/Li-Ion_Cost_Projection.jpg
The US consumes > 25% of the worlds daily oil supply yet owns just 3% of the world’s oil. With global demand rising and supply beginning to stagnate due to Peak Oil, the US’ vulnerability due to the our insatiable demand for a product that resides mostly in an unstable part of the world known as the Middle East is simply impossible to ignore any longer. The PHEV can be a partial solution to this vulnerability.
With the overwhelming number of non-hybrid vehicles on the road, the current fuel economy capabilities of today’s HEV’s are a step in the right direction. With that, the current HEV is thought to be a stepping stone to the next generation PHEV’s and then possibly to a much more robust PHEV/EV after that. Not only do today’s HEV’s offer superior FE (upwards of 30% +) over and above their non-hybrid counterparts, they reduce GHG’s’ by the same amount and in most cases, are far cleaner in smog forming emissions vs. most non-hybrid ICE equipped automobiles we drive on a daily basis.
Reducing our dependence on foreign oil is just one advantage the PHEV offers us. Since almost 50% of the nations electricity energy output is derived from coal, are we simple exchanging one emissions path for another? According to CARB (California Air Resources Board), a PHEV-20 will output just 38% of the CO2 vs. a conventional non-hybrid vehicle.
http://www.cleanmpg.com/photos/data/506/Electric_Output_By_Type.gif
http://www.cleanmpg.com/photos/data/506/CARB_Wellto_Wheels_CO2_Emissions.jpg
A PHEV’s emissions will decrease as older less efficient plants are replaced by cleaner more efficient plants in the future showing yet another advantage. If the US were to transition to CO2 sequestered Coal burning power plants, somehow increased the base renewable electrical energy production, or we have a large increase in the number of nuclear based electrical generating facilities, GHG’s decrease ever further until a PHEV is actually nearing that of a ZEV (Zero Emissions Vehicle)! Controlling smog forming tail pipe emissions from tens of millions of automobiles is also far more costly and harder to do then controlling the smog and GHG emissions from a large, centrally located, power plant.
What about Hydrogen to power an FCV’s or Fuel Cell Vehicle? Hydrogen is an energy transfer medium, not a primary source of energy since it does not occur in nature in large concentrations. Electricity will always be a cheaper transport fuel then Hydrogen because the well-to-wheels efficiency of electricity from the grid is much higher then that of producing hydrogen from any known method or source known today including electricity to begin with. Given a Fuel Cell’s huge expense (100’s of thousands of $’s for an FCV or Fuel Celled Vehicle), limited range (less then 200 miles for many of the latest FCV’s), lack of current Hydrogen refueling infrastructure, and inability for most to run much below freezing temperatures, FCV’s seem to me to be the biggest boondoggle in the history of the automobile. Even with an approximately 220 mile range of the best Honda FCV, its gasoline equivalent of ~ 50 mpg for this small of a vehicle is poor at best.
The calculation of energy equivalency is 1Kg of Hydrogen = 1 gallon of gasoline.
Hi All:
What is a PHEV or Plug-in Hybrid Electric Vehicle? A PHEV is an HEV (Hybrid Electric Vehicle) with an added battery that can be plugged into a 120/240-volt outlet/receptacle and charged. At lower speeds and shorter commuting distances, a Prius II or Escape HEV could run on nothing but the large plug-in capable battery pack thus not using any liquid fuel while still having the ability to travel its full gasoline only range when the large battery packs SoC (State of Charge) has been depleted. A person who commutes a distance shorter than the car's electric range and below its built in ICE-On (Internal Combustion Engine - On) limitations would never have to use gasoline at all in fact!
EDrive Systems Prius II PHEV
http://www.cleanmpg.com/photos/data/506/EDrive_prius_image.jpg
©2006 EDrive Systems LLC.
PHEV technology is viable today and the Electricity supply infrastructure is mostly in place. The only detriment is the current cost of the large battery packs themselves as well as electricity supply once PHEV’s are manufactured in mass. With mass production of Li-Ion batteries for Cel Phones, Laptop’s, and other small electronics, Li-Ion cells are falling in price on what appears to be a monthly basis. The cost of large Li-Ion PHEV packs consisting of these same small cell’s bundled into larger modules and bundled yet again into a battery pack are falling in concert. Utilities should be able to supply the increased electricity demand given the profit potential but it will take some time to increase base load capacity or run off-peak with more and more expensive electricity production as is done during peak hours today. The PHEV offers us part of the solution to Peak Oil and/or our dependence on Foreign oil supplies with domestically produced electricity for energy independence, reduced GHG (Greenhouse Gas Emissions), and much lower fuel costs.
How does the cost of fueling a PHEV compare to a regular ICE based car (Electricity vs. Gasoline) most drive today? With the cost of gasoline in the neighborhood of $2.25/gallon nationwide (http://www.eia.doe.gov/oil_gas/petroleum/data_publications/wrgp/mogas_home_page.html) last week and the average national electricity price to the consumer at approximately $0.09/kWh (Kilowatt-Hour) ( http://www.eia.doe.gov/cneaf/electricity/epa/epat7p4.html ), a Prius II - PHEV ends up costing the equivalent of just $0.75 - $0.85/gallon! Given ½ the cars in the US drive less then 25 miles per day, a PHEV-20 (20 mile EV capable) in everyone’s drive could theoretically reduce our daily fuel consumption by > 50%!
Unlike the Hybrid Electric Vehicles most are familiar with, the PHEV does not rely on the gasoline ICE to charge the battery pack. The PHEV can either supplement the power of the ICE or run off its own internal power in EV (Electric Vehicle) mode to take you from point A to point B depending on the commuting distance and your speeds encountered to traverse that distance. This is accomplished using electricity taken from the grid. In other words, the PHEV combines the best of both the HEV and a pure EV while reducing GHG’s, SMOG forming emissions, and lowering our actual transportation costs. Nothing compares to the energy efficiency, performance, and range capability of the PHEV today. As for charge times, a 20 mile capable PHEV (PHEV-20) can be charged in approximately 3 hours on a std. 120 V home circuit overnight.
Currently, automakers are indifferent at best to produce a full fledged PHEV despite its many advantages to the ordinary consumer. This has most to do with the advanced batteries costing many thousands of dollars more then the average consumer is willing to pay over and above the price of a hybrid, let alone the non-hybrid’s most purchase today. As stated above, with the almost monthly price drops seen for Li-Ion storage batteries for small electronics, expect to see these same battery cel’s packed in much larger modules for PHEV pack’s at ever decreasing prices as time moves forward. Taking a look at advanced Li-Ion packs, cost projections from EPRI show < $500/kWh/10,000 units available today. Expect to see even lower costs into the future.
Cost projection courtesy of the EPRI
http://www.cleanmpg.com/photos/data/506/Li-Ion_Cost_Projection.jpg
The US consumes > 25% of the worlds daily oil supply yet owns just 3% of the world’s oil. With global demand rising and supply beginning to stagnate due to Peak Oil, the US’ vulnerability due to the our insatiable demand for a product that resides mostly in an unstable part of the world known as the Middle East is simply impossible to ignore any longer. The PHEV can be a partial solution to this vulnerability.
With the overwhelming number of non-hybrid vehicles on the road, the current fuel economy capabilities of today’s HEV’s are a step in the right direction. With that, the current HEV is thought to be a stepping stone to the next generation PHEV’s and then possibly to a much more robust PHEV/EV after that. Not only do today’s HEV’s offer superior FE (upwards of 30% +) over and above their non-hybrid counterparts, they reduce GHG’s’ by the same amount and in most cases, are far cleaner in smog forming emissions vs. most non-hybrid ICE equipped automobiles we drive on a daily basis.
Reducing our dependence on foreign oil is just one advantage the PHEV offers us. Since almost 50% of the nations electricity energy output is derived from coal, are we simple exchanging one emissions path for another? According to CARB (California Air Resources Board), a PHEV-20 will output just 38% of the CO2 vs. a conventional non-hybrid vehicle.
http://www.cleanmpg.com/photos/data/506/Electric_Output_By_Type.gif
http://www.cleanmpg.com/photos/data/506/CARB_Wellto_Wheels_CO2_Emissions.jpg
A PHEV’s emissions will decrease as older less efficient plants are replaced by cleaner more efficient plants in the future showing yet another advantage. If the US were to transition to CO2 sequestered Coal burning power plants, somehow increased the base renewable electrical energy production, or we have a large increase in the number of nuclear based electrical generating facilities, GHG’s decrease ever further until a PHEV is actually nearing that of a ZEV (Zero Emissions Vehicle)! Controlling smog forming tail pipe emissions from tens of millions of automobiles is also far more costly and harder to do then controlling the smog and GHG emissions from a large, centrally located, power plant.
What about Hydrogen to power an FCV’s or Fuel Cell Vehicle? Hydrogen is an energy transfer medium, not a primary source of energy since it does not occur in nature in large concentrations. Electricity will always be a cheaper transport fuel then Hydrogen because the well-to-wheels efficiency of electricity from the grid is much higher then that of producing hydrogen from any known method or source known today including electricity to begin with. Given a Fuel Cell’s huge expense (100’s of thousands of $’s for an FCV or Fuel Celled Vehicle), limited range (less then 200 miles for many of the latest FCV’s), lack of current Hydrogen refueling infrastructure, and inability for most to run much below freezing temperatures, FCV’s seem to me to be the biggest boondoggle in the history of the automobile. Even with an approximately 220 mile range of the best Honda FCV, its gasoline equivalent of ~ 50 mpg for this small of a vehicle is poor at best.
The calculation of energy equivalency is 1Kg of Hydrogen = 1 gallon of gasoline.