No "real breakthrough" in plug-ins yet
Plug-in space still wide openThe other day Germany announced its plans to put 1 million plug-in vehicles on the road by 2020. While critics have claimed the program is lacking in details and funding, it's no surprise Germany would implement such a goal considering the importance of the auto industry on the German economy and psyche.
Nonetheless, Germany has been a bit of a laggard on hybrid and electric vehicle technology. Yet, German officials are not worried about whether they can catch up to the rest of the auto industry.
According to Transport Minister Wolfgang Tiefensee even Japan hasn't yet achieved a "real breakthrough" in plug-in technology.
Labels: plug-in hybrid vehicles
posted by Dahcredyns at
9:34 AM
5 Comments:
Unfortunately, this article is correct.
The batteries are not there yet at an affordable price for mainstream plug ins to work.
That is why I am such a proponent of Hybrids.
The battery technology is available today for Hybrids at a more reasonable cost. Plus you don't have range issues, charging issues or difficulty finding fuel.
If there is sufficient demand for Hybrids, the automakers will react and make more Hybrids, and offer them with better styling and at better pricing.
This will allow us to have an impact now, not 30-40 years from now.
Want to make a diference today? Then buy a hybrid.
to take even conventional hybrids to the next level, however, it does seem lithium will be required, as based on Toyota's NiMH supply constraints.
since it takes about 10 times the batteries to make a Volt versus a conventional hybrid, i wonder if plug-ins are the best utilization of lithium in the short term?
Dahc,
That's a good question.
Which has more impact? One Chevy Volt or ten conventional hybrids?
alcatholic ran some numbers a week ago that demonstrated that 10 conventional prius hybrids offer much more bang for the back.
under the best case scenario for the volt - pure ev miles - i think - was 6.5 volts to 10 prius hybrids. under a mix of conditions, i think it was about 8 to 10.
so, if you could make a million plug-in vehicles per year like the volt, you could make them into 10 million prius hybrids, about the total amount of cars that will sell this year in the US and you'd save far more fuel.
Smurf,
The simple answer is to compare mpg's. Best case scenario, I would compare 50 mpg to 230 mpg and see that 4.6 Volts use as much gas as 1 Prius. So Volt is 4.6 times better.
Another analysis is to compare how much fuel they save in a year vs a typical car getting 25 mpg. Assume 10K miles driven/year.
Avg. Car:
400 gallons/year @ 25 mpg for 10K miles
Prius:
200 gallons/year @ 50 mpg
200 gallons saved/year
Volt @ 100 mpg (combined)
100 gallons/year @ 100 mpg
300 gallons saved/year
Volt @ 230 mpg (city)
44 gallons/year @ 230 mpg
356 gallons saved/year
So, in terms of gas savings, the Volt is worth 1.8 Prii in best case. So, not even twice as good.
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