Electricity and the Vehicle of Tomorrow

Naubahar Agha August 2, 2013

Conventional Vehicle
1. 2. 3. 4. 5. Induction Compression Power/Ignition Exhaust ~20% efficiency on average!

http://courses.washington.edu/me341/oct22v2.htm

Conventional Vehicle: Otto Cycle

Running the engine fuel-lean
Use excess air

Thermal efficiency:
Net work/heat

Otto cycle efficiency depends on:

Compression ratio (rv)
Typically 10:1

1 rv
1

Specific Heat ratio ()

For fuel/air mix is ~1.3

You arrive at a 15% fuel-towheel efficiency for the typical auto driven in the US

http://courses.washington.edu/me341/oct22v2.htm

Improvements: Wankel
Rotary Engine 3 power strokes per revolution
Higher power to weight ratio

Fewer moving parts However:

Tip seals allowed a lot of leakage and large loss of energy Lower compression ratio: lower efficiency

The Vehicle of the Future!

What we actually get

Electric Car: Public Image

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fkzBwXNACrM

Electric Vehicles
Electric motors often achieve 90% energy conversion efficiency. No engine oil and fewer moving parts than a gas car. Charge at home

http://www.betterplace.com/How-it-Works#

Battery Swap Method

http://vimeo.com/68832891

Electric Fueling Stations

GM vs Tesla
GM sold 2.5 million vehicles globally in the second quarter, while Tesla set a sales target of selling about 5,000 cars during the same quarter. The share price of Tesla (TSLA) has more than tripled so far this year and the company now has a market value of $14 billion. GM(GM, Fortune 500)'s market value is $50.6 billion.
http://money.cnn.com/2013/07/18/news/companies/gm-tesla/?hpt=hp_t3

Fisker Karma
Assembled in Uusikaupunki, Finland
Valmet Automotive

Battery issues plagued the vehicle:

Leaking coolant shorted battery caused fire
Recall issued for over 2,400 vehicles

Defective batteries Cooling fan/line failures

Biggest Drawback to EVs

Battery! Something we are all too familiar with Li-Ion batteries 200+ Wh/kg energy density 80 to 90% charge/discharge efficiency $5000/146000 miles to charge or $0.034/mile ~ 4 km (2.5 mi) /(kWh) Toyota Prius Short cycle lives (hundreds to a few thousand charge cycles) Significant degradation with age Expensive! The Nissan Leaf battery pack will be sold at a price of $18,000 Cost ~$9000 to produce
http://green.autoblog.com/2010/05/15/nissan-leaf-profitable-by-year-three-battery-cost-closer-to-18/