Green/Electric/Hybrid Vehicles


Green vehicle
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

A green vehicle is one that is significantly less harmful to the environment than comparable conventional vehicles. Presently, the term is used for any vehicle surpassing the Euro6-norm such as LEVs and ULEVs, and also more informally to California's zero emissions vehicles and other low-carbon emission vehicles. Certain green vehicles may provide a way of sustainable transport.

Edison and a 1914 Detroit Electric, model 47 (courtesy of the National Museum of American History)
  
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An electric vehicle and an antique car on display at a 1912 auto show

Production

Part of the total energy cost can be cut by choosing smaller, lighter vehicles that use less energy to produce and to operate. Alternatively larger heavier vehicles with more efficient power systems may use less energy overall.

Energy efficiency

But cars with similar production energy costs can obtain, during the life of the car (operational phase), large reductions in energy costs through several measures:

Types

Green vehicles include vehicles types that function fully or partly on alternative energy sources other than fossil fuel. Another option is the use of alternative fuel composition in conventional fossil fuel-based vehicles, making them function partially on renewable energy sources. Other approaches include personal rapid transit, a public transportation concept that offers automated, on-demand, non-stop transportation on a network of specially-built guideways.

Electric and fuel cell-powered

Electric vehicles

Examples of vehicles with reduced petroleum consumption include electric cars and fuel cell-powered hydrogen cars.

Electric cars are typically more efficient than fuel cell-powered vehicles on a wheel-to-wheel basis. ] For this reason, battery powered vehicles are gaining popularity. They have better fuel economy than conventional vehicles but are hampered by range or distance from a charging unit. The electric car batteries are their main cost. They provide a 55% to 99.9% improvement in CO2 emissions compared to an ICE (gasoline, diesel) vehicle, depending on the source of electricity.

Battery EV vs. Hydrogen EV.png

See also: Hybrid vehicle

Hybrid vehicles

Hybrid cars may be partly fossil fueled and partly electric or hydrogen-powered. They are more expensive to purchase but cost redemption is achieved in a period of about 5 years due to better fuel economy.

Solar car races are held on a regular basis in order to promote green vehicles and other "green technology". These sleek driver-only vehicles can travel long distances at highway speeds using only the electricity generated instantaneously from the sun.

Compressed air cars, stirling vehicles, ...

Compressed air cars, stirling-powered vehicles, Liquid nitrogen vehicles are even less polluting than electrical vehicles, as the vehicle and its components can be made more environmentally friendly.

Comparison of green vehicles


Values are overall for vehicles in current production and may differ between types.
Parameter Conventional Electric Hydrogen and Other (compressed air, stirling, ...) Hybrid electric
Fuel economy (mpg equivalent) 10-50
  • Excluding battery cost: 200
  • Including battery cost: 10-50
80
Range Long shorter 380 mi (608 km)
Production cost for given range low high high medium
reduction in CO2, compared to conventional 55%[citation needed]
Payback period 5 years

Animal powered vehicles

Horse and carriage are just one type of animal propelled vehicle. Once a common form of transportation, they became far less common as cities grew and automobiles took their place. In dense cities, the waste produced by large numbers of transportation animals was a significant health problem. Oftentimes the food is produced for them using diesel powered tractors, and thus there is some environmental impact as a result of their use.

Human powered vehicles

See also: Bicycle sharing system

Human powered transport includes walking, bicycles, velomobiles, row boats, and other environmentally friendly ways of getting around. In addition to the health benefits of the exercise provided, they are far more environmentally friendly than most other options. The only downside is the speed limitations, and how far one can travel before getting exhausted.

Controversy

A study by CNW Marketing Research suggests that the extra energy cost of manufacture, shipping, disposal, and the short lives of some of these types of vehicle (particularly gas-electric hybrid vehicles) outweighs any energy savings made by their using less petroleum during their useful lifespan. Critics of the report note that that the study prorated all of Toyota's hybrid research-and-development costs across the relatively small number of Priuses on the road, rather than using the incremental cost of building a vehicle; used 109,000 miles (175,000 km) for the length of life of a Prius (Toyota offers a 150,000-mile (240,000 km) warranty on the Prius' hybrid components, including the battery), and calculated that a majority of a car's cradle-to-grave energy gets expended during the vehicle's production, not while it is driven.

Norwegian Consumer Ombudsman official Bente Øverli stated that "Cars cannot do anything good for the environment except less damage than others." Based on this opinion, Norwegian law severely restricts the use of "greenwashing" to market automobiles, strongly prohibiting advertising a vehicle as being environmentally friendly, with large fines issued to violators.

Benefits of green vehicle use

Environmental

Vehicle emissions contribute to the increasing concentration of gases linked to climate change.[citation needed] In order of significance, the principal greenhouse gases associated with road transport are carbon dioxide (CO2), methane (CH4) and nitrous oxide (N2O). [citation needed] Road transport is the third largest source of greenhouse gases emitted in the UK, and accounts for over 20% of total emissions, and 33% in the United States. Of the total greenhouse gas emissions from transport, over 85% are due to CO2 emissions from road vehicles.[citation needed] The transport sector is the fastest growing source of greenhouse gases.[citation needed]

Road transport also remains the main source of many local emissions including benzene, 1,3-butadiene, carbon monoxide (CO), nitrogen oxides (NOx) and particulates (PMs).[citation needed] Within urban areas, the percentage of contributions due to road transport is particularly high - in London road transport contributes almost 80% of particulate emissions.[citation needed]

Health

Vehicle pollutants have been linked to human ill health including the incidence of respiratory and cardiopulmonary disease and lung cancer. A 1998 report estimated that up to 24,000 people die prematurely each year in the UK as a direct result of air pollution. According to the World Health Organisation, up to 13,000 deaths per year among children (aged 0–4 years) across Europe are directly attributable to outdoor pollution. The organisation estimates that if pollution levels were returned to within EU limits, more than 5,000 of these lives could be saved each year.

Monetary

Many fleet operators of hybrid vehicles have reduced brake maintenance costs, through less use of brake parts due to regenerative braking. The labour costs saved from this maintenance is also significant. As much as 65% of brake related costs have been saved, according to a report by the Toronto Transit Commission.[citation needed]

Hybrid taxi fleet operators in New York have also reported that reduced fuel consumption saves them thousands of dollars per year, as well as reduced maintenance costs. ][citation needed]

Future

Main articles: Battery electric vehicle and Plug-in hybrid
Eliica Battery Electric Car with 370 km/h top speed and 200 km range
The number of US survey respondents willing to pay $4,000 more for a plug-in hybrid car increased from 17% in 2005 to 26% in 2006.

Ferdinand Dudenhoeffer, head of the Centre of Automotive Research at the Gelsenkirchen University of Applied Sciences in Germany, said that "by 2025, all passenger cars sold in Europe will be electric or hybrid" electric.

Several startup companies like Tesla Motors, Ronaele Incorporated, Commuter Cars, Phoenix Motorcars, Miles Electric Vehicles, and Aptera Motors will have powerful battery-electric vehicles available to the public in 2008. Battery and energy storage technology is advancing rapidly. The average distance driven by 80% of citizens per day in a car in the US is about 50 miles (US dept of transport, 1991), which fits easily within the current range of the electric car. This range can be improved by technologies such as Plug-in hybrid electric vehicles which are capable of using traditional fuels for unlimited range, rapid charging stations for BEVs, improved energy density batteries, flow batteries, or battery swapping.

In 2006 GM began the development of a plug-in hybrid that will use a lithium-ion battery. The vehicle, initially known as the iCar, is now called the Chevrolet Volt. The basic design was first exhibited January 2007 at the North American International Auto Show. GM is planning to have this EV ready for sale to the public in the latter half of 2010. The car is to have a 50-mile (80 km) range. If the battery capacity falls below 30 percent a small internal combustion engine will kick in to charge the battery on the go. This in effect increases the range of the vehicle, allowing it to be driven until it can be fully charged by plugging it into a standard household AC electrical source.

On October 29, 2007, Shai Agassi launched Project Better Place, a company focused on building massive scale Electric Recharge Grids as infrastructure supporting the deployment of electric vehicles (including plug-in hybrids) in countries around the world. On January 21, PBP and the Nissan-Renault group signed a MOU - PBP will provide the battery recharging and swapping infrastructure and Renault-Nissan will mass-produce the vehicles.

Improved long term energy storage and nano batteries

There have been several developments which could bring electric vehicles outside their current fields of application, as scooters, golf cars, neighborhood vehicles, in industrial operational yards and indoor operation. First, advances in lithium-based battery technology, in large part driven by the consumer electronics industry, allow full-sized, highway-capable electric vehicles to be propelled as far on a single charge as conventional cars go on a single tank of gasoline. Lithium batteries have been made safe, can be recharged in minutes instead of hours, and now last longer than the typical vehicle. The production cost of these lighter, higher-capacity lithium batteries is gradually decreasing as the technology matures and production volumes increase.

Introduction of battery management and intermediate storage

Another improvement is to decouple the electric motor from the battery through electronic control, employing ultra-capacitors to buffer large but short power demands and regenerative braking energy. The development of new cell types combined with intelligent cell management improved both weak points mentioned above. The cell management involves not only monitoring the health of the cells but also a redundant cell configuration (one more cell than needed). With sophisticated switched wiring it is possible to condition one cell while the rest are on duty.

100x faster battery recharging

By soaking the matter found in conventional lithium ion batteries in a special solution, lithium ion batteries can be recharged 100x faster. The research was conducted by Gerbrand Ceder of MIT. The researchers believe the solution may appear on the market in 2011.