Alternative Vehicles

From Kompulsa - Ocean | Weather | Climate

In this article, I will discuss alternatively fueled/flexi-fuel vehicles as well as unconventional modes of transportation.

Motorcycles and Bicycles

Motorcycles are a very cheap mode of transportation which is only for certain tasks, such as traveling to a point with very few and small items. Motorcycles can also be fun to ride, and fairly easy to stow away in your garage or another area. Bicycles are by far the cheapest vehicles that you can use, and they are very cheap. Try riding one to and from work or school and see how that feels.

Advantages:

Low fuel consumption.
Low cost of ownership.
Easy to stow away.
Low purchase price.
Thrilling riding experience.

Disadvantages:

High noise output.
Inability to transport many items, and especially not large items.
They must be ridden with extreme caution.
Increased likelihood of being a crime victim.
Significantly increased exposure to tailpipe smog emissions because cyclists are behind vehicles.

Hybrid-Electric Vehicles

Hybrid-electric vehicles are vehicles which are powered by both electric motors and combustion engines, there are different types of hybrid electric vehicles, the two which will be discussed are series hybrids, and parallel hybrids.

Electric Start/Stop Systems

Electric start/stop systems enable vehicles to be driven without idling, idling wastes energy because the combustion engine is running and consuming fuel, and without moving the vehicle, that is the equivalent of 0 MPG.

Parallel Hybrids

A parallel hybrid-electric vehicle is one which uses both a combustion engine and an electric motor to propel the car by turning its wheels.

An example of a parallel hybrid is the Toyota Prius.

Series Hybrids

A series hybrid-electric vehicle is one which is propelled by electric motors alone, and a combustion engine generates electricity which is used to charge the batteries. One advantage that series hybrid vehicles may have over parallel hybrids is that they contain generators which operate at their single most efficient speed, rather than charge the batteries at the variety of speeds that the driver drives at.

An example of a series plug in hybrid-electric vehicle is the 2010 Fisker Karma:

It is a four door, four passenger luxury sedan which contains two 150 kilowatt electric motors totalling 300 kilowatts/402 horsepower (201 horsepower each) in the back of the vehicle, and a two litre, 260 horsepower, direct injected, and turbo charged GM Ecotec petroleum engine in the front which only turns a generator, and not the wheels of the car. In the center of the vehicle is a specially designed automotive lithium ion battery pack which is charged by it's combustion engine, and it can also be charged with a conventional 120 volt power outlet, and in less than four hours.

The 200 kW (peak) Li-ion battery pack is supposed to last more than ten years with normal operation. It also comes with a solar panel on the roof which generates the electricity necesary to ventilate the vehicle.

Additional Information From The Datasheet:

Chassis/Body Configuration:

Four-door, four-passenger sedan
Lightweight extruded aluminum spaceframe
Lightweight aluminum and composite body panels

Stealth Mode (Lithium-ion power only):

0-60 miles/hour: 7.0 seconds (0-100 km/h in 6 seconds)
Top speed (continuous): 95 miles/hour (153 km/h)
Range: 50 miles (80km)
Sport Mode (Lithium-ion power/ICE)
0-60 miles/hour 5.8 seconds (0-100 km/h in 6.0 seconds)
Top speed (continuous) 125 miles/hour (200 km/h)
Range 300 miles (483km)

Sport Mode (Lithium-ion power/ICE):

0-60 miles/hour: 5.8 seconds (0-100 km/h in 6.0 seconds)
Top speed (continuous): 125 miles/hour (200 km/h)
Range: 300 miles (483km)

Transmission: None.

Lighting:

Bi-Xenon headlamps
Low-energy LED tail lamps and turn signals

Safety:

Dual front airbags
Antilock Brakes (ABS)
Traction Control (TCS)
Electronic Stability Control (ESC)
Meets or exceeds global crash protection standards including rollover

Brakes:

Electro-hydraulic brake boost unit with integral chassis control functions
Electrically regenerative brake combined with friction braking
Electrically actuated parking brake

Steering:

Electrically driven hydraulically power-assisted rack and pinion with a programmable servo assist feature
Ratio 14:1; 2.7 turns lock-to-lock
Overall reduced parking efforts

Tires:

Front: 245/35R22 Michelin Pilot Sport PS2 with optimized rolling resistance
Rear: 265/35R22 Michelin Pilot Sport PS2 with optimized rolling resistance

Exterior Dimensions:

Overall Length: 199.5in/4987 mm
Overall Width: 79.4in/1984 mm
Overall Height: 53.2in/1330 mm
Front Overhang: 36.5in/913 mm
Rear Overhang: 36.6in/914 mm
Wheelbase: 126.4in/3160 mm
Front Track: 67.6in/1689 mm
Rear Track: 68.8in/1720 mm

Concerns about Oil Pressure Fluctuation

Some people have expressed concerns that hybrid electric vehicles and vehicles with start/stop systems which shut their gas engines off when at rest may suffer from reduced reliability due to frequent fluctuations in oil pressure. This problem can be addressed by using an electric oil pump instead of an engine powered torque converter pump which keeps oil pressure at an acceptable level. An example of a vehicle with that feature is the 2011 Hyundai Sonata hybrid.

Electric Vehicles

Electric Motors

An electric motor is a device which consists of one moving part which is turned by electromagnetic induction. An electric-drive vehicle (EV) is one which is powered by electricity, rather than fuel combustion, which powers conventional vehicles which use ICEs (Internal Combustion Engines). Electric vehicles are powered by conventional DC (direct current) or AC (alternating current) electric motors, while some locomotives are magnetically levitated.

Electric motors have an efficiency advantage over other types of motors, gasoline engines are 20-25% efficient, while electric motors are 80-95% efficient (brushed motors usually have ratings in the 80s, and brushless in the 90s), meaning that they convert 80-95% of the electrical energy consumed into rotational mechanical energy.

Electric vehicles' motors do not idle, so they don't waste much electricity when idle, mainly electronics, such as radios and air conditioning/heating systems.

Electric motors are smaller, often lighter, more reliable, and they produce more torque than gasoline powered engines. Electric vehicle motors are currently not being mass produced, but, when their scale of production eventually increases significantly, they will become significantly cheaper than they currently are.

While electric motors have significant advantages over combustion engines, batteries have drawbacks which complicate the process of manufacturing affordable, lightweight, and high performance electric vehicles significantly. They include:

Low energy density/energy to weight-ratio of 30-200 Watt-hours per kg (100 is more common for modern lithium ion powered electric vehicles).
Low power density/power to weight ratio of 180-7000 Watts per kg (7000 is much higher than average, 1000-2000 is more common)
High cost per watt-hour of storage ranging from $0.26 per Wh for lead acid to $3 per Wh for expensive lithium ion models, but $1-$2 per watt hour in many cases.

Cost of Maintenance

Electric vehicle maintenance is significantly different from gasoline powered vehicle maintenance, as they are constructed with different parts, and not only that, but the number of parts is also different. One example is that electric vehicles do not usually contain transmissions, but they do contain batteries, both batteries and transmissions are extremely costly to replace, and the price tags on transmissions are not as expensive as batteries, but the labour cost to replace a transmission is high, since transmission replacement is a much more complicated, lengthy, and strenuous process than battery replacement.

This section will be expanded soon.

Characteristics Dependent on Geographic Location

Financial/Economical: The cost of gasoline, diesel and electricity vary widely with area. For example: The average electricity rate in the U.S is a low $0.10 USD/kWh but it is the equivalent of an extremely high $0.45 USD/kWh in Kingston, Jamaica (sometimes, it varies). This makes it much more expensive to charge an electric vehicle in Jamaica than in the U.S. Please visit the power consumption page by clicking the link to your left to learn more. In a country with particularly high gasoline prices, but low electricity prices, hybrid and electric vehicles are often more cost competitive with gasoline powered vehicles.

Efficiency:

Hybrid and electric vehicles do not idle because the electric motor accelerates and gives the gas engine time to start, but a regular gas powered car engine is on all the time until the driver shuts it off. The result of this is a significant city fuel economy difference between gas and hybrid/electric vehicles but a much less significant highway fuel economy difference, because cars drive continuously on the highway instead of burning gas without moving (idling). Please visit the fuel economy page for more information. This means that people who live in countries with few highways (such as Jamaica), benefit from the fact that hybrid and electric cars don't idle more than people in the United States would, since people in the United States drive on highways much more.

Cold Temperatures Affect Lithium-ion Batteries

Very cold temperatures decrease the power output of lithium ion batteries, and decrease the range of electric vehicles unless the batteries are heated. One option is to heat the fluid that is normally circulated through the battery bank and into the radiator so that it heats the batteries instead of cooling them. The radiator fan (if any) would have to be turned off, of course.

Environmental Impact

This section pertains to the environmental impact of electric vehicles which is totally dependent on location and the power source of the vehicle.

Electric vehicle emissions are generally lower than that of gasoline powered vehicles for the following reasons:

Coal power plants are more efficient than gasoline powered vehicles. They are between 30% and 40% efficient. Since power transmission line losses are approximately 7% [more], the actual efficiency is about 23-32%.

Electric motors are 3-4 times more efficient than gasoline engines (75% and upwards while gas engines are about 20-25%).

A large percentage of electricity comes from sources which are cleaner than gasoline, such as natural gas, and nuclear plants. The rest of it comes from coal, biomass, solar, wind, hydroelectric, and geothermal power plants.

Please note that another reason why emissions will vary widely depending on the source of electricity is because of the inability (or lack of capability) of some power plants, such as coal and nuclear power plants to load-follow when necessary, as in, their inability to be adjusted to meet electricity demand. Their power output is fairly constant. If your electric vehicle is charged, the generators at the power plant are not going to turn themselves up to meet the requirements of your battery charger, but the amount of power available will be used to charge it. If push comes to shove, and power plants cannot meet demand, they will eventually have to expand their facilities and purchase more generators or upgrade existing ones. This means that a major increase in the use of electricity to charge electric vehicles during the day would certainly result in the need for more power plants, electricity demand is higher in the day, than it is at night, so, it is better to charge vehicles overnight.

Read more about electric vehicle emissions here: Stanford: The Case for Battery-Electric Cars

MIT: The Future of Coal In a Greenhouse-gas Constrained World

Dependence On Foreign Oil

The petroleum used in the United States is used for transportation, apart from the 15% of electricity which comes from petroleum powered plants. Electric vehicles could decrease dependence on foreign oil significantly, because most of the fuel used to generate the electricity which powers them comes from domestic sources especially natural gas and coal. Some countries, however, heavily depend on petroleum fired electricity generators. Check the department of energy for more information on the sources of electricity. Even if all electricity was produced using petroleum, electric vehicles still are significantly more efficient, therefore, they result in less petroleum consumption.

Power Sources

Electric vehicles can be powered by a wide variety of power sources (clean or not), such as batteries, fuel cells, and batteries can be charged with wind power, solar power, hydroelectric power, geothermal power,generators powered by biofuels, coal, diesel, gasoline, and others.

As for where the electricity which powers electric vehicles is coming from, you can learn a little about that here: Electricity Sources

Energy Storage Systems: Energy Storage

The source of electricity for electric vehicles, in many cases, is much more environmentally friendly than gasoline. In countries like Sweden, Norway, and Iceland, which burn no fossil fuels to generate electricity, EV usage results in minimal emissions, except in cases where they import a significant amount of electricity from fossil fuel burning power plants in other countries. See the link above for more information.

Tailpipe smog emissions vs power station emissions

There is one important difference between the smog emissions at power stations caused by electric vehicles, and the tailpipe smog emissions of gasoline powered vehicles. Smog is inhaled by pedestrians and especially cyclists as they are in close proximity to passing gasoline and diesel powered vehicles. Electric vehicle tailpipe emissions are equal to zero. This is especially important to people living in large and congested cities.

Standard brushed electric motors have two parts which malfunction, and not frequently. These are called the brushes. Brushes are used to supply electricity to the commutator of an electric motor. Brushes can easily last 10 years, and sometimes more. Reliability has always been of first importance to vehicle owners, and reliability also affects the cost of ownership significantly. Since electric motors can be much smaller than gasoline engines, their smaller size may make larger crumple zones possible, which is a safety advantage. The internal combustion engine also has little potential, it has improved in efficiency marginally in the past 100 years. The Ford Model T which was produced from 1908-1927 were rated at 13 to 21 Miles Per Gallon (MPG), and it is over 100 years old, while today's cars are rated at 20-30 MPG and contain an even greater plethora of complex and failure-prone equipment which is used to squeeze every bit of power out of each drop of gasoline and to keep the car running well, such as ECU, TCU, oxygen sensor, carburettor, and more.

Electric motors do not require the following or have the following advantages (although some of the following may still be used in some cases):

Transmissions.
Cooling systems.
Oil changes.
Firewalls.
Gasoline/Diesel.
Significantly less plumbing (except for the air conditioning, braking, and other systems).
Maintenance.
Exhaust.
Pre-heating during the winter.
Clutch.
Starter.
Air (which is more important to submarines).

Kinetic Energy Recovery

Regenerative braking is a form of kinetic energy recovery, meaning that when you release the acceleration pedal of your electric or hybrid electric vehicle, it will use the kinetic energy (energy that it possesses due to its motion) that it possesses due to its inertia (resistance to a change in velocity) to turn the electric motor which will generate electricity and recharge the batteries.

A KERS (Kinetic Energy Recovery System) is one which is used to convert the kinetic energy that a vehicle (often a race car) possesses due to its motion into electrical energy so that it can be later used to provide a power boost.

How Regenerative Braking Works

Solar Powered Vehicles

Solar powered vehicles are currently being developed and are currently not practical. One nice feature of theirs is a longer range than that of other types of vehicles. Some power grids are currently overstressed and need upgrades which are being done or are at least being prepared for. Solar cells are being produced more cost-effectively as time passes, and that trend will continue until they become much more affordable, which will result in increased domestic solar panel use, which reduces strain on the power grid. Grid power comes from unclean as well as increasingly clean sources of energy, such as fossil fuels, solar panels, wind turbines, and others, which means that electric vehicles will be charged with increasingly clean sources of power as the grid becomes greener. Another type of solar powered vehicle which is much more practical is basically an electric vehicle which is charged with electricity from solar panels at home.

Turbo-Electric Vehicles

An uncommon (at least for the average consumer) category of propulsion systems is turbo-electric, meaning that an electricity generator is used to supply electricity to one or more electric motors which convert that into mechanical energy, which is used to turn wheels or propellers.

The electricity generators can be powered by nuclear reactors, gasoline, diesel, fuel cells, and more.

One application of nuclear turbo-electric propulsion systems is submarines. Nuclear reactors generate significant amounts of heat, which is used to heat a boiler, which produces steam, which passes through a steam turbine at a high pressure. The steam turbine would turn an alternator or dynamo (direct current generator), which would supply electricity to one or more electric motors, which would then turn propellers.

Nuclear Powered Automobiles

Nuclear powered automobiles are vehicles which use a nuclear reactor to produce heat, and then that heat is used to boil water or another fluid, expanding it into steam, and that steam would be used to move the pistons in a steam engine or turn the blades of a steam turbine.

Electric: The steam turbine could then be used to generate electricity which would charge a bank of batteries or supercapacitors which would supply the necessary electricity to the electric drive motor.

Direct-drive: The steam turbine could be used to turn the wheels directly, like the Ford Nucleon.

One of the main advantages is an extremely long driving range without refueling. Nuclear powered vehicles are not likely to become mainstream due to unresolvable safety issues. Vehicles will crash, and that can result in devastating explosions and radiation emissions. It is difficult to protect a nuclear reactor in a car. Selling nuclear powered cars to the general public would also mean that enriched uranium would be available to anyone, including terrorists. Terrorists can use enriched uranium to make nuclear bombs.

Externally Powered Electric Vehicles

An interesting, but uncommon class of vehicles is externally powered electric vehicles. Some of them can operate without an onboard energy storage system such as batteries, fuel cells, etc. They can be powered with overhead power lines, electrified rails, electromagnets (magnetically levitated vehicles), microwaves. Fuel cell powered vehicles with oxygen and hydrogen membranes which would enable hydrogen and oxygen out of the air, to power the fuel cell which would power the motor, but this isn't feasible at the moment. A mainstream transportation scheme of the types above have some nice advantages, as well as some disadvantages. Electric rail vehicle infrastructure would need to be built everywhere, and the initial cost of that would be high, but, electric rail vehicles could be extremely efficient. Battery powered electric vehicles are most likely the future of transportation.

MAGLEV - Magnetically Levitated Vehicle

These vehicles, usually trains, have magnets attached to them, and those magnets suspend them over computer controlled electromagnets, which are continuously controlled in such a way that they continually move the vehicle.

Advantages

Extremely high efficiency and speed due to the fact that they are levitated, and don't contact the rails.
The base is "wrapped" around the rail, so they do not derail.
They are more environmentally friendly than other vehicles due to their high efficiency, resulting in low power plant emissions, compared to the emissions of gasoline and diesel powered vehicles.
They are good candidates to help relieve road congestion, since they are such a fast and efficient mode of transportation.
They are reliable.

FSU.edu: How MAGLEV Trains Work