Electric city cars

Nissan Pivo

Australian CARSguide1 reports that Nissan is committed to continued development of electric vehicles. A Herald Sun reporter spoke with Simon Sproule, Nissan global communications vice-president, who indicated that he believes “electric vehicles may yet have a bit of a renaissance.”

The Pivo concept, a futuristic electric city car that Nissan first showed at last year’s Tokyo Motor Show, hints at renewed interest.* Sproule says there is no question that battery-powered cars can provide adequate performance, but range still needs to be improved. Nissan was one of the global manufacturers that developed electric vehicles in the 1990s, but ceased development when “problems of high production costs and limited range could not be overcome.”

* Note: Nissan is not the only car maker in Japan showing greater interest in electric cars. Subaru has shown its R1e concept and Mitsubishi has begun to market a city car, as well as show other electric concept cars, all under the aegis of MIEV (Mitsubishi In-wheel motor Electric Vehicle).

Interestingly, neither Honda nor Nissan seemed to get as much bad green press as did General Motors for crushing all EV1s; Ford for killing the Th!nk program and shipping all the city cars back to Norway when “greenies” opposed their crushing; nor even Toyota who attempted to follow on the footsteps of GM by retrieving and destroying all of the small, all-electric RAV4s, but later relented.

“The major cities of the world probably have enough people who would consider an electric vehicle if price and performance made sense,” Sproule says. No doubt mini cars are becoming more popular, what with rising fuel prices, concerns about peak oil and global warming, plus a growing number of car consumers throughout the world.

There is even some renewed interest in station car programs, similar to the ones tested in Japan in the United States a decade ago. As previously noted, a Nissan city car similar to the Effis BEV comprised one set of vehicles used when the Shared Station Car Program was tested in Japan.

People driving short distances in big cities are the most likely people to use electric power, Sproule says. A car that can do 160km on one charge will probably be a viable solution for many urban commuters, he says.

And, while electric vehicles have the advantage of not producing any tailpipe emissions, which could help reduce smog and improve the health of the populace in the cities, there are two main reasons unmentioned in the article for renewed interest in electric city cars: lithium batteries and fuel cells.

Lithium
It is quite likely we are on the verge of a renaissance, given that full scale production of large format lithium batteries has begun in China. Along with mass production of suitable traction batteries, we are seeing other development, such as 1) experimentally derived, effective battery management, 2) improved electrodes, and 3) safer chemical formulations. It still remains to be seen if lithium can be cost effective.
Fuel cells
The race is on! All the major car makers have invested in fuel cell development. Honda projects that it will have a car on the market in the next three to four years. DCX, Ford, General Motors, Nissan and Toyota have shown fuel cell vehicles; Nissan first showing the Effis FCV commuter car concept at the 2003 Tokyo Motor Show. Fuel cells generate electricity that drives electric motors, so further investment in electric city cars is a sound foundation for future power trains.

The interview with Sproule downplayed two other important developments: renewable energy and plug-in hybrids. While the observation in the article, i.e., EVs are not “the ultimate green technology at this stage because pollution is still generated when the electricity is produced”, is true, it ignores the increasing contribution from geothermal, photovoltaics, or wind, not to mention nuclear power on efforts at cleaner coal powered generation.

The article reports that Nissan also is “investigating whether it should develop its own hybrid technology… The company admits the main reason it introduced the hybrid Altima model in the US is Californian legislation that encourages carmakers to build petrol / electric cars.” “We are doing the first hybrid in the US mainly for regulatory reasons. We have to be there with a hybrid,” Sproule says. (While regulations may be a nice gambit, it is obvious that Nissan wants a presence in a growing market.)

“We are not going down one road and one road alone,” says Sproule. “We are not saying that hybrid is the solution. We are not saying that diesel is the solution either. We are spreading our bets.”

Nissan, like Ford, had to borrow technology from Toyota to produce HEVs, yet Sproule makes no mention of a very interesting road. There are three types of “gridable” vehicles: 1) BEVs (Battery-powered, all-Electric Vehicles, e.g., Nissan Pivo, Mitsubishi EZ, etc.), 2) PHEVs, a.k.a, plug-in hybrids and 3) FCHVs. (The current view is that fuel cell vehicles will have supplemental battery power.)

Such an absence might be attributable to the dominance of the ICE paradigm. Nissan make the only power plant that has received from Ward’s for 10 consecutive years acknowledgment as one of the world’s best, internal combustion engines.

Continue reading here: Major Biofuel Projects

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