Free Fill-up: John Benson recharges his home-converted 1970 Porsche 914 at the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry in Portland, Ore. The car uses 16 heavy lead-acid batteries.
(Elizabeth Armstrong Moore)Photos (1 of 1)
As electric cars gain currency, Oregon charges ahead
‘Green’ state is working on plan for public charging stations; Nissan will debut its electric vehicles here.
By Elizabeth Armstrong Moore | Correspondent of The Christian Science Monitor/ February 10, 2009 edition
Portland, Ore.
Everything about this place seems clean: the straight-line architecture of the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry; the brightly outfitted cyclists gliding quietly past in their wide, well-marked bike lane; the gentle, lapping sounds of Willamette River, its murky waters conveniently just out of view.
As if to complete the picture, John R.A. Benson, a self-described garage tinkerer, bends over a free charging station in the museum’s parking lot and connects his orange 1970 Porsche 914, which he converted to electric in 1997. The 120-volt outlet delivers power generated from renewable resources. After he unplugs his car, he steps in, turns the key, steps on the accelerator, and drives off silently into the morning fog.
Is this the future of the automobile? Maybe. With the electricity costing about a penny a mile, and with the total absence of tailpipe emissions, electric cars are slowly gaining among consumers.
Last November, Oregon became the first state to develop standards for a statewide infrastructure of electric-car plug-in stations in terms of performance, safety, and voltage. The stations should be ready for purchase by interested parties, such as cities and private companies, by the end of the year. Nissan, in turn, announced at the Los Angeles Auto Show that Oregon would be the site for the carmaker’s early introduction of its highway-ready electric cars around the same time.
But the question today is identical to the one posed in the late ’90s, when GM tested its EV1 on enthusiastic drivers in California: Will this latest bid for the electric car energize the nation or fizzle out beyond state borders?
Dozens of electric car startups are popping up, boasting futuristic names like the Obvio 828e, Aptera’s Typ-1e, and Myers Motors’ NmG (No More Gas). Even the big names are weighing in, from
Toyota’s plug-in hybrid Prius and Mitsubishi’s MiEV Sport Air to Mercedes Benz’s BlueZERO and GM’s much-touted Volt, whose revolutionary propulsion system will use a super-light lithium-ion battery with a gas-fueled engine to recharge the battery – not propel the car – when the car goes beyond its 40-mile range.
But the electric vehicle, which first appeared in the mid-1800s and outnumbered gas cars until Ford became a household name, faces an uphill battle for mainstream adoption, even if gas prices return to nearly $5 a gallon. The issue is not the motor, it’s the battery.
Like most electric vehicles today, Benson’s Porsche hauls around heavy, lead-acid batteries – 16 of them – that take hours to charge and only get him a 40-mile range. (The Volt’s lithium batteries are lighter but far more expensive.) This limited range is no problem for Benson, who commutes to work 20 miles each way, charging up at work or at home. But range is a major consideration for anyone who wants to drive farther without having to own two cars.
A statewide charging-station infrastructure should help ease the minds of Oregonians who ponder buying electric, says Tim Kutscha, chair of the Oregon Electric Vehicle Association. But realistically, most people will charge up in their driveways overnight. Because charging can take several hours, it will likely be a while before people take road trips in electric vehicles.
Good for errands, but not road trips
Mr. Kutscha, who converted two of his own cars (a Porsche and a Honda Civic), points out that for about 90 percent of people’s daily driving needs, a short range does the job, costs less, and leaves a much smaller carbon footprint.
“It becomes an issue when you want to go to the beach or drive up to Seattle,” he says. He drives a gasoline-powered Subaru on the weekends.
Kerlin Richter, who bought a three-wheeled Zap car in Salem, Ore., in 2008, charges up in her driveway and says she hasn’t noticed any change in her electric bill. The editor and publisher of Hip Mama magazine, Ms. Richter works from home and uses her electric car to drive to church, the grocery store, the library, and to run errands with her husband and 4-year-old son. Their Honda Civic suffices for road trips. Richter’s husband, who commutes near downtown, can plug in at the science museum, walk four blocks to work, and return to a fully charged car at the end of the workday.
Richter estimates they spent less than $20 to drive their electric car 2,000 miles last year. Still, she says, the car is a glorified golf cart, drafty and not terribly comfortable. Driving it takes planning and the occasional charging up at a friend’s house before returning home. “If there were more charging stations at all these workplaces, or on the street somewhere near your house, and it just became part of the culture, it would be really great,” she says. “But for it to become that, more people have to have electric cars, and the people who do it first have less comfort.”
It’s the classic chicken-and-egg conundrum: The infrastructure has to exist for the demand to rise, but the demand has to be sufficient to justify building the infrastructure. Art James, innovative partnerships project director at the Oregon Department of Transportation, pushed for the infrastructure now because of the promise of highway-ready EVs in the coming years, and also because of what he calls Oregon’s “environmental stewardship.”
“Oregon was the first state in the country to adopt land-use laws,” Mr. James notes. “We were the first state to have a bottle bill. We were the first state in the union to have a beach bill, where we protected all the beaches and made them all public. When you switch to an electric car, you immediately lose your tailpipe emissions, and any carbon impact from generation of electricity is significantly lower, and once we’re on completely renewable electric power, then you have zero emissions. That’s what’s driving this.”
James says that while the state is taking a leadership role now, and that cities and private businesses will have to buy the stations themselves, he expects that eventually there will be enough demand for the private sector to step in and profit from these charging stations.
Highest per-capita hybrid ownership
Portland General Electric, which stands to profit from all the additional electricity used if more EVs hit the road, has built 11 charging stations in the Portland area. Though it charges the station owners (such as the science museum) for the power, PGE buys green power on top of that to offset any additional usage.
“We expect Oregon to be one of the top markets for plug-in vehicles,” says PGE spokeswoman Elaina Medina. “Portland has the highest per-capita of hybrid ownership in the country, and one of the top renewable power programs in the country, so our customers are committed and we’re committed. It’s very exciting.”
For now, PGE’s plug-in stations are used infrequently – in part because there aren’t a lot of EV drivers yet, and most of them recharge at home. Lee Dawson, spokesman at OMSI, says he was so excited to see someone using the station recently that he and a co-worker ran outside to snap a photo.
But where are the customers?
Down the road from the museum’s charging station, the electric car’s future doesn’t look as bright.
Ecomotion, one of the country’s first exclusively electric vehicle showrooms, boasts plenty of three-wheeled Zap vehicles and not a single customer. The shop’s mechanic, who asked to remain anonymous, says they saturated their target market shortly after opening in 2007, and now they get little more than curiosity from people who walk through their doors – even though everyone seems to love the idea, including gas station owners who often let customers plug in their cars at an outdoor outlet for free.
Oregon Gov. Ted Kulongoski’s proposed $5,000 electric-vehicle tax credit, which should be voted on by June, will offset the cost of a new electric vehicle. And electric automakers like Nissan are coming to the right place if they’re looking for early adopters.
But if the combination of high gas prices, climate concerns, a statewide station infrastructure, and a tax credit doesn’t encourage a lot more drivers to go electric, what will?
“You don’t use this to drive to California,” Benson says of his own car and of any electric vehicle. “You use it for everyday driving. That’s what people need to realize. Once they get over that hurdle, then all of those other incentives look even more attractive.”
Who killed the electric car? Henry Ford.
At the turn of the 20th century, electric cars far outnumbered all other types of vehicles. Passengers didn’t have to put up with a gas car’s vibrations, smell, noise, and manual gear shifting, or provide the water and kerosene needed for a shorter-range steam car. Electric vehicles reached their production peak around 1912, and remained reasonably successful until the 1920s, as Henry
Ford’s revolutionary production line slashed the cost of the petrol-powered Model T.
Here’s a brief chronology of electric cars in America:
1830s: Robert Anderson of Scotland invents the first electric vehicle, which is a crudely built carriage. Sibrand Acker Stratingh of the Netherlands also designs a small electric car, which is then built by his assistant, Christopher Becker.
1842: American Thomas Davenport and Scotsmen Robert Davidson are the first to build electric road vehicles using nonrechargeable electric cells.
1865: Frenchmen Gaston Plante invents a better storage battery, which was further improved by Camille Faure in 1881.
1891: Americans A.L. Ryker and William Morrison jump-start the automobile industry with their electric tricycle and six-passenger electric wagon.
1897: The Electric Carriage and Wagon Company of Philadelphia builds an entire fleet of New York City taxis.
1899: Camille Jénatzy’s Belgian-built electric racing car, ‘La Jamais Contente’ (‘the never satisfied’) sets the world’s land-speed record: 68 miles per hour.
1902: The Woods Phaeton, which can go as fast as 14 m.p.h. and as far as 18 miles, costs $2,000 (nearly $55,000 today). Companies like Detroit Electric and Baker Motor Vehicle are producing the cars as luxury items, with makeup kits, cushions, and mirrors.
1912: An electric roadster sells for around $1,750, a gas-powered one for about $650. Electric car sales began to drop. Cheap oil from Texas, better roads (which beckon people to want to drive farther), and the invention of the electric starter accelerate the trend.
1916: Clinton Edgar Woods, of Phaeton fame (see 1902), invents a hybrid car that has both an internal combustion engine and an electric motor.
1932: Electric vehicles have all but disappeared. From now until the 21st century, most electric vehicles in production are golf carts, US Postal Service delivery jeeps, and the occasional concept car.
Today: Dozens of automakers – big and small – are working on electric vehicles that range in price from a few thousand dollars to Tesla Motors’ $109,000 Roadster.
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Comments
2. james squire | 02.10.09
When do batteries for electric driven vehicles wear out, and if and when they do, are they expensive (easy) to replace?
3. Todd Scott | 02.10.09
Henry Ford didn’t kill the electric car. Consumers did. They preferred the advantages of the gas Model-T and bought them in such large quantities that Ford could drop the price. Had electric technology been superior at that time, there is no doubt that Ford would have been all over it.
4. Neil Wells | 02.10.09
Un tell they get a car that will go 300 miles
or more on one charge it will never happen.
6. HSR0601 | 02.10.09
I’m hopeful that the tax credit for auto buyer can be redirected to the Fuel-Eefficient Automobiles.
7. Paul Scott | 02.11.09
Many of us here in California have been driving EVs for 6-10 years. These are production EVs from Toyota and Ford. My RAV4 EV can travel 120 miles on a charge and can easily hit 80 mph. Most of us use solar generated kWh to charge our cars.
There are many great things about driving electrically.
None of our money goes to the oil companies - not a penny.
Our cars are silent, make no pollution whatsoever, and need virtually no maintenance. My car has 66,000 miles and has had nothing replaced other than tires and the aux battery. The rear shocks wore out at 63,000 miles, but otherwise, nothing has been done, no tune ups, oil changes or radiator repairs because it has none of those things.
There has never been a war over electricity and there never will be. You can make kWh with the sunlight that falls on your roof. My family runs our house and car on a 3 kW PV system that cost $15K. It’ll be paid off within 8 years and last 40-50 years.
EVs are coming soon and I can guarantee that the smart people will be first in line.
8. Jon | 02.11.09
I hope this becomes a part of what makes oregon special!
If we really have reached peak oil, and if it really is about to hit us hard, then we’ll be gratefull that we had the foresight to plan ahead and be competitive. If, on the other hand, our forecasters are wrong about peak oil, the worst that will result is a slight economic loss. If we do this right, it shouldn’t be much more than an investment. Once the charging stations are working and the vehicles are ready, we should save more money on road maintenance and vehicle maintenance - electrics have less parts and don’t vibrate as much. Additionally, the emissions won’t be in the city where people live and work, they’ll instead be centralized at power plants where we can better filter them. Not long after we’ll able to bring in enough clean energy power plants that our state will look clean and pretty versus others! If pollution and AGW are as real and profound as some say, these will be good choices. If not, we should still be able to get by, and we’ll do it in style.
9. M_DragonKnight | 02.11.09
So can any greeny tell me what the envioronmental cost is to mining the lead and/or the lithium needed for the batteries? How many mountains will need to be leveled not only to supply all the lead/lithium but also the coal to fuel the power plants that will charge these things. Or is that the secret green plan; to screw-up the planet so badly that humans will not be able to survive?
DK
10. Bob Bath | 02.11.09
Nothing about the middle eastern oligarchies that treat women as second class citizens with no voting rights, no right do drive… Nothing about the way tire companies and US automakers colluded to get rid of electric powered mass transit in the 1920s and 30s… Nothing about the obscene amounts of cash we spend deploying troops in areas we need to secure oil…
As far as the comment above that one needs to have a 300 mi. range– when was the last time you drove 300 miles? I guarantee we will not be driving on gasoline for the rest of our lives… it may be butanol; it may be a horse; it will likely be electricity, but before the economic collapse, gas was $4.50/gal in the us. It _will_ happen again, without adoption of EVs.
11. Mc | 02.11.09
EVs are very exciting and the ideal consumer would use wind or solar power to recharge the batteries. However, the batteries really are the crux…until a better battery is developed (and I know many are in the research stages) the damage to the environment will just be shifted from one media to the other. Though this should not dissuade consumers from purchasing EVs, we should all just be aware that they are the next step towards true environmental stewardship.
12. Dan | 02.11.09
9. M_DragonKnight | 02.11.09
So can any greeny tell me what the envioronmental cost is to mining the lead and/or the lithium needed for the batteries? How many mountains will need to be leveled not only to supply all the lead/lithium but also the coal to fuel the power plants that will charge these things. Or is that the secret green plan; to screw-up the planet so badly that humans will not be able to survive?
DK
——————————
Compared to the pollution caused by a gas powered car over the period of time that a lithium (or even lead) battery lasts, the difference is extreme, easily over 20 times as much.
Still, most little neo-cons really love to make your argument. I wonder how long it will take before baseless snide retorts on the right will no longer be used to determine national policies….. oh, wait…. that’s already happening.
13. jojo | 02.11.09
4. Neil Wells | 02.10.09
Un tell they get a car that will go 300 miles
or more on one charge it will never happen.
If you drive 300 miles a day, get a gas car. If you drive 30 miles a day, plug in. Why is plugging in a car every day overnight any different than plugging in your laptop or cell phone? Do you *need* 12 hours of charge on your laptop battery?
14. jojo | 02.11.09
2. james squire | 02.10.09
When do batteries for electric driven vehicles wear out, and if and when they do, are they expensive (easy) to replace?
—-
Lead acid batteries have been around for over a century. Very easy to replace, and they are about 97% recycleable (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lead-acid_battery).
15. M_DragonKnight | 02.11.09
Compared to the pollution caused by a gas powered car over the period of time that a lithium (or even lead) battery lasts, the difference is extreme, easily over 20 times as much.
Still, most little neo-cons really love to make your argument. I wonder how long it will take before baseless snide retorts on the right will no longer be used to determine national policies….. oh, wait…. that’s already happening.
Really? Does that include the petroleum products used when transporting, the energy being used when smelting, the peroleum products when building the containers? How about the resources used for getting those workers that make them to work? Let’s not forget the carbon fiber, again more energy used.
It is much better to use CNG as fuel it is domestic and there is little conversion that needs to be done to convert current vehicles. It is cost effective, efficient and clean. The only thing missing is the infrastructure and the same can be said for EVs. It is a current technology that isn’t being exploited.
Oh and Dan, I have been an Independent all my life and a conservative ever anti-greenie since the Boldt Decision in the 70s. I think that shoots down your neocon moniker to me. But, I’d rather be branded a neocon then drink from the koolade that the Obamamaniacs are drinking and trying to serve.
16. Bruce | 02.11.09
Natural gas, while still containing carbon, is certainly better than gasoline from an environmental standpoint. However, we’ve already seen significant price spikes when an event like a Gulf hurricane knocks out even a small percentage of production capacity. The fact is we are already using natural gas at close to its maximum rate. Switching to CNG might be viable as long as you’re the only one on your block doing it, but to supply the nation (much less the world) transportation energy demand it’s far from sufficient. We don’t have near the capacity to produce it fast enough for that, and even if we somehow quickly built the capacity that would only mean using up the world’s limited supply that much faster. I don’t think most people have a clear idea of just how much energy the transportation sector, even just the passenger vehicle subset, uses. Switching to CNG is not a viable option for the nation. Electricity is, and is also the most practical given everyone already has the needed infrastructure installed in their very own home.
17. Ed | 02.11.09
I built a all electric Ford Ranger pickup. It will go 60 mph and has a range of about 25 to 30 miles. The batteries are 14 lead acid 8 volt Trojans. It’s a great around town vehicle and has no problem keeping up with traffic. As battery technology advances I will up grade to the new technology. And be able to travel maybe a 100 miles on a charge. I drive right past the gas stations with a big EV grin….Ed
18. Cleantech | 02.12.09
The question today about PHEVs (plug-in hybrids) and EVs (electric vehicles) is not the availability of battery technology options, but determining the optimum battery chemistry. This, in combination with intelligent management systems (controllers and software), and coupled to fast recharging comprises the race to deliver the best cost performance and service longevity options.
The availability of advanced Battery technology options with different chemistries other than lead acid are also no longer a major barrier to wide spread commercialization and adoption of electric vehicles, be it PHEV’s or pure EVs.
With a ready available power grid, extended range PHEV’s and EV’s can handle the American daily commute by plugging-in at night (off-peak power) and at home, rather than waiting for a trillion dollar infrastructure build out, e.g. hydrogen.
Over one million Prius cars are on American roads today. The market acceptance of electric propulsion is already a reality. The migration from today’s hybrids to plug-in hybrids and EVs is the next evolutionary step in the transition away from fossil-fueled transportation. An additional boost for plug-ins will be responding to new EPA tailpipe emission standards along with market expectation for zero emission vehicles and improved MPG efficiency. Increasingly, for the more enlighted manufactures, the jury is no longer out on electric vehicles, they see the writing on the wall and with the introduction of EV and plug-in hybrids (PHEV) cars, SUVs and trucks over the next 1 to 3 model years they expect profits as well as pain in the transition ahead.
Oregon is certainly leading the small scale development and innovation of electric vehicles and EV conversions, while several well-funded manufacturers are also in the race to be first with the large scale delivery of Alt-fuel electric vehicles. These companies already in pre-production and production stages include:
TESLA
http://www.teslamotors.com/
FISKER MOTORS
http://karma.fiskerautomotive.com/
GM (VOLT)
http://media.gm.com/volt/
Toyota (who help create the hybrid marketpalce with the introduction of the Prius) is also experimenting with limited fleet tests of PHEV converted Prius cars and have announced plans for the 2011-12 introduction of a PHEV model, however, these cars are only a baby-step to EVs and offer very limited EV driving range, 6-8 miles vs. the 30-40 miles in all EV mode, which is sufficient for the daily drive for the majority of Americans and currently available through aftermarket Prius-to-PHEV conversion options offered by Hymotion (http://www.a123systems.com/hymotion) and others.
19. Spec | 02.13.09
The time has come for EVs. Li-Ions are around $500/Kilowatt-hour. That is cheap enough to build EVs that are just a little more than gas cars. Govt. subsidies and cheaper fuel costs make them cost effective.
Let’s roll . . . on electron power.
Ed, lots of people are doing conversions with Li-Ions now and getting 100 mile ranges. Check out this Honda S2000 conversion:
http://s2kev.blogspot.com/
20. Spec | 02.13.09
M_DragonKnight, lead-acid batteries are too heavy. Lithium is the way to go. And you don’t mine mountains to get it. It is right on the surface of salt flats. The get it from Bolivia and CHile . . . but there is also a mine opening up in Nevada.
Your knee-jerk rejection of anything green is pathetic. View the facts and make a rational decision. Buying dead-dino juice from people that want to kill us sure hasn’t proved very smart.
21. Dave Occhino - car font | 02.13.09
If I had enough money, I’d love to get a Tesla. Such a cool car. I sure hope that company is successful… I just wish the price was lower.
22. Green Machine42 | 02.18.09
The Nissan concept cars looks great, but it’s just that, a concept car. I’ve seen cars like this in popular science ever since I was a kid.
There is however, a new electric car that’s already here. Wheego Electric Cars is officially launching its U.S. dealer network.
The first car will be the Wheego Whip, which is most certainly not a smart fortwo. Wheego has an exciting line of electric cars.
My driving experience was — I could not drive it
enough. The following article has more info on these great electric cars:
http://www.alternativeenergynewswire.com/electric-cars#electric-cars
23. Mr. Questions | 03.04.09
1. Where does the electricity come from to power these cars if only 20% of our energy is “alternative”?
2. How many cylinders are in the diesel engines that power the “electric” trains that cross the country to deliver these electric cars to you?
3. Do you really think the 30,000,000 “Jethro” that you believe voted wrong are going to recycle their car batteries?
4. If these “Jethro” don’t take their batteries to an appropriate recycle center; like the one 150 miles away from their home in NO-Where BFE, what would the local land fill contamination look like in say 10 - 20 years of this?
5. What non-oil based products are going into all of these cars to build them? (The paint, bumpers, lubricants, CPU… the plastic that encases what is the batteries, the nylon seat belts, foam inside the seats, etc.)
6. How can you be technologically savvy, and still use a computer, cell phone, iPod, etc that rely so heavily on oil products in order to even exist?
7. It’s 9:40pm where I am at right now, I have had a long day, and admittedly was very amused at every ones rhetoric… But seriously, some of you post huge diatribes and I have even started to recognize others of you. So I leave you with just one last question, do you actually have jobs?
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1. Lukas | 02.10.09
Every state should follow this lead and I hope they will do so in the coming years.