Electric-Car Move Needs More Juice
After dismal public acceptance of battery-powered vehicles, General Motors Corp. on Thursday marked the second anniversary of its EV1 electric car by unveiling an extended-range version of the vehicle that it hopes will attract more customers.
Separately, DaimlerChrysler announced Thursday that it would enter the field with a new vehicle, making 120 Caravan electric vehicles available for fleet leases in California next year.
Neither vehicle, however, will run even 200 miles on a full charge in normal driving conditions, and both will come with monthly lease payments that rival a mid-range Mercedes-Benz. Those are the kinds of problems the industry faces as it tries to sell consumers on the idea of electricity as an automotive power source.
Electric vehicles definitely have a future--California is requiring that 10% of all new cars sold by 2003 be zero-emission vehicles, and other states are imposing their own zero-emission rules.
But industry experts are divided about the potential of storage batteries, which are heavy and have limited capacity. At 140 miles between charges, the EV1 with nickel-hydride batteries offers almost 75% more range than its competitors. A typical gasoline-powered car can go 300 miles or more between fill-ups, which take a few minutes instead of the three to seven hours most electric cars need for a recharge.
As a result, the same auto makers who are building electric cars to meet California’s clean-air mandates also are spending billions of dollars on fuel cells and turbogenerators that could leapfrog batteries by providing on-board power generation.
“To the extent that the automobile represents freedom, battery vehicles just cannot be successful at the present level of technology,” says Eric Noble, an analyst at AutoPacific Inc. in Santa Ana.
California’s electric vehicle program--part of the state Air Resources Board’s search for a zero-emission vehicle--”is successful in that we actually have electric vehicles for lease in California, and you can’t say that about most of the U.S.,” says Ron Cogan, publisher of Green Car Journal.
But it is a limited success.
“The fact is that there has not been any significant market penetration, by any manufacturer,” he said.
Only about 1,000 of the more than 3 million cars and trucks registered in California in the last two years are electric.
Ford Motor Co., for example, has leased only 250 of its electric-powered Ranger pickups nationally, 100 in California, while GM has leased 550 EV1s since 1997, about 400 of them in California.
Of 400 electric-powered RAV4 subcompact sport-utility vehicles that Toyota Motor Corp. has leased nationwide, 280 are in California, while about 200 of the 220 Honda Motor Co. electric minivans out in the market are in California.
The numbers are small because electric vehicles carry “an extremely high cost for what amounts to niche market products with all new technology,” says Cogan, whose San Luis Obispo-based publication promotes use of electric power. “No one is winning when you are talking about lease prices of $400 to $500 a month.”
Like many in the industry, Cogan sees battery-powered electrics as interim or “bridge” vehicles, more valuable as test beds for electric motors and drive systems than as potential replacements for the gasoline-powered car.
GM says its 1999 EV1 represents a giant leap forward in that arena with a second-generation drive system that is half the size, has 33% fewer moving parts and costs half as much as its first-generation design.
“We are becoming more efficient,” says Frank Pereira, EV1 brand manager for GM. “We’ve cut about 30 pounds in weight from the car with our changes, and that improves its efficiency and helps extend its range.”
Pereira says that GM’s nickel-metal-hydride batteries themselves represent a new level of storage--they pack more power into the same space. Combined with the EV1’s light weight, they boost the futuristic aluminum-and-plastic two-seat coupe’s range to as much as 140 miles on a single charge. That’s nearly double the range of the 1998-model EV1 with conventional lead-acid batteries.
EV1’s increased travel range comes at a hefty price. GM doesn’t sell the cars, but figures the retail price at $43,995 in order to set a lease rate. That’s about the same as a V-8-powered Lincoln Navigator or a Chevrolet Corvette convertible. But it is cheaper than Ford’s electric Ranger--which carries a retail price of $49,505 with the nickel-hydride batteries.
The lease rate for the extended-range nickel-hydride battery version will be $499 a month after state and federal environmental funding provides a $150-a-month subsidy. The subsidized lease rate in California for the EV1 with conventional batteries is $399 a month.
The lease prices, which are competitive--Honda’s EV, for example, leases for $455 a month and the new Dodge will run $450--are a big minus for the electric vehicle program.
With the vehicles’ relatively limited range and consumer fear of unproven technology--along with the dispute about charging systems, it becomes easy to see why there aren’t very many electrics seen on California highways.
GM’s extended-range vehicle “is not really enough to make an impression on the average motorist,” says Thad Malesh, who attended Thursday’s electric vehicle symposium in Phoenix, where the new EV1 battery pack was unveiled.
“The nickel-metal-hydride battery is the next step in the evolution of the electric vehicle, but consumers still have concerns about range and price. And on both issues, the EV makers have significant hurdles to clear.
