Electric Cars Get Charged With Batteries (and Gas, Hydrogen, Sunlight)

Summary: Manufacturers of electric cars hybrid with gas, hydrogen and solar options or true to batteries expect to reclaim leads from combustible engine carmakers.

photosynthetic-fueled car idea by Katrina, 14 years old, for Create Tomorrowland XPrize Challenge: Consumer Reports @ConsumerReports via Twitter March 5, 2016

Electric cars and plug-in hybrids are moving into the higher rated niches despite range anxiety and range fixation, according to the April 2016 annual auto issue released by Consumer Reports in March.

The energy stored in a battery becomes the power source for an electric car and is charged by plugging into home or public electrical power sockets. The typical range of 50 to 100 miles (80.47 to 160.93 kilometers) before charging can be extended by supplementing the electric motor with a combustion engine. Power derives from lead acid batteries in lower-power, smaller-sized electric cars; lithium ion batteries in higher-powered, larger-sized electric cars; and nickel metal hydride batteries in hybrids. Variations on power sources exist in hydrogen-powered fuel cell-generated, in solar-arrayed and in solar power-charged electric cars even though limited production excludes their accessibility for ratings.

A hydrogen-powered fuel cell car finds the power to generate electricity through chemical reactions with hydrogen in contrast to the fuel-burning power of the combustion engine.

Faster rates of creating energy give hybrids the advantage over hydrogen fuel cell cars while electric cars have slower refill rates than hydrogen-powered fuel cell cars. Fuel cell cars have hydrogen through an energy-intensive process of extraction from water by electrolysis, with three units of electricity for every unit of hydrogen generated. There is a market for hydrogen-powered fuel cell cars in Iceland and, to a lesser degree, in Germany, Japan, the United Kingdom and the United States.

Conversion of internal combustion engine cars to hydrogen joins the production of hydrogen-powered fuel cell cars in Iceland, location of the world’s most hydrogen service stations.

Regular cloud cover and seasonal variations in the intensity of sunlight keep solar power from serving as the sole renewable energy source for charging electric cars.

The costs of grid-tied solar arrays for charging cars and homes and of vehicle-only solar arrays look much higher now than they will be by 2020. Ten percent of new cars and 25 percent of Ford’s sales may be electric-powered models, according to Carlos Ghosn of Renault-Nissan and Derrick Kuzak of Ford. Public solar charging-stations and hydrogen service stations need to become more economically feasible and geographically operational for hydrogen-powered and solar-powered electric cars to rock Consumer Reports.

Extending the range and increasing access to rapid 25- to 30-minute charge-ups offer electric cars and plug-in hybrids opportunities to overtake the combustion engine car’s lead.

Charge-ups one-quarter or 4 or 8 or 20 hours longer than the time to pump gas, insufficient charging-stations and limited range predominate in electric car criticisms.

Electric cars qualify as transportation fixtures whose manufacturers reclaim leading inventions in 1828 and 1835 and sales in 1900 lost to cheaper, more powerful combustion engines. Consumer Reports rate Tesla high for most satisfied owners and 100-scored road tests and Chevrolet Bolt and Hyundai Ioniq among 2016’s 10 cars worth waiting for. Their conclusions show BMWi3 getting 139 miles per gallon, Ford Fusion SE Hybrid getting 39 and Toyota Mirai hydrogen-powered fuel cell car figuring among cars profiled.

Michael Boxwell tells Electric Car Guide followers that “electricity will become the dominant fuel for cars and that take-up could be much quicker than currently anticipated.”

Tesla Motors Inc. has the world’s fastest charging-stations. Tesla obelisk identifies the rapid charging supercharger network sites in California: Steve Jurvetson, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Acknowledgment

My special thanks to talented artists and photographers/concerned organizations who make their fine images available on the internet.

Image credits:

photosynthetic-fueled car idea by Katrina, 14 years old, for Create Tomorrowland XPrize Challenge: Consumer Reports @ConsumerReports via Twitter March 5, 2016, @ https://twitter.com/ConsumerReports/status/706117089736716289

Tesla supercharger obelisk: Steve Jurvetson, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons @ https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Tesla_Obelisk.jpg

For further information:

Consumer Reports @ConsumerReports. 5 March 2016. "Based on these imaginative concepts, our automotive future seems pretty bright." Twitter.
Available @ https://twitter.com/ConsumerReports/status/706117089736716289

Consumer Reports staff. Last updated January 2016. "Electric Cars 101." Consumer Reports > Index.
Available @ http://www.consumerreports.org/cro/2013/03/electric-cars-101/index.htm