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E-Mobility Is Only As Clean As The Power It Consumes.

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As concerns mount about global warming, oil dependence and urban traffic pollution, automotive manufacturers and policymakers are intensifying their efforts to make battery-powered vehicles a viable alternative to conventional oil-fueled cars. Electrical drives are not new in transport: Trams and trains have been running on electricity for a long time. Electrically driven vehicles have been around since the 1830s. Today the electric car in combination with renewable energy and 2nd generation biofuels is experiencing its comeback: Quiet, efficient and without CO2 emissions, thanks to advances in battery technology, it offers a cost-saving alternative to conventional combustion engines. As a dream team for mobility without oil, renewable energy and electric cars ideally complement each other, for example as intelligent storage battery.

The launch of electric mobility promises climate protection provided that the power source is mainly from renewable energies. A major advantage of e-mobility combined with green power: Emissions are avoided, not just relocated.

The dominant technologies to improve transportation efficiency are plug-in vehicles – both plug-in hybrids (PHEVs) and full battery electric vehicles (BEVs). Over 80% of people travel less than 40 miles per day, well within the 100-mile range offered by today’s electric vehicles (EVs). The desire for range tends to far exceed the need, and range extension is an issue common cited by EV opponents. As batteries improve and EVs become more prevalent this will subside, but in the near term it must be addressed. PHEVs are a form of range extension.

The critical enabling technology for vehicle electrification has been lithium-ion batteries, giving electric cars minimum ranges of 100 miles and top speeds of at least 90mph. Electric vehicles are a nascent industry being accelerated by government support. The Boston Consulting Group has estimated that up to November 2009 governments had pledged over US$ 15 billion to support the electric vehicles ecosystem. Examples of this support include direct vehicle subsidies (e.g. US$ 7,500 in the US, 5,000 EUR in France, 60,000 RMB in China), support for battery manufacturing and infrastructure (France has pledged 1.5 billion EUR). This is all in addition to tax incentives. In Denmark, there is a 170% registration tax on gas-powered vehicles. In Israel the sales or value-added vehicle tax is lowered from 78% to 10% for electric vehicles. Any and all gas taxes can also be seen as support for EVs. The political wildcard is the introduction of regulatory emission/fuel economy standards. European and Japanese governments have proposed emissions standards with punitive financial penalties that car companies are unlikely to be able to meet without sizable EV penetration. If passed, and matched by US-based legislation, this legislation will ensure meaningful EV deployments by 2020.

For the time being, the main bottleneck issues for electric vehicles are (i) infrastructure (e.g. the availability of recharging stations); (ii) range extension; and (iii) availability and cost competitiveness of electric vehicles.
Electric vehicles need plug-in infrastructure and a smart charging network that protects grid integrity through local load management.

The cost for EV and gas powered vehicles is equivalent except for the battery. From a total cost of ownership perspective, EVs are already cheaper as the lower cost per mile more than offsets the upfront costs of the battery. Fuel costs tend to vary widely. On average, fuel costs per mile move inside a range of 13 to 40 US$ cents after the impact of government taxes or subsidies. In comparison, an electric mile costs around 11 US$ cents per mile. Current electric vehicles are getting 5 miles per kWh. Assuming a cost of 11 US$ cents per kWh that is equivalent to a fuel cost of only 2.2 US$ cents per mile.

However, the disparity in upfront costs for electric vehicles, with their expensive batteries, must also be included in the cost per mile. Given a depreciation over their useful life span (2500-4000 charge cycles on average) and a resulting depreciation cost of around 9 US$ cents per mile, the total electric mile cost adds up to 11 US$ cents per mile. Even with the current technology in place, this is already a highly competitive scenario that speaks in favor of electric mobility. With government incentives, the total cost of ownership for an electric vehicle will soon be on par with the cost of owning a car with traditional internal combustion engine (ICE) technology. Electric vehicle technology and operations advances will continue to bring the cost down, and innovative battery financing will make purchase prices more attractive, even after government incentives end. As this gap closes, demand for EVs will grow.

In the future, electro-mobility will account for an increasing share of transportation. Electricity from renewable energy will drive clean and efficient electric motors in cars and motorbikes, in buses and railways. According to various studies, renewable energy’s share in the traffic sector could rise to 40 % by 2030. The first mass market electric cars have already hit the showroom. In 2008, Israel became the first nation in the world to commit to an all-electric car infrastructure, followed by Denmark. Both have since begun installing charging stations.

Electric vehicles’ role in a low-carbon future goes beyond pure transport – many experts see mass penetration of electric vehicles as the key for higher levels of renewable energy generation, and the most powerful driver for a smart grid. In addition to the positive climate contributions, still standing electric vehicles are able to store power surplus from the grid. And after driving home or to the next station, parts of the stored power can be reloaded into the grid, if needed. The amount of power realized from renewable sources fluctuates widely on a daily basis. This prevents renewables from participating in base-load power generation. Another impact of the variability in supply is that unexpectedly large yielding days produce power that gets wasted.

Electric vehicles are a solution to this problem as they act as distributed large scale storage devices. Current utility scale storage solutions come in 2MW increments; 50,000 EVs would offer 1GW worth of storage, 500 times that amount. The benefits to the grid are that EVs provide load by leveling night-time electricity demand. However, at present the cost of a battery cycle for Lithium-ion batteries makes vehicle-to-grid prohibitively expensive. There is a strong symbiotic economic argument for the parallel deployments of renewable, biofuels and electric vehicles. Integrating the smart grid, e-mobility and renewable energies become an imperative unity.