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Forum member publishes book "Owning an Electric Car"
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Written on: 15 February 2010 [21:34]
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ecoadmin
Administrator
Topic creator
registered since: 20.07.2007
Posts: 583
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I am pleased to announce that one of our members has published a book about owning an electric car. Please read the press release below to learn more about the book. I am sure that the publisher will be happy to hear your comments on the release of the book. Thanks go to Micheal Boxwell for his advocacy for electric cars. Press Release. Monday 15th January 2010 NEW BOOK SHEDS LIGHT ON ELECTRIC CARS Everything you might want to know about electric cars has been encapsulated within a new book, „Owning an Electric Car‟ by Michael Boxwell, with a foreword by former Top Gear presenter, Quentin Willson. The book should prove to be an indispensable guide to anyone interested in these vehicles. „Owning an Electric Car‟ contains a wealth of information, much of it based on interviews and surveys with owners – as well as the views of manufacturers, politicians, environmental campaigners and electricity providers. The author doesn‟t gloss over any issues – he explores both the advantages and disadvantages of owning an electric car. Some of the issues covered by this book include the practical implications of owning and driving electric cars; the purchasing and running costs involved; detailed descriptions of the various car models available; and a guide to buying used electric cars. It also explores the environmental implications and includes some unique „real world‟ fuel economy figures compared with those for cars with combustion engines. The author even includes appendices on other types of electric vehicles – from bikes to aircraft and boats. Motoring enthusiast Michael Boxwell is a best-selling environmental and technology author and speaker. He has been a passionate advocate of electric vehicles for some years and founded a company that became the UK‟s largest independent electric bike retailer. He bought his first electric car in 2006, and subsequently formed the REVA/G-Wiz Electric Car Owners‟ Club, which now has over 1,000 members. Michael Boxwell comments: “I wanted to write a book that tells the whole story about the electric car – both what it does well and what it doesn‟t do well. I also wanted to help people to decide whether or not they want an electric car – and how they can find a model that will suit both their budget and their needs. Electric cars are here to stay. My book helps readers to understand both the challenges and the opportunities that these vehicles present.” “Owning an Electric Car” is published by Code Green Publishing. It is available from Amazon and all good book shops, priced £11.99. Further information – plus an online preview of part of the book – can be found by visiting www.owningelectriccar.com. ENDS Note to Editors: A copy of this media release, along with photographs can be found at http://www.CodeGreenPublishing.com/media.html Owning an Electric Car by Michael Boxwell ISBN 978-1-907215-10-0 Code Green Publishing. Twike 890
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Written on: 21 February 2010 [12:40]
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OwningElectricCar
 
registered since: 16.01.2010
Posts: 31
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Thank you for posting that press release up. It is much appreciated. The book is now available across North America and Europe and is selling well. I've had a huge amount of press interest, including ended up on TV news and in the UK national press, which really highlights how much interest there now is with electric cars. A year ago, I would have struggled to get any mention in even the car magazines, let alone anything else. The idea of the book is to provide people who are interested in owning an electric car all the information they need to help them make an informed choice. It also includes sections for businesses and a short section for governments and councils to give them some pointers in their strategy for electric cars. I'll be sending out another press release later this week which talks about the environmental efficiencies of electric cars when compared to internal combustion engine cars, based on some research I carried out earlier this year. In effect, it shows that an electric car powered by electricity taken from the UK national grid at night is responsible for around one third of the carbon dioxide of a normal car, and even when powered from a coal fired power station is still significantly better for the environment. It will be interesting to see what response that gets. Author of the book 'Owning an Electric Car' - http://www.OwningElectricCar.com
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Written on: 21 February 2010 [21:06]
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Yardonn
 
registered since: 22.08.2007
Posts: 160
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OwningElectricCar wrote: In effect, it shows that an electric car powered by electricity taken from the UK national grid at night is responsible for around one third of the carbon dioxide of a normal car, and even when powered from a coal fired power station is still significantly better for the environment. If it is charged at night... But how realistic is this today? How many people do not recharge over the day? If batteries stay as expensive as today, many people will not be able to afford a Battery-capacity that will carry them through the day. Even though beiing a fan of electric vehicles, i do not like unrealistic assumptions to camouflage a big problem (that electricity is not clean energy as it is today, and that electric vehicles should be more energy-efficient in order to be green...) Alleweder 4
http://www.akkurad.com allmost full weather protection for one person at 0 - 1.5 kWh / 100 km CityEl as secondary E-Car |
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Written on: 21 February 2010 [21:47]
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OwningElectricCar
registered since: 16.01.2010
Posts: 31
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First of all, I am not camouflaging a problem - the book goes into a lot of detail about the environmental issues of energy production. The problem is, everyone gets all het up about energy production for electric cars, whilst ignoring the fact that energy production for internal combustion engine cars - i.e. extracting the oil, refining it and transporting it, is far a more damaging than the generation of electricity. So whilst electricity production must get cleaner (and will), looking at the whole picture will give you a much better perspective. Unfortunately, that isn't easy. For instance, the EU figures for carbon dioxide emissions per kilometre (g/km CO2) for internal combustion engine cars only takes into account the emission from the car. It does not take into account the emissions from the extraction and refining and transportation processes for the fuel. Incorporate those into the equation and the carbon dioxide emissions go up by around 1/5th. Then take into account that the emissions testing is done at hot, low altitude locations in order to maintain minimum emissions which do not reflect typical driving. In real life driving, most internal combustion engine cars will emit around 60-70% higher emissions than the official figures. My research proved that electric cars were more environmentally friendly whether they were charged during the night or the day. Electric cars are still cleaner if the energy production occurs at a coal-fired power station in the middle of the day. Charging up a car at night - starting at midnight and finishing at 7am in the morning, for example - is perfectly feasible for most electric car usage. It is very rare that I need to recharge either my iMiEV or my G-Wiz during the day because I don't have enough range. A lot of electric car owners in the UK move onto a cheap overnight electricity tariff in order to reduce the cost of charging up their electric cars. I have not done the research to suggest that most electric car owners predominantly charge up at night, but there is a lot of evidence that many of them already do, either for environmental reasons or because of the cost saving. And you are forgetting the point that although there has been a recent blip in prices, the prices of lithium batteries are steadily falling and are expected to fall a further 15%-20% this year alone. Of course, we all want cleaner electricity. And over time, we'll get it. But even with the dirty old muck we get through our electricity sockets at the moment, you can make a positive step for the environment by switching from an internal combustion engine car to an electric one. [This article was edited 1 times, at last 21.02.2010 at 21:48.] Author of the book 'Owning an Electric Car' - http://www.OwningElectricCar.com
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Written on: 21 February 2010 [22:13]
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JBode63
 
registered since: 11.02.2010
Posts: 83
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... and as a small addition: There had been statistics (made in Germany), that 50% of car use is done on distances 5km or less. This is the perfect worst-case-scenario for internal combustion engines. A gasoline motor is just on temperature after 5km, a diesel engine needs 10 or more kms to get onto its operating temperature ... These conditions will cause a significant higher fuel consumption than when operating in correct conditions! On the exact consumption levels is - naturally - no data I can get hold of ... An electric vehicle has no need to get to temperature - therefor the benefit is much bigger than just compared to the nominal fuel consumption of the internal combustion driven vehicle. [This article was edited 2 times, at last 21.02.2010 at 22:14.] |
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Written on: 21 February 2010 [23:51]
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Yardonn
registered since: 22.08.2007
Posts: 160
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OwningElectricCar wrote: And you are forgetting the point that although there has been a recent blip in prices, the prices of lithium batteries are steadily falling and are expected to fall a further 15%-20% this year alone. Sorry, but at this point i have objekt. I know the pricies at which a small manufacturer for electric mobility buy its Lithium-Packs, and the prices for high quality-cells are rising, not falling. I have talked to several alternativ supliers, but they are neighter very cheap and some of them could not even provide the easy handling of our 5 Year old Battery-technologie. It would be realy nice, if myth of falling prices would become true for the company's producing today, but i don't see that. Fact'S please, not fiction: For Akkurad prices are rising. Alleweder 4
http://www.akkurad.com allmost full weather protection for one person at 0 - 1.5 kWh / 100 km CityEl as secondary E-Car |
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Written on: 22 February 2010 [09:31]
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OwningElectricCar
registered since: 16.01.2010
Posts: 31
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You are right, there has been a blip in battery prices - both lithium and lead acid batteries have gone up quite dramatically in the past few months. I was talking to an electric car manufacturer who told me their 10kWh pack had gone up €100 twice (a total of €200) in the past few months. Anyone who has had to replace their batteries on their electric car in the past few months will know what I mean. Battery prices are extremely volatile (now there's a surprise!), but whilst the long term projectory for oil is up, up, UP! the long term projectory for batteries is the price continuing to fall. The same electric car manufacturer I was talking to has also told me that they are currently testing a new lithium-based chemistry that will be approximately a third lower in price than the prices they have been paying, whilst providing better performance than their previous batteries. New lithium battery factories are being built all the time - China has almost twice the battery production capacity than they had two years ago - and lithium mining has also been ramping up over the past two years (there is a one year lag behind increasing lithium production and the refined lithium itself being available). Combined, this means the high prices will start to fall. Mitsubishi have been openly saying that they will be able to build lithium based electric cars to sell at a comparable price to a petrol car within three years (Remember, Mitsubishi are not just a car manufacturer - they are a major battery manufacturer as well). Nissan is talking about the price of their battery electric Leaf selling for a similar amount to a Toyota Prius when it becomes available early next year - including batteries. These claims are not being made by small manufacturers, they're being made by huge corporations who are staking billions of euros on this. Right now, for small volume electric vehicle manufacturers, the harsh reality is that the battery prices are still rising. These small companies do not have the bargaining power to buy enough volume to bring this price down and so they are subject to the market volatility that the bigger manufacturers won't be. Expect this to change in the coming months, but also expect the larger car makers to get the best prices first. After all, they are the only players who can order the volumes needed to bring the production prices down to much lower levels. [This article was edited 1 times, at last 22.02.2010 at 09:40.] Author of the book 'Owning an Electric Car' - http://www.OwningElectricCar.com
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Written on: 23 February 2010 [12:11]
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Yardonn
registered since: 22.08.2007
Posts: 160
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OwningElectricCar wrote: the EU figures for carbon dioxide emissions per kilometre (g/km CO2) for internal combustion engine cars only takes into account the emission from the car. It does not take into account the emissions from the extraction and refining and transportation processes for the fuel. That raises an interessing question: is this different for electricity-production (eg in a coal-powerplant)? Or do they camoflage there true ecological impact by just calculating the direct emissions, neglecting the pollution cased by mining the coal? Of course, there is only one right way to calculate, but true lifecycle -cost (or economical impact...) are realy complex to calculate, thus very easy to manipulate into the direction the author likes to promote. (never trust a statistics you haven't faked by yourself...) Alleweder 4
http://www.akkurad.com allmost full weather protection for one person at 0 - 1.5 kWh / 100 km CityEl as secondary E-Car |
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Written on: 23 February 2010 [23:41]
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OwningElectricCar
registered since: 16.01.2010
Posts: 31
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There are lots of different figures given from different sources for electricity production - some of them include the extraction for the raw materials (coal, oil, etc. etc.), most of them do not. So in the UK, for instance, the International Energy Agency Data Services rate our carbon footprint for electricity as 440g per kilowatt-hour. The UK's carbon trust rate our carbon footprint for electricity as 537g per kilowatt-hour. The difference is that the International Energy Agency does not take raw materials into account and the carbon trust takes both raw materials and transmission losses into account (around 7% of electricity is lost through transmission from the power stations to our homes). At the risk of the moderators wrath and the potential for eternal blogging damnation, I shall now put a link through to my web site  . I hope I can justify it on this occasion though! On my web site I take a live feed from the UK National Grid and report it along with some recommendations as to when it is a good time to charge up an electric car. You can find it here: www.owningelectriccar.com/national-grid-electric.html The figures shown for the electricity carbon footprint take raw fuel supply and transmission losses into account. I would really love to extend this to other countries in Europe and for different states in the US. Getting my paws on the data is proving a bit tricky though... [This article was edited 3 times, at last 24.02.2010 at 00:40.] Author of the book 'Owning an Electric Car' - http://www.OwningElectricCar.com
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Written on: 18 March 2010 [17:23]
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Franko30
Administrator
registered since: 08.09.2007
Posts: 88
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JBode63 wrote: ... and as a small addition: (...) A gasoline motor is just on temperature after 5km, a diesel engine needs 10 or more kms to get onto its operating temperature ... These conditions will cause a significant higher fuel consumption than when operating in correct conditions! On the exact consumption levels is - naturally - no data I can get hold of ... An electric vehicle has no need to get to temperature - therefor the benefit is much bigger than just compared to the nominal fuel consumption of the internal combustion driven vehicle. Hi, Here is s.th. I found in the manual of a gasoline engine "Seat Ibiza" I had as a rental for two days last year: A cold motor uses about 50-70 l/100 km (4.7043 - 3.3602 US-miles per gallon) right after start, after about one km this drops to about 20-30 l/100 km (11.761 - 7.8405 US-miles per gallon). After 4 km everything settles to the normal use of 5-7 l/100 km (47.043 - 33.602 US-miles per gallon). They recommend to avoid short distance driving  Find a scan of the respective manual page as an attachment. Cheers Franko30 [This article was edited 2 times, at last 18.03.2010 at 17:30.] Mitsubishi i-MiEV + Citysax 002, davor/formerly Twike 808 and 891
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