The existing fleet of owned Toyota RAV4-EV demonstrates that 120-mile-range
all-electric cars can run on the same pre-2003 battery packs for more than 100,000 miles. These batteries are Nickel-Metal
Hydride ("NiMH").
They are the only proven EV batteries; Lithium MAY be better, but MAY be too expensive. Lithium has not yet been
proven successful in Electric cars. No Lithium EV has so far gone more than 50,000 miles on the same battery.
Nickel, Lead or Lithium will work to run EVs; the main issue is cost. Cost must be lowered, and we must decide
to make the technology work.
We need a battery "RECYCLING" industry, which takes old NiMH batteries, after 100K or 200K miles, and
reprocesses them into new batteries. This is the ONLY way to drive down costs; ALL the metals needed in new NiMH
batteries are to be found in the fleet of existing NiMH cars, and the only cost is that of "refreshing"
spent batteries into new batteries. The same can be done for Lithium; currently, Lead batteries are almost all
recycled, just as almost all Nickel is reused via scrap metal.
We CAN do this. It's proven and easy, and cost-effective. |
EV detractors are gloating about a coming oil-glut. They are now claiming that EVs
are, indeed possible, but much too expensive. And the use of Lithium batteries in ALL supposedly upcoming EVs is
likely to prove them correct.
Nissan has dealt with this issue by pointing out that depleted batteries must be remelted down for new batteries,
to lower costs.
This is already done with NiMH: even after 100,000 miles, our RAV4-EV still gets more than 100 miles on a charge,
MORE than the 40-mile VOLT and more than the 100-mile Nissan Leaf, both of which are just beginning production
and may be susceptible to cancellation..
It's all in the batteries: we want to redirect industry from oil-drilling, which costs up to $500,000 per day per
rig, to sustainably recycling batteries. From making oil-fired cars that burn up the money spent on oil, leaving
only pollution, to use that money for sustainable rooftop solar systems.
Certainly, Lithium batteries have been improved: but it's very strange to risk an entire new approach to the automobile
on a technolgy that, so far, has NOT proven practical. Every one of the successful plug-in cars started out using
lead acid batteries, and were upgraded to NiMH; when and if Lithium is proven, then use it. For now, use the battery
we know works.
The cost is at least $20,000 for replacing the Tesla pack. If it only lasts 50,000 miles, that's over 40 cents
per mile just to keep it in expensive Lithium batteries. With NiMH, the acceleration is less, but so is the cost,
and they last a lot longer. If NiMH EV batteries were produced as efficiently as cylindrical NiMH, a pack would
cost no more than $6000, or less than 6 cents per mile. Even less, if recycling drives the price down and research
leads to even longer-lasting NiMH.
It would be far safer to produce plug-in EVs that use NiMH batteries, proven to last more than 100K miles, maybe
far more if the technology has as much focus as it deserves.
We ALSO need solar rooftop power.
To run a plug-in car 1000 miles per month takes only 250 kilo-Watt-hours
("kWh") of energy, about what two beer boxes use and about a third of the average home's electric usage.
Even better, solar power on the roof doesn't require building huge plants on the desert: the rooftops of America,
over 10,000 square miles of sunny space, are more than enough to provide ALL our power, even if all of our transport
is electric.
It only takes a solar system of 1.3 kilo-Watts ("kW") power, which only needs 6 to 13 square yards, to
power an EV 1000 miles per month. For those who don't have roofs, that's a smaller space than the EV parks in;
if your garage had solar power, it would generate enough power for two EVs.
Solar power is capable of producing more energy than we ever need, but only in the daytime; current technology
"stores" electric via pumper-generator stations such as Lake Castaic, which uses cheap off-peak electric
from Washington via the Western States (D/C) Power Grid to run 6 giant pumps to push the water up to Lake Castaic.
The next day, the pumps turn into generators to power peak period demands.
Wind power too, which is mostly available at night, can help even out the power profile without the need for new
fossil fuel generators.
This is arguably the most important issue of our time: getting off of oil and getting rid of oil dictators. Bush's
forbear Prescott Bush got his start working for Standard Oil of Ohio: Big
Oil is the big enemy.
This is something we can do: plug-in cars and solar rooftop power. It's proven, real, and a way to nurture a large
number of Citizens who generate their own power.
The rooftops of America can power all our energy
needs: we don't need new land, just use the unused roofs to generate more power than we will ever need. |