I have blogged on the electric car before, but it still needs more clarification. The problem is that most of the ink has been salesman type rather than real engineering. First of all we need to agree that there is really no new technology here and more higher production volumes will have little impact. People who do not know anything about technology will disagree with this. First, batteries. There are only a couple of types of batteries and non are new. This Lithium-Ion battery was invented in 1904. That is over 100 years ago. The cheapest battery is the lead acid battery, but it is heavy. The Lithium Ion battery is lighter, but more expensive. If there is any improvement in efficiency takes place, it will be small and have a high cost. Now, the electric motor. Nothing really new has been invented in the past 100 years related to electric motors. The motors like the batteries are so mature that the basic cost is now the raw materials that they are made of, not labor. Now how about a little 4th grade math?
(1) Assume the car can go 300 miles on a charge.
(2) Assume the battery can be discharged and recharged 1000 times.
(3) Assume the car drives the 300 miles at the speed of 45 mph.
(4) Assume the car needs to develop 40 horse power to drive at an average of 45 mph.
(5) We know that it takes 0.75 KW per horse power.
(6) At 45 mph it will take 6.67 hours to drive the 300 miles.
(7) The battery needs to hold a charge of 200 kwh.
(8) The electricity cost $0.15/kwh so it takes $30 of electricity to drive 300 miles.
(9) Gas costs $3.50/gal so $30 equals 8.57 gal of gas.
(10) For the gas car to cost the same as the electric car, it needs to get 35 mpg.
(11) Since the battery will wear out, we have to figure it into cost per mile. The cost of the battery per mile be:
$ 5,000 battery = $0.017/mile
$ 7,500 battery = $0.025/mile
$10,000 Battery = $0.033/mile
(12) Electricity per mile is $0.100
(13) Gas per mile at 35 mpg = $0.100
(14) Gas per mile at 40 mpg = $0.087
(15) Gas per mile at 45 mpg = $0.078
(16) Cost of electric car plus electricity and battery is $0.133/ mile.
Notice that the electric car will cost twice that of a gas car if the gas car gets 45 mpg and the electric car battery cost $10,000.
Special note. I used 100% efficiency for the electric car motor and battery charging and I used the 1000 recharge cycles even though the spec states "upto" 1000 charges. The battery is so big that it will be very difficult for the electric car to go up long hills.
If you have a problem with any of my numbers, I would like to hear from you.
PS-------
The big battery in this electric car needs to hold 200kwh of electricity. That is a lot of juice. To recharge the battery in 2 hours after driving the 300 miles, how long do you think it would take if you used all the juice in you home? Most new homes have a 200 amp service. At 2 hours, you would need to charge at the rate of 10 kw. Now how big is that? Your whole house service is only 20 kw. You would need to have a breaker on the charger circuit rated at 100 amps. I am not sure how big of an extention cord you would need for that size charger.
