Magazine 95 - nr 1 (Engels)

95 - THEME: ELECTRIC VEHICLES - NUMBER 1 - SPRING 2010

‘We need to build intelligence into the grid’’

95

ANDRÉ POSTMA, ENEXIS

THEME: ELECTRIC VEHICLES

TENSION RUNNING HIGH IN THE AUTOMOTIVE WORLD

WHERE DOES THE BATTERY GO? ARN’S VIEW ON EV RECYCLING

NUMBER 1 - SPRING 2010

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in tHe Picture photography iStock.com

Automotive company Renault-Nissan plans to form a joint venture with the French energy commission CEA and investor F.S.I. to develop and produce batteries for electric cars. The plan calls for the annual production of 100,000 batteries of this type at a site near Paris from the middle of 2012.

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95

The battery’s life cycle

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p4 Enexis’ André Postma on mobile smart grid development P10 WHAT IS THE ELECTRIC CAR? P12 TENSION RUNNING HIGH IN THE AUTOMOTIVE WORLD

p16 Case study on EV recycling P25 COLUMN BY MOTORING JOURNALIST WIM OUDE WEERNINK

p26 Umicore on battery recycling P30 NEWS P33 MEDIA

p34 Politics and the electric car P38 95 SHORT

p40 Spijkstaal: electric from the beginning

RECYCLING OF ELECTRIC VEHICLES ARN’s profile has gradually shifted from that of an implementing organisation to a centre of expertise. ARN has an answer to every question about recycling. To communicate that message loudly VALUE and clearly, we have decided to launch this new magazine, ‘95’.

ARN will publish 95 twice a year.

Each issue will be devoted to a specific topic, covering far more aspects than just car recycling. The theme of this issue is electric mobility, naturally including the perspective of recycling.

ARN’s interest in vehicles and mobility is derived from recycling. This is an ideal moment to choose the subject of electric mobility given the intensive planning and actual development of electric mobility currently underway around the world.

Because although a lot of thought is being given to the production of electric vehicles, how to recycle them is receiving too little attention. What will we do in eight years’ time with the batteries from the first electric vehicles that are now appearing on the market? ARN has been contemplating this problem for some time to avoid suddenly facing a recycling problem when the time comes. The centrepiece of every issue of 95 will be a detailed case study describing ARN’s vision of the theme. So in this first issue you will find almost all the available information and ARN’s views on the recycling of electric vehicles. There is a lengthy interview with André Postma of network manager Enexis about the mobile smart grid in the electricity network.

We also take a look at what is happening in the political arena. How are the car makers preparing for the future? When you have read this magazine you will know almost all there is to know about EVs. Almost all, since we don’t have all the answers yet. And that brings us to the title of this magazine, ‘95’: A title designed to provoke and raise questions. The questions that may eventually lead us to that elusive 100% knowledge.

Dave Bebelaar, CEO ARN

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enexis

NO mORE TECHNICAL PROBLEMS

text Jeroen Booij photography Maarten Corbijn, Enexis

Enexis, the manager of the electricity grid in the north, south and east of the Netherlands, has outspoken ideas about electric cars. This is primarily due to Andre Postma, who is a fervent advocate of creating a mobile smart grid in the electricity network. “The grid will have to be adapted before we can drive on electricity. The problem lies in the pattern of consumption, not in the volume.�

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enexis

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enexis

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en thousand charging points will have to be installed in the Netherlands in the next 3 years. At present it is still a question of finding one, although that is not a problem for the employees of Enexis, where there are already three charging poles in front of the head office in Rosmalen. They have been installed to show that the company is thinking ahead, but also purely to provide practical information. André Postma, mobile smart grid manager with the Essent subsidiary, has followed developments in the world of the electric car very closely. Postma: “Even in our wildest dreams we couldn’t have predicted that everything would move so quickly. But therein lies a major risk, of course, since the question is whether the high hopes can actually be met? People now believe there will already be electric cars driving everywhere next year, but there won’t. Not so much because of the state-of-the-art in the technology but because of the risks that have to be addressed. The car manufacturers have absolutely no idea what to expect, if only because they still have to investigate how motorists will behave in the future. One thing that is clear is that we will have to use an electric car differently. We are now used to driving around and filling up when the petrol tank is empty. That’s the way it’s been for a hundred years. That will all change with the electric car.

You will fill up when the car is standing still, and that’s a lot of the time, 22 to 23 hours a day on average.”

EV as second car

Precisely 2 years ago Postma gave a presentation on the emergence of electric cars and its consequences for his company, which he now describes as a wake-up call. Postma says a lot of people laughed at him, but the board of Enexis and parent company Essent did take him seriously.

Postma: “And you mustn’t forget that changes are taking place all around us. But the question is whether you want to be a leader or a follower. In this case, we certainly want to be a leader and that means looking a long way into the future. We are not designing a network for 5 years, but for 50 years. The point about the electric car is that we have to try and find a new optimum between the distance that can be travelled, the length of time a car can travel, how long a car stands still between journeys and the charging capacity. In the Netherlands, we currently drive around 55 kilometres a day on average. That seems a lot, but that average is increased by the outliers in terms of the number of kilometres driven. The average distance covered in a journey is around 25 kilometres. With these figures, you can make an estimate of the energy that is required. If we take a pessimistic forecast and say that an electric car will do 1 to 5, that means it will need 11 kWh per day. With a charging capacity of 3 kW, that will take just over 3 hours, although you have 23 hours. It would be ideal for a second car, and there are an awful lot of them in the Netherlands.”

Postma’s idea is not as crazy at it might sound, since if the second car of every household in the Netherlands (more than a million) were an electric car there would still be far more EVs than the 200,000 currently projected for 2020. A huge effort will therefore be required to deliver the average of 1.1 charging stations per EV that is required according to Enexis’ own research. Postma: “You also have to realise that, by contrast

with some other countries, charging at home will be reserved for the happy few in the Netherlands since there are relatively few people with a drive in front of their house. And no one wants the closest charging point to be 6 kilometres away. That won’t work.”

The smart grid

To Postma, what it comes down to with the EV is that the problems are not so much technical as problems of organisation and perception: “Most people are currently focused entirely on their own particular interest, particularly the range. But we can estimate how much energy is needed.

“We are currently conducting studies to produce models. There are various stakeholders. The first is the customer himself. Then there is the network manager, who does not want the grid to be overloaded. And there is the producer of the energy, sustainable or otherwise, and the spare capacity. As network manager we are obliged to maintain a reserve in case of power cuts if a power station crashes. But it will be an entirely different story when the time comes and everyone is driving an EV. You can cope with the shortage by quickly reducing the supply of power for all those cars. One way or another, all of these parties influence the management of the charging process, but only one can control it. That is far more complicated than the technology itself, partly because the government has a say in it.”

Pre-charging

We still haven’t discussed the question of money. What kind of sums are we talking about if the Netherlands switches over to electric driving?

Postma says he has no idea what the electric car will cost, and the manufacturers are also still looking for the answer. They are in the early stages of development, but when the time comes they will certainly at least be able to compete with regular cars.

Then there is the electricity itself, which will be generated in different ways, ranging from highly polluting, for example using coal, to extremely clean, using solar, hydro and wind energy. Postma does not expect an explosive increase in energy consumption if we all switch to EVs. Why not? “First, far less energy will be needed at the source. An electric car is not like a light or a washing machine, which you switch on when you need it. You have to charge the car before you use it. With 5 million electric cars, we believe that electricity consumption will increase by around 15%. The problem lies in the pattern of consumption, not the volume. We don’t want a peak in energy consumption every day, it has to be spread out. We currently use 30 to 40% less energy at night, but the supply is difficult to regulate in a number of existing power stations.”

The smart-grid expert feels that wind energy is ideal for charging EVs for one simple reason. At sea, the wind blows harder at night than during the day, creating an overcapacity which could easily be used for EVs. Postma believes that the entire fleet of cars in the Netherlands could be supplied with energy at night with a wind park of up to 2,000 turbines capable of generating up to 5 megawatts. That still leaves the question of who will pay for it. Postma: “We have devised a simple formula for the charging

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enexis

Andre Postma, mobile smart grid manager at network manager Enexis

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enexis

We have conducted research into the total costs and reached the conclusion that it will cost around €30 billion if we don’t use the smart grid. If we do, the costs will be around 10 billion, including the charging points.

Visit e-laad.nl to read how the network managers in the Netherlands want to bring sustainable electric driving within reach

poles. Anyone with an electric car can register and is given a charging point in front of their door. At the moment it is free, since the foundation e-laad.nl is paying the costs of around €2,500 to €3,000 per pole for the time being. In future, they will cost around €500 to €750.

In Israel, where they are already a lot further in this regard, the costs have already fallen dramatically. A huge advantage is that almost no digging will be required since most of the underground cables are already in place. We have conducted research into the total costs and reached the conclusion that it will cost around €30 billion if we don’t use the smart grid. If we do, the costs will be around 10 billion, including the charging points. That is already a good reason to research that option carefully.”

Standard plug will arrive this year

Postma shows me a thick plug. This will be it, the standard plug for EVs. This valuable device with a pistol-shaped handle is very similar to the plug for a trailer. At the end of October the majority of European energy companies signed an agreement making it the standard. The agreement has already been submitted to the president of the EU. It quickly becomes clear why the ordinary sockets are unsuitable. Postma: “In the first place, they are not designed to provide a constant supply of more than 10 ampère. Furthermore, cars are kept outside so there is no guarantee that there is an earth leakage circuit breaker.

Thirdly, since the ordinary sockets are indoors, extension cords and spools will have to be used to enable the plug to reach the socket. It is all very dangerous. Ordinary sockets are also not designed to be used for long periods every day.” That leaves the question of how an empty EV can be quickly charged , for example at a charging point along the road. “We have already found that 3 kW is not much to charge a car”, says Postma: “If I had to drive from Amsterdam to Brussels today I would have to recharge my EV there, although I might only have two hours to do so. That can’t be done with 3 kW, but it is forbidden to use more with an ordinary socket because it

is dangerous. That is not a constraint with the plug we have now developed. It can handle from 2 to 43 kW, which fully charges the battery quickly enough. The standard plug will appear this year and we will be adapting all our existing systems to it. We are also lobbying the car manufacturers, all of whom will adopt this standard.”

Recycling

As well as cooperating with the car manufacturers, he is also working closely with the universities of technology in Delft and Eindhoven to develop the software for the control model. These universities are also involved in the testing programme. Within 2 years Enexis wants to conduct a test case with the smart grid using 100 cars in one neighbourhood.

And what about recycling? Has Enexis thought about that? Postma: “I don’t know about the car itself, but we do have ideas for the battery. We know that the battery’s capacity will steadily decline. But just because it can no longer be used in the car after a number of years doesn’t mean it is dead. We can reuse the energy from the car for the grid itself. This is what we call the Vehicle to grid (V2G) process. You can later give a battery a second life by using it for storage in the network.

Energy companies are very interested in being able to store energy at a strategic location, but it could also be interesting for other parties, let’s say energy brokers.

This could dramatically reduce the total costs of ownership. Naturally, you could also use such a battery at home, but I doubt whether that would make commercial sense. Such a system is not cheap.” Which leaves the important question of whether the EV is the ideal solution for our transport problems. Postma: “You first have to ask yourself whether the car is actually the answer to our transport needs. I don’t think so, it is only part of it. But for the car itself, electricity is almost certainly the solution. With electricity you can make a totally clean car, and the electricity is already there.

I am extremely positive, but what I can’t tell you is when it will arrive. We just have to wait and see.” t

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in tHe Picture photography iStock.com

Following action by government and a number of idealists or hobbyists, there are several hundred electric cars on the road in the Netherlands. (...) It seems advisable to wait a while until the flood of new models, promised for early next year, actually appears on the market. We might then also see some progress with the charging points.

Intermediair p9 - 95 spring 2010

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Product information

Great electrification with small

power cuts

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Product information text Jeroen Booij photography Dreamstime, image manufacturer

The age of the electric vehicle seems to be approaching ever closer. However, the question remains: when will the electric car make a real breakthrough? To answer that, you first have to ask another question: what is an electric car?

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here is no self-respecting car manufacturer that is not addressing the issue of the electric car. A huge green wave of smart city cars, buses, multi-passenger vehicles and fast sports cars is appearing and charging points are springing up faster than mushrooms. It is all the more ironic then that there are scarcely any electric cars to be seen on the street. And it is debatable whether the number will explode any time soon. “You have to invest now, the large volumes will certainly arrive,” insiders say. But according to Bosch, the leading supplier to the auto industry, the electric car will not play a significant role before 2020. The German industrial multinational has forecast that around half a million electric cars will be produced in 2015, less than 0.6% of the estimated total car production in that year. Why is it taking so long?

According to Bosch, the problems lie in the battery technology.

Less toxic

And indeed, whatever way you look at it the battery is the key obstacle for the electric car. By contrast with the common 12-volt lead battery on which a car’s electric systems run, the electric-driven car requires a current of at least several hundred volts. For a range of 200 kilometres, the car’s battery needs a capacity of 35 kWh and a lead battery capable of generating that capacity would almost literally weigh a ton. The first alternative was the nickelcadmium (NiCd) battery, which, while it was lighter, contained the highly toxic cadmium and suffered from ‘memory loss’.

The less toxic nickel metal hydride (NiMh) battery that followed is still widely used (for example in the hybrid Toyota Prius), but has meanwhile been succeeded by the lithium-ion (Li-Ion) battery, which is used in laptops and mobile telephones. And while these are a good deal compacter and lighter, they still cost a lot of money, on average around €17,000.

According to Bosch, it will be a while before batteries decline further in size, weight and price.

Different hybrids

It is precisely because of these drawbacks that for the time being we depend mainly on a cross between today’s fueldriven car and the electric car of tomorrow: hybrids.

Nine times out of ten the hybrid as we know it now is a serial hybrid, with a conventional fuel engine that also drives a generator. The generator transmits energy to an electric motor, which can drive the wheels or charge the battery, depending on where it is needed. The result is a car that is always optimally tuned, and therefore relatively efficient. There is also the parallel hybrid, in which both the combustion engine and the electric motor drive the wheels via a gearbox. There are various models of parallel hybrids, classified according to the extent to which the electric motor assists the combustion engine. Falling between the serial and parallel hybrid, there is also the plug-in hybrid. In simple terms, this is a hybrid whose battery has a charger and a plug so that it can be charged using a regular power socket.

Fire risk

To keep down the costs in the short term, the major European and American players in the automotive and electrical engineering industries will have to work closely together, says Bosch. General Motors has already joined forces with the American company A123Systems in an effort to increase the power generated by the lithium-ion battery, lengthen its shelf-life and reduce its sensitivity to short-circuiting and burning out using nanophosphate technology. Managing the battery’s temperature is an important aspect, because it is still a weakness of the lithium-ion battery. Everyone has heard the stories of laptop batteries spontaneously combusting, even the car industry. t

For more information about the electric car, visit allcarselectric.com 95 spring 2010 - p11

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manufacturers

For a long time now the question has not been whether, or even when, electric cars will make their appearance, but how? Because although most car manufacturers already have scenarios in place for their introduction, it remains to be seen how soon EVs will become commonplace in personal mobility. p12 - 95 spring 2010

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manufacturers

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ll of the world’s leading car manufacturers and energy companies are proceeding with pilot projects. The first electric Mini’s are on the road in California and New York, the first electric Smarts can be seen in London and Berlin. Nevertheless, one thing is certain: the French and Japanese car makers have taken the lead in both the development of electric vehicles and the associated business model. Helped by their national C02-neutral nuclear energy supply and progressive government policy, alliance partners Renault and Nissan as well as Mitsubishi and its French joint-venture partner PSA Peugeot Citroën are in fact ready for a market introduction very soon. The Mitsubishi ‘i’ MIEV and its French clones — the Peugeot iOn and Citroën C-Zero — will be launched in Europe before the end of 2010.

Renault will launch the Kangoo EV just a few months later, and in 2011 Nissan will introduce the Leaf, the world’s first car to be developed purely as an EV. Between now and 2013, Renault and Nissan will both launch four EVs, ranging from special city cars to medium-sized sedans. Soon after, MercedesBenz will be the first German company to follow suit with the smart EV and the BlueZero EV.

Increase in scale necessary

Even General Motors is keeping up with the times with the Chevrolet Volt and Opel Ampera. The company’s launch date is also planned for the middle of 2011. Although the Volt and Ampera have an auxiliary unit on board to allow the car to make it home if the battery runs out, this GM concept is still regarded as a full-fledged EV, by contrast with hybrid cars, which are driven by a combination of a combustion engine and an electric motor. A reliable and affordable energy supply is therefore crucial for the future success of the EV. Key features in that scenario are the cost structure, the useful life of batteries and their recycling. At the moment, the lithium-ion battery is universally used, but it is expensive, costing around €600 per kWh, which translates to €14,400 for the modest 24 kWh battery pack in a Nissan Leaf. “Those costs could fall by 50% in the coming years”, says Redmer van der Meer, who is responsible for product planning for EVs at Nissan Europe. “And the current range of 160 kilometres per battery charge could shortly be increased to 250 kilometres.” Above all, that will call for an enormous increase in the scale of battery production.

Leasing batteries

Car manufacturers have already decided to devote a lot of attention to the manufacture of batteries. Renault and Nissan have formed a joint venture with Japan’s NEC, and Daimler has joined forces with Germany’s Evonik to form Deutsche Accumotive GmbH. Other battery producers and car makers are following suit, with good reason. “We will design the battery packs entirely according to our own standards and dimensions”, says Volkswagen’s director of development, Ulrich Hackenberg. “That remains the competency of the car maker itself.” And it has to, since the 400-volt batteries not only weigh a lot (upwards of 160 kilograms, plus the weight of the fastener) but also have to be designed in such a way that they take up as little space as possible. Batteries are an integral part of the overall concept of the car, as it were. In the Nissan Leaf the battery packs are intelligently integrated into the floor of the car, which is the safest place in the event of collisions but also benefits the road holding. Consequently, it seems there will be no role for the after-market segment of the replacement market for the time being. However, the recycling of batteries offers significant opportunities since the expensive lithium-ion batteries have a far longer shelf-life than the 6 to 8 years they will have to supply energy for an EV. To extend the depreciation period to as much as 20 years, the Renault-Nissan alliance therefore decided to list their prices for EVs without batteries and then lease the batteries to the EV user separately from the purchase of the vehicle.

Recycling concept

In this way the car maker can offer the end user a favourable kilometre price for the energy source. But Carlos Ghosn, the chairman of the board of Renault-Nissan, the world’s leading advocate of electric mobility, believes that owning the batteries will create more possibilities for the manufacturer: “For example, let’s say improved batteries become available three years after the owner of an EV has bought the vehicle. We can then offer him the new battery, without him having to buy another EV, possibly even without any additional cost. We will then prepare the batteries from the EVs for recycling ourselves.” With this in mind, Nissan has developed a recycling concept with Japan’s Sumitomo. The used EV battery packs are dismantled, checked, repaired if

text Wim Oude Weernink photography Images manufacturers

The scale of battery production has to increase enormously

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manufacturers

The current range of 160 kilometres per battery charge could shortly be increased to 250 kilometres.

necessary and then reassembled into new battery packs. “After several years of use in an EV, lithium-ion batteries always still have 80% of their capacity and can be recharged with solar energy and continue providing energy for years for stationary or household use”, says Ghosn. Renault-Nissan believes that a battery pack could last as long as 20 years.

Everyone has his own projections

This plan for long-term recycling is just one aspect of the business model for electric mobility and for the changing use of EVs. Recycling, but also efficient charging of the batteries at strategic locations, at home, at the office or on the road, are all aspects that must be available at the right time to create public acceptance of electric mobility

and allow it to work in practice. A brave person who is one of the first to buy an EV will only have to find himself standing at the side of the road without energy once and he will immediately return to his tried and trusted petrol- or diesel-driven car that he can fill up anywhere.

The large car makers — led by Renault-Nissan and PSA Peugeot Citroën, closely followed by Daimler with Smart and Mercedes-Benz and GM with Chevrolet and Opel — realise that and therefore have their own projections for the EV’s breakthrough. Volkswagen is cautious, is waiting to see what happens and believes that 1 to 1.5% of all cars produced in 2020, or 600,000 to 900,000 units, will be electric.

Carlos Ghosn is more optimistic, and feels the market share could be 10%, corresponding with annual production of 6 million EVs. As already mentioned, the electric car is going to arrive, and soon. t

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manufacturers

Renault-Nissan list their prices for EVs without batteries 95 spring 2010 - p15

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case studY

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case studY text Jeroen Booij, Allard Verburg, Kasper Zom photography Images manufacturers, Hollandse Hoogte infographics Deirdre Fabery de Jonge

The government’s ambition for the Netherlands is to be a pioneer in the use of electric cars. By 2020, plug-in hybrids and electric cars should make up a large proportion of the national car fleet. But what about the recycling of these cars and their batteries?

That is still something of a mystery. Nevertheless, ARN has been exploring the issue in depth.

Case study on

EV recycling T

2020: the year by which electric cars should be fully accepted and the first real ‘recycling year’ for electric cars

he advance of the electric car is unstoppable.

Recycling them calls for an entirely new approach.

The Netherlands may want to be a pioneer in the use of electric cars and see as many EVs as possible on our roads as soon as possible, but how much thought has been given to the recycling of all those EVs? Scarcely any, it would seem. ARN specialists are studying the matter in depth so that they can quickly provide useful advice about reuse possibilities and recycling aspects of the electric car in the Netherlands.

the electric car is expected to have won complete acceptance. According to PricewaterhouseCoopers, by around that time 5% of the cars produced in the world should be electric. Renault-Nissan’s CEO, Carlos Ghosn, puts the figure at around 10%. The Dutch government is also heavily promoting electric vehicles. The government’s initial target was 2 million EVs before 2020.

Although that figure has now been drastically reduced to 200,000 units, a huge wave of electrically-driven cars is still on the way.

Huge green wave

Recycling options

Eight years. That is the anticipated average useful life of the battery in the electric car of the near future. But in saying that we are getting well ahead of ourselves, since the electric car hasn’t even arrived yet. Although all of the major car makers have plans to introduce models, the first real wave of electric cars is only expected in 2012. For the recycling industry, the wave will follow 8 years later, in 2020, which is also the year in which

With the projected life-span of 8 years for a battery, it is in fact assumed that the battery will not survive the car.

That raises questions. For example, who is going to replace the batteries of electric cars that have not yet reached the end of life cycle? More importantly, what is going to be done with the old batteries? Some car makers plan to arrange the recycling themselves, while others don’t or don’t yet know. One way or another, 95 spring 2010 - p17

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case studY

Lithium-ion battery

Lithium is a soft silver-white metal.

This battery is regarded as the ideal battery for the modern electric car. What elements are needed?

Lithium

A battery contains around 4 kilos of lithium. Every year, 14,000 tons of lithium are needed for the batteries in electric cars.

Two important elements

Rare Earth Elements (REE) REE is an acronym for a group of 17 very rare metals.

the EV creates plenty of opportunities for the recycling industry. The electric car of the future will contain fewer liquids that the recycling specialists have to deal with.

On the other hand, electric motors contain a lot of copper, and those motors are themselves very easy to recycle (after revision). If more money is needed to recycle a battery, the question is whether it can be reused for other purposes. The residual capacity of a battery that can no longer be used in a car is still fit for other purposes. There will still be a residual capacity of 70 to 80% in the battery, so it can be given a second life, connected to a wind turbine or for use in the home, for example. This is another interesting subject for the specialists in this area. ARN plans to conduct further study into the ways in which EV batteries can be reused and is talking with a number of market actors to investigate and implement other options. What is important is that the proceeds from the second use are actually available for the ultimate recycling.

Is there enough lithium?

First some background information. The demand for suitable batteries will obviously grow explosively now that the EV is seen as the car of the future. After the lead battery, the nickel cadmium (NiCd) battery and the nickel-metal hydride (NiMH) battery (see page 11), the lithium-ion (Li-Ion) battery is now generally seen as the ideal battery for the modern electric car. Not surprisingly,

REE are much scarcer. This is a major concern for the electric car industry.

Volume of REE mined in 2008: 124,000 tons.

one of the main components of the lithium-ion battery is lithium. But what is lithium? First of all, it is an element. It is found in certain types of rock and salt and spring water and is used a lot in the ceramics and glass industries and as an ingredient for medicines. But lithium is rapidly being put to wider use, because it is ideal for heat transfer and has a high electrochemical potential, which makes it suitable for use in modern batteries. Rechargeable lithium batteries are already used in 60% of all mobile telephones and 90% of laptops. With the introduction of the electric car, the demand for lithium for the EV batteries will grow from 1,000 tons (2008) to at least 14,000 tons in 2020. Even with this explosive increase, there is believed to be enough lithium for the next 200 years. It is also unlikely that lithium-ion batteries will be the ultimate solution for the electric car. In Israel, for example, scientists are working feverishly to produce new technologies that are safer and cheaper, such as a battery consisting of silicon (sand) over which air flows to generate electricity.

Four kilos per car

?

Worldwide reserves: 11 million tons, enough to last for 400 years.

More than two-thirds of the world’s stockpiles of lithium are to be found in the ‘lithium triangle’, which overlaps the borders of Chile, Argentina and Bolivia. Bolivia already plans to build a lithium factory capable of producing 30,000 tons a year, but the potential is far greater. According to research by the U.S. Geological

Global reserves: unknown.

China, the largest producer of REE (with 97% of the reserves), has imposed export restrictions

What is true and what is untrue about Li-Ion batteries? howstuffworks.com/ lithium-ion-battery. htm

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case studY

?

lucas reijnders, Professor of environmental science at the university of amsterdam, once came second in a poll to choose the Greatest Green dutch Person. according to reijnders, with the existing power stations the average co2 emissions caused by an electric car during its entire lifecycle are 140 g/km, compared with 200-210 g/km for a conventional car. in other words, the emissions are far lower, and the same applies for emissions of particulate matter and acidifying substances, including nox. However, there are also drawbacks. reijnders says that an increase in the number of eVs will lead to greater consumption of water and more problematic waste. He feels there will only be a real benefit for the climate if electricity is generated on a large scale from the sun and wind.

But he does anticipate economies of scale from the strong growth of renewable energy, especially in countries like china and india, since the large-scale use of renewable energy sources will make them cheaper and hence more widely available.

Survey, there are global reserves of 11 million tons of lithium. Based on the current rate of consumption, this means that there is enough lithium to last for another 400 years, not counting recycling. Approximately 4 kilograms of lithium are needed for the battery of an EV like the Nissan Leaf. Assuming annual global sales of 70 million cars, and that PwC’s forecast that EVs and Hybrid EVs (HEVs) will account for 5% of car sales in 2020 is correct, 14,000 tons of lithium would be required every year. Given the known reserves, the lithium producers can easily meet the future demand from the car industry.

Rare Earth

So that’s one less concern for the manufacturers. But that is not the whole story, because lithium is not the only ‘new’ element in the electric car’s Li-Ion battery.

Rare Earth (also known as REE for Rare Earth Elements) is another. And as the name suggests, this is the collective name for rare ingredients. Not only because

Lucas Reijnders’ opinion

they are scarce, but especially because refining them is an extremely complex process. In 2008, approximately 124,000 tons of REE were mined. REE is produced mainly in China, which accounts for 97% of the stockpiles of Rare Earth. China has imposed an export restriction on certain REE in an attempt to retain the production of EV batteries in the country. The use of REE has grown explosively in recent years (rising by around 10% every year), and with it also concerns about its availability. According to the US Geological Survey, at the moment ten to 12 kilos of REE are used in a hybrid vehicle with a nickel-metal hydride battery; Li-Ion batteries are less dependent on REE materials and the batteries in cars weigh less. According to various experts, it could be just a few years before the sources dry up. China’s decision to impose export restrictions therefore marks a major strategic step, since whoever produces the batteries will ultimately play a very important part in the manufacture of the electric car. There is an urgent need to discover cost-covering processes for

KEMA’s opinion Kema in arnhem is a leading authority on the subject of the safety of new technologies. and that includes the electric car, where electricity plays a significantly more important role than in the current generation of cars. what would happen, for example, if a li-ion battery is sprayed with water by the fire brigade after an accident? How can you dismantle such a battery when an electric car is wrecked? or to take it another step further: how can we stimulate the use of the batteries when they are no longer used in the car? Petra de Boer of Kema: “there is little practical experience and there are still a great many different batteries, each one with its own characteristics. we have everything under control with respect to conventional cars, but that will soon change. we now have to do the same with eVs. if a li-ion battery catches fire, it briefly causes a very fierce fire. what are the risks? the recycling is also an interesting problem. what will happen if such a battery accidentally ends up in the shredder? there will soon be a huge number of batteries on the market. we need to be thoroughly prepared to deal with them.”

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case studY

The battery’s li If an electric car’s battery no longer provides sufficient energy, it can still be used for other purposes. What is going to happen with all these batteries?

C O LL EC TI O N PO IN

COLLECTION POINT

T

All the old batteries from electric cars will be brought to a central storage point. From there, there are three alternatives.

Central collection point for batteries

REUSE

RE

U

SE

Some batteries can be stacked and used, for example, to store energy in homes that use solar energy or in wind parks.

Reuse should raise money to finance research, and ultimately pay for recycling.

Energy storage

VALUE

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case studY

’s life cycle RESEARCH

RC

H

Research is needed to find ways of reusing and recycling EV batteries in an efficient and environmentally sound manner.

RE

SE

A

VALUE Research is expensive

RECYCLING In a controlled process, batteries are melted and the various components are recovered.

RE C Y C LI N G

VALUE The current state-of-the-art in the technology shows recycling of lithium batteries to be expensive.

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case studY

recovering these rare elements, from batteries and electric motors for example, to ensure that other countries still have access to these substances. The situation is very serious. Japan has said that without some uncontrolled exports from China there would already be a serious shortage. To anticipate that, Toyota has already built reserve stocks in the past. The Japanese manufacturer also recently concluded agreements to mine for REE in Vietnam and Argentina. A sharp increase in the price of REE will make recovery of the materials financially attractive.

Use of batteries

To return to the battery itself, and the car it will soon be found in, one aspect that has scarcely been discussed yet is the future role of the recycling chain. Perhaps the most remarkable point to be made is that none of the figures mentioned above about the use of raw materials take any account whatever of the reuse or recycling of the batteries. What’s the story there? The most familiar recycling technology is the melting process. In a melting bath the heavier metals sink to the bottom, while the remaining oxides, the slag, remains floating on top.

Lithium remains in the slag in the form of lithium oxide. Slag can be used in road building, but lithium can then no longer be used in its original form in EVs. The primary objective of recycling Li-Ion batteries is not in fact to recover lithium, but rather other metals, such as copper, aluminium, nickel and cobalt. The process is also still quite expensive, at an estimated €2 to €3 per kilo. It can therefore easily cost €200 to recycle a single battery. Other technologies are also being developed, such as ‘leach’ processes, in which metals are dissolved in baths to recover them. There are also ways of extending the life of a battery from an electric car, such as reuse. In other words, using the battery for an alternative application with different requirements. The electricity network itself is one option, but used in combination with solar panels or wind turbines batteries

Mitsubishi’s opinion

could also serve as a buffer by supplying power to a location where there is no connection. A battery could also be used in Third World countries, for example to light a house, to play a radio or even to run machines in a small company. Talks have already started with NGOs in developing countries and work is proceeding on a prototype. The real challenge is to avoid leaving the batteries there as waste after their second lives.

Collection of batteries

One point that has not received the attention it deserves is the collection of batteries. How will we collect the batteries from EVs that have reached the end of their life cycle? Because of their anticipated low (or negative) value, recycling the batteries will not be commercially worthwhile; the batteries will automatically end up at the car recycling companies. A practical problem will be the task of dismantling the very heavy battery packs, which can weigh up to 200 kilos each. Car dismantling companies will have to be trained in how to dismantle EV batteries safely. Besides the practical problems, there is also the question of finance. Who is going to pay for the processing? Under EU legislation, the producers have to take back battery packs that are returned to them, but what can the manufacturers do with old batteries except recycle them? ARN is currently developing a collection system that provides an answer to that question. When they are collected, batteries will be tested and the purpose for which it can be reused will be determined by the residual capacity. The batteries will then be converted for practical uses and leased to consumers and public bodies. The proceeds can be used to finance the recycling at the end of the life cycle. In effect, the reuse will pay for the final processing of the battery. In this way, ARN is preparing its network for what lies ahead. Because although a fleet of electric cars may seem a long way off, with the launch of more than forty new electric cars planned between 2009 and 2012 one thing is already clear: the advance of the EV is unstoppable. t

Allard Verburg (allard.verburg@arn.nl), senior projectmanager, and Kasper Zom (kasper.zom@arn.nl), senior consultant

in 2011, mitsubishi will launch a fully electric car fitted with a 16 kwh li-ion battery, consisting of 22 modules each with 4 li-ion cells (88 individual cells). mitsubishi europe’s ceo, isao torri, expects that his company will produce 30,000 units of this car in 2013. He guarantees a useful life of 5 years and 100,000 kilometres for the battery. there is one small catch: there is no guarantee that the battery will work properly at temperatures below -10° celsius. equally interesting is that mitsubishi will take back the batteries at the end of the life cycle. the company is currently investigating its options, which range from reusing the product itself to recycling the materials and using them again in the batteries.

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case studY

ARN’s opinion Research into the recycling of EVs is still continuing. Allard Verburg and Kasper Zom of ARN Advisory are following developments closely. Zom: “We are still in the transition period, since there are still plenty of efficiency gains to be made in the area of efficient diesels and hybrids. But another question is whether the Li-Ion battery really will define the future. There are still questions about its safety and some raw materials cannot be recovered entirely through recycling.” Verburg: “Perhaps it will ultimately not be Li-Ion, but new technologies that dominate in the EV of the future. Silicon air batteries for example, which are produced from a very common raw material: sand. The oxygen needed will be taken from the air and will therefore not add to the mass of this light battery. Another advantage of these batteries is that recycling them is not an issue, since there is abundant sand available and there will be scarcely any harmful substances left in the waste stage.” Zom: “Everything is relative, and as things stand it seems that Li-Ion is also an interim solution. Naturally, we at ARN are already working on systems for the safe collection, reuse and effective recycling of these batteries.

The system of reuse is the key to it: that is how money will be generated for the ultimate processing of the batteries. We are also providing our expertise for the emergency services, such as the fire brigade and police. They have the same questions about the safety of these high-voltage batteries. They frequently have to deal with ‘crashed cars’ and of course the fire brigade uses a lot of water to put out fires. Materials like lithium and fluoride, both present in modern Li-Ion batteries, react forcefully to water and can sometimes release toxic vapours. We could already benefit a lot by sharing knowledge about that.”

2

1

The Li-Ion battery explained

3

1 The housing holds the connected Li-Ion cells.

There is a voltage regulator just in front of them.

2 On the other side, the cells are inserted in a cooling module.

3 The battery management system on the front is linked to a high-voltage connection.

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in tHe Picture photography iStock.com

When a hard wind blows at night, a wind park will generate more energy than is needed at that time.

That energy can be used to recharge the batteries of the country’s electric cars. At present, that surplus energy is exported or simply lost.

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column photography Jeroen Booij

Firm believe W

hat more can I actually tell you about the electric car? Everyone seems to be writing and talking about it, and if the experts are to be believed it will be arriving sooner rather than later. Are we therefore all so naïve as to believe that every advance in the automotive industry in the last 40 or 50 years has suddenly become obsolete? I admit, the Wankel engine has never fulfilled its promise and the two-stroke engine has not made a comeback. Apart from refinements in construction – from multi-valve technology to environmentallyfriendly catalytic converters – car engine technology is precisely the same as it was a century ago.

Views about energy consumption and the environment have also not changed fundamentally, apart from the terminology and the perspectives. The entire world missed opportunities to address the energy issue after the oil crisis in 1974. The concern now is the oil price.

After acid rain, the hole in the ozone layer and smog, particulate matter was identified as harmful to our wellbeing. Then there is CO2, according to the majority of scientists the cause of the greenhouse effect and global warming. But suddenly there is the answer to all the problems, the solution for our future: the electric car!

And indeed, it is very clean if you sniff the exhaust pipe. Not to mention very quiet. But it is also very expensive, not to mention a few other impractical aspects. Where do you ‘fill it up’ with electricity and who is going to pay for the promised revolutionary transition from petrol and diesel to electricity? Will you be able to drive all the way to the Dordogne with

an electric vehicle plus caravan? Those who have thought more deeply about the matter refer to the problem of recycling batteries and the CO2 emissions from coal-fired power stations, since you can’t build wind turbines everywhere. Or have we suddenly changed our minds about (CO2-free) nuclear energy?

Do you know what I think? The consumer couldn’t care less as long as he can drive just as easily as in his existing petrol-driven car and it doesn’t cost any more than it does now. Did you really believe that the increased sales of small, efficient cars was due to growing environmental awareness? No, it wasn’t. It was due to the steadily rising price of petrol. And the same consumer, well informed as he is about the prospective electric car, is wondering just one thing now: how will I be able to continue my journey if the battery is empty?

I am a devout believer in the electrification of cars – it will benefit the environment and electricity is one of the long-term alternatives to fossil fuel. The recycling problem, the high price of batteries and the installation of charging points are not the consumer’s concern. So besides developing the vehicle technology and creating the right conditions, industry and the government have two public tasks: ensure that the consumer has complete confidence in the technology of the electric car and ensure that the operating costs of the new electric car weigh up against the price of a litre of petrol and diesel.

Wim Oude Weernink

Wim Oude Weernink is a journalist who has been covering the automotive industry full-time since 1968.

He is a frequent commentator on automotive affairs on radio and television.

One of his specialist subjects is electric mobility.

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relation

While electric vehicles (EVs) may be green during their life cycle, they too will eventually give up the ghost and then there will be a huge number of batteries that have to be recycled.

The huge processing wave may only come after 10 or 15 years, but the Belgian multinational Umicore is already making intensive preparations to be ready to process the mountain of batteries in a responsible manner when the time comes.

a Green resPonse is a Question of anticiPation text Mark Litjens photography Mark Litjens, Umicore

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relation

U

micore was founded more than 200 years ago when Jean Dony bought the Vieille-Montagne ore mine in Moresnet in Belgium, near the border with Germany. Two centuries, and many acquisitions, partnerships and technological developments later, Umicore is one of the world’s largest recycling companies for batteries and precious metals. It is also a supplier of components for rechargeable batteries for laptops and mobile phones, catalytic converters for cars and solar panels, to mention just a few of the company’s wide range of activities. The recycling of batteries for laptops and mobile telephones stands out in this list of activities, since the automotive industry could benefit from this form of recycling when it is faced with the need to process the many batteries that will power the anticipated flood of electric cars, scooters and motor cycles that will provide us with ‘green’ transport around town and in the country in the coming years.

Risk of explosion

As clean as a battery is during its useful life, it causes just as much pollution if it is not processed responsibly.

Leaking batteries cause worrying pollution because materials such as mercury and cadmium are highly toxic and do not decompose naturally. Even worse, cadmium in particular can enter our food chain through groundwater, vegetables, plants and animals.

If batteries are disposed of with the normal household waste and incinerated in uncontrolled conditions, they release toxic vapours and create a risk of explosion.

These are some of the good reasons to ensure that every battery, from coin battery to industrial battery, reaches the right destination. But there is another very important reason, that is economic. Depending on the type of battery, with controlled recycling many valuable and scarce ‘ingredients’ can be recovered for recycling, including manganese, cadmium, mercury, lithium, cobalt, nickel and iron. This is good for the price and for the environment, since this recycling means there is less need to mine for them.

A lot of research

Umicore has conducted a lot of research and experiments with the recycling of batteries in recent years, particularly those used in mobile telephones, PDAs and laptops. “We have built a test set-up in a research institute in Hofors in Sweden, where in the last few

years we have developed various unique and patented procedures for processing industrial and smaller batteries without risk to humans or the environment”, says Jan Tytgat, General Manager Umicore Battery Recycling (UBR). Tytgat deeply shares UBR’s commitment to closing the product cycle for batteries. “Anyone who has seen pictures of battery “recycling” in countries like Indonesia and Vietnam understands why it is important to process batteries in a responsible manner. Think of the images of children burning batteries on an open fire, while the really important commodities, like nickel and cadmium, are not even recovered. These substances, together with dioxin, poison the environment. There has to be legislation to prevent this”, Tytgat feels.

End-of-Life Vehicles Directive

Batteries already have to be processed properly by virtue of the European Batteries Directive, but outside Europe, in Asia for instance, there are no strict rules.

Even in the ‘civilised’ US, batteries are simply thrown out with the household waste. The automotive industry could be a good trendsetter in this regard, since manufacturers are stumbling over themselves to present a green image. Naturally, that does not stop at designing and producing electric or hybrid cars, but has to embrace thinking of ways of responsibly recycling these models. Voluntarily or under compulsion, since besides the Batteries Directive there is also the End-of-Life Vehicles Directive in Europe. This directive provides – since 1 January 2006 – that at least 85% of the average weight of all end-of-life cars must be recycled or recovered annually. The percentage will rise to 95% in 2015.

That will cover all current and future generations of EVs and hEVs (hybrid Electric Vehicles), apart from some models that are already a total loss before 2015.

“This creates a problem”, says Tytgat. “The European Battery Directive prescribes a minimum recycling rate of 50%. That, together with the larger number of batteries in a car, which means they constitute a larger percentage of the average vehicle weight, will make it difficult to achieve the prescribed rates of 85% and 95%. Which is why we are already exploring a number of potential solutions. One might be to decouple batteries and the ELV Directive. According to the Directive, the manufacturers are responsible for processing the batteries, and therefore also for providing

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relation

Umicore processes some 7,000 tonnes of batteries every year. This volume is equivalent to 150,000 EV batteries. It recovers mainly cobalt, nickel and copper from them.

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relation

We could wait for 15 years until the supply increases as the electric cars reach the end of their life, but that will be too late.

instructions on how to dismantle them. The manufacturer will delegate this responsibility to importers or dealers, who will in turn have to ensure that the owners of electric vehicles return the batteries to them. They can then bring the dismantled batteries to us.

Action now

Umicore talks with the automotive industry and governments to start processing exhausted batteries as soon as possible. “We could wait for 15 years until the supply increases as the cars reach the end of their life, but that will be too late. We are taking action now in order to be ready when the time comes, using the experience we have gained with small batteries”, says Tytgat. That’s why Umicore is investing heavily in these preparations. By mid 2011, a plant should be operating in Hoboken (near Antwerp) to recycle rechargeable batteries on a large scale. The plant is designed according to the model of the test set-up in Hofors, but has been modified to handle large (h)EV batteries. Tytgat: “The nice thing about the process we developed is that batteries are burned in their entirety in a furnace, including metals or plastic casing. A patented melting technology prevents explosions and separates the various components.

A very high-voltage plasma generator purifies the gases so that only vapour and CO2 are ultimately released. On the other hand, cobalt and nickel are recovered. The plastic from the casing produces energy for incineration and what remains of the battery and packaging, the slag, is an ideal basic constituent for concrete. Accordingly, we close the product cycle of batteries.”

Large batteries, different challenges

One of the reasons why a new plant is needed for the (h)EV batteries is their size and weight. hEV batteries can easily weigh more than 30 kilos and EV batteries more than 200 kilos. The new plant also has the capacity

to handle the anticipated sharp increase in the number of batteries to be recycled. The plant in Hoboken is expected to process 7,000 tonnes of batteries each year, a volume equivalent to 150,000 (h)EV batteries or 250 million GSM batteries. Umicore now recovers mainly cobalt, nickel and copper from all these batteries. With the melting technology in the new plant, it will also be possible to recover other raw materials, such as lithium from the lithium-ion batteries that will probably be used in a great many of the modern ‘green’ cars. “As with all the other metals we recover, the main factor will always be the market price. There is no point recovering lithium when it is cheaper to buy the commodity directly from the mine, even if recovery is more environmentally friendly. After all, the market price dictates whether the producer of the batteries has to pay to have them dismantled or actually earns money because of the value of the materials that are recovered”, Tytgat explains.

No intermediate trade

Tytgat is therefore a great supporter of direct contacts between producers, car recycling companies and battery recycling companies. Tytgat: “We must all try to prevent the creation of a free intermediate trade. Those dealers will only look at the profit and then it is entirely possible that we will suddenly see batteries being burned over open fires in Asia again. That must not happen. If all the parties work together, we can guarantee an environmentally friendly solution at a good price. That is a strategic choice that Umicore has made, and we are currently investing a lot of money in it. Not only by building the plant in Hoboken, but also by opening collection points around the world. As I said, we have an enormous drive to close the product cycle for batteries, which is why we are talking with various parties, including the automotive industry, the car recycling companies and politicians. We want to be ready in time and not just start when the time comes.” t 95 spring 2010 - p29

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news

No ‘private use’ tax for EV’s To accelerate the introduction of the electric car, the government has decided to exempt zeroemission cars entirely from the ‘bijtelling’, the amount added to a person’s income by the tax authorities in the Netherlands for the use of a company car for private purposes. The exemption will apply until the end of 2014. Under State Secretary for Finance Jan Kees de Jager’s original proposals, the exemption was to apply for 2 years and the ‘bijtelling’ would subsequently be 7% of the catalogue price of the car. When the lower house of parliament approved the Tax Plan 2010, however, it adopted an amendment extending the exemption until the end of 2014. The upper house of parliament approved the Tax Plan 2010 at the end of December. People who own a business are expected to be the main beneficiaries of the tax break, since when an electric car is registered in the company’s name all of the kilometres driven for private purposes will then be entirely tax free. Electric cars are also exempted from the road tax (BPM) until 2018.

A single pass for charging poles Although charging poles for electric vehicles are shooting up all over the place, drivers of electric cars still can’t recharge their empty batteries everywhere.

That is soon going to change.

There are a number of electricity suppliers in the Netherlands, each of which has its own procedures.

The city of Amsterdam has formed a partnership with Nuon, for example. Anyone wanting to use one of the 200 charging poles in the city has to request a pass – via internet – to activate it. Rotterdam also uses a system of passes, but they are different. Rotterdam is collaborating with Eneco to install 750 charging points. Motorists will also have to register in advance to use these ‘Nrgspots’.

Meanwhile, to avoid a proliferation of different systems, efforts are being made behind the scenes to develop a model for a uniform, market-wide charging and payment system for electric vehicles (see also pages 4-8).

The model is designed to regulate the payment system and allow motorists to choose from amongst the different suppliers. The aim of the system is to allow motorists with an electric car to use a charging pole anywhere with just one pass. E-laad.nl is one of the parties involved in these efforts. This foundation was established by the managers of the Dutch electricity networks with the objective of installing 10,000 charging points within the next 3 years.

Futuristic e-bikes Although electric bicycles are becoming more commonplace at every level of society, they still have a rather dull image. The rugged Grace E-Bike shows how wrong that image is. De Grace E-Bike combines elements of motorcycles, racing cars and jet aircraft. The frame of the electric bike is made from CNC aluminium. The electric motor, which takes its energy from lithium-ion batteries, gives a top speed of 65 kilometres an hour. When the battery has been charged for an hour, the E-Bike can cover 30 to 50 kilometres, depending on the speed and load. It costs around €6,000. p 30 - 95 spring 2010

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news

Hybrid telephone charger

Former Prime Minister Ruud Lubbers tests an electric car

Electric drive technology can be found in a growing number of places, even outside the mobility sector. For example, Solio has developed a hybrid telephone charger. The Solio Magnesium Solar Charger loads mobile phones, MP3 players and other portable gadgets using solar energy. One hour of sun is enough to enable the phone or MP3 player to run for nearly half an hour. When it is fully charged, the charger will give twenty hours of music or can fully recharge a mobile telephone twice.

When the sun isn’t shining, the accompanying adapter provides a solution. The Solio Magnesium Solar Charger weighs just 179 grams and is easy to connect to a socket. The charger is compatible with a range of brands, including Nokia, Sony Ericsson and the Apple iPhone.

National car scrapping scheme has a positive effect The national car scrapping scheme has caused a substantial increase in the number of cars being dismantled.

In 2009, more than 260,000 cars were dismantled. ARN’s market share was 87.5%, the highest in 4 years.

The number of cars dismantled in the first quarter of 2009 was the same as in the equivalent period in the previous year. In the second quarter, the number increased slightly, but the introduction of the national car scrapping scheme on 29 May 2009 marked a distinct turning point. From June, the number increased sharply and 50% more cars were returned for dismantling in the third and fourth quarters than in the same periods a year earlier.

Exports

Exports in 2009 were lower than in previous years. Almost 230,000 cars were exported, 11.5% less than in 2008. Although it is too early to discern any obvious trends, the expectation is that in time the number of cars being exported will return to the usual level when the economy picks up again.

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nieuws

Nissan EVs on stamps A series of special stamps devoted to the electric car was recently issued in Japan. In association with the Japanese postal service, Nissan has recorded the history of its relationship with electric cars in a set of postage stamps.

That history goes back to 1947 when, because of the post-World War II oil scarcity, the Japanese government encouraged the development of electric cars. This resulted in the Nissan Tama, followed by practical models like the R’Nessa and futuristic designs like the Pivo 2, and ultimately to the Nissan Leaf, which will appear on the market his year. According to Nissan, this is the world’s first affordable electric car that meets the demands of the modern motorist. The sheet of ten stamps costs around €9.50 and will be on sale until 31 August, but only at the 954 post offices in Japan.

Only 1,000 sheets have been printed. Philatelists and collectors of items associated with electric mobility therefore face a long journey or will have to keep an eye out on the familiar online auction sites.

Prince Maurits promotes EVs Prince Maurits (41) has been appointed as chairman of the Formule E-team, the task force established by the government to propagate electric motoring. He was asked to fill this post because of his national and international network.

Go to youtube.com, enter the search words ‘Maurits’ and ‘Formule E-team’ to see the short film the Ministry of Transport, Public Works and Water Management has produced about the task force.

ProRail is tracking the electric car ProRail, manager of the Dutch rail network, has plans to become a major supplier of electricity for electric cars.

The state-owned company is not only going to install charging poles near railway stations, but also wants to supply induction power via the road surface.

ProRail’s chief executive Bert Klerk said at the beginning of December: “Within a few years we will be supplying induction power via the road surface. Cars will no longer get their power by plugging into a socket, but simply by driving along a motorway or waiting at a traffic light.” The induction technology is not far off, said Klerk. “In Germany, patents have already been requested for the technology.” The great advantage of the technology for ‘power from the road surface’ is that it will give electric cars an unlimited range, which is currently limited to a maximum of 200 kilometres.

According to Klerk, Minister of Transport Camiel Eurlings has already granted ProRail permission to explore the power market for cars. “As long as we don’t neglect the railways and finance the investments ourselves.”

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media

Build Your Own Electric Vehicle Electric cars are still scarce. However, this book offers a solution for anyone who can’t wait, or doesn’t want to. In 327 pages, the author reveals how to convert an ordinary car with a fuel engine into an electric car. Or how you can have it done for you, because although this is no light reading it is recommended even for non-mechanics with a feel for technology. Page by page the book clearly explains how an electric car works. The author, Bob Brant, is more than just a hobbyist: he worked, among other things, on the electric lunar Rover, the first car to travel on the moon. With their American background, it is perhaps logical that Brant and co-author Leitman have chosen a pick-up truck for their electric conversion.

Nevertheless, this is a good manual for anyone who welcomes the electric car.

Who Killed the

ELECTRIC CAR?

Like the documentaries by Michael Moore and Al Gore, the story told in Who Killed the Electric Car is also mainly intended as a wake-up call to the viewer. In this case, the key question is not what the consequences of the consumer society are, but how it is that the electric car has never been the success it could have been. The film maker certainly has a point, because in the 1990s the state of California passed the Zero-Emission Vehicle Mandate, in which manufacturers were encouraged to build electric cars. And they did, the General Motors’ EV1 as the prime example, but unexpectedly the car was a total flop. In fact, the majority of the 2,234 EV1s that were built ended up in the shredder.

This film tries to explain why. If we are to believe the film makers, dirty tricks were played and the guilty parties are to be found in an unexpected quarter. Among those interviewed for the film are the people who built the car, but also the manufacturer of the battery for the EV1, politicians, activists and people from the oil industry.

DVD: Who Killed the Electric Car? (2007) • By: Chris Paine • Duration: 93 min. Visit: www.whokilledtheelectriccar.com • Price: €12.50

Title of book: Build Your Own Electric Vehicle (2008) By: Seth Leitman and Bob Brant ISBN: 978-0071543736 Price: €19.00

Your Flying Car AWAITS Predictions of the future have fascinated people for centuries and have sometimes led to tremendous inventions. But often they have not. Underwater cities, the ability to control weather conditions and people reaching the age of 200: they have all been predicted but have not come about. This book describes the most fascinating predictions made by researchers and scientists, writers and philosophers in the last century. And naturally, the car of the future is well represented. Your Flying Car Awaits is of course primarily a lighthearted book, but nevertheless it provides a fascinating insight into the world of the future, or at least what the future was expected to look like. Ideal for livening up a story about electric cars with examples of how not to do it.

Title of book: Your Flying Car Awaits (2009) By: Paul Milo ISBN: 9780061724602 Price: €12.50

If we are to believe the makers of Who Killed The Electric Car, dirty tricks were played and the guilty parties are to be found in an unexpected quarter.

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POLItICaL CUrreNtS text Wim Oude Weernink photography Enexis illustration Myrthe Dornbos

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The government provides tax breaks to promote electric driving. But that won’t pay for ‘the great electrification’, because the ultimate costs of the transition from mobility in conventional cars with a combustion engine to emission-free EVs will be enormous.

A

lright, the electric car is ready. But is our society ready for it? The answer is no, since the biggest transformation in mobility since the invention of the car cannot and will not be an evolutionary process, regardless of all the optimistic and ambitious suggestions made by politicians. For example, the energy supply system we have known for more than a century and its infrastructure will both have to be remodelled. Not to mention the need to create public support for this new form of mobility. The logical question therefore is: who is going to do what, but more especially who is going to pay for it all? Because the consumer will simply wait to see what happens; it is unrealistic to expect any initiative from that quarter. Even car manufactures are unlikely to produce a new energy supply system. So the ball is in the politicians’ court, since they are the ones who started the discussion of the need for clean drive technology.

In pursuit of their ambitions to achieve clean air and a better quality of life in inner cities and secure a greater contribution from the general public in reducing CO2 emissions, in recent years the politicians have followed a specific agenda for how and when these targets will be met. And meanwhile also have to defend themselves against a minority view that CO2 is not the chief cause of global warming.

Lower emissions

The ambitions are clear, depending on the strategies of the political parties. For some time, the Dutch social democrate Diederik Samsom has been the most exuberant. Last summer he argued that there will be 2 million electric cars on the road in the Netherlands in 2020, twice the number suggested by Transport Minister Camiel Eurlings and Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende. A sense of realism now seems to have penetrated in The Hague, and the

figure now circulating is two hundred thousand, for which a network of charging points will have to be built. We are talking here about genuine EVs, since hybrid cars do not fall under the definition of electrification, although there are now intermediate forms of hybrids that can also be charged from the electric socket. There is in fact also political controversy about the net reduction to be achieved in CO2 emissions from the cars in the country. Although an EV has no exhaust pipe, since nothing is burned in the vehicle, those missing emissions will be relocated to the power stations where the electricity is generated. And that is the second challenge for successful electrification. The Netherlands and Germany have a lot of coal-fired power stations which emit CO2. On balance, it is estimated that the emissions caused by an EV running on ‘coal-fired energy’ will be only 35% less. In France, with its nuclear energy policy, the CO2 benefits are far greater, although of course there are other environmental objections.

Formule E-team building public support

Although Samson et al and Eurlings may differ in their views on the scale and timing of the introduction of electric mobility, they are in agreement on another point: the need to start producing renewable energy.

The Netherlands is therefore pushing wind energy, but will that be enough to supply energy for a car fleet of several hundred thousand, and eventually perhaps more than a million EVs? And how will the grid be able to cope with the peak loads if too many people want to charge the batteries of their EVs at the same time?

In July 2009, an action plan was drawn up to address these issues, for which Eurlings has earmarked €65 million. The plans should make the Netherlands a pioneer in electric mobility, the minister feels. The money is being provided for research into the construction of an infrastructure of charging points, the optimal use of the electricity grid and new EV technologies, but also to convince the public of the need to switch to electric cars.

And how to deal with the new waste problem the EVs will create — in other words recycling? To promote the market introduction of electric transport, the ministry of transport has established the Formule E-team, chaired

by Prince Maurits. The minister hopes this government public information campaign, to run over a number of years and covering the many different aspects of the electrification of mobility, will generate public support for the project.

Vague government policy

It is a good move, but there are some reservations. Apart from central government, local authorities are also creating the preconditions for electric motoring. And no one wants that, because how does the potential EV owner know what the rules are if every city or municipality

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formulates its own policy? There is already so much uncertainty surrounding the precise role of electric cars.

There are even some who believe that an EV is an ecofriendly vehicle for driving in the city — because it is quiet and clean — which you can also use to drive to the south of France with a caravan attached. Wrong: electric cars have a limited range and their success will be determined by the energy supply. It is logical for the government to try to encourage the use of the electric car with tax breaks — other governments are doing the same thing. But Samsom’s idea of providing batteries free of charge to buyers of EVs, because this is common practice when someone buys a mobile phone, is totally unrealistic. EV battery packs will cost more than €10,000 each and the government cannot and will not pay that. Nor will the car makers. Government policy must therefore be based on a clear division of responsibilities between the various stakeholders in e-mobility.

And it is still vague about that.

Balkenende in an EV

For example, where do electricity companies fit in? After all, they have to supply the energy, through the plug and the socket. The former has already been standardised (see also pages 4-8), but it is still unclear who will be responsible for developing an infrastructure of charging points.

You could argue that if the car makers invest in the EV itself, and in the business model to make expensive battery technology affordable, the energy companies should build the e-network, just as oil companies built a network of petrol stations. No, says Vattenvall, the Swedish owner of Dutch energy company Nuon. The Swedes feel that stakeholders, including car parks, business parks and even housing associations, should pay for it. In Eurlings’ plan, money has also been earmarked for new players and suppliers in the EV market. But is that not naive and too politically opportunistic? Car and auto sport enthusiast Balkenende, ministers and members of parliament appeared regularly in electric cars last year (preferably in front of the cameras), which could only cover a very small distance and also failed to meet the EU’s safety standards for cars, but were nevertheless praised as ‘ideal’. But the real EVs will come from the existing car makers, all of whom have a strategy in place for launching their first electric models in the next 5 years. That has also been the message delivered at numerous conferences and forums with experts dedicated to electric mobility, such as the first meeting of the Electric Mobility Platform, organised by RAI at the end of last year. An important theme of the platform is knowledge sharing.

Intensive canvassing

The good thing about the national EV policy is that senior civil servants seem eager to learn more from the car makers about the state-of-the-art in EV technology.

And the car manufacturers praise the Dutch government for its enthusiasm, since no other government in Europe seems to be studying the subject so deeply. But the ultimate cost of the transition from mobility in conventional cars with a combustion engine to emission-free EVs will be enormous. So enormous that the €65 million for the tests with the electric car will probably be just a drop in the ocean.

In that respect, other countries are doing more. France, for example, is investing €2.5 billion in the development and construction of a network of charging points.

Even in the US, authorities are working with energy companies to increase the appeal of electric driving, with California leading the way.

Despite the recent efforts by industry and governments, how and when the EV will make a real breakthrough is a question that will only be answered in the course of this new decade, as pilot projects are converted into commercial EV concepts that are also attractive to consumers. But the real breakthrough only seems likely after 2020, when there is greater certainty about future oil reserves and the oil price and when car makers are developing models on a large scale, the battery technology is more reliable and the consumer does not have to fear being left stranded and powerless at the side of the road somewhere. t

A film with Balkenende in an electric car during a visit to Tokyo at the end of 2009 can be seen on youtube. com (search under ‘Balkenende’ and ‘electric car’) For more information about the Platform Electric Mobility, visit raivereniging.nl/ dossiers.aspx 95 spring 2010 - p37

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No more technical problems

Great electrification with small power cuts

4

It will only become a problem if everyone wants to charge their electric cars at the same time, say at seven o’clock in the evening.

There has to be a smart way of doing that. That is where the smart grid comes in. It is a sort of user interface that measures the energy needed and matches the power supply to that demand. In short, intelligence needs to be build into the grid. It will also have to be possible to set the power supply to 2, 1 or 0.5 kW, as well as the standard 3 kW current, since what’s the point of fully charging the battery if you don’t need to drive 150 kilometres? It is all technically possible, says Enexis. The question is whether the motorist is willing to do this. But there is also a second obstacle. It is not yet permitted by law. There has to be someone who literally pushes the buttons, but it is still unclear who that will be. According to Enexis’ manager mobile smart grid André Postma, that is the major obstacle at the moment.

10

The battery is the key obstacle for the electric car. By contrast with the common 12-volt lead battery on which a car’s electric systems run, the electric-driven car requires a current of at least several hundred volts. For a range of 200 kilometres, the car’s battery needs a capacity of 35 kWh and a lead battery capable of generating that capacity would almost literally weigh a ton. The nickel-cadmium (NiCd) battery and the less toxic nickel metal hydride (NiMh) has been succeeded by the lithium-ion (Li-Ion) battery, which is used in laptops and mobile telephones. And while these are a good deal compacter and lighter, they still cost a lot of money, on average around €17,000. According to Bosch, it will be a while before batteries decline further in size, weight and price.

The battery’s life cycle

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Case study EV recycling

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Rechargeable lithium batteries are already used in 60% of all mobile telephones and 90% of laptops. With the introduction of the electric car, the demand for lithium for the VALUE EV batteries will grow from 1,000 tons (2008) to at least 14,000 tons in 2020. Even with this explosive increase, there is believed to be enough lithium for the next 200 years. It is also unlikely that lithium-ion batteries will be the ultimate solution for the electric car. In Israel, for example, scientists are working feverishly to produce new technologies that are safer and cheaper, such as a battery consisting of silicon (sand) over which air flows to generate electricity.

A green response is a question of anticipation VALUE

26

Besides the Batteries Directive there is also the End-of-Life Vehicles Directive in Europe. This directive provides – since 1 January 2006 – that at least 85% of the average weight of all end-of-life cars must be recycled or recovered annually.

The percentage will rise to 95% in 2015. That will cover all current and future generations of EVs and hEVs (hybrid Electric Vehicles), apart from some models that are already a total loss before 2015. This creates a problem, since the European Battery Directive prescribes a minimum recycling rate of 50%. That, together with the larger number of batteries in a car, which means they constitute a larger percentage of the average vehicle weight, will make it difficult to achieve the prescribed rates of 85% and 95%.

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credits

Tension running high in the automotive world

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Carlos Ghosn, the chairman of the board of Renault-Nissan, the world’s leading advocate of electric mobility, believes that owning the batteries will create more possibilities for the manufacturer: “For example, let’s say improved batteries become available 3 years after the owner of an EV has bought the vehicle. We can then offer him the new battery, without him having to buy another EV, possibly even without any additional cost. We will then prepare the batteries from the EVs for recycling ourselves.” With this in mind, Nissan has developed a recycling concept with Japan’s Sumitomo. The used EV battery packs are dismantled, checked, repaired if necessary and then reassembled into new battery packs. “After several years of use in an EV, lithium-ion batteries always still have 80% of their capacity and can be recharged with solar energy and continue providing energy for years for stationary or household use “, says Ghosn. Renault-Nissan believes that a battery pack could last as long as 20 years.

arn is the dutch centre of expertise for recycling in the mobility sector. it has managed the recycling chains in this sector for fifteen years. arn has grown into a centre of expertise in the field of recycling, chain management and knowledge exchange. arn uses its expertise to advise companies and public authorities – in the netherlands and abroad – on a variety of issues relating to sustainability.

95 is a magazine for business relations of arn and appears twice a year Publisher arn P. o. Box 12252 1100 aG amsterdam de entree 258 1101 ee amsterdam telephone +31 (0)20 66 131 81 info@arn.nl www.arn.nl Design and production móbile P. o. Box 317 1400 aH Bussum telephone +31 (0)35 609 80 00 info@mobile-pr.nl www.mobile-pr.nl Editorial board dave Bebelaar, arie de Jong, Janet Kes, Jeroen Booij, Gert enklaar Editors Gert enklaar, Janet Kes Contributors eelco den Boer, Jeroen Booij, mark litjens, allard Verburg, wim oude weernink, Kasper Zom Project management Viona nieuwenhuis Art direction michel Giezen

Political currents

34

How does the potential EV owner know what the rules are if every city or municipality formulates its own policy? There is already so much uncertainty surrounding the precise role of electric cars. There are even some who believe that an EV is an eco-friendly vehicle for driving in the city — because it is quiet and clean — which you can also use to drive to the south of France with a caravan attached. Wrong: electric cars have a limited range and their success will be determined by the energy supply. It is logical for the government to try to encourage the use of the electric car with tax breaks — other governments are doing the same thing. But Samsom’s idea of providing batteries free of charge to buyers of EVs, because this is common practice when someone buys a mobile phone, is totally unrealistic. EV battery packs will cost more than €10,000 each and the government cannot and will not pay that. Nor will the car makers.

Government policy must therefore be based on a clear division of responsibilities between the various stakeholders in e-mobility. And it is still vague about that.

Photographs, infographics and illustrations maarten corbijn (corb!no), deirdre fabery de Jonge, myrthe dornbos (alamitti), dreamstime, istock, Hollandse Hoogte (sake elzinga, dolph cantrijn, richard Jones) images manufacturers and involved organisations Printing Habo dacosta, Vianen Translation English issue sbv anderetaal, noordeloos © Móbile, Bussum 2010 no part of this publication may be reproduced or distributed in any form without the prior written consent of the publisher and editors. all the information in this magazine has been compiled with the greatest possible care. the parties concerned are not responsible for any inaccuracies or omissions, of any nature whatever, that may nevertheless appear. the user cannot derive any rights from the information provided in this magazine.

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Spijkstaal: EV-pioneer Spijkstaal is the name that put the electric car on the map in the Netherlands. Its name is a contraction of Spijkenisse (the founders started the company in a shed in the centre of that city) and staal, the Dutch word for steel, the material it has used for its vehicles from the beginning.

Everyone knows Spijkstaal from the milkman’s van and the mobile grocery store.

The milkman has disappeared from our streets and Spijkstaal has also transformed itself. It started producing electric vehicles for flower auctions and the railways. Today, the company builds no fewer than 500 electric vehicles a year, ranging from platform trucks with room for only the driver to an electric refuse truck and even an electric bus for 32 passengers, with a body designed by Pininfarina. The Netherlands is entitled to feel quite proud of Spijkstaal.

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