CHARGED Electric Vehicles Magazine - Iss 15 AUG/SEP 2014

ELECTRIC VEHICLES MAGAZINE

2014

ISSUE 15 | AUGUST/SEPTEMBER 2014 | CHARGEDEVS.COM

B-Class

Electric Drive

P. 50

GENERAL MANAGER OF SMART USA & E-MOBILITY FOR MERCEDES-BENZ USA ON DAIMLER’S ELECTRIC ENTRANTS

BATTERY COOLING ANALYSIS P. 22

VOLTABOX BRINGS BATTERY BUILDING TO TEXAS P. 32

BMW’S NEW FAST CHARGING STRATEGY P. 74

EVSE: AVOIDING INFRASTRUCTURE UPGRADES P. 82

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THE TECH CONTENTS

18 | Next-gen pack testing 22

AeroVironment launches the AV-900 EX

22 | Measure twice, cut once

Mentor Graphics on the simulation and analysis of battery pack cooling systems

28 | Safer separators

The Freudenberg Group’s new line of Li-ion battery separators

32

32 | Triple threat

Voltabox brings battery pack manufacturing to Austin, Texas

current events 10 |

LG Chem to supply batteries to Audi Infineon to acquire International Rectifier

10

11 | 12 |

$55 million in DOE funding for vehicle R&D, 19 EV projects Prestolite to supply 250 powertrains for buses CD-adapco launches new tools for battery simulation

14 |

Ultracap maker raises â‚Ź3.9 million in funding OXIS to develop marine lithium-sulfur batteries

15 |

Up to 6.7 million post-vehicle batteries by 2035 New research: Why fast charging reduces capacity

14

16 |

Energy management system vastly improves efficiency Siemens developing centralized EV architecture

THE VEHICLES CONTENTS

50 | B-Class

ED

The 2014 Mercedes B-Class Electric Drive

50

60 | Every inch an EV

An excerpt from the new book, Tesla Motors: How Elon Musk and Company Made Electric Cars Cool, and Sparked the Next Tech Revolution

90 | Yellow is the new green

The humble school bus is a perfect candidate for fleet electrification

60

current events 40 | 41 |

Next-generation Volt to debut in Detroit in January Volkswagen announces lease and pricing for e-Golf Startup builds $529,000 electric super-coupe

42 |

British-built electric buses hit the streets Audi powers ahead with PHEVs

43 | 44 | 45 | 47 |

40

Are drivers better off with an under-100-mile EV range?

Tesla raises drive unit warranty to 8 years, infinite miles US automakers on track to meet EPA fuel-economy goals Nissan and Mitsubishi expand cooperation Special EV license plate created in Rhode Island

49 |

Mitsubishi launches Outlander PHEV in Russia California city deploys electric police motorcycles

41

74

74 | BMW’s fast

charging strategy Clarifying some very nuanced public charging announcements

82 | Lighten your load

How to avoid electrical infrastructure upgrades when installing EVSE

82 66 |

ABB launches GB-compliant fast charger ChargePoint updates its public charging app

67 | 68 |

66

Greenlots to administer BMW’s Singapore charging network Tesla to deploy 400 more charging stations in China Report details EV-related utility policies and projects

69 | 70 |

Utah State to build dynamic wireless charging test track Russian corporation develops charging station Utilities and automakers to build smart grid platform

71 | 72 |

Fraunhofer Institute developing front-end wireless charging An equipment-neutral foundation for EVSE California city installs solar charging station

71

73 |

Leviton launches new 40-amp EVSE California bill gives renters the right to install EVSE

Publisher’s Note China chases EVs Here in the US, plug-in stats continue to climb quickly. Approximately 250,000 vehicles have been sold in the states and more than 8,000 public charging stations, with over 20,000 charging outlets, are now operational.

In China, however, the world’s largest auto-producing nation has seen slower electric growth. While overall Chinese auto sales hit nearly 22 million units in 2013, only 14,604 were EVs and 3,038 plug-in hybrids. The EV upside for China is clear. The world’s biggest carbon emitter has a notoriously awful smog problem and skyrocketing energy consumption.

China’s auto market is growing at a much faster pace than the US’s, and for carmakers it’s the land of opportunity. Tesla recently said that it believes the Chinese market will help the company to double annual sales in 2014, and has announced a partnership with the country’s second-largest wireless carrier to install charging posts at 400 different locations.

However, there are a lot of obstacles to widespread EV adoption, not the least of which is charging infrastructure. In the country’s densely populated cities, private parking is hard to come by. And, as China EV expert Alysha Webb recently reported, there are still no finalized standards for AC or DC connector configurations and communication protocols.

In spite of the lack of standards the government has been plowing ahead with plug-in vehicle incentives for consumers and mandates for local municipalities, including: • Purchase tax exemptions for 17 new-energy vehicles from 11 automakers - defined as EVs, PHEVs and fuel-cell vehicles • Subsidies of up to 60,000 yuan ($9,767) for the purchase of an EV and up to 35,000 yuan ($5,699) for a PHEV • At least 30% of new government vehicles in China must be new-energy vehicles by 2016 • Beijing, which uses a lottery to allot a fixed number of new license plates, will offer 20,000 for EVs through a separate lottery in 2014, and will increase that quota to 30,000 in 2015 and 60,000 in 2016 • 40 cites are now required to “promote” EVs, not less than 10,000 units by the end of 2015 for eastern regions and 5,000 units for other locations According to Bloomberg, the government is also strongly considering allowing new companies to manufacture EVs in the country - for example, the Wanxiang Group, which now owns A123 and Fisker Automotive. To address the obvious chicken-or-egg charging issue, China may provide as much as 100 billion yuan ($16 billion) in funding to accelerate the deployment of charging infrastructure. However, without nationwide charging standards - which are not expected to be formalized until at least 2016 - it’s likely that China will only continue to chase its electric tail.

EVs are here. Try to keep up.

Christian Ruoff Publisher

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Christian Ruoff Publisher Laurel Zimmer Associate Publisher Charles Morris Senior Editor Markkus Rovito Associate Editor Jeffrey Jenkins Technology Editor Eric Fries Contributing Editor Nick Sirotich Illustrator & Designer Contributing Writers Michael Kent Charles Morris Markkus Rovito Christian Ruoff Joey Stetter Contributing Photographers Ryan Block Colonnade Boston Kārlis Dambrāns David P. Discher Erik Finnberg Martin Gillet Patrick Herbert Steve Jurvetson Hans-Johnson Leonard Lin Paul Nicholson Harry NL Windell Oskay Maurizio Pesce Nicolas Raymond Joseph Thornton Cover Image Courtesy of Mercedes-Benz USA Special Thanks to Kelly Ruoff Sebastien Bourgeois For Letters to the Editor, Article Submissions, & Advertising Inquiries Contact Info@ChargedEVs.com

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ELECTRIC VEHICLES MAGAZINE

ISSUE 13 | APRIL 2014 | CHARGEDEVS.COM

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Fuel WILL NISSAN’S NO CHARGE TO CHARGE PROGRAM DRIVE LEAF SALES? P. 40

A CLOSER LOOK AT SEMICONDUCTOR SWITCHES P. 16

PHINERGY’S ALUMINUM-AIR BATTERIES P. 26

BC HYDRO’S FAST CHARGER ROLLOUT P. 48

400 MPH: THE BUCKEYE BULLET P. 78

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CURRENTevents

© CHARGED Electric Vehicles Magazine

LG Chem to supply batteries to Audi

Korean giant LG Chem has agreed to supply batteries to Audi for hybrids and plug-in hybrids, and the companies will collaborate on various future plug-in projects, according to Reuters.

“The batteries will be used in Audi’s next-generation plug-in hybrid electric vehicles. Given that Audi shares many auto platforms with parent Volkswagen, we expect more such deals from the German auto group,” LG said in a statement.

Speaking at the launch of the A3 Sportback e-tron earlier this month, Audi Board Member for Technical Development Ulrich Hackenberg said the company plans to have a plug-in hybrid version of each of its “key models” by 2020.

Hackenberg said Audi had decided to prioritize plug-in hybrids because “they meet all of our customers’ expectations,” and that it is developing two PHEV families.

LG Chem currently supplies lithium-ion batteries to GM, Ford, Hyundai-Kia, Renault, Volvo and other OEMs. A company exec recently said it plans to supply batteries to an unnamed automaker for an EV with more than 200 miles of range in 2016.

10

Images courtesy of Infineon

Infineon to acquire International Rectifier

Infineon Technologies, Germany’s largest chipmaker, will acquire California-based International Rectifier for $40 per share in a $3-billion deal.

International Rectifier specializes in powermanagement semiconductors. Particularly attractive to Infineon is IRF’s expertise in gallium nitride on silicon (GaN) semiconductors. According to Bloomberg, the acquisition will solidify Infineon’s position in GaN discretes and GaN system solutions, and create a comprehensive provider in the market for silicon-, silicon-carbide- and gallium-nitride-based power devices.

Technology based on those compounds, known as Wide Bandgap (WBG) materials, can improve the efficiency of power conversion, possibly reducing the cost of EV battery packs. Applied in an EV, WBG materials could cut electricity losses by 66% during battery recharging, according to the DOE. Infineon CEO Reinhard Ploss expects rising demand for the type of chips used in car electronics and to manage battery power in mobile devices.

He’s also happy to gain a presence in Silicon Valley.

“It is very important for us to be in the US and close to the highly innovative region of California,” Ploss said on a conference call.

THE TECH

The DOE has announced $55 million in new funding for 31 projects to accelerate R&D of vehicle technologies to improve fuel efficiency and reduce costs.

Nineteen of the new projects are aimed at meeting the goals of the EV Everywhere Grand Challenge, which seeks to make the US auto industry the first to produce plug-in electric vehicles (PEVs) that are as affordable and convenient as legacy gas vehicles by 2022.

The PEV-related areas of research include “beyond lithium-ion technologies” that use high-energy-density materials, wide bandgap (WBG) semiconductors, lightweight materials and advanced climate-control technologies that reduce energy usage.

“Investments in the next generation of vehicle technologies will both strengthen our economy and lead to a more fuel-efficient, clean-energy future,” said Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz. “Improving vehicle efficiency is instrumental to establishing a 21st-century transportation sector that creates jobs as well as protects future

generations from harmful carbon emissions.”

The Department of the Army is contributing an additional $3.7 million in co-funding for projects focused on new battery technologies and reducing friction and wear in powertrains.

The Army will also test fuel-efficient tires developed at its facilities in Warren, Michigan.

“Partnering with the Energy Department, we are accelerating the development and deployment of cutting-edge technologies that will strengthen our military, economy and energy security,” said Dr Paul Rogers, Director of the Army’s Tank Automotive Research, Development and Engineering Center.

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$55 million in DOE funding for vehicle R&D, 19 EV projects

THE TECH

CURRENTevents

Prestolite E-Propulsion Systems (PEPS), a joint venture between Prestolite Electric Beijing and TM4 Inc, has received a multi-million-dollar order from Chinese bus manufacturer Foton for 250 SUMO HD electric powertrains. PEPS has been working with Foton to test its SUMO HD systems over the last 18 months.

Prestolite’s TM4 SUMO HD system is designed for medium- and heavy-duty electric and hybrid vehicles such as 6-18 meter buses, delivery trucks, shuttles and tow tractors. It has an operating battery voltage of 300-750 volts DC and a power output of 250 kW maximum, 235 kW continuous.

The system allows direct-drive operation, and is designed to interface with standard rear differentials without the need for an intermediate gearbox, which reduces the powertrain’s complexity and cost.

According to the company, a direct-drive system delivers optimal torque-to-weight ratio, takes up less space, requires fewer raw materials to produce and yields over 10% efficiency gains throughout the drive cycle, representing an equivalent gain in battery usage.

Some of Prestolite’s systems are offered with a double-ended shaft option, which is designed to allow easy integration into many hybrid-electric powertrain architectures.

12

Image courtesy of TM4

Prestolite to supply 250 powertrains for buses

CD-adapco has developed a set of Li-ion battery simulation tools designed to enable faster design and development of EV power systems. The new technology is available within CDadapco’s flagship software package STAR-CCM+ and the application-specific Battery Design Studio.

The new software tools were developed as part of the DOE’s Computer Aided Engineering of Electric Drive Batteries (CAEBAT) project. CAEBAT’s objective is to incorporate existing and new models into design suites/tools with the goal of shortening design cycles and optimizing batteries.

CD-adapco’s solution combines flow, thermal and electrochemical simulation. The models span multiple computational domains, from systems models to complex 3D models.

The electrochemical and thermal model is applicable at the cell, module and pack levels of analysis users can control the fidelity of the model depending on desired output and level of accuracy.

The project team used five cells from two different manufacturers, including stacked, cylindrical and prismatic wound electrodes, to validate the computational model using real-world drive cycles. They also added a database incorporating 12 contemporary electrolyte formulations, typical of those used in modern lithium-ion batteries, and created a calendar aging model, which works alongside the created cell-performance models, preconditioning them to an “aged” stage.

Image courtesy of CD-adapco

CD-adapco launches new tools for battery simulation

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CURRENTevents OXIS to develop marine lithium-sulfur batteries

Skeleton Technologies, a European manufacturer of ultracapacitor technology, has completed Round A financing of €3.9 million ($5.4 million). The funds will be used for scaling up production, product development and sales and marketing efforts.

Skeleton Technologies manufactures SkelCap ultracapacitor cells, which are available in ranges from 250 F to 3500 F, as well as SkelMod modules.

The company’s customer list includes the European Space Agency and several Tier 1 automotive suppliers.

“Our products have four times higher power density (80 kW/L), and almost double the energy density (14 Wh/L) compared to current industry standards,” says CEO Taavi Madiberk. “We enable our customers to excel in energy efficiency and electrical performance.”

Skeleton plans to focus its marketing efforts on the European market, especially Germany. “We are already the largest ultracapacitor manufacturer in Europe,” explains Mr Madiberk, “and this financing round will enable Skeleton Technologies to follow through with plans to build ultracapacitor manufacturing plants in Bautzen and Radeburg in Germany.

The total planned investment will be €13.6 million.”

14

Photo courtesy of OXIS Energy

Image courtesy of Skeleton Technologies

Ultracap maker raises €3.9 million in funding UK-based battery maker OXIS and Multi Source Power (MSP), a manufacturer of hybrid and electric marine drivetrains, have formed a partnership to develop lithium-sulfur batteries for marine applications.

The new product will be part of the Ghost Power Brand, and is scheduled for launch in the spring of 2015. It will be a versatile battery system scalable from 20 to 50 kWh, and will provide multiple configurable voltage outputs that can power electric motorboats, and can also be used to power air conditioning systems, navigation systems, etc.

“MSP has a strong pedigree in electric-boat building expertise coupled with in-depth battery experience,” said Huw Hampson-Jones, CEO of OXIS. “It has a quality team working to develop the ideal battery solution for the electric boat market, and we are very happy that its quality- and safety-focused team has chosen OXIS’s lithium-sulfur technology. The inherent safety of OXIS’s cell technology, along with its lightness, provides MSP with a strong competitive advantage for marine battery systems.”

“Lithium-sulfur technology is the ideal solution for the marine industry, combining safety and lightweight aspects. The OXIS battery technology provides the highest levels of safety our customers demand.” said MSP CEO Simon Patterson. “Furthermore, lithium-sulfur cells are already lighter than the lightest lithium-ion technology, and the overall weight reduction provides significant improvement to both the capacity performance and efficiency of the battery technology.”

THE TECH

New Research: Why fast charging reduces capacity Photo courtesy of NissanEV/Flickr

Up to 6.7 million postvehicle batteries by 2035

Some fine day, as second- and third-generation EVs take over the roads, there will be loads of used lithium-ion batteries kicking around. According to a new report by the Mineta National Transit Research Consortium (MNTRC), by 2035 there will be between 1.3 million and 6.7 million post-vehicle batteries across the US, “enough batteries to justify remanufacturing, repurposing and recycling efforts.”

Once these batteries have lived out their roughly 10-year useful lives on the road, some 85% could be suitable for reuse in post-vehicle applications, while the remaining 15% will be damaged beyond repair.

The MNTRC’s research indicates that recycling in isolation is not profitable, as lithium-ion batteries are composed of relatively inexpensive materials.

Even with technological breakthroughs, recycling could yield a mere 20% recovery of battery cost.

However, remanufacturing for reuse in vehicles “shows promise,” as damaged cells can be replaced, avoiding the cost of producing new batteries. As yet, no facilities for large-scale remanufacturing of Li-ion batteries are available, although Tesla has indicated that it will refurbish batteries at its planned Gigafactory.

The MNTRC’s report found that the “less welldefined application area” of repurposing (perhaps for stationary storage for renewable energy applications) would be profitable if the development cost is no higher than $83-114 per kWh. The analysis is based on a repurposing plant costing $30 million, with a capacity of 5,000 units in the first year.

Using a new method to track the electrochemical reactions in a battery, scientists at the DOE’s Brookhaven National Laboratory have gained new insight into why fast charging reduces battery capacity. The results were published in Nature Communications.

“We wanted to catch and monitor the phase transformation that takes place in the cathode as lithium ions move from the cathode to the anode,” said Brookhaven physicist Jun Wang, who led the research. Getting as many lithium ions as possible to move from cathode to anode through this process, known as delithiation, is the key to recharging a battery to its fullest capacity.

The Brookhaven team used a combination of full-field, nanoscale-resolution transmission x-ray microscopy (TXM) and x-ray absorption near-edge spectroscopy (XANES). These x-rays produce both high-resolution images and spectroscopic data, revealing where lithium ions remain in the material, and where they’ve been removed, leaving only iron phosphate.

The scientists studied the delithiation reaction under two different charging scenarios -rapid and slow. At the fast charging rate, the images show that the transformation from lithiated to delithiated iron phosphate proceeds inhomogeneously. In some regions of the electrode, all the lithium ions are removed, leaving only iron phosphate behind, while particles in other areas show no change at all, retaining their lithium ions. Even in the “fully charged” state, some particles retain lithium, and the electrode’s capacity is well below the maximum level.

“This is the first time anyone has been able to see that delithiation was happening differently at different spatial locations on an electrode under rapid charging conditions,” Jun Wang said.

Slower charging, in contrast, results in homogeneous delithiation - lithium-iron phosphate particles throughout the electrode gradually change over to pure iron phosphate, and the electrode has a higher capacity.

AUG/SEP 2014 15

CURRENTevents

OpEneR, a European consortium of OEMs, parts suppliers and research institutes, has developed a system that combines driving strategies and driver assistance systems to vastly improve the efficiency and range of EVs by optimizing energy management. Engineers worked to improve the electrical powertrain, regenerative braking system, navigation system and surround sensors, and tested the system using two Peugeot prototype EVs. The researchers modified the behavior of the adaptive cruise control (ACC) to an economical driving style. The prototype vehicles have a redesigned instrument panel with an electronic horizon to optimize the ACC function. This feature tells drivers when to lift the accelerator pedal as they approach city boundaries or speed limits. The transmission then switches to idle, making the most of the car’s momentum.

Another range booster is “eco routing,” which considers the specific needs of an EV when calculating the best route. Test drives demonstrated energy consumption savings of up to 30% in return for a longer travel time of just 14%.

Engineers equipped the two test vehicles with the Bosch iBooster, an electromechanical brake booster, and an ESP brake-control system specifically adapted for regenerative braking in EVs. Compared to a typical “sporty” driver, the OpEneR operation strategies resulted in energy savings of 27-36%, with an increase in travel time of 8-21%, depending on the driver’s willingness to follow the recommendations. About five percentage points of the energy consumption reduction were due to intelligent torque distribution between front and rear electric motors in the demonstrators, which had no influence on travel time at all.

16

Photo courtesy of Bosch

Energy management system vastly improves efficiency

Image courtesy of Siemens

Siemens developing centralized EV architecture

Siemens, in partnership with EV manufacturer StreetScooter, is developing a centralized computing architecture for EVs that will make it possible to retrofit new features using a “plug-and-play” process, and to push software updates to vehicles as is currently done with smartphones (and Tesla vehicles).

The RACE initiative aims to simplify a car’s electronics architecture, eliminating the need for multiple control systems. “70 to 100 different computers of various kinds are used to fulfill various functions, like engine control, infotainment systems or advanced driver-assistance systems like lane keeping,” Cornel Klein, Project Manager of RACE, told Gizmag. “This ‘E/E architecture’ uses a multitude of different technologies for communication and integrated components from quite different suppliers. The complexity makes the implementation of new functions time-consuming, particularly when it comes to safety-critical functions like steer-by-wire or autonomous driving. Moreover, new functionality cannot be retrofitted once the car has been produced.”

The RACE system will equip a car with a platform that allows new applications to be downloaded as software modules, similar to apps in smartphones. It will also provide an API (application programming interface) that provides software developers with access to vehicle sensors (cameras, steering wheel, brake pedals) and actuators (power steering motor, braking system).

“Good examples for such apps are new driver assistance functions or infotainment functionality,” said Klein, “which can hardly be retrofitted in today’s cars.”

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PACK TESTING

2014 Chevrolet Spark EV Battery Pack Image courtesy of General Motors Š

18

AeroVironment‘s ABC-150 in GM’s battery lab

Photos © General Motors, Left by John F. Martin, Right by Steve Fecht

I

AeroVironment launches the AV-900 EX

By Michael Kent

n the late 1980s, General Motors contracted with the California-based firm AeroVironment to develop the Impact electric concept car. It was the prototype that evolved into the infamous EV1 production car.

While designing the Impact, AeroVironment needed the ability to test large-format battery packs for automotive applications. However, at that time, essentially no one else in the world was developing EVs, and the tools to efficiently build and test battery packs didn’t exist.

“So we developed and built it ourselves,” Jonah TeeterBalin told Charged. He is the Director of Product Marketing at AeroVironment’s Efficient Energy Systems division.

There are three general classifications of battery-testing equipment: cell, module and pack-level. Cell-level testing requires smaller equipment, often providing channels for cycling many cells at once. Module-level testing is performed on one assembly of multiple cells. Pack-level testing usually includes all the parts of the fully assembled system - the cooling, controls, etc.

“There was nothing on the market capable of doing lifecycle testing, destructive testing and environmental testing at the pack level,” explained Teeter-Balin. “So we built what is now our ABC-150 product and used it to simulate and test battery packs in real time.”

GM Engineers inspect the Spark EV’s battery

“

There was nothing on the market... So we built what is now our ABC-150 product and used it to simulate and test battery packs in real time.

”

AUG/SEP 2014 19

Parallel potential The new and improved product is an extension of the benchmark AV-900, with a lot of improvements in key areas. One unit by itself still delivers a maximum of 250 kW, but the company has built in the capability to run up to four units in parallel for 1 MW of power.

At the center of the upgrade is a switch from analog to digital controls, which led to efficiency increases across the board and many new feature possibilities.

“This system has improved accuracy on the voltage and current, and thus the power side,” said Teeter-Balin.

“Both the testing and the reporting of results are more accurate. We’ve improved the performance and speed of the system, quite substantially actually. So, now you can

“

But now with all the new technologies - the new chemistries and other applications outside of EVs the requirements for testing have become substantially more involved.

”

20

AeroVironment AV-900

do testing a lot faster, and the signal responses are a lot better. We also added Ethernet communications so that customers can quickly send signals from a remote PC. And if they’re doing dynamic testing with a closed-loop test protocol, they’re able to do a lot more, a lot faster.”

Error detection, less down time With new digital controls, the AV-900 EX is able to protect itself against issues that can pop up during testing and cause costly downtime. Over the years, AeroVironment found that customers were really aggressive, and were using the systems to experiment with a lot of new tests. The company says that it wanted to continue to enable users to push the limits, in ways that could not even be foreseen, and without as much risk to the system.

“Let’s say something changes during the test,” TeeterBalin explains. “Instead of just shutting off completely, the system will say, ‘OK, I’ll ramp down slightly on power so that the system is protected, but keep other tests running.’ This is based on feedback from our customers who said, ‘We’re trying a lot of new stuff. It would be helpful if the system was robust enough to protect against the crazy new things that we’re trying.’”

One example of a downtime-causing error is grid fluctuations. AeroVironment has found that grid power and building power are not always clean, particularly in some international markets, and that can interrupt testing procedures. The AV-900 EX has new safeguards that

Photos courtesy of AeroVironment

AeroVironment then began to sell its ABC-150, which provides power up to 125 kW, to battery test labs and other automotive companies. As the market grew, its customers came back asking for a product to conduct more sophisticated testing and to test bigger batteries. So, the company designed the AV-900, which is capable of providing testing power up to 250 kW. Developed in the mid- to late-1990s, the AV-900 “was enough to do all the tests that the car companies and the test labs were asking for,” Teeter-Balin told us. “But now with all the new technologies - the new chemistries and other applications outside of EVs - the requirements for testing have become substantially more involved.”

To meet the new demands of a battery-poweredeverything world, AeroVironment worked closely with customers to solicit a lot of feedback, and has announced its next-generation pack tester: the AV-900 EX.

THE TECH

“

Anything that can help get them up and running quicker after something goes wrong, that’s a huge win for customers

”

there’s a new LCD touchscreen display that tells you exactly where your input voltage has dipped or your current is exceeding limits, for example, with no need to root through a manual.”

There are standardized tests that will not be impacted much by the AV-900 EX’s new features. But many others, like destructive tests and life-cycle tests, can now be performed much faster. “We’re enabling our customers to do more types of testing, and faster if they want to,” said Teeter-Balin. “More testing in the same amount of time.”

The new AeroVironment AV-900 EX

are activated if the grid power fluctuates substantially, so there is no impact on testing at the system level.

Also, within the pack or module test itself, users can set soft limits. If a variable exceeds its limit on the battery side, the technicians are notified and can stop the tests to adjust the settings accordingly.

Error reporting and soft limits have always been a part of AeroVironment’s testing products, but with new digital controls, the AV-900 EX has improved that feature set substantially. Digital controls let users get to the cause of an error much more quickly, to get the test back up and running.

“Customers wanted much better feedback on the error side. It is all about efficiency for them,” said Teeter-Balin.

“They want to get the maximum out of these systems, and anything that can help get them up and running quicker after something goes wrong, that’s a huge win for customers. They spend a lot of time monitoring the equipment to make sure that they are using these assets to maximize their testing throughput. When an error does occur,

Eyeing other markets AeroVironment announced the new AV-900 EX in September, and is ready to start shipping in January.

The company thinks this product will appeal to many new markets. One of the main reasons for the equipment upgrade was the feedback that AeroVironment has received from its other partners outside of the automotive world. A big part of its business is in military hardware, and those customers are beginning to look at new battery applications for heavy military use.

With a 1 MW maximum power rating, four AV-900 EXs in parallel are within the range of some stationary energy-storage applications - another fast-growing new market segment. The new unit even has a mode that can test solar panels under different light conditions: diffused, direct, angled, hot/cold, etc.

Also, there are heavy transportation sectors - ships, trains, trucks and planes - that are using more and more electric and hybrid systems. “They can all benefit from the enhanced performance of this product,” said TeeterBalin. “We now feel that we can go after these markets that have very advanced batteries, very high discharge rates and much bigger power than a passenger automobile.”

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MEASURE

TWICE, The experts at Mentor Graphics walk us through the simulation and analysis of a battery pack cooling system

By Joey Stetter

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Image courtesy of Mentor Graphics

Figure 1: Battery pack modeled with 3D CFD

I

n the business of battery pack design, one of the main considerations is cooling. The pack must have a uniform and stable temperature for the batteries to perform adequately during worst-case conditions. Even within a single cell, high gradients can cause it to degrade faster and fail earlier.

With the advent of advanced computer simulations, engineers are now able to test the performance of many iterations of cooling designs before ever creating a physical prototype. These techniques, known as computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulations, save an enormous amount of time and money when analyzing and enhancing different designs. And the capabilities of simulations continue to evolve and advance.

In the past, CFD analysis was typically assigned to a highly trained specialist. However, a new generation of CFD tools now runs natively from the same CAD software that engineers use to design the mechanical structures of the system. That means there is no need to create a separate CFD model, and any redesigns can be done immediately.

AUG/SEP 2014 23

Figure 2: Battery cooling packs modeled in 1D CFD

3D: The component level For analysis at the component level, 3D CFD allows the study of very detailed flow and thermal behavior. A 3D CFD program can analyze flow paths through the pack, as well as the pressure drop, velocity, heat transfer and local temperatures to evaluate performance. Any unacceptable operations, such as misguided flow patterns or extreme thermal gradients, can be identified early.

Later in the design process, when the performance of the entire cooling system is the main concern, 3D CFD helps to create a more accurate 1D system simulation.

Precise characterization data for the components in the 1D model is obtained from 3D CFD, instead of from the generic built-in databases.

Mid Pack Temp<째C>

1D: The system level One of the biggest benefits of 1D CFD is how quickly a system analysis can be completed, especially for transient analysis. Transient analysis is a time-dependent simulation, for example, a simulation over a time period when something heats up or cools down, as in a real-life situation. A system-level approach using 3D CFD is more difficult and takes much longer.

One very important consideration is how to represent the battery pack. It would be easy, and can be acceptable in some cases, to model it as a single lumped component, using an overall Mid Pack Temp vs [heatflowrate] vs [v_dot] heat transfer coefficient and combined therCoolant 50/50 (Glycol/Water), Ambient 20째 C mal duty. However, when accuracy is very important, the pack is modeled as individual 90 21.731 cells, to ensure that any temperature gra80 30.7895 dients across the pack are captured (Figure 70 39.8481 1). Also, because the pressure loss and heat 60 48.9066 transfer associated with the piping in the 50 57.9651 system is considered negligible, these parts of 40 67.0236 30 the system are excluded from the model.

76.0821 1D CFD requires significant amounts of 85.1406 35 2 30 4 6 25 8 94.1992 > data to describe the physical phenomena 20 10 W 12 15 14 te]< [v_d a 16 r 10 going on inside each component. But the ot]< 18 ow L/mi atfl n> need to find performance data is minimized, [he because products like Flowmaster have substantial built-in databases of empirical data Figure 3: Surface map of cooling pack temperature versus coolant for a wide range of geometric components flow rate and cell load from the parametric study of the cooling pack such as valves, bends and junctions.

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Images courtesy of Mentor Graphics

A strong linkage between typical CAD software and CFD capabilities is especially powerful at a design stage where a lot of changes are still necessary. It allows for a faster iterative approach to the overall thermal design and provides a good characterization of the cells.

A 1D CFD tool, like Mentor Graphics Flowmaster, is good for analyzing the overall performance of a system and for identifying how the components interact, while a 3D CFD program, like Mentor Graphics FloEFD, allows designers and engineers to analyze flow paths, the pressure drop, velocity, heat transfer and local temperatures (Figure 1) - without the need to call in a CFD guru.

Charged recently talked to the experts at Mentor Graphics to better understand the process of 1D and 3D CFD simulation techniques. According to the company, combining both approaches will maximize design efficiency.

THE TECH Battery Cell Load vs Pump Performance Coolant Flow Rate [L/min]

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Figure 4: A trend line shown in the battery cell load vs. pump performance diagram for temperatures just around 40° C

A 3D CFD program allows designers and engineers to analyze flow paths, the pressure drop, velocity, heat transfer, and local temperatures without the need to call in a CFD guru.

How-to: Peak condition cooling Let’s say we want to find an appropriate volumetric flow rate to keep a given system under the 40 degrees C critical temperature for Li-ion batteries. The 30-40 degrees C temperature band is a general guideline that the industry has been following to preserve the lifespan of the costly batteries. We’ll use a worst-case scenario to make sure the system is able to meet the heat rejection requirements without the use of the cabin air-conditioning circuit that some manufacturers are using in very high-demand cooling applications.

First, a parametric study is done using the 3D FloEFD simulation software to determine the minimum pump volumetric flow rate required to keep the pack under 40

degrees C, using a 50/50 glycol/water coolant and 20 degrees C ambient temperature. The heat rejection of each cell is set at 30 W, and the pump flow rate is varied from 2 to 15 L/min.

As shown in Figure 3, the minimum flow rate that ensures all sections of the battery pack are maintained below 40 degrees C is approximately 9.5 L/min. A simple crosscheck with the pump supplier can ensure that the pump selected for the system meets this requirement.

How-to: Pump performance versus battery load Now that the minimum volumetric flow rate has been determined, we’ll want to understand how the cooling pack will perform under a range of operating conditions, particularly when changing coolant flow rates and cell load. Again, run a parametric study of the cooling pack in FloEFD, and then, from those results, create a surface map of cooling pack temperature versus coolant flow rate and cell load (Figure 3 shows an example). This map provides a quick reference for the ideal conditions to which the cooling pack should be exposed and gives an opportunity for redesign if it is deemed unacceptable.

From the surface map, you can produce a trend line that shows battery cell load versus pump performance (an example is shown in Figure 4). You can now use this

AUG/SEP 2014 25

Battery Warm-Up vs Heater Power

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The simulation shows that, apparently, the pump speed doesn’t have much influence on the total warm-up time data as a starting point for tuning the pump control algorithms. For example, an intended battery cell load of 20 W shows a required coolant flow rate of 5.5 L/min to stay below the critical temperature of 40 degrees C. In addition to creating a pump control algorithm, you can use the surface map to characterize the cooling pack’s thermal performance. Along with the pressure-drop data, this information is all that is required to model the cooling pack in Flowmaster.

How-to: Best “warm-up from cold start” configuration After the initial component-level design has been deemed

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acceptable with 3D CFD analysis, it is important to investigate how it will perform within a system using a 1D CFD like Flowmaster. A critical real-life challenge for EV battery systems is warming up from a cold start, because there is no internal combustion engine to provide heat.

Imagine it is a cold winter day in Chicago at -10 degrees C, and the vehicle battery pack needs to reach an acceptable operating temperature (AOT) within a reasonable time. With no internal combustion engine, a source of heat for cold startup, such as a positive temperature coefficient (PTC) heater, needs to be installed.

Two quantities can be varied in this simulation: pump speed and PTC heater size, as well as the acceptance criteria for the cooling pack to reach 20 degrees C in less than 30 minutes.

In this example, we’ll analyze high and low pump speed with a range of heater power from 2 kW to 10 kW. The simulation shows that, apparently, the pump speed doesn’t have much influence on the total warm-up time, and running it at half speed will take a lot of load off the auxiliary battery without affecting warm-up time.

That means you can simplify the design parameters to

Images courtesy of Mentor Graphics

Time [min]

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THE TECH

The engineering processes used to create efficient and effective cooling systems are just as important as the physical components themselves. just varying the size of the heater. As shown in Figure 5, the smallest PTC heater that would work for the system is 3 kW to reach an AOT of 20 degrees C in less than 30 minutes.

Another interesting point is the difference between front and rear cells in the warm-up study. A snapshot shows a difference of 5 degrees C between the front and rear of the pack. If that was unacceptable for the design

objectives, you could re-run the analysis with a higher flow rate, add an extra heater for the rear cells, or reconfigure the flow geometries to create better flow around the pack.

Design efficiently The engineering processes used to create efficient and effective cooling systems are just as important as the physical components themselves. Choosing the best tools is critical, and using the right CFD simulation techniques during design will maximize the process and the final systemâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s efficiency.

Mentor Graphicsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; team of experts that contributed to this article includes: Steve Streater, Industry Product Manager for Flowmaster Automotive; Boris Marovic, Industry Manager for Automotive and Transportation; Doug Kolak, Industry Product Manager; and Michael Behling, a former Application Engineer with Flowmaster.

Safer

Separators The Freudenberg Group’s new line of Li-ion battery separators By Michael Kent

T

he separator is a critical component of a battery. It provides a barrier between the anode and the cathode while enabling the exchange of ionic charge carriers from one side to the other.

For over 40 years, the Freudenberg Group has been producing separators for nickel-based batteries, such as the nickel-metal hydride (NiMH) cells widely used in hybrid vehicles since the late 1990s. About two years ago, the company turned its sights to the new lithium-ion market that powers today’s resurgent plug-in vehicles.

The requirements for separators in both Ni-based and Li-based batteries are similar in that both need high homogeneity and very low levels of impurities, much like any high-end material. However, that is where the similarities end. A close look at the specifications of separators will reveal a wide range of different products, even within the same chemistry. Separators vary in terms of fibers, chemistry and surface finishing, resulting in tailor-made mechanical parameters: porosity, wettability, softness and so on. For example, separators used in Ni-

28

based batteries are typically around 100 to 200 microns in thickness, whereas those used for Li-ion batteries are considerably thinner: around 20 to 30 microns.

So, while Freudenberg has had a long history in highend separator manufacturing, the company had a lot of work to do to design and validate a new line of separators for the Li-ion market.

Safety first “Behind our new separator material there is a philosophy,” Dr Christoph Weber, Business Segment Manager for Lithium-ion Battery Separators, told Charged. “We had a look at the main root causes of safety issues with lithium batteries. It starts with mechanical pressure by a particle in the cell. Then this develops into a localized heat-up due to small short circuits. Then a large-scale heat-up. Then an uncontrolled discharge.”

The company decided to design a next-generation separator material that is very robust against mechanical pressure. Also, “a localized heat-up should not allow any

Photo © CHARGED EVs Magazine

THE TECH

shrinkage, and a large-scale heat-up should not allow a complete meltdown,” explained Weber. By integrating these features into a separator material, Freudenberg believes it can protect against the root causes of thermal runaway in Li-ion cells.

“

Nonwovens Many of the battery separators used in currently available cells are made of polyolefin membranes - either polypropylene or polyethylene. They are manufactured through an extrusion process and then stretched into a film. This process produces separators that have good properties, like low thickness and weight, and have made today’s Liion-powered mobile electronics a reality. However, many believe that for widespread use in automotive applications, a safer alternative is needed. The biggest problem is that when the cells get hot, polyolefins begin to shrink, reducing performance and increasing the possibility of short circuits.

Freudenberg decided to use a nonwoven polyester

material as the base of its new separators. Nonwoven fabrics are made by bonding together long fibers either by chemical, mechanical, heat or solvent treatments, and Freudenberg is one of the world’s largest manufacturers and suppliers of nonwovens to many different industries.

Its polyester nonwoven separator material is made using a wet-laid process, similar to papermaking, in which a slurry of fibers is mixed and then laid out on a sieve and bonded together.

The result is a base material that is fundamentally less prone to shrinkage than extruded and stretched polyolefin material. Also, “We do not have collapsing porosities that you find with softer materials like membranes,” explained Weber. “These collapsing porosities trigger the

A localized heat-up should not allow any shrinkage, and a large scale heat-up should not allow a complete meltdown.

”

AUG/SEP 2014 29

formation of dendrites, which cause reduced capacity, self-discharge issues and eventually safety issues.”

Impregnated, not coated Almost all the large-format cells on the market today use ceramics to further reduce shrinkage, increase hightemperature performance and add mechanical ruggedness. Freudenberg does so as well, except that it employs a proprietary ceramic impregnation process.

“With a typical polyolefin membrane, a ceramic layer is placed on top,” explained Fabian Beck, Sales Manager at Freudenberg. “But the properties of the membrane still remain, which includes shrinkage. It’s still a plastic foil.

This is like putting plaster on a wound - however, it’s better if you don’t have a wound to begin with. In our case, there is a skeleton of fibers that we stuff with inorganic particles, and then we use a clever way to bond them. So it becomes flexible and you can use that design independent of your preferred cell design.”

The ceramic particles are extremely sturdy mechanical spacers against the roughness of the electrodes, or particles on the electrodes, that could penetrate the separator. This sturdiness translates into enhanced safety, because it maintains a separation between the electrodes, even under various severe abuse conditions. “During safety tests like nail penetration, overcharge and impact, our separator is very thermally and mechanically stable compared to other state-of-the-art separators, including coated membranes,” said Weber. “By the nature of the materials, and the different approach to ceramics, we get to a different level of safety performance. If you coat a material you are adding something on the top of it. The material and the coating are not connected. If you impregnate a material, you bring the ceramics into the other material, so you have a much better connection. Our polyester nonwoven is filled with ceramics, so the whole structure becomes ceramic. We have a true ceramic and flexible separator.”

To verify the strength of its products, Freudenberg offers a demonstration using a soldering iron that is 420 degrees C at its tip. The iron is pressed to a sample of the separator for 10 seconds, and...nothing happens, even under the high pressure and high heat. “In other designs you can see that the separator flows away from the heat source at the tip of the iron,” says Beck. “When you start having a short circuit in a battery, within a second you come to several hundred degrees C localized at the short

30

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This sturdiness translates into enhanced safety, because it maintains a separation between the electrodes, even under various severe abuse conditions

”

circuit position. Eventually the short circuit is becoming larger and the cell blows. So this high temperature test gives testimony on the true thermal-mechanical stability of a separator at internal short circuit conditions. The Freudenberg separator assures electrode separation even under such extreme conditions.”

Beck continues, “In, for instance, nail tests of 6.5 Ah NMC pouch cells with typical membrane separators are heating up to around 500 degrees C leading to catastrophic cell failure with fire and explosion. But the cells using our separator stopped at 120 degrees C and then cooled down again. No fire. No explosion.”

Process matters Weber explains that for nonwoven materials, production and the following impregnation process need to be controlled very precisely, including the conditions of the production environment. This is where the company’s long history in battery separator manufacturing comes into play. Freudenberg believes its expertise and ability to control all the manufacturing steps in-house gives it a real competitive advantage.

For example, Freudenberg has many years of experience slitting, or cutting, huge rolls of separators into smaller pieces. It’s not an easy process when working with a ceramic material - it’s similar to cutting sandpaper. For Li-ion batteries, quality requirements are extreme, and any rough edges or contamination in the material are very problematic.

“It’s really beneficial to have our history, all the capabilities for the production, from the nonwoven itself to the impregnation with ceramics, and the slitting as well. We can do everything,” said Weber. “That sets us apart from competitors. We have a fast internal feedback loop such that we can adjust to customers’ demands quickly.”

THE TECH Nail Penetration Tests Based on internal data from The Freudenberg Group

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In nail tests...typical membrane separators are heating up to around 500 degrees C leading to catastrophic cell failure. But the cells using our separator stopped at 120 degrees C and then cooled down again.

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The company says that control over the whole process increases product reliability in many respects, including homogeneity. A homogeneous material, and a homogeneous impregnation process, means uniform porosity and an even distribution of ion flow. If a separator is not

homogeneous and uniform, it will generate different heat profiles as ions will flow slowly in some areas and faster in others. The more variation there is in the battery, the quicker it will fail.

Ready for Prime Time After an intense product development and testing period, Freudenberg now has Li-ion separator products available on the commercial market. The company told us that, at the moment, these high value-added separators have an attractive price/performance ratio, which will become even more compelling with increasing volume demand by customers.

“We are 100 percent sure the use of our separator material will lift lithium batteries, especially the high energydensity nickel-manganese-cobalt cells, to another step regarding safety and reliability,” said Beck. “These are not projections on a Powerpoint presentation, it’s real results in real cells.”

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Triple

Threat Three Li-ion battery chemistries, the speed of its software and hardware systems configuration and the automotive legacy of Voltabox make this newly-landed American spin-off company a player in the realm of rechargeable batteries for public transit and heavy industrial vehicles.

By Markkus Rovito

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Photo courtesy of Voltabox

A

ustin, Texas is known for many things: music festivals, barbequed ribs, the Texas Longhorns, filmmaker Robert Rodriguez and “Keep Austin Weird” t-shirts. You can bet that the many mustachioed hipsters drinking craft beers in Austin’s numerous bars are less familiar with their city’s other claim to fame, the “Silicon Valley of the Battery,” as Voltabox’s website calls it.

However, it was at the University of Texas at Austin in 1996 that Professor John Goodenough and his research team first identified how lithium iron phosphate (LiFePO4) could be used as a cathode for rechargeable lithium batteries. That breakthrough set off a chain reaction of Li-ion momentum in the area, leading to more research and commercial off-shoots, all revolving around rechargeable battery technology. As a result, when Voltabox Deutschland, based out of Delbrück, Germany, needed a place to open a US branch to comply with the Buy American provision of the 2009 American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, the company chose the Austin area.

AUG/SEP 2014 33

THE TECH

With its new Austin manufacturing base, Voltabox can now serve orders such as their recent deals to supply the cities of Seattle, San Francisco and Dayton, Ohio with battery packs for trolley buses.

Voltavantages There are several selling points that Voltabox can offer potential customers, most prominently the speed and flexibility with which the company can configure and deliver its modular battery systems. The flexibility comes from offering three different battery chemistries, as well as both cylindrical and prismatic cell packaging, configured modularly for adapting to varying size requirements.

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Voltabox chooses products from a variety of top-notch cell makers, for example the larger-format prismatic Samsung NMC cells. “These cells are in use in the BMW i3 vehicle, the brand-new sport coupe i8, and the Porsche 918 super sport vehicle,” said Juergen Pampel, Voltabox’s CTO. “We use exactly the same cells from Samsung.”

Paul Malone, Voltabox’s Vice President of Marketing and Sales, elaborated on approved cell suppliers, including K2 Energy, A123, Toshiba and Samsung. “Our expertise is we provide the whole lithium battery system, which includes the enclosure, the battery management system [BMS] and thermal management system, which provides a total solution for hybrid electric and full electric vehicles.”

Creating not the cells, but the finished modular battery packs, is a highly automated process that Voltabox can

Photo courtesy of Voltabox

By early September, Voltabox was scheduled to have a rented facility in greater Austin producing its modular iron-phosphate, lithium-titanate (LTO) and nickel-manganese-cobalt-oxide (NMC) Li-ion batteries for its US municipal and commercial customers. The rental facility will allow them to transition to its own $6-million, 23,000-square-foot plant that is currently in Phase I of completion and is scheduled to go online in March 2015 in Cedar Park, Texas, 20 miles from downtown Austin.

The Buy American provision requires that any financial assistance provided under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act goes to purchase building materials and other manufactured goods from the USA. Because Voltabox concentrates on rapidly configurable modular battery packs for large-format, heavy-duty vehicles that serve in public transit, commercial fleets and in-house pallet-lifting vehicles, many of its customers, such as transit authorities in US cities, need their parts to be American-made. With its new Austin manufacturing base, Voltabox can now serve orders such as their recent deals to supply the cities of Seattle, San Francisco and Dayton, Ohio with battery packs for trolley buses.

Besides that, having a manufacturing facility within the central longitude of the US makes shipping its batteries more cost-effective.

“

These cells are in use in the BMW i3 vehicle, the brand new sport coupe i8 and also the Porsche 918 super sport vehicle. We use exactly the same cells from Samsung.

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fulfill both in Germany and now in its new Austin-area facilities. With a combination of its software configuration tool and its highly adaptable manufacturing, Voltabox believes it can deliver a price estimate for its customers, as well as the finished product, faster than its competitors.

“We developed our own software configuration tool to get a quotation for the client on new projects,” Klaus Frers, Voltabox’s CEO, said. “They may say, ‘we have this application for a battery system. We need a certain voltage level; we have these duty cycles, so we think we need a capacity overall from 52 kWh, and we have this amount of space of available in our car.’ And from this basic information, we can feed our configuration tool very easily and quickly. It’s like what you do to configure a car online. You choose the color, the rims, and this or that.

That’s similar to what we’re doing. We feed the software with base data, and then we get a first technical concept and a first indicated cost. The software itself decides, depending on the base data, which is the best module for a particular use and the given packaging space. We see the weight of the new system, how many of our battery

AUG/SEP 2014 35

Photo courtesy of Voltabox

THE TECH

“

modules have to be inside, the length, width and height, and so on. This makes us quite fast. We are able to come back to our customers within a few hours to provide a first quotation for what they ask. This shortens the time extremely.”

The second half of Voltabox’s rapid delivery equation comes in its automated production lines that build a battery module up from a single cell and then add the electronics and the BMS. “This is more or less fully automatic,” Frers said. “Then to create the customer-specific battery packs from these battery modules, we have highly-skilled people who create tailor-made battery solutions. These people build the packs for the trolley buses in Seattle, for fork-lifts to be used in Houston and so on.”

Voltabox wouldn’t go into specifics of the exact capacity for its new Texas facilities, but Rick Herndon, Voltabox’s COO, did say the company can produce “thousands” of modules a year on its automated lines, and that the packs they build vary greatly in terms of modules per pack.

“A typical amount in some cases is around 30 to 50 modules, but we have in other cases some hundreds of modules per pack,” Pampel said. “We are working on other projects for several thousands, but in every case, we use our standard modules from our automated lines.”

of discharge), temperature range of 0 to 50° C, energy density of 127 Wh/kg, efficiency up to 95%, and also a low self-discharge rate.

“For certain applications, we have certain duty cycles to fulfill, and having some options available is always easier,” said Pampel. “One customer asked us ‘would it be possible to get a battery system made for up to 10 charging cycles a day, but also with a lifetime for the whole battery system of about six, eight or ten years?’ That means you would need a cell that can do 10,000, 15,000 or even 18,000 cycles. Nowadays that is possible with lithiumtitanate oxide cells. We created a modular system to build ultra-long-life battery packs, based on lithium-titanate oxide. In most cases we do this with stainless steel housings, but we also use aluminum housings, and for small battery solutions and certain applications we’re using plastic materials for the outer containments.”

Pampel also sees the use of three different battery chemistries as having a good business angle to it - it lets the company speak to many different cell suppliers and have high-grade cells to offer for every configuration.

“Our goal is to position ourselves in the market so we are talking directly with the likes of Samsung, Toshiba, A123 and K2 Energy,” he said. “Our task is not to purchase from distributors - we are the ones who will talk directly to the huge, strong, established cell manufacturers. That guarantees that we will have the best quality of cells available, and get direct support from the R&D people at each company as it’s needed. It’s a good thing to purchase directly.”

While the batteries for Voltabox’s current trolley bus project have air-cooling systems, the company can provide either liquid cooling or air cooling on any of its cylindrical cell or prismatic cell modules, depending on the requested application.

Battery chemistries Voltabox’s three lithium battery chemistry types offer different advantages and/or different cell types. For example, its lithium-iron-phosphate (LiFePO4) cells claim no possible thermal runaway, high cycle stability (up to 4,000 cycles at 80% depth of discharge, high temperature range (-20 to 60° C), energy density of 125 Wh/kg, efficiency of up to 95%, low self-discharge rate, and small amount of rare earth elements needed. By comparison, lithium-nickel-manganese-cobalt-oxide (LiNMC) cells offer high cycle stability (up to 5,000 cycles at 80% depth

paragon AG Besides speed and flexibility, Frers believes Voltabox possesses one more key advantage that other battery producers cannot match easily, if at all. That is the legacy of knowledge and experience that comes from its parent company, paragon AG, which has been a Tier 1 automotive supplier to premium automakers such as Volkswagen, Porsche, Audi, BMW and Daimler for more than 25 years. Both Voltabox Deutschland and Voltabox of Texas are wholly owned subsidiaries of paragon. They spun off from paragon earlier in 2014, and they stem from para-

A typical amount in some cases is around 30 to 50 modules, but also we have in other cases some hundreds of modules per pack.

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Photo courtesy of Voltabox

THE TECH

gon’s former electromobility division that was formed in 2010 to focus on lithium battery packs.

“Because of our background coming from paragon, an automotive supplier since 1988, we have a huge knowledge in doing electronic hardware and software systems to be used in vehicles,” Frers said. “All of my engineers for the electronics, and all of my software developers, have known these areas for years, so it’s nothing new for them.

That is important, because modern battery systems based on lithium-ion cell chemistries have to interact with the vehicle electrical system via CAN bus and have to be controlled by a BMS, the device controlling and balancing the cells to ensure that each, in comparison to the stable cells, is on the same level. That is something we just can do because it’s part of our broad know-how in doing enhanced electronic and software-driven systems for more than 26 years.”

“Most long-established battery manufacturers are coming from the lead-acid technology,” Frers said. “In those

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“

Most of them came from leadacid technology, and they struggle to provide modern and reliable lithium-ion-based battery packs.

”

days, 20 or 30 years ago, it was not necessary to have experience with advanced electronics for battery controls and system integration in electric vehicle architectures.

Our success in Germany is based on what we can offer in comparison to a long-established battery manufacturer.

Most of them came from lead-acid technology, and they struggle to provide modern and reliable lithium-ionbased battery packs. These are very special skills, and we have them.”

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2016 Chevrolet Volt

2012 Chevrolet Volt

The next-generation Chevrolet Volt will debut at next January’s Detroit Auto Show. GM has released a teaser image of the new model, which seems to have a slightly more rounded rear liftgate.

Other than that, little has been revealed about the second-generation PHEV. In April, supplier sources hinted that the Volt would be offered in a lower-priced version with a smaller battery pack, but a Chevrolet spokesman said, “Volt customers are the happiest customers in the world. We found a formula that works for them, and we’re not going to deviate from that formula.”

The formula certainly seems to be working. With more than 65,000 units sold since its debut in December 2010, the Volt remains the best-selling plug-in car in the US, and has earned the highest customer-satisfaction scores of any vehicle GM has ever sold. More than 90% of Volt owners say they’d buy another, and GM believes that it attracts new buyers to the brand.

Automotive News also noted that the Volt is the only model in GM’s current lineup that has not been recalled for safety reasons this year.

“Volt is the perfect example of the ingenuity that drives everything we do at Chevrolet,” said Chevrolet Chief

Marketing Officer Tim Mahoney. “Volt fully delivers on the promises of Find New Roads and will continue to provide consumers with the transportation solutions they need and deserve in the future.”

Speaking for an audience of Buick retirees last week, GM Executive VP Mark Reuss had no technical tidbits to offer, saying only that the new Volt will offer “better fuel economy and efficiency.”

One bit of welcome news: GM plans to revamp its Volt marketing efforts. Tim Mahoney told Automotive News that the company will use existing Volt owners as “evangelists,” and will focus its marketing efforts on “areas with dense populations.”

Mahoney said that while the Volt “is a halo product for the brand, and one that sort of points to what is possible at Chevrolet, there are clearly pieces of geography where it makes sense. So you’ll see a focus on fishing where the fish are.”

As GM and other automakers are beginning to learn, selling plug-ins requires a different approach to marketing. Several EV advocates have pointed out that companies should do more to harness the enthusiasm of existing EV owners.

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Photos: Left - © General Motors, Right - © CHARGED

Next-generation Volt to debut in Detroit in January

THE VEHICLES

Startup builds $529,000 electric super-coupe

Photo © CHARGED Electric Vehicles Magazine

Volkswagen announces lease and pricing for e-Golf

Photos courtesy of Renovo Motors

Volkswagen has announced that the 2015 e-Golf will have a starting price of $35,445 (plus $820 destination charge) when it goes on sale in selected US states in November. The new EV will also lease for $299 per month.

Prices for the competing Nissan LEAF range from $29,010 to $35,120; the Ford Focus Electric starts at $35,170.

Built on VW’s Modular Transverse Matrix (MQB) platform, the e-Golf boasts 115 horsepower and 199 lb-ft of torque. Range is between 70 and 90 miles, according to Volkswagen.

The new EV has a standard 7.2 kW onboard charger, as well as CCS-compatible DC fast charging.

Safety features include a rearview camera and front and rear Park Distance Control.

VW claims the e-Golf has the largest interior space of any compact EV - 93.5 cubic feet, the same as the legacy Golf. For some buyers, the e-Golf ’s capacious cargo space could be a strong selling point: 52.7 cubic feet with the seats folded, more than the Prius (40 ft3), and far more than the LEAF or the Focus EV (these two respectively have 30 ft3 and 45 ft3 with seats folded, but both have awkward-shaped cargo areas).

Silicon Valley-based Renovo Motors, which has operated in “stealth mode” for four years, has just taken the wraps off its new electric supercar.

The Renovo Coupe is an electrified version of the classic Shelby American CSX9000. It sports a midmounted pair of sequential axial flux motors and a proprietary battery architecture that uses multiple battery enclosures to distribute the weight evenly around the car. With over 500 hp and 1,000 footpounds of torque, this bad boy can go 0-60 in 3.4 seconds on the way to a top speed of over 120 mph.

Other features include a DC fast-charging system that can refill the batteries in 30 minutes, and a drive selector that enables brake regeneration to be adjusted in real time.

“Renovo Motors sought to create an aspirational vehicle that demonstrates the performance, control and excitement that is possible with EV technology,” said CEO Christopher Heiser. “We have poured our passion and innovation into the Coupe in an effort to deliver a truly amazing driving experience.”

The prototype made its debut at the recent Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance, and the company is now taking orders for delivery in 2015. The new supercar will sell for $529,000.

AUG/SEP 2014 41

CURRENTevents

Photo courtesy of Transport for London

British-built electric buses hit the streets

Four British-built pure electric buses recently went into service in London. The MetroCity single-deck buses were manufactured by Optare, part of the Hinduja Group, based in North Yorkshire, and will be operated on a trial basis on route H98 between Hayes and Hounslow.

Manufacturer’s tests demonstrated that, while the initial cost of these vehicles was more than legacy diesel buses, the significantly lower running and maintenance costs should offset this within the typical lifetime of the vehicle.

The buses take around five hours to fully charge overnight using the 15.2 kW on‐board charger, or two hours using 50 kW off-board fast-charging technology. They have a range of up to 100 miles. Each is fitted with a small diesel-fueled heater for the winter months, which is currently more efficient than using battery capacity for heating.

The introduction of the Optare buses is the first step of the Mayor’s plan for all single-deck buses in central London to be zero-emission by 2020. The first two electric buses in London have been operating on routes 507 and 521 since last December, and two more are to enter service later this year. London also boasts a couple of hydrogen-fueled buses, as well as Europe’s largest hybrid bus fleet - some 800 hybrid buses, with 900 more to be introduced by 2016.

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Photo courtesy of Audi

Audi powers ahead with PHEVs

Audi plans to have a plug-in hybrid version of each of its “key models” by 2020, reiterated Board Member for Technical Development Ulrich Hackenberg.

Speaking at the launch of the A3 Sportback e-tron, Hackenberg said Audi had decided to prioritize plug-in hybrids because “they meet all of our customers’ expectations.”

He said that Audi is developing two PHEV families. Future models based on the MQB platform will be offered with a plug-in hybrid powertrain like that of the A3 e-tron, which has an electric motor, a transversely mounted 1.4 TFSI gas engine and a sixspeed dual-clutch automatic gearbox. Larger Audi models will use a similar system, but will be based on the new MLB-Evo platform, with a longitudinally mounted engine.

The first PHEV from the company, the A3 Sportback e-tron, is now available to order for customers in Europe. Approximately 410 Audi dealers in Europe are selling the plug-in at a base price of 37,900 euros in the German market (about $50,000 US).

Audi is in no hurry to develop pure EVs, said CEO Rupert Stadler. “We have tested the technology, but we have always been clear that, from a customer’s point-of-view, plug-in hybrid technology is best. Plug-in technology gives efficiency and it gives range. I’ve spoken to Tesla customers, and they say that if the plug-in Audi Q7 was available that is the car they would choose. We are confident we have chosen the right path - an electric car that lives only in the showroom does nothing for the CO2 agenda.

We want to build cars that sell.”

THE VEHICLES

Conventional EV wisdom is that it’s all about range. Most of the mainstream press seems to assume that EVs won’t be taken seriously until they have ranges comparable to legacy vehicles. Automakers are in “a race” to produce a 200-mile EV. However, a new study suggests that, as long as battery costs remain above $100/kWh, it makes more sense to build EVs with ranges below 100 miles.

The study, Optimizing and Diversifying Electric Vehicle Driving Range for US Drivers, was written by Oak Ridge National Laboratory researcher Zhenhong Lin, and published in the journal Transportation Science.

Lin suggests that researchers should reconsider their efforts to increase vehicle range, and instead focus on continued reduction of battery costs to make EVs more price-competitive. Deployment of charging infrastructure should continue, in order to improve the usability of short-range BEVs and attract more potential buyers.

In the study, Lin proposed a framework for optimizing driving range by minimizing the sum of battery price, electricity cost and range limitation cost. The analysis considered 36,664 sample drivers, taking account of such factors as battery cost; charging infrastructure availability; vehicle efficiency; electricity and gasoline prices; household vehicle ownership; daily driving patterns; and perceived vehicle lifetime.

“The quantitative results strongly suggest that ranges of less than 100 miles are likely to be more popular in the BEV market for a long period of time,” wrote Zhenhong Lin. “The average optimal range among US drivers is found to be largely inelastic.”

Photo courtesy of NissanEV/Flickr

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Few cars have received as many rave reviews as the Tesla Model S. Since its launch, just about every media outlet that covers cars has sung the praises of the luxury EV many named it Car of the Year, and some bestowed even grander titles. Recently however, some highly-respected auto industry sources have reported embarrassing litanies of problems with their Teslas.

Auto reviewer Edmunds.com reported that its Model S “amassed quite the repair résumé during the last 17 months.” It needed to have its drive unit replaced twice, and also suffered about twenty smaller problems beyond normal maintenance, from a malfunctioning display screen to a faulty door, sunroof and windows, and various mysterious noises.

Edmunds was prepared to cut the startup automaker some slack, however: “We expected some hiccups from the Model S. Not only was the car an all-new display of emerging technology, but it was also Tesla’s first shot at building a car from the ground up.”

Edmunds also noted that it had an early production car, and several of the issues were fixed on later production models. Most of the repairs were taken care of quickly, and covered under warranty.

Consumer Reports gave the Model S its highest possible rating in May 2013, and praised it again last January, saying it was “still impressed” after a year. In August however, the consumer watchdog wrote that, after 15,743 miles, the Tesla has had “more than its share of problems.”

CR reiterated that all of the many staff members who’ve driven the Model S have raved about it, but said that it has “displayed a few quirks, some unique to Tesla.”

There was trouble with the automatically-retracting door handles, which Tesla fixed with an over-the-air software update. The center screen went blank, requiring a “hard reset” to restore the car’s functions. There were also problems with the front trunk lid, a charging adapter and a seat-belt buckle.

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Photo courtesy of Hans-Johnson/Flickr

Tesla raises drive unit warranty to 8 years, infinite miles

As did Edmunds, CR found that the problems were fixed quickly and free of charge. “One of the cool things about this car is that when it does need to be serviced by a mechanic, a company rep comes with a trailer and picks it up, delivering it back when the work is done - all free.”

CR notes that problems with one test unit don’t necessarily indicate a pattern. The yearly owners’ reliability survey tells the real story. The Model S earned an “average” score in last year’s survey, based on input from 637 owners of 2012 and 2013 models. This year’s results, which will include the 2014 model, are due in September.

Perhaps in response to the negative publicity, Tesla has announced that the 85 kWh Model S now has an 8-year, infinite-mile warranty on both the battery pack and drive unit. There is no limit on the number of owners during the warranty period, and the new terms apply retroactively to all Model S vehicles ever produced.

Elon Musk defended his magnum opus in a conference call with stock analysts. “The service team was ultraproactive with the Edmunds car,” said he. “Unfortunately that resulted in them changing things out just on the off-chance that something might go wrong. There were definitely some genuine issues, but they had one of our early production units. In fact, most of the problems they encountered are not present in our current cars.”

Elon Musk tweeted that a “similar” warranty will apply to the Model X and the eagerly-awaited Model 3.

THE VEHICLES

US automakers on track to meet EPA fuel-economy goals The US auto industry is making better progress than expected toward meeting the EPA’s long-term fuel-economy standards, reported Ward’s Auto.

“Innovations are coming at us faster than originally anticipated,” says Michael Olechiw, Director of the EPA’s Light-Duty Vehicle Center. “Manufacturers are not only bringing technology in faster than we thought they would, they are also bringing different technology to fruiThe steadily improving mileage figures are due to tion than what we anticipated.” vehicle lightweighting and new technologies such as The EPA’s Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) start-stop systems, continuously variable transmissions, standard requires each automaker’s sales-weighted fleet to automatic transmissions with up to nine gears, direct injection and the increased use of diesel engines. achieve average fuel economy of 35.5 mpg by 2016, and 54.5 mpg by 2025. As of this June, the average figure was Electrification is also playing a role, but as Green Car 25.5 mpg, according to the University of Michigan Trans- Reports notes, the cost of battery packs, electric motors and power electronics will need to be reduced further portation Research Institute (UMTRI).

“CAFE performance has exceeded projections the before it becomes truly competitive with these other technologies. past two years,” says UMTRI Project Manager Brandon Schoettle. “The average new-vehicle fuel economy is near The EPA will issue a mid-term report in November a record high. ” 2017.

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Nissan and Mitsubishi expand cooperation

Nissan and Mitsubishi have agreed to expand their current partnership, and could jointly develop an EV. The two companies already work together to build the little egg-shaped Kei cars (of which the Mitsubishi i-MiEV is one example) for the Japanese market. They now plan to develop vehicles for sale abroad, with Mitsubishi introducing two sedans based on Renault models, according to Bloomberg.

Carlos Ghosn, CEO of both Nissan and Renault, expects the Mitsubishi alliance to save the companies some 4 billion euros ($5.4 billion) by 2016. The two have had a sales and production partnership since 1999, and each owns a substantial stake in the other. The Japanese/French alliance generated 2.69 billion euros in savings last year, according to the companies.

Renault and Nissan “are doing the right thing by trying to expand their collaboration further and by involving other original-equipment manufacturers into the project more deeply,” industry analyst Erich Hauser told Bloomberg. “We should see marginal benefits from the greater volume leverage,” though Mitsubishi is a small player in the global market.

The two-year-old Kei-model joint venture of Nissan and Mitsubishi, which is called NMKV, will develop an entry-level model that will have an electric version to be sold globally, and the three manufacturers plan to share electrification technology.

Photo courtesy of Nicolas Raymond/Flickr

Images courtesy of Mitsubishi and Nissan

Special EV license plate created in Rhode Island

Rhode Island has created a special license plate for plug-in vehicles - not just so charged drivers can show how cool they are, but in order to save lives.

The point is to give emergency crew members a warning when they encounter an EV, so that they don’t electrocute themselves while using the jaws of life to extricate passengers from wreckage.

“It’s so they can quickly identify the vehicle has a high-voltage line running along the bottom of the car,” North Smithfield Town Planner Robert Ericson told The Valley Breeze, who prompted State Senator Edward O’Neill to sponsor the legislation that created the new plates.

“It is not very well-known that rescue workers can get electrocuted from using jaws of life on an electric vehicle, but when that information came to light I wanted us to be proactive about the issue,” said O’Neill. “Our police, fire and rescue workers, along with tow truck operators, sometimes get to a scene of an accident and don’t know whether they’re dealing with an electric or hybrid vehicle. The legislation allows first responders to determine what instrument is appropriate to use for the rescue of those trapped inside electric vehicles quickly, simply by looking at the license plate.”

The plate will have the words “Electric/Hybrid” below the plate number, where the words “Ocean State” normally appear. It will be available at no additional cost upon first registration of an electric or hybrid vehicle, starting this fall. Those switching from an existing plate will be charged $21.50.

AUG/SEP 2014 47

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THE VEHICLES

California city deploys electric police motorcycles

Photo courtesy of harry_nl/Flickr

Photo courtesy of Zero Motorcycles

Mitsubishi launches Outlander PHEV in Russia

Is Russia poised to be the next EV hotspot? If so, Mitsubishi is ready to reap the rewards. Its i-MiEV is currently the only foreign plug-in sold in the country, and its Outlander PHEV will go on sale in Russia in September.

Mitsubishi presented the plug-in SUV at last week’s Moscow International Automobile Salon, along with two plug-in concept cars: the GC-PHEV full-size SUV and XR-PHEV crossover.

The Outlander PHEV, which features a 4WD system with independent front and rear motors, is currently the top-selling plug-in in Europe - almost 11,000 units have sold so far this year.

“Like the title of our New Stage 2016 business plan, we are working toward a ‘new stage of growth,’ and Russia is one the most important markets in achieving the business plan’s goals,” said Mitsubishi President and COO Tetsuro Aikawa at the Moscow show. “The Outlander PHEV is the culmination of our electric vehicle technology, SUV know-how and four-wheel-drive technologies. This is the only twin-motor four-wheel-drive plug-in hybrid in the world.”

The Clovis Police Department in the San Joaquin Valley has purchased five Zero Electric Police motorcycles, which will immediately join the force’s existing BMW R1200s, patrolling the city’s streets, trails and events.

The five were purchased for just under $95,000, thanks to a grant from the San Joaquin Valley Air District. Thirty more e-cycles are in the grant pipeline, and will soon go into service in Fresno and other locales in the valley, which famously suffers from bad air quality.

The electric Zeros produce practically no noise and zero exhaust, according to John Weaver, who is in charge of the city’s motorcycle fleet. “The Zero motorcycles weigh just slightly over 400 pounds.

You can go all day riding it, go home and plug it into a socket, and it takes about eight hours and it recharges,” says Weaver.

“They’re going to be used in areas where there’s a lot of traffic, areas where there’s maybe a lot of pedestrians, and that’s a great area for a vehicle that’s not kicking nitrogen oxides out of the tailpipe,” said San Joaquin Valley Air District spokeswoman Jamie Holt.

AUG/SEP 2014 49

B-Class

Electric Drive

After a gradual build-up, Daimler's automotive brands are now showing their stuff in the EV arenas of three continents. Stateside, the spotlight lands on the new, competitively priced Mercedes-Benz B-Class Electric Drive.

By Markkus Rovito

D

Photos courtesy of Mercedes-Benz USA

aimler AG, the parent company of Mercedes-Benz USA (MBUSA), hasnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t been the most visible mover or shaker in electric mobility up to this point. Its numerous dalliances with various battery and electric drivetrain partners have clouded the picture of Daimlerâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s electric strategy. However, in the latter half of 2014, the fog is beginning to lift, as Daimler distances itself from early partner Tesla, firms up its battery plans, and prepares for greater expansion of its smart electric drive and Mercedes B-Class Electric Drive lines, as well as a joint venture vehicle for China.

Battery smart Daimler rarely gets much credit for leading the EV charge, but people may forget that the Stuttgart, Germany mega-corporation started testing its first-generation smart electric drive with 100 cars in London all the way back in 2007. The second-generation smart ED launched in 2009 and produced more than 2,300 cars in 18 markets, including a few in the US for the Car2Go carsharing service. That second generation of electric smart cars used batteries and drivetrains from Tesla Motors.

While Tesla was introducing its EVs to the market from the top down, starting with the six-figure Roadster sports car, Daimler took the opposite tack, trickling EVs onto the roads via the diminutive smart car, a vehicle that probably bugged Europeans less than Americans, many of whom saw it as just the kind of stereotypical glorified golf cart that EV protagonists would rather banish from public perception. However, the smart fortwo had already existed since 1998 as an ICE car and sold well internationally, so Daimler had a bankable brand with which it could introduce EVs to its customers. â&#x20AC;&#x153;From the very beginning when Daimler worked with the Swatch founder on the smart, we were always thinking about it being an urban car, and thought of it from the very beginning as an electric car,â&#x20AC;? said Mark Webster, General Manager of both smart and E-mobility for Mercedes-Benz USA. Perhaps too, the company had always thought of Tesla as a temporary partner, although it acquired a small equity stake in the start-up in 2009. By the time the third-generation smart ED rolled around at the September 2011 Frankfurt Motor Show, it had a new, range-increasing battery pack and new drivetrain, both produced by Deutsche ACCUmotive. Daimler had been working with Deutsche ACCUmotive initially as

We were always thinking “ about it being an urban car,

and thought of it from the very beginning as an electric car.

Photos courtesy of Mercedes-Benz USA

”

a partnership, and then in April of this year, Daimler bought that company, as well as Li-Tec Battery, another German battery firm. Those two companies gave Daimler ownership of both the smart fortwo’s battery cells and complex battery electronics. That same month, Daimler CEO Dieter Zetsche confirmed that his company would not invest in the Tesla Gigafactory.

At that point, it seemed pretty clear that Daimler aimed to produce its own batteries for smart and Mercedes EVs. However, in May, the German Manager Magazin reported that Daimler planned to close Li-Tec no later than 2016, citing the company’s failure to meet the capacity required to produce 30,000 cars per year. Now the apparent goal is to keep Deutsche ACCUmotive and move Li-Tec’s work over to LG Electronics in Korea.

So while Daimler’s battery supply chain remains in flux, the company’s concern over meeting battery capacity aligns with what Webster told us, that “we continue to be committed to smart and electric vehicles.”

And sales continue to mount. From May 2013 to July 2014, the third-gen Smart ED sold 2,311 units in the US and more than 6,500 worldwide. Its US sales make it the third best-selling pure EV in the country behind the Nissan LEAF and Tesla Model S, although the recently released BMW i3 is now outpacing the Smart ED’s monthly sales. We already know that a fourth-generation smart ED is in the works, to be revealed as early as August 2015, according to Webster. It’s not determined whether the fourth-gen will be a 2016 or 2017 model.

“That still remains to be seen,” Webster said, “but we’re definitely going to come out with a fourth-generation EV model.”

Electric Benz While the new BMW i3 has so far beaten the smart ED in monthly sales, a closer electric competitor to the $42,275 i3 is Daimler’s other EV, the new Mercedes B-Class Electric Drive, which launched on July 15 for a starting price of $41,450 (as low as $33,950 depending on available incentives).

AUG/SEP 2014 53

54

“We’re not asking you to change your lifestyle,” Webster said. “People who are familiar with our cars will find all the normal amenities associated with Mercedes-Benz: safety, comfort, luxury and performance. Plus the benefits of electric vehicles: instant-on power, the savings, and all those things. So I think both within our Mercedes family and outside of the Mercedes family, we have a place. It’s not for everybody, but we think we have a very versatile, great car. It’s good from the suburbs to the city and back.”

Of course, there are a couple of general and EV-specific omissions from the B-Class. The aforementioned first buyer, Kim Price, said she wanted a sunroof option and Apple Carplay, the latest iPhone-to-car sync technology that 2015 Mercedes C-Class cars will adopt.

Beyond that, Daimler has chosen not to include DC fast charging in either the B-Class ED or smart ED. It’s an odd omission for the pure EVs, and although we have

Photos courtesy of Mercedes-Benz USA

Sales figures will need at least a few months to see if a trend develops, but suffice it to say, the B-Class ED is the model that some drivers have been specifically waiting for: the first Mercedes-Benz EV. Shortly after its release, Green Car Reports wrote a piece on its first American buyer, a long-time Mercedes driver who wanted an EV, but didn’t want to spend the money on a Model S or settle for the smaller, less-featured LEAF or Volt.

That customer seemed uncannily in line with the type of person Webster told us would want the B-Class EV. MBUSA is using taglines to sell the car such as “Zero Emissions, Zero Compromises;” “Equipped, Not Stripped;” and the deadpan, meta “the Mercedes-Benz of electric vehicles.” The point of them all is that the B-Class delivers the same kind of Mercedes experience as its other models, with many luxury features included in the base model.

The B-Class ED does include a relatively high-power onboard charger, capable of Level 2 charging up to 10.1 kW. probed a few Mercedes representatives on the topic, we’ve have yet to hear a clear rationale for the decision. Webster did note that “from some studies that survey people across all OEMs…a very small percentage of them use DC charging, and as you know, they’re very expensive.”

However, we were also told at a B-Class launch event that the next-generation vehicle would include DC fast charging, and Webster echoed that statement, saying, “I would expect that down the road, our other vehicles will offer DC charging.”

For now, the B-Class ED does include a relatively highpower onboard charger, capable of Level 2 charging up to 10.1 kW. “We’re strongly encouraging our dealers and

customers to buy the Level 2 charger, because with a 110volt, it takes a while. We want them to charge it quickly.”

With a Level 2 charger drivers can fully recharge in as little as 3.5 hours. “For 60 miles of range, that charge would take just two hours,” said Webster.

It’s also interesting to note that the B-Class sources its battery, motor, transmission and power electronics from Tesla, so even if the Daimler-Tesla connection may be fading, the first Mercedes-Benz EV will prove its worth on the back of some important Tesla tech.

Some of the B-Class ED’s most intriguing features are available as options. For example, there’s a $600 option that’s unusual in EVs called Range Plus. Webster was quick to point out that it’s not to be confused with a range extender. “There are different terms for different things,” Webster said. “We call it the Range Plus. It’s not really a range extender - that could be confused with other manufacturer’s offerings. Ours is a Range Plus, which allows you to supercharge the battery. You push the button the night before when you’re charging it, and then it gives you more capacity. It’s for occasional use, and it’s been well received by our dealers and customers. It gives you about an extra 15 miles. The EPA range is 87, so it will bring that up to about 102 miles. It all depends on the driving situation, temperature, etc.”

Webster also noted in an interview with Cnet that using the Range Plus too often “could impact the life of the battery.”

AUG/SEP 2014 55

The system uses a radar sensor to watch the traffic ahead and then optimize braking for maximum energy regeneration.

56

Riding the B The B-Class ED model that I was able to test-drive in Palo Alto, California had the radar regenerative braking system installed, and it was one of the highlights of the ride. The recuperation-level paddles are located conveniently and comfortably by the hands in steering position, and you immediately notice the difference when changing levels. The lowest, “gliding” level feels the same or close to driving with no regenerative braking at all, and the levels increase gradually until the highest level, at which, when you take your foot off the accelerator, the regenerative braking kicks in hard, to the point where you just barely need to use the brake pedal to come to a complete halt.

As an efficiency nut, I liked the B-Class ED’s highest level of regenerative braking the best, not only because it improves your mileage, but also because I could use the brakes much less frequently. Particularly, while driving up the kind of iconic, two-lane, twisty road that you find so often in Northern California’s forested areas, rather than frequently applying the brake to take the many sharp

Photos courtesy of Mercedes-Benz USA

Another very cool option provides a unique radar-based regenerative braking system with four energy recuperation levels, from gliding to maximum recuperation. The system uses a radar sensor to watch the traffic ahead and then optimize braking for maximum energy regeneration. It also includes steering wheelmounted paddle switches for manually toggling among the four regeneration levels.

THE VEHICLES

The platform has existed for years as a more practical Mercedes in Europe and Canada. turns slower, the automatic regenerative braking provided all the slowing down necessary, so I could comfortably navigate the winding roads with the accelerator pedal only. Not only was it a fun, smooth ride, but that kind of terrain proved to be easy on the remaining range from the battery. Coming down from a hilltop winery back to downtown Palo Alto, the available range started at 27 miles, and after a 15.5-mile drive, the available range sat at 24 miles. Obviously, you’re not going to be driving downhill on snaking roads everywhere you go, but that was an excellent way to showcase the regenerative potential of the B-Class ED.

Overall, the B-Class ED felt like a very solid contender for a four-door EV. It’s more spacious on the inside than it seems, including the fairly roomy trunk. Its navigation system worked well and showed nearby amenities, such as charging stations, as icons onscreen. Like many EVs, it comes charging out of the gate with impressive torque, and its Mercedes-level interior features focus on comfort.

Because EV designs and stylings are fun topics for debating whether something looks “too electric” or not, it’s interesting that the B-Class doesn’t really have the same level of sleek, elegant looks that we’re used to in a Mercedes-Benz. Neither does it look too obviously electric. The reason for both is that the B-Class is not an original design made just for launching Mercedes-Benz’s first EV. The platform has existed for years as a more practical Mercedes in Europe and Canada, but it’s not very familiar to Americans, because it’s only shown up in tiny numbers in California for the company’s fuel-cell program. But the versatile B-Class can accommodate many types of drive systems.

AUG/SEP 2014 57

THE VEHICLES

Photos courtesy of Mercedes-Benz USA

2014 SLS AMG Coupe Electric Drive

2015 S500 Plug-in Hybrid

“The car has always been designed to handle different types of propulsion systems or types of fuel,” Webster said. “The B-Class specifically has the energy floor for either fuel cell, electric vehicle in this case, or diesel and gasoline. So when we launched it here, we wanted to use it as our electric vehicle platform.”

The B-Class ED launched initially in the 10 American ZEV (zero emission vehicle) states, and in late 2014 or early 2015, Mercedes-Benz will expand that to all 50 states. Webster hinted at some international expansion for the B-Class ED, but did not have any specific details to confer when we spoke. The same was the case for a fuel-cell B-Class - Webster said there would be a production fuel-cell car beyond the 100 from the California pilot program, but he could not say when that would happen.

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Other horizons: SLS AMG, S-500 and Denza While the smart and B-Class electrics are on Daimler’s front burners for electric drive, the company has other irons in the fire, as well. As an extreme counterbalance to the smart ED micro-car, the Mercedes-AMG highperformance brand put out the drool-worthy yet nearunattainable SLS AMG Electric Drive supercar last year.

With the potential of electrification on its side, the SLS is the most powerful AMG car ever made at 740 hp and 738 lb-ft of torque. It has 120 miles of electric range, and starts at $544,000, making it a prestige vehicle to say the least.

Another high-end plug-in from Mercedes-Benz, the S-500 Plug-in Hybrid, just started shipping in September to European dealerships. It has some impressive features to match its mighty price tag of €108,944 ($143,000). It

combines a V6 3.0-liter twin turbo engine with a 436 hp electric motor for some peppy acceleration and almost 21 miles of all-electric range. Meanwhile, its standard Comand navigation system optimizes electric motor use based on the current destination. However, there’s no word on whether this pricey plug-in will make its way out of Europe.

On the more practical end of EV expansion, Daimler has revealed its joint-venture vehicle with Chinese company BYD: the four-door battery EV sedan called Denza. The two companies have a facility in Shenzhen for producing the car, which will not reach American shores, but roughly translates to a $60,000 sticker price.

The Daimler/BYD joint venture seems to lean on Daimler’s engineering prowess in order to meet or exceed the new Chinese crash-safety regulations and other quality standards, while taking advantage of BYD’s expertise in battery technology.

Daimler CEO Zetsche has called BYD “one of the most advanced makers of batteries for electric vehicles,” and the Denza delivers a massive 47.5 kWh Li-ion battery with a range of around 186 miles. Spokespeople noted that the Denza is good for a few days of the average Chinese commute of 30-50 miles on a single full charge.

The BYD relationship begs another question about Daimler’s overall battery strategy. Will they utilize BYD for EV batteries beyond Asia? Or will Daimler simply employ several battery suppliers, including one of its own companies? In the face of those questions, one thing seems certain: that Daimler is expanding

the foundation of its EV business, which would back up what Webster said about Daimler’s electric vehicle goals.

“We’re definitely committed to the electric segment and plug-in hybrids,” Webster said. “We’re working on other electric vehicle offerings right now, even though we just came out with the B-Class. Hopefully the tide for all EVs will rise, so we get more entrants into the market.”

EV Every inch an

This article is an excerpt from

Tesla Motors:

How Elon Musk and Company Made Electric Cars Cool, and Sparked the Next Tech Revolution

by Charged Senior Editor Charles Morris

This 270-page book is a comprehensive history of Tesla, told by the entrepreneurs who made it happen, as well as an assessment of the company’s lasting influence on the automotive industry and beyond.

The new book is available at all major online retail sites.

For more information, see www.teslamotorsbook.com.

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W

hen the Tesla team built the historic Roadster, they started with an electric powertrain from AC Propulsion, and adapted many other parts from the Lotus Elise. As Marc Tarpenning told me, the company’s business plan depended on the fact that it would not have to spend millions developing all the components of a vehicle from scratch. In the end (of course), the process of turning an ICE vehicle into an EV proved a little more complicated than the Teslanauts had imagined.

Years later, when it was time to design the Model S sedan, Tesla took a very different approach. To build a vehicle “from the ground up” as an EV is an engineer’s dream - a dream that the Tesla team was able to realize for the first time in automotive history.

In a 2012 interview, Elon Musk mused that the strategy of adapting an existing vehicle hadn’t worked out so well for the Roadster. “As it turned out, the AC Propulsion technology didn’t work, so we had to redo all that. And the Elise - once you added the electric powertrain, it invalidated all the crash work, the mass grew by 30 percent, the weight distribution was different, the load points were all different. We had to stretch the chassis just to be able to fit people in, so

Photo above courtesy of David P. Discher/Flickr

Tesla’s Model S redefines the automobile

Photo courtesy of Jurvetson/Flickr

that turned out to be a really dumb strategy, too. So it was like you wanted to build a house, couldn’t find the right house, so you try to fix an existing house and end up changing everything except for one wall in the basement.

It would have cost way less to just level the house and start from scratch. What sounded like a good idea at first, which was to leverage the Elise chassis, was actually an incredibly dumb idea.”

Dumb or smart, that’s the way EV-builders had always done things. In fact, when an automaker designs any new model, it makes every effort to reuse and recycle existing parts and technology, and avoid “reinventing the wheel.”

Automakers began using interchangeable platforms in the 1960s. Originally, the term referred to the physical chassis of a vehicle. Today, it’s a more inclusive concept that may include not only physical components such as the floor pan, axles, suspension, steering and powertrain, but also design, engineering, and production processes.

The Volt is built on GM’s Delta II platform, which it shares with its gas-powered cousin the Cruze. The LEAF theoretically has its own platform, but its direct antecedent, the EV-11 prototype, was based on the Versa.

Most other automakers have not only used an existing platform for their EVs, but have taken an existing model

and simply swapped out the powertrain. The Honda Fit EV, Mitsubishi i-MiEV, Ford Focus Electric, Toyota RAV4 EV and smart electric drive are more or less gas models retrofitted with electric powertrains.

On the face of it, this strategy makes a lot of sense. After all, other than the engine, transmission and gas tank,

“

What sounded like a good idea at first, which was to leverage the Elise chassis, was actually an incredibly dumb idea.

”

AUG/SEP 2014 61

Photos: Top - Patrick Herbert/Flickr, Bottom - Martin Gillet/Flickr

EVs have many advantages over ICE vehicles, but for a designer to maximize those advantages, he or she needs to throw out the chassis and body that evolved to meet the needs of gasoline engines, and start over with a brand-new design.

most of the other bits of an automobile - body, interior, lights, electronics, wheels, suspension - can be exactly the same, regardless of the powertrain.

However, this approach requires the designer to make a series of compromises that trade away many of the benefits that an electric powertrain can offer. In other words, an EV can only really shine when it has a chance to do so

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on its own terms. EVs have many advantages over ICE vehicles, but for a designer to maximize those advantages, he or she needs to throw out the chassis and body that evolved to meet the needs of gasoline engines, and start over with a brand-new design.

The most important design differences have to do with space. An electric motor is much smaller than a gas engine of similar power, and it can be placed right between the driven wheels (a few companies, such as Protean Electric, profiled in our June 2013 issue, have even designed motors that fit inside the wheel hubs). An EV needs no transmission as such, so thereâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s no need for the central tunnel that takes up so much space in rear-wheel-drive gas vehicles. Thereâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s also no need for an exhaust system, thermal shielding or a catalytic converter.

Photos: Top - Maurizio Pesce/Flickr, Bottom - Windell Oskay/Flickr

THE VEHICLES

“

The architecture of Model S is really similar to a skateboard.

”

The body of a gas vehicle has been designed with spaces for all that stuff, so if you convert it to an EV, much of that space is likely to be wasted.

On the other hand, there is one component of an EV that is necessarily large and heavy - the battery pack. If you’re working with an existing gas-engine-based design, there’s simply no good place for it to go. Many designers have opted to put it in the rear of the vehicle, and can-

nibalize much of the trunk space, which is why most EVs have much less cargo space than their gas counterparts.

If you start with a “clean sheet of paper,” you’re bound to come to the conclusion that the best place for the battery pack is the bottom. This yields several advantages.

It gives the car a low center of gravity, which greatly improves handling. It allows the car to be designed in such a way that the battery can be easily removed, to be serviced or swapped out for another. Most significantly, it means that the entire interior space of the car, from front to back, can be devoted to passenger and cargo space.

“The architecture of Model S is really similar to a skateboard,” Tesla design chief Franz von Holzhausen told Bloomberg. “The floor of the vehicle is the battery pack, and the motor is between the rear wheels. Everything above that is the opportunity space.”

This concept is nothing less than a revolution in automotive design. Thanks to its bottom-dwelling battery, the Model S has excellent handling, and it has far more

AUG/SEP 2014 63

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Photo courtesy of Jurvetson/Flickr

THE VEHICLES

interior space than other sedans of its size: room for up to seven passengers (with the optional jump seats), a rear cargo area that’s more like that of a hatchback than the trunk of a sedan, and a “frunk” where the engine isn’t. It’s also theoretically safer than a dinosaur-burner, at least in a frontal collision, because the frunk provides a long crumple zone in the front, instead of a heavy hunk of hot metal to be rammed into the passenger compartment.

A bottom-mounted battery pack does have one drawback, which was highlighted in 2013, when two Model S caught fire after colliding with road debris that punctured their battery packs (of course, most gas tanks are also located in a car’s vulnerable underbelly). Tesla addressed the issue by strengthening the bottom plate and slightly increasing the car’s ground clearance. As more and more Teslas hit the highways, it’s possible that this issue may resurface someday, but the advantages of the battery-onthe-bottom design are so great that EV designers will probably continue to choose it (as BMW did for its i3).

There are many more advantages to be gained by designing an EV as an EV. Efficiency is important for any auto, at least if you care about saving gas, but for an EV, it’s absolutely critical, because every bit of wasted energy means a shorter range. The aerodynamics of the body, the rolling resistance of the tires, the energy consumption of the lights and the air conditioner - all these things and many more all add up to affect how far you can drive on a charge. Only designing a car from scratch lets you squeeze every extra electron out of all these interacting parts. For the same reason, weight is critical. Starting

Only designing a car from scratch lets you squeeze every extra electron out of all these interacting parts. with a tabula rasa lets you choose the lightest parts available, from the aluminum or carbon fiber body panels to the aluminum screws (hopefully without sacrificing durability or safety).

Charles Morris goes on to tell the story of how the Model S earned the highest of praise from the most respected voices in the automotive industry and beyond, sending Tesla’s stock price sky-high and turning media naysayers into cheerleaders. But this revered automobile represents only the second phase of Elon Musk’s grand strategy. The next act will be nothing short of a transportation revolution, when the Model 3 brings electromobility to the masses. For more information on Charles’s new book, see www.teslamotorsbook.com.

AUG/SEP 2014 65

CURRENTevents

ChargePoint updates its public charging app

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Photo courtesy of ABB

ABB has announced the launch of the Terra 53 Z DC fast charger, the company’s first model that complies with the Chinese GB standard. Rated power is up to 50 kW. The new chargers will be manufactured at ABB’s facility in Shenzhen.

According to ABB, the Terra 53 series is the world’s first DC fast charging solution to offer versions complying with all three global open charging standards: SAE Combo, CHAdeMO and China GB. The Terra 53 series has been deployed in several projects, including the countrywide EV charging network in the Netherlands, which will be completed in 2015.

ABB already has a substantial presence in China’s rapidly growing EV market. Earlier this year, ABB and BYD signed an agreement to supply DC fastcharging wallboxes customized for the DENZA EV. ABB plans to incorporate EVs into its Chinese company fleet, and to install charging equipment at some of its offices in Shanghai and Shenzhen.

Photo © CHARGED EVs Magazine

ABB launches GBcompliant fast charger A charging station locater app is a must-have for any EV driver. One of the most popular is the one offered by the ChargePoint network, which includes not only stations that are members of its own network, but over 33,000 charging spots from all major charging networks.

The company has released a new version of its popular app, improving the user interface and adding several new features. Both Android and iPhone versions are now available.

The ChargePoint app provides real-time data, letting you know which stations are available, and which are in use. It offers turn-by-turn directions using the navigation app of your choice, including Waze, Google Maps and Apple Maps. It also lets you post and view tips from other charging station users.

Once your car is hooked up, the app gives you real-time updates, so you know when it’s time to finish up that cup of tea and get back on the road. The app can send a text message or email when charging is completed.

Perhaps the handiest new feature: you no longer need to use your ChargePoint card. The app now lets you start a charging session using only your phone.

THE INFRASTRUCTURE

Greenlots, an EV charging solutions provider with offices in San Francisco and Singapore, has partnered with BMW to develop a home and public charging network in Singapore. The i3 was launched in the island nation at the end of July.

Part of BMW’s 360° ELECTRIC program, the new network will be based on the Open Charge Point Protocol (OCPP), an open standard for charger-to-network communications.

For public charging, Greenlots’ SKY Smart Charging platform will administer BMW’s ChargeNow program, allowing customers to access a network of AC charging units by using the BMW ChargeNow card and Greenlots’ mobile app. The companies plan to deploy up to 30 Level 2 chargers in 20 public locations by the end of 2014.

For home charging, Greenlots will manage and install the BMW i Wallbox Pure. An advisor will support i3 buyers throughout the installation process, including site

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Photo courtesy of Britta @prpeople/Flickr

Greenlots to administer BMW’s Singapore charging network

inspection and ongoing technical support.

“We’re pleased to partner with BMW Group Asia and to provide BMW i owners with an EV charging network,” said Lin Khoo, Senior VP of Greenlots. “Being at the helm since 2009 will allow us to continue to support Singapore’s transition to electric mobility.”

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CURRENTevents

Report details EV-related utility policies and projects Photo courtesy of Joseph Thornton/Flickr

Tesla to deploy 400 more charging stations in China

Tesla has announced a partnership with China Unicom, China’s second-largest wireless carrier, to build public charging stations across the country.

The two companies will install charging posts at 400 Unicom stores in 120 cities, with Tesla supplying equipment and Unicom providing the land, said Tesla spokeswoman Peggy Yang. Tesla will also deploy Superchargers in 20 Chinese cities. Charging will be free for Tesla owners.

“The deal represents our biggest investment so far in charging facilities in China,” Yang told Reuters.

“We have been working with China Unicom already - China Unicom is our in-car 3G connectivity service provider,” said Tesla spokeswoman Lis Jarvis-Shean.

Costs were not disclosed, but Elon Musk has said that he expects to invest hundreds of millions of dollars building charging stations in China. Tesla already has more than 200 charging stations and 13 Superchargers in China, the world’s largest auto market, with more than a quarter of global sales.

Tesla has also struck deals with Chinese property developers including Soho China and China Yintai Holdings to install chargers at their properties.

The stock market cheered - after the announcement, TSLA shares reached a new high, closing at $269.70.

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A new report from the Southwest Energy Efficiency Project presents Nevada’s major utility, NV Energy, as an example of how utilities can promote EV adoption, bringing lower costs, cleaner air and new economic opportunities to their customers.

The new report, NV Energy: Leading the Way on Electric Vehicles, details a range of EV-related policies and projects. “NV Energy seems to recognize that it is in their own best interest to develop this new market and advance the adoption of EVs,” said author Mike Salisbury. “We encourage other utilities to follow NV Energy’s lead and proactively support electric vehicles.”

Even when factoring in pollution created by generating electricity, EVs are the cleanest transportation option in Nevada, according to the report. In 2013, about 66% of the state’s electricity was produced by natural gas, with the remainder coming from coal and renewables. Currently, Nevada spends over $5 billion per year on imported transportation fuels, almost all of which leaves the state’s economy.

“If a customer opts for an electric vehicle, their cost of fuel for driving will typically decrease by over 50 percent,” Friedman said. “If that same customer selects our special electric vehicle rate for their home or apartment and modifies their energy usage away from the high-peak hours, then they will reduce their energy bills even further.” The company has offered time-of-use pricing for EV owners since 2009.

NV Energy’s Shared Investment Program has provided $500,000 to help fund new EV charging stations around the state. Some 133 individual charging ports have been installed at over 47 locations, including universities, airports, casinos, resorts, shopping centers and municipal facilities.

NV Energy has also led by example, purchasing 12 electric vehicles and offering charging stations some powered by solar energy - at several of their office locations.

THE INFRASTRUCTURE

Utah State University plans to build a test track to research the concept of dynamic wireless charging. Working with the Woodbury Corporation, USU will construct a 4,800-square-foot high-bay facility and an oval test track. The facility will provide space, equipment and IT infrastructure to work on EVs ranging from a passenger car up to a full-size bus.

Rob Behunin, VP for Commercialization and Advancement, called it “the next generation of technology in our wireless power transfer program.”

Over the last few years, USU has worked with a spinout company called WAVE to develop technology that would allow a bus to charge wirelessly while parked on a charging pad.

“The desire to move along this trajectory from stationary charging to in-motion charging has always been part of the strategy,” said Behunin. “There are lots of issues if you think a car is going to move on an electrified high-

Photo courtesy of Utah State University

Utah State to build dynamic wireless charging test track

way. You have to have load balancing and level of charge; you have to have interoperability between different cars and the roadway. This is all going to be very groundbreaking research.”

USU hopes that the track and accompanying features will attract interest from other research groups and companies to use to test their products.

The university plans to break ground on the track this fall.

The New Book By Charles Morris

Tesla Motors

How Elon Musk and Company Made Electric Cars Cool, and Sparked the Next Tech Revolution

???

Tesla Motors has redefined the automobile, sparking a new wave of innovation and unleashing forces that will transform not just the auto industry, but every aspect of society. Charged Senior Editor and popular EV blogger Charles Morris takes you through the Tesla story from the beginning, as told by the Silicon Valley entrepreneurs who made it happen.

www.teslamotorsbook.com

Available at all major online retail sites

CURRENTevents Utilities and automakers to build smart grid platform

70

Image courtesy of KRET

KRET, part of the Russian state corporation Rostec, has developed what it calls a universal charging station for electric vehicles. According to Rostec, the State Ryazan Instrument Plant has made three working prototypes of the FORA charging station: one that operates at Level 2, and two that deliver a DC fast charge at 20 kW. A 50 kW DC charger is currently in development and pre-production.

The FORA charging station was developed especially for the Russian-built EL Lada, but will support EVs from a range of manufacturers, such as Tesla, Mitsubishi and others, says Rostec.

Russia is not exactly an EV hotspot - according to a recent survey from ABB, EVs accounted for 0.01% of the auto market there in 2013 (compared to 0.6% in the US, and 6.1% in Norway). The only EVs available are the Mitsubishi i-MiEV and perhaps the mysterious EL Lada, which was introduced in 2012.

However, that may be changing soon. At the beginning of 2014, Russia suspended import duties and VAT taxes on EVs for a period of two years, cutting the effective price of an i-MiEV nearly in half. The Russian Network Agency (Rosseti) has announced that it will create an EV charging infrastructure, with public facilities located at motorway filling stations in Moscow, Chelyabinsk and other Russian cities. “By 2020, according to our forecasts, up to 10 percent of the total number of cars sold in Russia will be electric,” said Andrey Pankov of the Ministry of Commerce and Industry.

Photo © CHARGED EVs Magazine

Russian corporation develops charging station The Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI) is working with 8 automakers and 15 electric utilities to develop an open platform that will integrate plugin electric vehicles (PEVs) with smart grid technologies.

PEVs will be a critical part of the smart grid of the future, serving as a distributed energy resource to support grid reliability, stability and efficiency.

Grid operators may call on PEVs to contribute to grid reliability by balancing solar and wind generation, easing the strain of peak-demand periods, and providing frequency regulation and voltage support.

The new platform will allow manufacturers to offer a customer-friendly interface through which PEV drivers can participate in utility PEV programs, such as rates for off-peak charging. Using an EV’s telematics system as a portal, it will enable the integration of automated metering infrastructure, home area networks, building energy management systems and third-party aggregators. Sumitomo Electric will develop the core platform technology for the first phase of the project.

“A key aspect of the platform’s benefits will be giving customers flexibility and choices,” said Dan Bowermaster, EPRI’s Manager of Electric Transportation. “It can help the PEV customer determine the value of using their parked vehicle as a grid resource, and help the industry develop a convenient, user-friendly customer interface. We see this as the foundation for future developments to integrate PEVs with the grid.”

THE INFRASTRUCTURE

Photo © Fraunhofer IISB

Fraunhofer Institute developing front-end wireless charging Most wireless EV charging systems use an induction coil on the underside of the vehicle and a floor-mounted charging station, but researchers at the Fraunhofer Institute for Integrated Systems and Device Technology (IISB) in Germany are developing an alternative method that makes the connection at the front end of the vehicle.

According to the Fraunhofer team, the underside approach requires larger, more powerful coils because of the gap of up to 15 cm between car and ground, which drives up costs. With the front-end system, the car is positioned almost touching the induction source, allowing for the use of smaller coils: 10 cm instead of 80 cm across.

The plastic charging column is approximately waisthigh, and is designed to bend backwards, or even to flip down and out the way if pushed by the vehicle. “The car could drive over it if necessary,” says IISB’s Dr Bernd Eckardt. Charging can take place even if the vehicle is

not perfectly positioned.

Another problem with floor-mounted chargers is that foreign objects or pets can get in the way. IISB’s front-end charger eliminates these issues.

“We’ve been consistently upping the system’s performance over the past year, and are now in possession of a prototype that is able to transmit three kilowatts at an overall efficiency of 95 percent,” says Dr Eckardt.

CURRENTevents

Image courtesy of Unimi

An equipment-neutral foundation for EVSE

Sweden’s Östfold County has partnered with local startup Unimi Solutions to expand its network of public EV charging infrastructure. The county’s goal is to have 20% of public parking sites equipped or enabled for EV charging.

Unimi’s 1Base product family, which has been in development since 2010, provides a foundation that’s interoperable with all ground-mounted EV charging stations. It’s designed to simplify installation to deliver cost savings and environmental benefits, and to ensure full flexibility.

“The Unimi base is an equipment-neutral solution on which any charging station model may be fitted, giving us the option to use any supplier, and making us compliant with EU public procurement regulations,” says Östfold County Industry Advisor for Climate and Energy Joakim Sveli. “Our experience is that charging station installation can be costly. Unimi 1Base gives us the flexibility to conduct construction and cabling work at sites in combination with landscaping and other work and has delivered us cost savings up to 60 percent compared to installing charging stations one at a time.”

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The City of Shasta Lake, California has installed an Envision Solar EV ARC standalone Solar Charging Station. This Level 2 charger will be located at the Grand River municipal parking lot, and will be available free of charge to the public.

The US-made EV ARC is a standalone solarpowered charging station that requires no foundation, trenching, building permit or grid connection.

It fits inside a standard parking space and generates enough renewable energy to provide an average of 55 electric miles each day. The energy is stored in a 22 kWh on-board battery pack. The patented EnvisionTrak sun tracking system enables the solar array to follow the sun, generating 18-25% more electricity than a conventional fixed array, according to the company.

“Clean and reliable energy is very important to the City of Shasta and so is being ready for the rapid growth in EV adoption,” said Assistant City Manager Tom Miller. “We were happy to find this unique product, which solves so many of the challenges associated with EV charger deployments and has no negative environmental impact.”

“It was not economically feasible to run trenching and grid connections to this important location, but the EV ARC delivers EV charging where traditional chargers cannot,” said Desmond Wheatley, CEO of Envision Solar. “This will be the first EV ARC to offer electric wheelchair charging, something we are very proud of.”

Photo courtesy of Envision Solar

California city installs solar charging station

THE INFRASTRUCTURE

Image courtesy of Leviton

Leviton has introduced a new 40-amp EV Charge Connector Assembly. The J1772-compliant connector assembly was designed for the Leviton Evr-Green family of EV chargers, and is rated at 40 amps of current or 9.7 kW of power. According to the company, it is designed to address an emerging trend for EVs to use larger on-board chargers.

The Evr-Green 400 is available with 25 feet of flexible cable, and features a built-in anti-theft mechanism. It is available in two configurations: a flush-mount receptacle installation, with the electrical box recessed into the wall; and a surfacemount receptacle installation, with the electrical box mounted to the surface of the wall.

“We have worked closely with our automaker partners to develop a safe and reliable connector assembly that is designed for more than 10,000 operating cycles - that’s more than 27 years of use,” said Manoj Karwa, Leviton’s Senior Director of EVSE Programs. “The 40-amp charge connector assembly is in use in 3,000 dealers and in 11 different vehicle platforms as part of our 32- and 40amp charging stations, creating a family of charging stations to meet the next generation of electric vehicles.”

Photo courtesy of Jurvetson/Flickr

Leviton launches new 40-amp EVSE

California bill gives renters the right to install EVSE

The California legislature has passed a bill designed to make it easier for property renters to install EV charging stations. Assembly Bill 2565 will give tenants the right to install charging stations at their homes or businesses if the tenant is willing to pay installation costs. Under current law, lease restrictions may add financial burdens or even stop tenants from installing charging stations at all. The bill passed both houses of the State Legislature with bipartisan support. Governor Jerry Brown has until September 30 to sign it into law.

Richard Lowenthal, CTO of California-based charging network ChargePoint, wrote an op-ed piece in support of the new law, which ran in Capitol Weekly. “There are over 220,000 EVs on America’s roads today…and about a third of those are in California,” wrote Lowenthal. “While there are already thousands of charging locations across the state, there remains a need to continue to build a network of EV charging stations to support this massive EV growth, especially to meet Governor Brown’s goal of 1.5 million zero-emission vehicles by 2025. The deployment of EV charging infrastructure is increasing but not keeping up with today’s EV adoption rates.

In 2012, the ratio of EVs to charging ports was about 7 to 1. As EV sales skyrocketed, the gap widened. In 2013, the ratio grew to about 8 to 1.”

California is the largest market for EVs in the US, representing over a third of national sales. The National Renewable Energy Laboratory estimates that the state will require at least one million public, workplace and residential charging stations by 2020.

AUG/SEP 2014 73

BMW’s NEW FAST

CHARGING STRATEGY Clarifying some very nuanced public charging announcements

Photo © CHARGED EVs Magazine

By Charles Morris

74

Photo courtesy of Kārlis Dambrāns/Flickr

THE INFRASTRUCTURE

R

All of the top EV-makers are investing heavily in public charging infrastructure

ange anxiety: we’re not sure whether it’s a serious disease or a psychosomatic ailment, but it’s one of the most commonly-cited objections heard from potential EV buyers, and automakers take it quite seriously. All of the top EV-makers are investing heavily in public charging infrastructure in an effort to eradicate this dreaded malady.

At the moment, there are three automakers that are clearly serious about selling pure EVs in the US (the makers of “compliance cars” have shown as little interest in charging infrastructure as they have in marketing their EVs, and PHEVs such as the Chevy Volt and Ford Energi models are not subject to range anxiety). As it happens, these three automakers represent the three largest autobuilding nations, and they use three different DC fast charging standards (all are compatible with the J1772 Level 2 standard).

Tesla, Nissan and BMW agree on the need for a comprehensive public charging strategy, but they have different ideas about exactly what is needed, and the best way to provide it. Thus, each has taken a different approach.

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Photo courtesy of Ryan Block/Flickr

Tesla Supercharging Like everything that Tesla does, the company’s public charging initiatives are very ambitious. Giving drivers a way to take long road trips in their EVs is a top priority, so the company is building a network of DC fast chargers situated at strategic locations along interstate highways.

Tesla builds the high-power charging hardware, partners with site hosts, oversees the installations, manages the network’s back-end systems, and offers its customers unlimited use for free.

While some have criticized the company for going with its own proprietary charging standard, others say that Tesla was simply ahead of the game and didn’t choose to wait around for the world’s standards bodies to get their acts together. One reason Tesla decided to introduce its own hardware set is that it allows higher power levels, and thus faster charging, than CHAdeMO or SAE Combo. Tesla has offered to let other automakers in on its Supercharger standard, and has held discussions with

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Like everything that Tesla does, the company’s public charging initiatives are very ambitious.

Nissan and BMW, although no agreement has yet been announced.

Turning the Titanic around The large established automakers are far more conservative than the risk-taking start-up from Silicon Valley.

They stick to what they’re good at - designing and building cars - and “work with partners on” (i.e. outsource)

Photo courtesy of NissanEV/Flickr

THE INFRASTRUCTURE

“

We’re well ahead of our goal, and we’re going to keep adding chargers every day though our network of partnerships

”

virtually everything outside of their core competencies.

In fact, managing a large network of top-of-the-line parts and service suppliers is one of the things that the car companies do best. However, building electrical supply equipment and managing comprehensive charging networks is very different from the processes that they’ve honed and perfected for decades. So, we see the major

automakers partnering with many different hardware and infrastructure providers to carry out their public charging strategies.

Nissan Since introducing its own branded DC fast charging equipment in the summer of 2012, Nissan has been busily building public charging stations in an apparent effort to create “facts on the ground.” The company has now facilitated the installation of over 600 CHAdeMO DC fast chargers in the US alone.

“We’re well ahead of our goal, and we’re going to keep adding chargers every day though our network of partnerships,” Brendan Jones, Nissan’s Director of EV Infrastructure and Strategy, told Charged in April.

Although the German and US automakers (except Tesla) went ahead with their competing SAE Combo standard, Nissan seems to have succeeded in ensuring that CHAdeMO will be accepted alongside SAE Combo

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in Europe and North America. Some major charger manufacturers, including ABB, have (wisely) sidestepped the standards war by introducing dual-standard chargers.

Like Tesla, Nissan sees free charging as a selling point for its vehicles. Its No Charge to Charge program offers two years of free charging to new LEAF buyers in several major US markets.

Unlike Tesla, however, Nissan enlisted its “partner” NRG eVgo to handle the back-end system management.

The two companies also decided to make EV drivers’ lives a little easier with the new EZ-Charge card, which enables access control to public Level 2 and DC fast chargers from several of the major charging networks, including ChargePoint, Blink, AeroVironment and NRG eVgo.

When BMW released its new charging plans, many major news outlets mischaracterized the efforts and reported that BMW is “launching a network of charging stations” as an answer to Tesla.

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Photo courtesy of BMW

Enter BMW A couple of months after its i3 EV went on sale in North America, BMW made two separate announcements, both aimed at making public charging more accessible and more convenient for i3 owners. First, the company launched its own 24 kW DC fast charging hardware. Second, i3 drivers in California will receive no-cost public DC fast charging at NRG’s eVgo freedom stations (where available) through 2015.

When BMW released its new charging plans, many major news outlets mischaracterized the efforts and reported that BMW is “launching a network of charging stations” as an answer to Tesla. In fact, BMW is not building a network at all, and its plans bear more resemblance to Nissan’s than to Tesla’s.

Hardware Like Nissan, BMW will be deploying its own branded DC fast chargers, with an initial focus on getting its dealers to install the hardware. A joint development between BMW and Bosch, the 24 kW BMW i DC Fast Charger is about half the size of most DC chargers (31x19x12 inches), weighs around 100 pounds, and can be mounted on a wall, a first for DC fast chargers.

Beemer’s box also has a comparatively low price tag $6,548 for its authorized partners, such as dealerships.

BMW i DC Fast Chargers use the SAE Combo 1 connector, and are ChargePoint network-enabled. They feature a rugged aluminum IP54 enclosure, and are designed to perform in extreme weather conditions, from -40° to 185° F.

THE INFRASTRUCTURE

Why 24 kW?

24 kW is easier to install, it’s lighter, and on the charging time for the i3 it doesn’t make much of a difference.

”

Then there’s the bang-for-the-buck factor. Building a lower-power unit means they can offer it at a substantially lower price to station owners. “The biggest cost savings come from the sheer size of the machine and its output,” said Jeff Hudnut, Product Manager, Bosch Automotive Service Solutions. “Selecting 24 kW meant our cables, connectors and hardware would be less costly than that of a 50 kW machine.”

Not only is the 24 kW fast charger itself cheaper to buy, but it can save on installation costs. “There are so many factors that go into installation that are dependent on several factors like current electrical service, the need to install a separate service if what’s existing will not handle the charger, the need to potentially trench under concrete, among many others,” explained Hudnut. “The 24 kW charger requires a smaller breaker: 40 Amps, versus a typical 50 kW charger that would require an 80-Amp breaker, which may also factor into installation costs, depending on the venue’s current electrical service.”

Photo © CHARGED EVs Magazine

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Photo courtesy of BMW

Everyone wants more power, or thinks they do, but for BMW, chargers that operate at 24 kW, instead of the more common 50kW, actually make more sense. As Cliff Fietzek, Manager of Connected eMobility for BMW of North America, told Charged, “24 kW is easier to install, it’s lighter, and on the charging time for the i3 it doesn’t make much of a difference. With a 50 kW charger, you go into degradation rather soon with the smaller batteries. You’re not charging at full power all the time.

To charge on a 50 kW charger to 80 percent is less than 20 minutes. On the 24 kW chargers it’s less than 30 minutes.”

Buy an i3, charge for free With its second announcement, BMW became the third automaker to regale its customers with free public fast charging. The ChargeNow DC Fast program, a cooperative effort with NRG eVgo, offers BMW i3 drivers in California no-cost 30-minute DC fast charging through 2015.

While there are only a few participating stations at the moment with SAE DC combo chargers, NRG will be installing approximately 50 throughout California by the end of 2014, and BMW hopes to have 100 or so by the end of 2015.

The ChargeNow program is administered by ChargePoint, and uses a single card that will give users access to both ChargePoint and NRG eVgo stations.

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a division of

Photo courtesy of BMW

THE INFRASTRUCTURE

“Our customers will only have to sign up at chargenow. com/us to open up a ChargeNow account,” BMW of North America’s EV Infrastructure Manager Robert Healey told Charged. “That card, even though it’s a ChargePoint-administered card, will be able to work on the SAE DC combo stations through the eVgo network.

That’s a first in the industry, what I call the first step towards interoperability, where you have one card and one account. I like to look at it as the ATM-type model for public charging.”

Sound like Nissan’s EZ-Charge card? Better, says BMW. The main difference is that EZ-Charge card users are billed by the different networks separately, and ChargeNow users only need one account.

“ChargeNow brings us closer to the reality of one card, one account public charging network interoperability,” said Healey.

Might BMW bring in more networks at some point?

“This is the first step,” said Healey. “We want to vet out the technology and the customer experience to see what direction this will lead in the future.”

Ambition all around To sum up, BMW is not building a charging network. It’s offering i3 buyers free access to NRG eVgo’s network in California through a BMW-branded access card managed

by ChargePoint.

Confused yet? It’s no wonder that most media outlets didn’t understand the BMW charging announcements.

EV charging is a complicated new industry.

To sum up, BMW is not building a charging network.

It’s offering i3 buyers free access to NRG eVgo’s network in California Tesla has all its eggs in the electric basket, and has had incredible success to date. However, to further upset the automotive applecart, the company must continue to make bold high-risk moves - like blanketing the world with its proprietary Superchargers and spearheading a $5-billion battery Gigafactory.

At the same time, for the ultra-conservative car companies, Nissan and BMW’s DC charging moves are ambitious as well. Both have made huge investments in EV technology and clearly realize that a coherent DC fast charging plan is key to EV success. While neither charging strategy is as all-encompassing as Tesla’s, they’re not insignificant moves for two companies just beginning to venture outside of their comfort zones.

Of course, EV fans wish they would all just play along already and use the same charging standards. Unfortunately, no sign of cooperation is in sight.

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Photo courtesy of Colonnade Boston/Flickr

EV infrastructure could become a real competitive differentiator by attracting the desirable EV-driving population.

Load Your

Ken Sapp of ABM’s Energy Solutions Group on how to avoid electrical infrastructure upgrades when installing EVSE

By Joey Stetter

ith the falling prices, increasing sales and growing mass-market appeal of plug-in vehicles, more and more facility owners are contemplating EV charging amenities for employees, tenants and visitors. EV infrastructure could become a real competitive differentiator by attracting the desirable EV-driving population. In today’s competitive landscape, facility owners can no longer ignore the idea of installing charging stations.

There are several considerations when installing EVSE, and affordability is at the top of the list. However, beyond the basic hardware, there are other factors that can dramatically affect the cost of an installation. For example, can the facility’s existing electrical infrastructure handle the increased electrical load brought on by EVSE?

Photo courtesy of Leonard Lin/Flickr

Most commercial charging stations today are Level 2, and typically draw power from around 6 kW all the way up to around 18 kW. This year, DC fast charging options are beginning to become available in smaller, wall-mounted packaging at power levels starting around 20 kW. The addition of EVSE could overload many electrical systems and significantly raise the cost of electricity with higher peak demand charges. If a property was built prior to the 1980s, the infrastructure could be outdated and unable to handle the new load without a complete retrofit - greatly increasing the project’s cost and scale, and negatively impacting your EVSE decision.

Lighten up Fortunately, there are innovative solutions to this problem. “One of the most popular and cost-effective options is to reduce the overall electricity load of the facility before EVSE installation through a lighting upgrade,” Ken Sapp, VP of ABM’s Energy Solutions Group told Charged. ABM is a full-service EVSE and energy solution provider with a history of similar projects. The company claims some significant savings when implementing high-efficiency lighting and wireless lighting controls.

Sapp explains that lighting often represents the lion’s share of a facility’s energy consumption. “Up to 39 percent,” he said. Older facilities often have old

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The addition of EVSE could overload many electrical systems, and significantly raise the cost of electricity with higher peak demand charges. fluorescent light fixtures and magnetic ballasts that house inefficient T12 or high-pressure sodium lamps.

“Typically operating 24 hours a day, seven days a week, this outdated lighting scenario can really drain the grid, as well as make energy costs skyrocket,” he explains.

The potential energy savings of high-efficiency lighting can be enough to offset the implementation of EVSE without the need to rewire a facility’s existing electrical system. Also, by leveraging federal and local energy incentives, it’s possible to use creative low-interest financing with no large upfront cost.

Bright side of the bay That was the case with a recent project that ABM completed for the city of Oakland, California. “They have one of the most ambitious energy efficiency efforts

THE INFRASTRUCTURE Sapp explains that lighting often represents the lion’s share of a facility’s energy consumption. “Up to 39 percent.” in the country, always looking to reduce overall energy use,” said Sapp. The city determined that parking facilities were among their biggest energy wasters, with most sporting old and obsolete lighting fixtures. It targeted one particular garage for a modern energy makeover, including EV charging stations to support sustainability efforts. However, the garage didn’t have the power capacity, and they wanted to complete the project without increasing the city’s operating budget.

So, ABM designed a total lighting makeover, complete with the latest in high-efficiency lighting and advanced controls. In the end, the project reduced energy use by 45%, and Oakland was able to pay for the entire project with its utility cost savings. “There was no upfront capital required,” explained Sapp, “and they were able to contribute a positive cash flow to the existing budget.”

•

High-Intensity Discharge (HID) lamps HID lamps use less power and are much brighter than most fluorescent and incandescent lamps.

These are typically used when high levels of light over large areas are required, and when energy efficiency and light intensity are desired. HID bulbs are more fragile, have to warm up and are susceptible to aging and wear.

•

Light-Emitting Diodes (LEDs) LED lamps don’t have filaments to burn out or break. Designed to have a 50,000-hour service

Photo courtesy of Paul Nicholson/Flickr

You can do it too The obvious first step to an efficiency upgrade is to swap out older light fixtures with state-of-the-art T8 lamps and high-efficiency lighting, and replace outdated ballasts with electronic ballasts that allow light levels to be programmed to dim during non-peak hours. There are several high-efficiency, low-maintenance lighting options available, including:

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life, they are very durable and require minimal maintenance. They are “instant on,” which makes them convenient for on-off cycling.

Taking control While upgrading the lights will provide impressive energy improvements, Sapp says that this alone might not offload the circuit enough to support EVSE. To deepen the energy reduction potential and reduce peak electrical demand, Sapp explains that the new lighting needs to be paired with an advanced lighting control strategy that includes: •

Wireless controls Automated controls allow facility managers to pre-determine lighting system requirements based on area, peak and non-peak times, daylight, occupancy, or a combination of any of these factors. Facility managers can adjust the lighting system to behave differently for specific times of the day, week and holidays.

•

Occupancy detection This feature senses when areas of a building are occupied and allows facility managers to light only occupied areas. Once a person has left the area, the lights turn off or dim after a pre-determined time period.

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Induction lamp

Photo courtesy of Anonimski

Sapp explains, “These are all good high-efficiency lighting options, but each has advantages and disadvantages that must be considered carefully before being used in a lighting project.” He emphasizes the importance of contacting a professional lighting or energy solution consultant, such as ABM, to determine the best type of lighting. When efficiency is the goal, it’s critical to optimize results for each facility individually.

Photo courtesy of Sabinezhangwang

Induction Induction lighting uses a light-generation technology that spreads light evenly over surfaces.

Because it does not use traditional electrodes or filaments, there are no parts that wear out.

Induction fixtures offer 5-10 times the life of HID lighting, and are designed to last an average of 100,000 hours.

High-intensity discharge lamp

Photo courtesy of greenplasticamy/Flickr

•

LED bulb

Photo courtesy of ABM

THE INFRASTRUCTURE

Oakland’s City Center West Garage reduced energy use by 45 percent and was able to pay for the entire project with its utility cost savings.

•

•

Daylight harvesting Daylight harvesting leverages natural daylight to reduce the need for artificial light, yet still provides an even level of light in an area. Sensors recognize the difference between artificial and natural light, and when daylight is present ambient electric lighting is automatically reduced.

Bi-level tuning This control device allows facility managers to establish different light levels by space type or area.

It is especially good for stairwells and other dark places as lights can be set to dim but not go off and then brighten automatically when motion is detected.

Why wireless?

Sapp explains that wireless lighting controls offer functionality equivalent to, or better than, traditional wired controls systems, but at a lower cost and with easier installation. Wireless systems generally don’t require modifications or additions to existing wiring, and can be easily modified to adapt to changing space needs, schedules, or energy reduction strategies through

“

These gains in electrical capacity are significant enough to meet EVSE requirements, all while reducing utility costs. It is usually a quick and simple return on investment.

”

reprogramming. “These systems provide a centralized, web-based dashboard for facility managers so they can track and monitor energy use and adjust controls in real time over the internet from any computer, anywhere,” he said.

All in all, Sapp says that the combination of upgraded lighting and wireless controls can reduce total lighting energy use by up to 50% - reducing peak loads and annual energy costs. “These gains in electrical capacity are significant enough to meet EVSE requirements, all while reducing utility costs. It is usually a quick and simple return on investment.”

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By Charles Morris

The humble school bus, with its predictable routes,

dirty diesel engines, and long daily periods of downtime, is a perfect candidate for electrification, and several companies are targeting the market. It’s a large one - according to the American School Bus Council, there are some 480,000 school buses in the US alone, collectively traveling almost six billion miles per year.

The action isn’t only in the US. In 2012, Smith Electric Vehicles (profiled in our Jan/Feb 2013 issue) formed a joint venture with the Wanxiang Group to manufacture electric school buses in China. In 2013, Lion Bus won a contract to develop an electric school bus for the province of Québec, with batteries from EnerDel. Each 72-seat vehicle will feature composite body materials and an electric powertrain equipped with 100 kWh of lithium-ion batteries, and is expected to have a range of more than 50 miles. Series production will begin in 2015.

As is often the case in the EV world, things are moving fastest in California. School systems in San Diego County are testing a new 48-seat e-bus developed by TransPower. In March, the Kings Canyon School District ordered four buses from Trans Tech Bus, built on a Ford E450 chassis and equipped with Motiv Power Systems’ electric Powertrain Control System (ePCS). The Motiv ePCS, which is available with 80 or 100 miles of range, is installed as a ship-through modification, enabling electrification with minimal changes.

Vehicle-to-Grid (V2G) technology makes a lot of sense for school buses, which spend more time idle than most commercial vehicles (during the school day, holidays, summer vacation). Also in California, National Strategies is developing six electric school buses equipped with V2G capability, in a pilot project that aims to demonstrate the potential to generate revenue by supplying energy stored in the buses’ batteries to the grid when not transporting students.

While the long-term economics of charging up bus-

green

es may seem like a no-brainer, in fact school districts face the same dilemma that businesses and individuals do: they simply don’t have the money in their budgets for the high up-front costs of EVs. A project called Zero Emissions Squared, coordinated by the nonprofit Breathe California, has assembled “a complete package,” including $200 million in available financing, that could serve as a model.

“It’s the only project with all the pieces in place to make it a reality,” said Project Manager and school bus industry expert Bob Garzee. “It has financing that allows school districts to implement it without having to take money out of their main school budget. It also has training for the mechanics so they don’t get left behind when they put in an EV.” The tech partner in the project is a company called Adomani, which is in the process of moving its headquarters from Florida to California to be in the center of the action, and recently elected Jim Reynolds, a 13-year veteran of the bus industry, to its board. Adomani has created a specialized conversion kit for the classic Blue Bird bus. Ninety percent of the OEM parts are retained, including the transmission, compressor, radiator and alternator.

In partnership with the Gilroy School District, Adomani replaced the engine of a 2007 50-passenger type D diesel bus with its patented conversion kit. The electrified bus has a range of 40 miles and a charge time of four hours. While each bus costs approximately $150,000 to upgrade, this pilot project aims to gather the data to prove that the savings over time will be significant, considering the rising cost of diesel fuel. The district also installed a solar array to help generate electricity to power the bus.

“I have long imagined a world where clean, zeroemission vehicles would take children to school, and now that vision is a reality,” said Breathe California CEO Margo Sidener.

Photo courtesy of Erik Finnberg/Flickr

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