One of the most amusing points about the development of electric cars is that in the early years of the automobile industry they were seen as a convenience.
Clara Ford, Henry Ford’s wife, had an electric car, as did Alice DuPont of Dupont Motor Cars and General Motors. The reason was simple.
Gasoline engines were started with a hand crank and many women didn’t want to break an arm by starting a car.
Electric cars were seen as their saviour. Then came the electric starter and with its perfection the electric car almost passed into history.
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Today we are looking at electric cars to solve part of our pollution problem.
The trouble is that we still have the same problems that plagued early electric automobiles. In the old days drivers could have heat, distance or speed, but only one at a time.ÂÂ
Modern technology has done a good job of improving on those items by making better use of the power a battery produces and by using more efficient batteries. However, the basic problem remains.
One solution is the hybrid vehicle, which uses more than one source of power. Today’s hybrids use an electric motor to help the gas engine, but the next logical step is to make the electric engine the primary drive and use the gas engine as an assist.
Two years ago, General Motors said it was going to do just that. It was disguised as the Volt show car and was touted as a plug-in hybrid. That meant the Volt could be plugged into household current to charge up and could then travel up to 100 kilometres, depending on how much speed, acceleration or heat was used.
Rather than leaving owners stranded if drives were longer or more demanding, a small gasoline engine was added to assist in propulsion and to charge the batteries. The range jumped from 100 km to nearly 600 km and fuel economy was excellent.
Today, the Volt isn’t ready for the market, mostly because GM wants to figure out how to make it affordable.
One company, Tesla Motors, isn’t as concerned with that and has a gas assisted electric car on the market now. The Mark One Tesla is a swoopy, fast sports car and is ready for the street.
The only problem is that prices start at slightly more than $100,000 and the two speed gearbox doesn’t work well, which means drivers get only one gear.
When the Volt hits show rooms, you can bet that it will be a family car with four seats and will be able to haul a bit more than an overnight bag in its cargo area. One of the novel ideas GM is pursuing is that the batteries are to form the central core of the car.
Because a drive shaft tunnel is not needed, the company can enlarge the space slightly and put the batteries there. That way you don’t lose as much cargo space.
The plug-in factor is another delay in getting to the market.
It still takes a few hours to recharge the batteries, and if the idea is to use less fuel in town, then the recharge time has to be as short as possible so owners can take multiple trips without needing to start the gas engine.
All of that may be fine for city folks, but what good does an electric car do for those living on the farm?ÂÂ
It may not be for them, but that doesn’t mean the research isn’t going to affect them.ÂÂ
In 2009, GM is going to introduce a hybrid pickup with an electric assist in the front and rear of the transmission. This system will allow the truck to run up to 50 km-h before the six litre gas engine cuts in.ÂÂ
Fuel economy gains in town are claimed to be in the 40 percent range while consumption at highway speeds is reported to be improved by 25 percent.
Towing capacity has not been
reduced significantly and the truck will use the new truck platform introduced in 2007.
Technology never marches in a straight line. The people who move technology along often follow convoluted and lonely paths. As consumers, we get to see only the finished product, but we do get to decide if it is a technology worth pursing. We do that by voting with our dollars.
Charles Renny is a freelance automotive columnist and a member of the Automobile Journalists Association of Canada.
