Electric cars

This post has been generated by three cross currents of thought. The first was seeing one of those conspiracy theory 'Documentaries' about how wicked 'Big Oil' killed off some whizzy super electric vehicle supposed to replace all those pollution spewing Internal Combustion Engine propelled cars and trucks. The second was a piece in the Tellytubbygraph about subsidies for Electric cars. The third was a conversation I had about practical technologies with a work buddy.

Now electrically powered cars have been around a long time. Over 100 (One hundred) years. The technology is relatively simple. Electro Magnetic Force (Electricity, or plain old 'leccy' as the transfer of electrons along a conductor is known) translated into rotary motion by magnetism acting on coils and windings. Yes I know that's an over simplification, but this is a blog, not an encyclopaedia, for goodness sake.

Electric motors work. So long as there is sufficient electricity, they work very well indeed, and quite efficiently. Ideal for driving a vehicle you might think. Well, yes and no. The thing is, that while electric motors are a relatively efficient means of converting power into motion, independent electrical storage media (a.k.a. batteries) have not attained this level of utility. The major issue is recharge, and the time it takes to recharge the storage media without it blowing up.

Batteries are in their simplest terms Electro-chemical devices used to store and release electrical energy. They do this by a chemical reaction which releases electrons from atoms, which in their turn barge into the electron shells of other conductor atoms, thus creating a 'flow' of electricity. Again, this is an over simplification of the process, but my previous point about this being a very generalist blog still applies. It may surprise my reader that power storage devices of this nature have altered little over the past couple of thousand years. Two differing conductors and an electrolyte are all that is required. Modern batteries have come a long way from the old Lead / Acid contraptions of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. but they still rely on the same principle. Charging too fast will overstimulate the chemical reaction within the battery and make it overheat, and even explode. So recharge times must be adhered to, lest you end up with a recharge station full of toxic chemical sludge and fast moving shards of metal and plastic. Short of some form of fast electrolyte recharge, where the old fluid is pumped out and replaced with fresh (Which doesn't replace / repair corroded anodes and cathodes incidentally), there is the major issue with electric cars. Not function, but recharge and recharge system longevity.

Perhaps some other process which 'refreshes' the electrolyte and shifts those pesky ions (Charged particles) to the correct end of the battery might be an idea. Whether such a process could be made to work or not would be down to whomsoever could crack the chemistry. Then you've opened the environmental can of worms about what you do with tonnes of exhausted battery electrolyte, which would be a by product of all those chemical recharges.

Until the electrical storage issues I have outlined above are resolved, the truly practical Electric Car will remain an expensive short range vanity item not worth spit in cold weather. As far as I'm concerned, the five thousand pound subsidies are worthless because the batteries need to be replaced for around $9000 (about six thousand quid) a pop after five years (or even less). God alone knows what the resale value of such vehicles might plummet to.

There's also a big question mark over how much pollution these things are responsible for. As far as I can see they simply defer, rather than produce no emissions. Power will still need to be generated to drive the things, and that will require a more robust energy grid, should the recharging business ever be solved. Then there is the pollution from Rare Earth production that goes into making modern batteries. Maybe that was why GM etc crushed all those leased EV1's, because the cost of battery replacement outweighed the economic benefits of leasing, and the future state-imposed costs of recovery / recycling. When it comes to the Electric Car, I still think Edison had it right over a century ago.

The various screw ups and bad curry-like repetition of the Electric car idea is what happens when people who don't understand technology manage high tech projects, or make ill-informed rules to buy votes. No conspiracy, just everyday human cock-up.