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The Buzz About The Electric Car
If you were to read the typical review of an electric car – a Nissan LEAF, say – you’re likely to be left with the impression that electric cars are a brand new technology that’s never been seen before. Unfortunately (or should that be fortunately?), this impression is incorrect.
This is only one of the misconceptions about the electric car. The other main one, which typically got heard in the 1980s and 1990s before electric and hybrid vehicles git the market, was a juicy conspiracy theory about big vehicle manufacturing companies or oil magnates finding out about plans for an electric car and taking steps to rub out either the invention… or the inventor. Seeing as most big car companies are putting out hybrids and electrics these days, we now know that this sort of story probably needs to go in the thriller fiction category.
But what about the idea that electric cars are a new thing? Many people are surprised to discover that they aren’t new at all. They were new and hot back in the USA in the 1890s, after a number of inventors had played around with them. In the early days of the automobile, fossil fuels didn’t have it all their own way – there were a few steam numbers knocking about, alongside the electrics, the diesels (and, of course, the horses and the bicycles).
So what happened? How did the electric car go from having about one-third of the private car market to being so rare that it was the subject of the aforementioned conspiracy theories? You can probably blame two main factors. Number one was the mass production methods of Henry Ford, who made his cars cheap for the masses. They just happened to be petrol powered. Number two was, of course, World War 1, which got inventors to pay attention to things that would useful for combat. Electric cars might have been fine for puttering around the streets of London Detroit or New York but were not so good if you had to go long distances, like the taxis that took troops from Paris to the French–German border did. What’s more, a lot of the inventors who had concentrated on aeroplanes during the war turned to cars after the war (or, more accurately, between the wars) and by that time, they were kind of used to working with petrol and diesel. Petrol was pretty cheap, too, what with oil well after oil well being discovered in the Middle East and in Texas. So the electric car just sort of fizzled away.
Well, it fizzled until petrol stopped being quite so cheap and the world became much more aware of the twin problems of dwindling fossil fuel supplies and air pollution in all its forms. Now, we’re all wanting electric cars back again.
However, it’s not quite as simple as all that. For one thing, although electric cars have the advantage of having fewer moving parts to break down as well as having the low, low emissions when used, they still have the problems with range. At the moment, an electric car is great for an urban commute (oh, the joys of not sitting there idling at the lights!). However, if you regularly drive interstate or if you live on a farm, then an electric car isn’t going to have the range you need to get from A to B… which can be quite a long way.
While electric cars don’t need to be filled with petrol and they can use some of their kinetic energy while braking to recharge themselves, they will still need to be recharged when the battery runs low. Just like everything else that uses a rechargeable battery, such as your laptop, your phone and your camera. Now, you know how long it takes to charge your other electronic devices. As an electric car battery needs to do a lot more than your phone or laptop – getting something moving needs more energy than crunching data does – it will take a lot longer to recharge. Overnight, in most cases.
The slightly more complicated issue is the fact that the electricity needed to recharge the batteries has to come from somewhere. This can make the electric car not quite as green as the advertising makes it out to be. All is well if your electricity comes from a renewable source, such as hydro, solar, wind or geothermal (and all the other interesting new ones they’re looking at, like tidal). However, if the power station nearest you relies on coal or some other fossil fuel, your electric car probably has the same carbon footprint as the typical family car. Don’t even get me started on the potential hazards of nuclear power plants, as the folk of Fukushima or Chernobyl can testify to.
The other potential problem with electric cars, which the manufacturers are working on, is the battery. For one thing, batteries are horribly expensive to produce. This is the factor that makes electric vehicles a bit on the pricey side. And the battery will have to be replaced at some point during the car’s lifetime, putting the price tag of owning an electric vehicle up a bit higher. However, this is always the case with new green technologies. They start out really expensive and only a few people take them on. Then it becomes cheaper and more widespread. It’s happened with solar panels and it will probably happen with the batteries in electric cars, too.
The second thing with batteries is that they tend to be made of some pretty lethal stuff, as are all batteries. Lead, lithium and nickel are typically used. This might prove to be a bit of a problem as electric cars get more widespread and disposal of old batteries becomes more of an issue. Thankfully, some companies, such as Nissan, will take old batteries back and recycle them. So do some specialist recycling companies.
Things will change with the electric car. There’s a typical pattern that all new technologies follow as they become more widespread and popular. At the moment, about halfway through 2015, will the purely electric car be right for you? It could well be if you can say yes to the following:
- You are passionate about the environment and don’t mind spending a bit more to minimize your carbon footprint.
- You are based in a city and don’t drive long distances.
- Your local power company runs on sustainable energy or you have lots of solar panels on your house.
- You know where to recycle the battery.
- You have a lifestyle that allows you to recharge the battery overnight (and you don’t mind having a power bill instead of a petrol bill).
The rest of us will have to make do with hybrids, biodiesel and driving what we’ve got as frugally as possible… at least for now!
Safe and happy driving, no matter what powers you,
Megan
Those Fuel Consumption Figures…
I don’t know what you look at first when you think about buying a new car and comb through all the stats in a car review to see what it’s like. For me, the fuel economy figures would have to be just about top of the list, jostling for space with details like the size of the boot and the number of doors and seats. However, have you ever noticed that when you actually purchase your new car, you never seem to get the same fuel economy figures that the sticker on the windscreen says?
Sometimes, the reason why you’re not quite wringing the same economy out of your little car is obvious: you may like to accelerate and go fast, you may do heaps of towing, or you may do heaps more stopping and starting and idling than the average driver. However, even if you’re a light-footed driver who does the average commute, you still might not match the figures in the review or brochure. So what on earth is going on? Are you a worse driver than you think you are? How do they get those fuel consumption figures anyway?
You might imagine that the way the official boffins get the figures is to take the test vehicle and actually drive it around a test track for 100 km at open road speeds, at urban speeds with a few stops to mimic traffic lights and a mixture of both. That would give a fair impression of what the fuel economy stats actually are in real life conditions, you would think.
However, this is what they don’t do. During the testing process in most parts of the world, the testing gets done in a lab under controlled conditions. It’s like the experiments we did in science class at school, where there’s only one variable to be tested and everything else is exactly the same. This does mean that the fuel economy stats aren’t going to be skewed by things like a headwind during the testing process so you can compare car with car, but it’s still a bit disappointing for the average driver.
During the test in the lab, the vehicle gets put on a dynamometer or a rolling road for about 20 minutes. The temperature is somewhere between 20°C and 30°C, and the cars being tested have been nicely run in and are tested from a cold start. During the test for urban figures, the car “drives” for 4 km with a maximum speed of 50 km/h, a few stops and a fair bit of idling, for an average speed of 19 km/h. For the open road speed, the car covers 7 km, gets up to a maximum of 120 km/h and averages 63 km/h. Each test gets repeated a few times – about four times, according to one source. To get the combined figure, they get the average of the two figures weighted by the distance covered in each test. OK, this is a fairly simplified description of the procedure, and if you want to know all the details and all the maths, you can read it at https://www.comlaw.gov.au/Details/F2012C00282/Html/Volume_4
The regulations state that “Only the equipment necessary for the operation of the vehicle during the test shall be in use.” They also state that the air con needs to be switched off and the heating should be at “normal” (like you do when driving around when the thermometer hits 27°C?). The widest tyres should be used. The lights and indicators should be off. The slope of the road should be no more than 2%, the top wind speed should be 3 m/s on average (that’s about 11 km/h) and the track should be dry. Tyre pressure should be whatever’s specified by the manufacturers (and you can bet that they’ll put it on the harder side during testing to get more frugal figures). Need we add that there’s probably only going to be one person in the car (unless they get a robot to do it somehow) and the boot will be empty?
Yes, well, we all drive on perfectly dry roads that are practically flat on windless days with nothing in the boot and with the air con off and the windows up (on a hot day?) and the mirrors folded back as sleekly as possible to minimise drag. And we don’t touch the indicators or the lights at all. Which is what the manufacturers were doing when they got the test stats so they could get them looking as attractive as possible.
Back in the real world, you’re going to have wet roads, slopes and headwinds. You’re going to use the headlights and the indicators. You’re going to have kids, the dog and the groceries loading up the car adding to the weight and thus the amount of energy needed to move the car. You’re going to have the air con on (or you’re going to open the window at lower speeds) to keep cool. You’ll put on the radio (and have the aerial up – you can bet that they’ll put it down during the tests to reduce even the teeniest bit of drag). You’ll plant the right foot occasionally to nip into a gap or to overtake. You’re going to idle more than the urban test does, and you’re going to average higher speeds on the open road than what happens in the test. So you’re not ever going to get the same fuel economy figures that the brochure or the car review tells you.
The moral? There are two of them. Number 1 is to read the fuel economy figures by all means – they’ll help you compare car with car (although common sense tells you that a little Honda Jazz is going to have better fuel economy than a monstrous big HSV ). But take them with a grain of salt. Number 2 is to make your driving as close as possible to test conditions… But use the indicators and the headlights – please!
Safe and happy driving,
Megan
Stereotypes: The Farm Ute
This is apparently a Mitsubishi Triton, but don’t ask what colour it is.
Usually seen: Any rural road, either tarsealed or gravelled. Sometimes seen parked outside agricultural supplies shops and supermarkets in small towns. Frequently seen bumping over fields and farm tracks.
Typical examples: Toyota Hilux , Nissan Navara , Mitsubishi Triton
Description: The farm ute is seldom seen in built-up areas, usually because the farmer will pinch the family saloon (aka the wife’s car) to head into town wearing good clothes. The ute is purely for business, and that business involves doing things with crops and uncooperative animals. Looks do not matter when it comes to the farm ute; in fact, if it looks pretty, it’s suspicious.
Two main factors make a farm ute what it is: the mud and the flat deck out the back. If it hasn’t got these, it’s not a farm ute.
The mud may get onto the farm ute in a number of ways. It may get kicked up from the surface of a gravel road or a farm track, or it may get splattered onto the sides of the machine by wet dogs, runaway bullocks and a range of farm implements. The mud is a semi-permanent fixture on the ute, especially as the closest the farm ute ever gets to a car wash is when it gets driven out to inspect the irrigation system or when it rains. If you are squeamish, don’t inspect the mud too closely, as some of it may be animal crap.
If you are squeamish, you really don’t want to take a look at the flat deck itself. This will definitely have animal excretions on it of all varieties. You will also not be able to get close enough to the deck to inspect it, as it is likely to have at least one dog standing on it, chained to a set of bars behind the rear window. Other animals likely to be found on the flat deck include sheep (live), calves (live), pigs (dead after a hunting trip) and cattle (dead and sometimes in bits). The flat deck is also likely to contain miscellaneous sacks of animal feed, seed or fertilizer, and a selection of coils of wire, spades, crowbars, ropes and other tools. The whole point of the ute, after all, is to carry more stuff than the tractor, motorbike or quad bike does, as well as usually being road-legal, meaning that if the farmer needs to go down the road from farm block to farm block, or to the agricultural supply store to pick up the jumbo-sized sack of dog biscuits, a new elastrator and a salt block or two.
Utes may be twin-cab or single-cab, although single-cabs are more common. Double-cabs tend to be used when there’s a crew of workers to be lugged around or if there’s a heap of stuff that shouldn’t get wet or muddy, such as grass seeds or chemical sprays. Double-cabs tend to be a kind of mobile toolshed. Even in a single-cab ute, the front seat is likely to hold random bits of paperwork as well as a lunchbox and thermos flask – where the dogs can’t get at it. The interior will also be muddy.
Bells and whistles are also in short supply inside the farm ute. GPS systems are useless, as even the most sophisticated ones aren’t going to tell you the shortest way from the cattle yards to Field 3 in D Block. Any rear parking cameras are going to be covered in mud before too long, so they’re no good, either. Must-haves in the farm ute are the radio (so you can listen to the cricket while mending fences) and the horn (for turning the ute into a sort of mechanical dog that barks to move stock along).
The farm ute may or may not have 4×4 capacity, although it frequently does. This is because the typical farm ute usually sees more off-road action than many fancy 4x4s. Fancy 4x4s – the ones that look like they had a military origin along the lines of Jeep and Land Rover – are never used as farm utes. This is because they lack the all-important flat deck.
Those Signs On The Dashboard
One of the things that you have to learn when you buy a new car is what all the information displayed on the dashboard is what all the warning lights mean. In the cars I remember from my childhood, like the old Mitsubishi Sigma station-wagon my dad let me steer down the driveway, and the Simca that was the first car I owned, there were only a few warning lights: usually the fuel light.
Today’s cars have many more sensors and information systems to let you know just about everything that’s going on with its inner workings. This information is usually presented to you via a little light on your dashboard. But these little lights don’t (or usually don’t) come right out and say something intelligible and straightforward like “Fog lights not working” or “Engine about to explode”. This is because the car was probably designed by Germans, built by Chinese, intended for Brits and sold to Aussies. Just as well, or these information lights might end up with classic examples of Chinglish along the lines of “Lanterns for use when soft cloud sleeping on ground not happy”.
Here, then, is a guide to what they mean…or at least what they look like they mean In the diagrams below, the numbers refer to the columns and the capital letters to the rows
Figure I:
- 1A: Soprano singing very high note; may shatter the glass of the windscreen.
- 2A: Beware of signpost shaped like a spanner.
- 3A: Aliens attempting to beam up sailing ship.
- 4A: Pigs with turbo-propellers fitted so they can fly. Activate manure-proof umbrella immediately.
- 1B: Badminton competition ahead.
- 2B: Asteroid approaching.
- 3B: (exact meaning of this has been sensored censored, as this post needs to be G-rated).
- 4B: You have overturned your bowl of noodles.
Figure I
Figure II:
- 1A: Whales visible ahead.
- 2A: Beware of Lego building blocks on road ahead.
- 3A: Turn around and go back: you’re heading the wrong way.
- 4A: North is this way.
- 5A: This car is Chitty-chitty-bang-bang and is about to take off.
- 6A: Very large insect on windscreen.
- 1B: Do you have the balls to drive this car?
- 2B: Flowers
- 3B: Please ensure that head is at the top and feet are down the bottom before attempting to drive.
- 4B: You need to go on a diet.
- 5B: Daleks ahead.
- 6B: Fair Isle or Scandinavian knitting not recommended while driving.
- 1C: Rub steering wheel to make genie appear and turn car into magic carpet.
- 2C: See Figure I, 4A
- 3C: See Figure I, 3B
- 4C: Visit nearest STI clinic immediately
- 5C: See Figure 1, 2B
- 6C: You are about to be kidnapped by the Illuminati.
- 1D: Whales this direction
- 2D: Exit this way
- 3D: Dark Lord approaching. Destroy One Ring immediately.
- 4D: See 1A
- 5D: Love your six-pack!
- 6D: Do not attempt to drive this car unless you are psychic
Figure II
And if you take this seriously, I suggest that you grab the handbook that was sitting in the glovebox of the car when you bought it and look up what they really mean.
Safe and happy driving,
Megan
Level 2, 9 Help Street