WALL STREET JOURNAL
February 26, 2007
Electric Cars Gather Speed
Experiment in France Shows Promise, But Cost Remains Considerable
By DAVID GAUTHIER-VILLARS
PARIS -- In late 2005, France's state-run postal service began a trial of
eight experimental electric-powered mail-delivery vans in an effort to meet
a government requirement to reduce pollution.
Not only did the vans work well and prove cheaper to operate than
gasoline-powered ones, but the mailmen who drove them reported higher job
satisfaction. Now, La Poste is working on a five-year plan to replace the
bulk of its 48,000-vehicle fleet with electric cars.
"The car works great, with almost no maintenance," says Patrick Widloecher,
La Poste's director for environmental affairs. "We're ready to order more."
ELECTRIC RIDE
- The Car: France's postal service is pleased with its electric cars and
hopes to order more.
- The Benefits: Some auto makers believe electric cars will find appeal
because of high oil prices and environmental concerns.
- The Price Tag: Others believe the technology will be too costly and
are looking at alternatives.
The companies behind the car hope their battery technology will be powerful
and long-lasting enough to overcome the issues that have plagued past
attempts at electric cars. The cars La Poste used were developed by
Société de Véhicules Électriques, controlled by aerospace tycoon Serge
Dassault, and were outfitted with a specially designed lithium-ion battery
developed by a joint venture of Milwaukee car-parts maker Johnson Controls
Inc. and French battery company Saft Groupe.
The auto industry is keen on electric cars because of their potential to
lower pollution and so-called greenhouse-gas emissions that contribute to
climate change. They also would help reduce industrialized countries'
reliance on fossil-fuel imports at a time of world-wide concern over oil
supplies.
La Poste's experience with Mr. Dassault's SVE is part of a recent pickup in
momentum for electric cars. Last month, General Motors Corp. unveiled a
prototype for an electric Chevrolet Volt. Although GM remains vague about a
possible mass-market rollout, it has selected industrial partners to
develop batteries. French car maker Renault SA, which tried and failed to
roll out an electric van five years ago, says it wants to add such a
vehicle to its lineup in 2010 as part of a wider partnership with affiliate
Nissan Motor Co. of Japan.
Still, many obstacles remain before a mass-market electric car may be
available. The main stumbling block is the prohibitive price of lithium-ion
batteries. "Manufacturers have solved most technical problems, but they
need to work further on reducing the cost," says Ahmad Pesaran, head of
energy-storage studies at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, an arm
of the U.S. Department of Energy.
Other car makers remain skeptical, saying electric cars will remain
confined to niche markets, such as mail delivery, where the lengthy process
of battery recharging can be done at night. France's PSA Peugeot Citroën
SA, which made 10,000 electric vehicles in the 1990s, says it prefers to
focus on hybrid solutions that combine both electric power and a gasoline
engine, much like Toyota Motor Corp.'s fuel-efficient Prius.
SVE has yet to settle on a price for its electric car, and it isn't clear
how much La Poste will have to pay to increase its fleet. But the car will
be significantly more expensive than a traditional gasoline-powered vehicle
because of the high cost of the lithium-ion battery, which La Poste says
would account for about 60% of the unit price. The mail company says it
will save on operating expenses because charging the electric car with
electricity costs about one-sixth what it would spend to fill up the tank
with gasoline.
SVE plans to make only a few cars at first. The French company expects to
begin volume production toward year end with the assembly of 1,000 vehicles
and, from 2009, gradually ramp up production to about 20,000 a year. That
would be a fraction of the two million vehicles sold in France every year,
though still more than all the other electric cars ever produced.
To widen the potential market for its electric vehicles, SVE has developed
a version of its van equipped with a small diesel engine. The engine can
help recharge the battery on the go or provide additional torque on
highways, removing the range cap that hampers purely electric vehicles.
Such cars are often called "plug-in hybrids" because they can be recharged
on a plug or with gasoline.
A substantial shift to electric cars would cause only a small rise in power
consumption, according to utility Electricité de France. "Even if 10% of
all vehicles sold in France were powered by electricity, by 2020, they
would account for less than 2% of overall power demand," says Robert
Durdilly, EDF director for new-business development.
In France, which relies on nuclear and hydroelectric power for most of its
electricity generation, electric cars would help achieve a drastic cut in
greenhouse-gas emissions. In the U.S., where about half of electricity is
produced from coal and where gasoline remains relatively cheap, electric
vehicles might be a harder sell.
Electric cars have failed to deliver on their promise in the past. Eleven
years ago, La Poste purchased 700 vehicles from Peugeot, which it hoped
would become the backbone of an electric-powered fleet of mail-delivery
vans. But the batteries weren't powerful enough. In courier mode -- with
close to a half ton of mail on board and hundreds of stops a day -- the
range of the cars drops to about 19 miles.
The Johnson Controls-Saft venture says it has taken care of safety problems
associated with the lithium-ion technology, notably fire hazards that have
plagued smaller lithium-ion batteries used in laptop computers. Still, JCS
Chief Operating Officer Franck Cecchi says a key area for research is
temperature control because lithium-ion batteries may overheat when they
are turned on, and excess temperature can harm their lifespan dramatically.
"We've succeeded in making batteries that can last for 10 years, but we're
working to either increase the lifespan or reduce the cost," Mr. Cecchi
says.
SVE Chief Financial Officer Sébastien Rembauville-Nicolle says he has no
doubt about the performance of the Johnson Controls-Saft batteries. Because
all the van prototypes undergoing tests are registered in SVE's name, he
says, "the mailmen's speeding tickets end up in my mailbox."
URL for this article:
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB117245446418718915.html
Copyright 2007 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved
--
Cold Mountain, Cold Rivers
Working at the Crossroads of Environmental and Human Rights since 1990
PO Box 7941
Missoula Montana 59807
(406)728-0867
posted to ClimateConcern
Comments (0)
You don't have permission to comment on this page.