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Electric Cars Slow to Emerge

Page history last edited by PBworks 17 years, 1 month ago

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

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