Volvo plugs in: Plug-in hybrids being tested by Volvo can be recharged from a wall socket or from special charging stations managed by energy company Vattenfall.
Volvo
The company will bring vehicles to market in 2012.
This summer, Swedish car company Volvo and European energy company Vattenfall will begin testing plug-in hybrids and gathering data about how people actually drive the cars and where they recharge them. They'll use the data to refine the design of vehicles that they hope to bring to the European market in 2012.
In making its announcement earlier this month that it will introduce a plug-in hybrid in Europe, Volvo joins other large automakers in plans for the alternative vehicles. Companies including Fisker, GM, and Toyota have said that they will begin selling plug-in hybrids in the United States in the coming years. The Volvo plug-in hybrid, with an all-electric range of about 50 kilometers, is designed for the European market, where the average trip is shorter than in the United States. The company has not said whether it will sell plug-ins in the United States.
So far, Volvo has built three of the plug-in hybrids for preliminary testing and may build as many as 50, depending on how well these first models perform. One of the cars being tested this summer can go up to 50 kilometers on a 100-horsepower electric motor powered by a lithium-ion battery before switching to a 205-horsepower diesel engine. The other two cars have similar specifications, according to the company. All the cars have two plugs: one for recharging in about five hours when plugged into a standard wall socket, and one for recharging in about two hours when plugged into special charging stations developed by startup companies working with Vattenfall.
The cars incorporate a "smart-charging" system developed by the Argonne National Laboratory, in Argonne, IL. The system combines a battery charger with a cell phone and GPS that transmits the charge status of the battery and the vehicle's location, be it a residence or a charging station, to a utility operator. "The car doesn't start charging until it calls the [utility] company and gets the okay," says Ichiro Sugioka, a science officer at the Volvo Monitoring and Concept Center, in Camarillo, CA.
Volvo may incorporate a similar monitoring system into the commercial versions of the plug-in hybrids if the current tests demonstrate its usefulness. Potentially, the smart-charging system could allow utilities to optimize electricity usage, avoiding unnecessary charging during times of high electricity demand.
Another reason to gather this kind of data is that it can be used to optimize the design of the car. Indeed, Volvo is working with multiple undisclosed battery manufacturers and has not yet finalized the vehicle's design, says Sugioka. Some batteries have a better energy density and can go longer between charges; some are more powerful. "We want to get the car into people's hands and see if they use it as they say they would," Sugioka says. Since 1992, the company has tested a number of plug-in hybrid designs. "We did not bring any of the previous plug-ins to market because battery costs were too high to justify taking a loss," he says.
A California company's lithium metal-air batteries are lightweight and energy dense.
The electric propulsion system for GM's new plug-in hybrid gives a silent yet powerful ride.
In November, Fisker Automotive will begin sales of a car with 50 miles of battery-powered range.
I agree-- the car itself should have a configurable timer, so non-stupid charging can be done independent of any so-called smart charger/grid. For example, the car's inside LCD display could be used to view and edit charging options. This would be analogous somewhat to lawn watering systems, perhaps with a few simple selections, e.g. Program A/B/C. Either an inside button (e.g. from the display) or a button/display or slide/rotory switch outside next to the plug could select and activate charging.
Besides time-of-day charging (to delay start of charge or avoid certain peak hours) it is useful to have the driver indicate how long the car will be plugged in.
For example, you open the plug cover and connect the car to power, then slide an adjacent selector switch (or slider pot) that says, "ASAP,2hr,4hr,6hr,...,Overnight,Prog-A,Prog-B". Suppose you park the car at 3pm, plug it in, then you adjust the slider to 6hrs, indicating the car will be parked for >6 hours. The charging system could know to wait until past the (pre-programmed) peak use time and charge during 6-9pm.
Using cell phone communications is still a good idea. If the car has a cell-phone/GPS anyway, it could send an SMS-like message to the power company to indicate a charging request. The power company could return the SMS with more precise load predictions and costs. Perhaps the power company could offer a rebate on a home electric bill for controlled charging. The cell-phone car-charging network could also be used for load control/stabilization in lieu of running standby power or building flywheel plants. If there are a significant number of cars charging, then the charging network could add/subtract short term load while power stations spin up/down (or wind comes and goes).
Of course, there needs to be a change in the tariffs so the phone companies don't charge $1/kB like they sometimes do now for SMS!
Manufacturing in the United States is in trouble. That's bad news not just for the country's economy but for the future of innovation.
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mahonj
46 Comments
How smart do you need to be ?
Smart charging can be done based on time of day and time of week - certainly in cool countries.
As long as you avoid charging between 5 pm and 9pm, you will be OK.
If you charge between 11 pm and 6 am, it is very good.
So if you go home and plug it in, at 5pm, nothing happens till 11pm + some dither amount (to prevent all cars starting to charge at 11pm).
You might have a "Force" button to force it to charge, say if you are in a parking lot, or at work.
It could then charge enough to repeat the previous journey.
Public Charging stations should be coin operated - 1 or 2 euros will buy a lot of power, + the price could be based on time of day (easy) or grid condition (requires some signalling).
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