"Philippines urged to try electric vehicles"

[niky]

Depends on conditions. Most people can't get the ideal fuel economy out of their gasoline cars, either.

[oj88]

Electric cars will only be viable to people who regularly travel relatively short distances, with or without traffic. Petrol engines have very poor efficiency when used on short distances, even on an open highway. And it gets much worse in stop and go traffic. In both of these cases, an electric car would be ideal.

Would I get one if the TCO gets cheaper? Absolutely!

I travel 32-35km a day (home to office and back). So a full charge should last me about three days (for the Leaf's 160km range and factoring the lights that will be turned on half the time).

[Mguy]

Sana mag-design sila ng replaceable battery pack if you are low on battery charge to improve ang range. Just think lang na every gas station would have battery packs already charged. So one electric car comes in and has the option to either charge (quick charge yata is 20mins for the Leaf) or replace the battery packs. Of course, the current design right now is that removing the battery packs is time consuming. Maganda sana kung plug and play ang design nya.

So if the client swapped the battery pack, the gas station will charge that depleted battery pack for the next EV customer.

[ghosthunter]

Sana mag-design sila ng replaceable battery pack if you are low on battery charge to improve ang range. Just think lang na every gas station would have battery packs already charged. So one electric car comes in and has the option to either charge (quick charge yata is 20mins for the Leaf) or replace the battery packs. Of course, the current design right now is that removing the battery packs is time consuming. Maganda sana kung plug and play ang design nya.

So if the client swapped the battery pack, the gas station will charge that depleted battery pack for the next EV customer.

that would be a nice "what-if" scenario. Having standard battery packs for all types and models of EVs but it will not happen. For one, the battery pack is a major component in a EV, essentially the EV is designed around its battery pack. SO until the day where an EV's battery pack is the size of a medium sized hand luggage, this will just remain a fantasy.

I am also curious about the practicality of the battery swapping mods done to the ejeepney. From the way they are doing it, it's going to take quite a effort just to swap a single vehicle at one time. Imagine having to do it everyday for 21 vehicles (the makati ejeep fleet).

[uls]

that would be a nice "what-if" scenario. Having standard battery packs for all types and models of EVs but it will not happen. For one, the battery pack is a major component in a EV, essentially the EV is designed around its battery pack. SO until the day where an EV's battery pack is the size of a medium sized hand luggage, this will just remain a fantasy.

BTW asking car makers to make a common swappable EV battery pack would be like asking honda, toyota, nissan and mitsubishi to make a single common engine for their civic, corolla, sentra and lancer. It won't happen unless coerced by outside forces.

one more thing... if i bought a brand new million+ peso electric car, i wouldnt swap my new battery for someone else's battery

[niky]

The idea is to divorce the battery ownership from the vehicle ownership via a swapping regime... which works if you have enough clients with the same battery.

For cars that already have their own battery pack, once you've designed a compact, swappable battery that can fit in a trunk, you can piggyback that in those cars.

99% of the issues with electrics are battery, battery, battery. By making it a supplier-side issue rather than a customer-side issue, you take care of most of the problems with owning an EV. As a bonus, supplier-side battery ownership mostly eliminates the need for quick-charging, which kills batteries quickly.

Of course, everyone's waiting for the magic bullet miracle quick-charge, ultra-cheap battery. But that's notgonnahappenanytimesoon.com

[uls]

pwede when electric car pricing doesnt include the battery and you pay a separate fee to join a "battery club" owned by a battery supplier/suppliers. that way you don't OWN the battery you just pay for the power so you wouldnt have issues re swapping your brand new battery for someone else's 2 yr old battery

the "battery club" gotta have locations all over the place

[uls]

but whatever...

electric cars are stupid. only treehuggers think they're great

gawa nalang sila ng kalye na may naka-embed na electric lines. that will eliminate the need for onboard batteries

[niky]

The manufacturers have to show something viable first.

Then present a business model that will entice the "filling station" owners. Say... not even the filling station owners own the batteries. They also lease them form the manufacturers (first) and they collect their fees merely off of the electric content of the batteries, whereas the manufacturer collects the surcharge that goes towards replacing batteries.

Then present to the public this new form of PUV or even customer vehicle that now costs less than a car to both buy and run.

Wait for the inevitable gas price spike... then get customers... like the LPG businesses did.

Obviously, it's more difficult. With LPG, customers were simply extending the usable life of vehicles they already had... namely gasoline taxis. This will be an upfront investment, which operators will not be willing to take alone. But with tax incentives and perhaps a little prodding from the government (outlawing all diesel vehicles that fail to meet an emissions standard... quite easy to fail thousands of smoke belching jeepneys this way), you give them no choice but to either buy a jeepney with a new diesel motor (nearly a million pesos) or to buy a tax-free EV with no battery costs included (around 400k).

It would be extremely difficult, but doable.

[ghosthunter]

Sana mag-design sila ng replaceable battery pack if you are low on battery charge to improve ang range. Just think lang na every gas station would have battery packs already charged. So one electric car comes in and has the option to either charge (quick charge yata is 20mins for the Leaf) or replace the battery packs. Of course, the current design right now is that removing the battery packs is time consuming. Maganda sana kung plug and play ang design nya.

So if the client swapped the battery pack, the gas station will charge that depleted battery pack for the next EV customer.

BTW asking car makers to make a common swappable EV battery pack would be like asking honda, toyota, nissan and mitsubishi to make a single common engine for their civic, corolla, sentra and lancer. It won't happen unless coerced by outside forces.

We don't even have common "sharable" batteries for our laptops and mobile phones (sharable between brands).