Who killed the electric motorcycle?

…more like, who killed good journalism.  This story, which I hate to even link to, is just the worst example of irresponsible journalism.  Provocative title guaranteeing page views.  Stream of consciousness reasoning, backed up with spotty research.  That would all be fine, except this is Fortune via CNN Money, and it’s talking about a burgeoning industry that needs encouragement, not cheap shots.

Probably the most disturbing thing about this is the fact that electric motorcycles represent a unique, new opportunity for US companies to grow.  Torpedoing this market seems to me to be more than irresponsible, it seems like libel.

Here, reluctantly, is the story: Who killed the electric motorcycle?

Rather than quote the story, I think the comments are more worthy of noting.  Here are a few of my favorites:

Harry Mallin Sep 28
Fortune and CNN and Money Magazine need to be a bit more selective when paying freelancers to write articles for them. Okay, actually, they need to be a LOT more selective. Some basic research and elementary-school-level Google search skills could have turned this into a… no… nothing could have saved this stream-of-consciousness exercise. Harley Davidson as the bellwether of success in the motorcycle world? Please.

Susanna SchickSep 28
This is offensive. I honestly hope Ms Hammond was not paid to write this drivel.

There is a massive and rapidly growing electric motorcycle industry which is currently identical to the internet circa mid-90′s. These are not scooters, but full-fledged race bikes!

Please do a little research before you write, Ms. Chevron Executive. Or at least be honest and tell your editors you know NOTHING about this topic.

Here is the series that started it all: http://www.egrandprix.com/

and here is my shameless plug because while Ms Hammond is reading press releases, I’ll be at Albacete covering the TTXGP finale as a freelance writer. http://gas2.org/author/susannaschick/

My favorite:
Sal Grasso Sep 28
an e-bike can never sound or feel like a Harley

(Thank GOD for that, Sal!)

Oh, by the way…  when I start gauging the viability of an industry based on what Harley Davidson riders will buy, can you take me out back and put me out of my misery, please?

Fossils to Flux is coming!

Just heard from Lulu, my first printed draft has shipped!  As soon as I get it and check edits, it’s going live!

Book Review: Electric Vehicle Technology Explained- James Larminie, John Lowry

Here is the absolute definitive book on Electric Vehicles.  If you want a references for every imaginable aspect of electriv vehicle technology, save your pennies (it sells for $160, and is 300 pages) and order this up from the Wiley site here.  James Larminie and  John Lowry have compiled what can only be called the last word on the state of the art.

I’ve heard of this book, and many folks have referred to it, but only lately did I get a look at it.  “Impressive” barely describes it.

Beyond simply being exhaustive, it’s also very current.

Here’s the description from the Wiley website:

While the classic battery electric car continues to make only a small impact on the automobile market, other types of electric vehicle, especially hybrids, have made significant and promising improvements. Moreover, small battery electric vehicles such as bicycles and mobility aids are also developing well. Presenting more than 160 diagrams and pictures, this book explains the science and technology behind these important developments, and also introduces the issues that underpin the design and performance modelling of electric vehicles.

Electric Vehicle Technology Explained:

• Encompasses a full range of electric vehicles: bicycles, mobility aids, delivery vehicles and buses – not just cars.
• Covers all the basic technology relating to electric road vehicles – batteries, super capacitors, flywheels, fuel cells, electric motors and their controllers, and system design.
• Considers the environmental benefits and disadvantages of electric vehicles and their component devices.
• Includes case studies of a range of batteries, hybrids and fuel cell powered vehicles, from bicycles to buses.
• Offers many MATLAB^® examples explaining the design of appropriate computer prediction models.

Professionals, researchers and engineers in the electric vehicle industry as well as advanced students in electrical and mechanical engineering will benefit from this comprehensive coverage of electric vehicle technology.

Contents

Acknowledgments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xi

Abbreviations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xiii

Symbols . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xv

1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1

1.1 A Brief History . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1

1.1.1 Early days . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1

1.1.2 The relative decline of electric vehicles after 1910 . . . . . . . . 3

1.1.3 Uses for which battery electric vehicles have remained popular 5

1.2 Developments Towards the End of the 20th Century . . . . . . . . . . . . 5

1.3 Types of Electric Vehicle in Use Today . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7

1.3.1 Battery electric vehicles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8

1.3.2 The IC engine/electric hybrid vehicle . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9

1.3.3 Fuelled electric vehicles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15

1.3.4 Electric vehicles using supply lines . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18

1.3.5 Solar powered vehicles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18

1.3.6 Electric vehicles which use flywheels or super capacitors . . . 18

1.4 Electric Vehicles for the Future . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20

Bibliography . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21

2 Batteries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23

2.1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23

2.2 Battery Parameters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24

2.2.1 Cell and battery voltages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24

2.2.2 Charge (or Amphour) capacity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25

2.2.3 Energy stored . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26

2.2.4 Specific energy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27

2.2.5 Energy density . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27

2.2.6 Specific power . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28

2.2.7 Amphour (or charge) efficiency . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28

2.2.8 Energy efficiency . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29

vi Contents

2.2.9 Self-discharge rates . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29

2.2.10 Battery geometry . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29

2.2.11 Battery temperature, heating and cooling needs . . . . . . . . . 29

2.2.12 Battery life and number of deep cycles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29

2.3 Lead Acid Batteries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30

2.3.1 Lead acid battery basics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30

2.3.2 Special characteristics of lead acid batteries . . . . . . . . . . . 32

2.3.3 Battery life and maintenance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34

2.3.4 Battery charging . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35

2.3.5 Summary of lead acid batteries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35

2.4 Nickel-based Batteries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35

2.4.1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35

2.4.2 Nickel cadmium . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36

2.4.3 Nickel metal hydride batteries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38

2.5 Sodium-based Batteries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41

2.5.1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41

2.5.2 Sodium sulphur batteries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41

2.5.3 Sodium metal chloride (Zebra) batteries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42

2.6 Lithium Batteries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44

2.6.1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44

2.6.2 The lithium polymer battery . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45

2.6.3 The lithium ion battery . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45

2.7 Metal Air Batteries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46

2.7.1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46

2.7.2 The aluminium air battery . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46

2.7.3 The zinc air battery . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47

2.8 Battery Charging . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48

2.8.1 Battery chargers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48

2.8.2 Charge equalisation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49

2.9 The Designer’s Choice of Battery . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51

2.9.1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51

2.9.2 Batteries which are currently available commercially . . . . . . 52

2.10 Use of Batteries in Hybrid Vehicles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53

2.10.1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53

2.10.2 Internal combustion/battery electric hybrids . . . . . . . . . . . . 53

2.10.3 Battery/battery electric hybrids . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53

2.10.4 Combinations using flywheels . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54

2.10.5 Complex hybrids . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54

2.11 Battery Modelling . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54

2.11.1 The purpose of battery modelling . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54

2.11.2 Battery equivalent circuit . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55

2.11.3 Modelling battery capacity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57

2.11.4 Simulation a battery at a set power . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61

2.11.5 Calculating the Peukert Coefficient . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64

2.11.6 Approximate battery sizing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65

Contents vii

2.12 In Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66

References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67

3 Alternative and Novel Energy Sources and Stores . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69

3.1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69

3.2 Solar Photovoltaics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69

3.3 Wind Power . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71

3.4 Flywheels . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72

3.5 Super Capacitors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74

3.6 Supply Rails . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77

References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80

4 Fuel Cells . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81

4.1 Fuel Cells, a Real Option? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81

4.2 Hydrogen Fuel Cells: Basic Principles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83

4.2.1 Electrode reactions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83

4.2.2 Different electrolytes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84

4.2.3 Fuel cell electrodes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87

4.3 Fuel Cell Thermodynamics – an Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89

4.3.1 Fuel cell efficiency and efficiency limits . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89

4.3.2 Efficiency and the fuel cell voltage . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92

4.3.3 Practical fuel cell voltages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94

4.3.4 The effect of pressure and gas concentration . . . . . . . . . . . 95

4.4 Connecting Cells in Series – the Bipolar Plate . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96

4.5 Water Management in the PEM Fuel Cell . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101

4.5.1 Introduction to the water problem . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101

4.5.2 The electrolyte of a PEM fuel cell . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101

4.5.3 Keeping the PEM hydrated . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 104

4.6 Thermal Management of the PEM Fuel Cell . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105

4.7 A Complete Fuel Cell System . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107

References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109

5 Hydrogen Supply . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 111

5.1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 111

5.2 Fuel Reforming . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 113

5.2.1 Fuel cell requirements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 113

5.2.2 Steam reforming . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 114

5.2.3 Partial oxidation and autothermal reforming . . . . . . . . . . . 116

5.2.4 Further fuel processing: carbon monoxide removal . . . . . . . 117

5.2.5 Practical fuel processing for mobile applications . . . . . . . . 118

5.3 Hydrogen Storage I: Storage as Hydrogen . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 119

5.3.1 Introduction to the problem . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 119

5.3.2 Safety . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 120

5.3.3 The storage of hydrogen as a compressed gas . . . . . . . . . . . 120

5.3.4 Storage of hydrogen as a liquid . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 122

viii Contents

5.3.5 Reversible metal hydride hydrogen stores . . . . . . . . . . . . . 124

5.3.6 Carbon nanofibres . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 126

5.3.7 Storage methods compared . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 127

5.4 Hydrogen Storage II: Chemical Methods . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 127

5.4.1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 127

5.4.2 Methanol . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 128

5.4.3 Alkali metal hydrides . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 130

5.4.4 Sodium borohydride . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 132

5.4.5 Ammonia . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 135

5.4.6 Storage methods compared . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 138

References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 138

6 Electric Machines and their Controllers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 141

6.1 The ‘Brushed’ DC Electric Motor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 141

6.1.1 Operation of the basic DC motor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 141

6.1.2 Torque speed characteristics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 143

6.1.3 Controlling the brushed DC motor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 147

6.1.4 Providing the magnetic field for DC motors . . . . . . . . . . . . 147

6.1.5 DC motor efficiency . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 149

6.1.6 Motor losses and motor size . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 151

6.1.7 Electric motors as brakes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 153

6.2 DC Regulation and Voltage Conversion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 155

6.2.1 Switching devices . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 155

6.2.2 Step-down or ‘buck’ regulators . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 157

6.2.3 Step-up or ‘boost’ switching regulator . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 159

6.2.4 Single-phase inverters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 162

6.2.5 Three-phase . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 165

6.3 Brushless Electric Motors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 166

6.3.1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 166

6.3.2 The brushless DC motor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 167

6.3.3 Switched reluctance motors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 169

6.3.4 The induction motor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 173

6.4 Motor Cooling, Efficiency, Size and Mass . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 175

6.4.1 Improving motor efficiency . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 175

6.4.2 Motor mass . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 177

6.5 Electrical Machines for Hybrid Vehicles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 179

References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 181

7 Electric Vehicle Modelling . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 183

7.1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 183

7.2 Tractive Effort . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 184

7.2.1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 184

7.2.2 Rolling resistance force . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 184

7.2.3 Aerodynamic drag . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 185

7.2.4 Hill climbing force . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 185

Contents ix

7.2.5 Acceleration force . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 185

7.2.6 Total tractive effort . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 187

7.3 Modelling Vehicle Acceleration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 188

7.3.1 Acceleration performance parameters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 188

7.3.2 Modelling the acceleration of an electric scooter . . . . . . . . 189

7.3.3 Modelling the acceleration of a small car . . . . . . . . . . . . . 193

7.4 Modelling Electric Vehicle Range . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 196

7.4.1 Driving cycles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 196

7.4.2 Range modelling of battery electric vehicles . . . . . . . . . . . . 201

7.4.3 Constant velocity range modelling . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 206

7.4.4 Other uses of simulations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 207

7.4.5 Range modelling of fuel cell vehicles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 208

7.4.6 Range modelling of hybrid electric vehicles . . . . . . . . . . . . 211

7.5 Simulations: a Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 212

References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 212

8 Design Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 213

8.1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 213

8.2 Aerodynamic Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 213

8.2.1 Aerodynamics and energy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 213

8.2.2 Body/chassis aerodynamic shape . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 217

8.3 Consideration of Rolling Resistance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 218

8.4 Transmission Efficiency . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 220

8.5 Consideration of Vehicle Mass . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 223

8.6 Electric Vehicle Chassis and Body Design . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 226

8.6.1 Body/chassis requirements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 226

8.6.2 Body/chassis layout . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 227

8.6.3 Body/chassis strength, rigidity and crash resistance . . . . . . . 228

8.6.4 Designing for stability . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 231

8.6.5 Suspension for electric vehicles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 231

8.6.6 Examples of chassis used in modern battery and hybrid electric

vehicles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 232

8.6.7 Chassis used in modern fuel cell electric vehicles . . . . . . . . 232

8.7 General Issues in Design . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 234

8.7.1 Design specifications . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 234

8.7.2 Software in the use of electric vehicle design . . . . . . . . . . . 234

9 Design of Ancillary Systems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 237

9.1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 237

9.2 Heating and Cooling Systems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 237

9.3 Design of the Controls . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 240

9.4 Power Steering . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 243

9.5 Choice of Tyres . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 243

9.6 Wing Mirrors, Aerials and Luggage Racks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 243

9.7 Electric Vehicle Recharging and Refuelling Systems . . . . . . . . . . . . 244

x Contents

10 Electric Vehicles and the Environment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 245

10.1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 245

10.2 Vehicle Pollution: the Effects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 245

10.3 Vehicles Pollution: a Quantitative Analysis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 248

10.4 Vehicle Pollution in Context . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 251

10.5 Alternative and Sustainable Energy Used via the Grid . . . . . . . . . . . 254

10.5.1 Solar energy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 254

10.5.2 Wind energy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 255

10.5.3 Hydro energy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 255

10.5.4 Tidal energy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 255

10.5.5 Biomass energy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 256

10.5.6 Geothermal energy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 257

10.5.7 Nuclear energy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 257

10.5.8 Marine current energy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 257

10.5.9 Wave energy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 257

10.6 Using Sustainable Energy with Fuelled Vehicles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 258

10.6.1 Fuel cells and renewable energy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 258

10.6.2 Use of sustainable energy with conventional IC engine vehicles 258

10.7 The Role of Regulations and Law Makers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 258

References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 260

11 Case Studies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 261

11.1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 261

11.2 Rechargeable Battery Vehicles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 261

11.2.1 Electric bicycles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 261

11.2.2 Electric mobility aids . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 263

11.2.3 Low speed vehicles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 263

11.2.4 Battery powered cars and vans . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 266

11.3 Hybrid Vehicles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 269

11.3.1 The Honda Insight . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 269

11.3.2 The Toyota Prius . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 271

11.4 Fuel Cell Powered Bus . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 272

11.5 Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 275

References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 277

Appendices: MATLAB Examples . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 279

Appendix 1: Performance Simulation of the GM EV1 . . . . . . . . 279

Appendix 2: Importing and Creating Driving Cycles . . . . . . . . . 280

Appendix 3: Simulating One Cycle . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 282

Appendix 4: Range Simulation of the GM EV1 Electric Car . . . . 284

Appendix 5: Electric Scooter Range Modelling . . . . . . . . . . . . 286

Appendix 6: Fuel Cell Range Simulation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 288

Appendix 7: Motor Efficiency Plots . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 290

Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 293

Predator (drag bike) on Dyno

(-mometer, not -saur).  How the big boys do it:

I can haz dyno?

Book Gets Title, Cover!

Yes, yes…  things have been a little slow on The Electric Chronicles, but that’s because I’ve been hard at work on the BOOK yo!

I have a title: …from Fossils to Flux (a Basic Guide to Building an Electric Motorcycle) and a cover:

Yes it’s dark, yes it’s sinister…  but we’re tampering with the Elemental forces of the Universe, are we not?

Even better, I have a Table of Contents:

• Contents
• The Parts
• The Batteries
• Lead
• Mobility Batteries
• Odyssey “Dry Cell” Batteries
• “Orbital” Batteries
• Lithium Batteries
• Woah. The Peukert Effect
• Battery Management Systems
• Controllers, Contactors and Converters (oh my!)
• The Controller
• The Contactor
• The Converter
• Thoughts about regen from Brammo
• Motors- Axial vs. Radial air gap motors
• A Short Primer on the History of the Etek Motor
• Hub Motors
• Motor Cooling
• Motor Cooling Questions: ANSWERED
• The Plan
• Picking the Parts and Pieces- (decisions, decisions…)
• The Motor Lineup- the Tried and True.
• Permanent Magnet DC
• Series-wound DC
• AC Induction
• Sepex (Separately Excited) DC
• Figuring the Gear Ratio
• Switches Made Simple
• The Charger Choice
• Buying a Rolling Chassis
• Interlude: The Secrets of the Universe- KWh
• The Motor Mount
• Mounting the Batteries
• Mounting the Batteries- Part Two: Essentials
• Wiring Diagram
• Grounding the System
• Interlude: Awesome Crimp Tool
• The “Recycle” Angle…
• The Ride
• Editorials on Motorcycling
• Loud pipes save lives?
• Safety, Kickstand Switches, and Showing Off…
• The Right to Ride, Electric or No
• Glossary
• Bibliography, Links and Resources
• Index

Soon to be released at a http://www.LuLu.com near you!

Solid Ground (electric) T Shirts yo!

Here you go kids!  Get yer “Solid Ground” T-shirts here!  (The Electric Chronicles Cafe Press store here.)

Brammo gets $12 million

From the Sustainable Business Oregon site, great news for Brammo:

Brammo Inc., the Ashland-based maker of electric motorcycles, closed a nearly $12.5 million private investment Tuesday, the first chunk of what the company expects to be a $30 million venture round.

Investors in the round include existing funders Chrysalix, an energy-focused venture capital firm in Vancouver, B.C., and Best Buy Venture.

In addition, Alpine Inc., an oil and gas investment firm out of Oklahoma, signed on as an investor and Alpine’s David Kurtz joined the Brammo board.

Craig Bramscher, Brammo CEO, said an additional investor joined the round but that a nondisclosure agreement prevented him from naming the organization.

Brammo announced a partnership last week with electronics manufacturing giant Flextronics.

“It allows us to extend our supply-chain depth and reach all the continents,” Bramscher said. “We’re excited to do it.”

More info on Brammo expansion and money raising efforts on Hell for Leather, here.  “So what’s the significance of all this? This second round of financing should be seen as a significant milestone on Brammo’s road to becoming a major vehicle manufacturer. That they’re planning to expand globally with such a small amount of money is a good indicator of the company’s frugal ways which is, in turn, an extremely positive sign that they’ll be able to flourish under economic conditions that are crippling or destroying established motorcycle manufacturing competitors. Financial prudence, global sales and manufacturing and exciting products like the 100mph+ Brammo Empulse sounds like the perfect recipe for a successful American motorcycle company.”

Figuring the Gear Ratio

So, we’ve picked our motor based on the RPM it can muster with our given pack voltage.  How do we figure out what the gear ratio needs to be?

It’s a pretty simple bit of figuring, as figuring goes.  Figure out what the circumference of the tire is, and that’s your distance per round.  Convert that from inches or feet, to miles.  Now, figure what the RPM of the wheel has to be to get your target MPH.  Then figure the reduction from the RPM of the motor to get to the RPM of the wheel.

Give up?  Go here: CompGoCarts has a great interactive calculator.

For the record, I did the math and my motor, with my wheel and tire, came out to almost exactly what I had on there from the stock configuration- a 13 tooth front and a 45 tooth rear.  It calculated out to a 65mph top speed at the RPM maximum of my motor- 3000, with load.  The actual top speed of my bike?  About 63mph- not bad.  It always is a pleasant surprise when math actually works.

While we’re on the subject of calculators, if you want to crunch some numbers on theoretical specs, there’s nothing better than the Lennon Rogers EV calculator.

Chains and Sprockets- Maintenance

Definitely a site worth looking deeper into…

This is pretty much the final word on chains and sprockets- from Canyon Chasers.  A great post going into supreme detail on what anyone should understand fully before they ever sit their butts down on the seat of a motorcycle.

KillaCycle on the Salt

= KillaJoule (+sidecar?)

Sounds like the guys need some good sleep- but they learned a lot and aren’t backing down.  Great work, and I can’t wait to see what happens in October!  The results?  ”You’re Officially Recorded in the 130 Club for 9/17/10:
ELBIKE/Hakansson/43.1 mph/65.27 mph/88.82 mph- Triumph!”

Final update- Monday AM:
KillaCycle Racing Just came home after a loooong drive back. (Why doesn’t it always feel longer driving home…?)

Simply too tired to write a long report, but the conclusion is that we at least reached our goal to keep the shiny side up and rubber side down. Unfortunately no official record (our successful runs were on the wrong course)…, but we will be back!

Seriously consider going back for the World Finals in October (in 2.5 weeks… gaah!)
Because of the handling problems, we plan to make a side car for it. That will give it three wheels and at least it won’t fall over.

It will be really hard work getting it ready in 2.5 weeks, but we think it is possible.
If anybody know where we can find a small side car wheel rated for over 200 mph (could be solid aluminum), or know somebody that has raced fast sidecars – pleeeease contact me immediately.

Friday night:
Got permission to run the bike on the very short “130 mph Club” course thanks to the wonderful race official Jim (who also drove the BYU electric streamliner a few weeks ago. What a wonderful guy). This course is less than 2 miles including run-out compared to the real track that is 7 miles long. On the 130 mph track they run normal street cars and street bikes with the goal to reach 130 or 150 mph. You can’t set a record on this track, but you can join the 130 mph Club and 150 mph Club. Real race vehicles are usually not allowed on the 130 mph track, but we managed to get permission provided that we didn’t run too fast.

The first run went perfect. Accelerated very gently, kept the bike straight and reached 88 mph on the 1 mile marked. Released the parachute and slowed down very nicely. Everything was looking bright….

(11AM EST Friday)- KillaCycle Racing During tow testing this morning we found the bike still pulling to the left. We can see a quite obvious cant of the front wheel wrt the headtube. Eva and Bill are trying to figure out how to adjust that out.

Ever since I saw The World’s Fastest Indian I’ve wanted to see what it’s like to run on the salt. Eva and the KillaCycle team took to it this season, and here’s the first report, from KillaCycle’s Facebook page. If you’re on the Facebook, go here for updates, and a similar post from Mike. If you’re not, here’s Eva’s post from late last night:

KillaCycle Racing Spent the day tuning in the bike and learn how to balance it. Streamliner motorcycles is a _very_ weird breed – they behave like nothing else. They kind of counter-steer, but they don’t listen to body English since you are strapped in on the inside.

Made one run on the long course (after 3-4 hours in line) , but retrac…ted the landing gear too early. The bike was obviously not at high enough speed to balance so it turned a sharp right and before I flipped the switch and got the wheels down again I was already outside the track, however still upright.

Talked to Max Lambky, builder of the beautiful Vincent streamliner (link below) and he gave the very, very helpful advice to raise the landing gear so I could feel when it really balanced. He also told me to keep the landing gear down to much higher speed, some streamliners don’t get stable to well above 60 mph.

We followed Max’s advice and raised the landing gear and believe it or not – we manged to get permission from the race officials to go out and practice behind the pits. Running back and forth at 50-65 mph a few times really gave a much better feel for the machine. However, I discovered another problem – it was pulling to the left. Not insanely much, but enough to keep in trouble keeping it straight over a 7 mile course. Back to Max Lambky, and he told us how to adjust the wheel alignment. Discovered that the rear wheel was pointing a touch to the left. On a normal motorcycle it probably wouldn’t have noticeable, but streamliners are apparently very sensitive to very small mis-alignments. With help from our extremely helpful and skilled pick-up crew (we didn’t come here with a crew, but picked up quite a few crew members at the track) we managed to align the rear wheel. Fingers crossed (or thumbs hold that you do in Sweden) that this will solve the problem. We hope that we can take it out for another test ride early tomorrow morning before we line up for the real course.

The small driver’s compartment also gives us grief and problems with the steering linkage, but that is nothing we can fix at the track. When we get back home, we will cut it off just in front of the roll cage and extend it 6-12 inches (as much as we can but still fit it in the trailer….) That will make it easier to get in and out (I really need a shoehorn as it is now), it will be easier to steer, more comfortable and we can fit a much greater steering ratio.

Anyway, we are having a great time at the Salt. People are extremely friendly and helpful (could also come from all the hot dogs and water bottles that we are handing out to everybody that comes by our pit…. It is the nicest race event we ever been to. Both Bill and I definitely have salt fever – we are going to continue doing this! (And if we can’t get the KillaJoule to balance – we are turning it into a side car by just adding an outrigger with a wheel and run it as a side car streamliner.

// Eva (& Bill & Mike Willmon)