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lithium-phosphate, lithium-ion (SCIB 46 ) and lithium-polymer 47 The latter are
most advanced, the least expensive (less than 5,500 USD for 10 kWh) and the
lightest (a 10-kWh unit weighs less than 100 kg). Propulsive efficiency of electric
cars is 75-80%, compared with 15-20% of fuel-burning vehicles, which ensures
low costs of running one (equivalent to fuel consumption of 2 litres per 100 km).
A breakthrough in introducing and promoting a successful modern Battery
Electric Vehicle (BEV) was made on 19 July, 2006, by Tesla Motors 48 (linked with
Google, eBay, PayPal and other Californian IT companies and supported by governor
Arnold Schwarzenegger), who launched a luxury sports car Tesla Roadster.
The car was developed in cooperation with Lotus Cars and AC Propulsion
engineers. The engine is a three-phase, 185 kW (251 HP) electric motor reaching
13.5 thousand rpm. The vehicle noiselessly accelerates to 60 mph (96.6 kph) in
3.9 seconds. Power is supplied by a set of 6,381 lithium-ion batteries that will last
100 thousand miles (161 thousand kilometres). Their total weight is 450 kilograms
and they take 3.5 hours to recharge when fully discharged. The travel
range of the car is nearly 250 miles (402 km). If Tesla Roadster were fuelpropelled,
using it would be like driving a car with an average fuel consumption
of 1.74 litres per 100 km 49 . The fundamental disadvantage of the car is its price,
90- 120 thousand USD, depending on the amount of extras.
The need to substitute the battery electric vehicle (BEV) for the traditional
combustion engine car is the greatest in large cities and urban areas. In these
populous places there is not enough room any more for the traffic or for the
parking or garaging of the cars bought and operated hitherto (typically 4.25 metres
long and 1.76 metres wide) 50 . The replacement of these traditional cars with
electric ones means not only getting rid of the exhausts, but also reducing the
space requirement as the new electric city cars give some economies in this respect
– they are shorter and narrower and can be parked somewhat like trolleys
in the supermarkets; they may have a horizontally revolving body and the
doors that can be opened in different planes. Other innovative solutions are
used as well, (more windscreen to enhance front vision, precision parking devices
and others).
In the early 2009, there were already more than 100 models and prototypes
of electric cars of various makes ready for launching in the nearest years 51 .Ithas
46 SCIB – The Super Charge Ion Battery
47 See.: M. H. Westbrook, The Electric Car – Development and Future of Battery, Hybrid and Fuel-Cell
Cars. The Institution of Engineering and Technology, Stevenage (UK) 2002; A. Chen: Batteries of the
Future I. Modeling Lithium-ion Battery Behavior – http://www.lbl.gov/Science-Articles/Archive/sabl/2007/Feb/future-batteries-I.html.
48 Tesla Motors – http://www.teslamotors.com.
49 Tesla Roadster – http://www.autogen.pl/car-24.html.
50 A large conurbation with 1 million passenger cars needs 12 square kilometres to park them and
28 km 2 of road surface to ensure a reasonably swift traffic.
51 Cf.: Overview of electric cars – http://www.olino.org/us/articles/2008/10/26/overview-of-electriccars;
City Evs – http://www.evfinder.com/city_evs.htm.
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