An important goal for electric vehicles is overcoming the disparity between their costs of development, production, and operation, with respect to those of equivalent
internal combustion engine vehicles (ICEVs).
Price
Electric cars are generally more expensive than
gasoline cars. The primary reason is the high cost of car
batteries. US and British car buyers seem to be unwilling to pay more for an electric car.
[36][37] This prohibits the mass transition from
gasoline cars to electric cars. A survey taken by
Nielsen for the
Financial Times has shown that 65 percent of Americans and 76 percent of Britons are not willing to pay more for an electric car above the price of a
gasoline car.
[38] Also a report by
J.D. Power and Associates claims that about 50 percent of U.S. car buyers are not willing to spend more than
US$5,000 on a
green vehicle above the price of a petrol car despite their concern about the environment.
[39]
The electric car company
Tesla Motors is using
laptop battery technology for the battery packs of their electric cars that are 3 to 4 times cheaper than dedicated electric car battery packs that other auto makers are using. While dedicated battery packs cost $700–$800 per kilowatt hour, battery packs using small laptop cells cost about $200. That could potentially drive down the cost of electric cars that are using Tesla's battery technology such as the
Toyota RAV4 EV and the
Smart ED as well as their own upcoming 2014 models such as the
Model X.
[40][41][42]
A study published in 2011 by the
Belfer Center,
Harvard University, found that the gasoline costs savings of
plug-in electric cars over the vehicles’ lifetimes do not offset their higher purchase prices. This finding was estimated comparing their lifetime
net present value at 2010 purchase and operating costs for the U.S. market, and assuming no
government subidies.
[43][44] According to the study estimates, a
PHEV-40 is
US$5,377 more expensive than a conventional internal combustion engine, while a battery electric vehicle is
US$4,819 more expensive. The study also examined how this balance will change over the next 10 to 20 years, assuming that battery costs will decrease while gasoline prices increase. Under the future scenarios considered, the study found that BEVs will be significantly less expensive than conventional cars (
US$1,155 to
US$7,181 cheaper), while PHEVs, will be more expensive than BEVs in almost all comparison scenarios, and only less expensive than conventional cars in a scenario with very low battery costs and high gasoline prices. Savings differ because BEVs are simpler to build and do not use liquid fuel, while PHEVs have more complicated powertrains and still have gasoline-powered engines.
[43]
Running costs and maintenance
The
Tesla Roadster is sold in the US and Europe and has a range of 245 miles per charge.
Most of the running cost of an electric vehicle can be attributed to the maintenance and replacement of the battery pack because an electric vehicle has only around 5 moving parts in its motor, compared to a gasoline car that has hundreds of parts in its
internal combustion engine.
[45] Electric cars have expensive batteries that must be replaced but otherwise incur very low maintenance costs, particularly in the case of current Lithium based designs.
To calculate the cost per kilometer of an electric vehicle it is therefore necessary to assign a monetary value to the wear incurred on the battery. This can be difficult because the battery will have a slightly lower capacity each time it is charged; it is at the end of its life when the owner decides its performance is no longer acceptable. Even then an 'end of life' battery is not completely worthless as it can be re-purposed, recycled or used as a spare.
Since a battery is made of many individual cells that do not necessarily wear evenly, periodically replacing the worst of them can retain the vehicle's range.
The Tesla Roadster's very large battery pack is expected to last seven years with typical driving and costs
US$12,000 when pre-purchased today.
[46][47] Driving 40 miles (64 km) per day for seven years or 102,200 miles (164,500 km) leads to a battery consumption cost of
US$0.1174 per 1 mile (1.6 km) or
US$4.70 per 40 miles (64 km). The company
Better Place provides another cost comparison as they anticipate meeting contractual obligations to deliver batteries as well as clean electricity to recharge the batteries at a total cost of
US$0.08 per 1 mile (1.6 km) in 2010,
US$0.04 per mile by 2015 and
US$0.02 per mile by 2020.
[48] 40 miles (64 km) of driving would initially cost
US$3.20 and fall over time to
US$0.80.
In 2010 the U.S. government estimated that a battery with a 100 miles (160 km) range would cost about
US$33,000. Concerns remain about durability and longevity of the battery.
[49]
Nissan estimates that the
Leaf's 5 year operating cost will be
US$1,800 versus
US$6,000 for a gasoline car.
[50] The documentary film
Who Killed the Electric Car?[51] shows a comparison between the parts that require replacement in a gasoline powered cars and EV1s, with the garages stating that they bring the electric cars in every 5,000 mi (8,000 km), rotate the tires, fill the windshield washer fluid and send them back out again.
Electricity vs. hydrocarbon fuel
"Fuel" cost comparison: the
Tesla Roadster sport car's plug-to-wheel energy use is 280 W·h/mi. In Northern California, the local electric utility company
PG&E says that "The E-9 rate is mandatory for those customers that are currently on a residential electric rate and who plan on refueling an EV on their premises."
[52] Combining these two facts implies that driving a Tesla Roadster 40 miles (64 km) a day would use 11.2 kW·h of electricity costing between
US$0.56 and
US$3.18 depending on the time of day chosen for recharging.
[52] For comparison, driving an internal combustion engine-powered car the same 40 miles (64 km), at a mileage of 25 miles per US gallon (9.4 L/100 km; 30 mpg
-imp), would use 1.6 US gallons (6.1 l; 1.3 imp gal) of fuel and, at a cost of
US$4 per 1 US gallon (3.8 l; 0.83 imp gal), would cost
US$6.40.
The
Tesla Roadster uses about 17.4 kW·h/100 km (0.63 MJ/km; 0.280 kW·h/mi),
[53] the EV1 used about 11 kW·h/100 km (0.40 MJ/km; 0.18 kW·h/mi).
[54] Other electric vehicles such as the
Nissan Leaf are quoted at 21.25 kW·h/100 km (0.765 MJ/km; 0.3420 kW·h/mi) by the
US Environmental Protection Agency.
[55] These differences reflect the different design and utility targets for the vehicles, and the varying testing standards. The actual energy use is greatly dependent on the actual driving conditions and driving style.
Range and refuelling time
Most cars with internal combustion engines can be considered to have indefinite range, as they can be refuelled very quickly almost anywhere. Electric cars often have less maximum range on one charge than cars powered by fossil fuels, and they can take considerable time to recharge. This is a reason that many automakers marketed EVs as "daily drivers" suitable for city trips and other short hauls.
[citation needed] The average American drives less than 40 miles (64 km) per day; so the
GM EV1 would have been adequate for the daily driving needs of about 90% of U.S. consumers.
[51] Nevertheless, people can be concerned that they would run out of energy from their battery before reaching their destination, a worry known as
range anxiety.
The
Tesla Roadster can travel 245 miles (394 km) per charge;
[56] more than double that of prototypes and
evaluation fleet cars currently on the roads.
[57] The Roadster can be fully recharged in about 3.5 hours from a 220-volt, 70-
amp outlet which can be installed in a home.
[58]
One way
automakers can extend the short range of electric vehicles is by building them with
battery switch technology. An EV with battery switch technology and a 100 miles (160 km) driving range will be able to go to a
battery switch station and switch a depleted battery with a fully charged one in 59.1 seconds
[59] giving the EV an additional 100 miles (160 km) driving range. The process is cleaner and faster than filling a tank with gasoline and the driver remains in the car the entire time,
[60] but because of the high investment cost, its economics are unclear.
[61] As of late 2010 there are only 2 companies with plans to integrate battery switching technology to their electric vehicles:
Better Place and
Tesla Motors.
[62][63][64] Better Place operated a battery-switch station in Japan until November 2010
[65] and announced a commitment to open four battery switch stations in
California, USA.
[66]
Another way is the installation of
DC Fast Charging stations with high-speed charging capability from
three-phase industrial outlets so that consumers could recharge the 100 mile battery of their electric vehicle to 80 percent in about 30 minutes.
[67][68] A nationwide fast charging infrastructure is currently being deployed in the US that by 2013 will cover the entire nation.
[69] DC Fast Chargers are going to be installed at 45
BP and
ARCO locations and will be made available to the public as early as March 2011.
[70] The EV Project will deploy charge infrastructure in 16 cities and major metropolitan areas in six states.
[71][72] Nissan has announced that 200 of its dealers in Japan will install fast chargers for the December 2010 launch of its
Leaf EV, with the goal of having fast chargers everywhere in Japan within a 25 mile radius.
[73]
In July 2011, there are hints that Whole Foods, Walmart, etc. will be adding various charging stations.
[citation needed]
Air pollution and carbon emissions
Electric cars contribute to cleaner air in cities because they produce no harmful
pollution at the tailpipe from the onboard source of power, such as
particulates (
soot),
volatile organic compounds,
hydrocarbons,
carbon monoxide,
ozone,
lead, and various
oxides of nitrogen. The clean air benefit is usually local because, depending on the source of the electricity used to recharge the batteries, air pollutant emissions are shifted to the location of the
generation plants.
[1] The amount of carbon dioxide emitted depends on the
emission intensity of the power source used to charge the vehicle, the efficiency of the said vehicle and the energy wasted in the charging process.
For
mains electricity the emission intensity varies significantly per country and within a particular country it will vary depending on demand,
[74] the availability of renewable sources and the efficiency of the fossil fuel-based generation used at a given time.
[75] Charging a vehicle using off-grid renewable energy yields very low carbon intensity (only that to produce and install the off-grid generation system e.g. domestic wind turbine).
- United States
Sources of electricity in the U.S. in 2009.
[76] An EV recharged from the US grid electricity in 2008 emits about 115 grams of
CO2 per kilometer driven (6.5 oz(
CO2)/mi), whereas a conventional US-market gasoline powered car emits 250 g(CO
2)/km (14 oz(CO
2)/mi) (most from its tailpipe, some from the production and distribution of gasoline).
[77]
The
Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS) published in 2012 a report with an assessment of average greenhouse gas emissions resulting from charging plug-in car batteries considering the full life-cycle (
well-to-wheel analysis) and according to fuel and technology used to generate electric power by region in the U.S. The study used the
Nissan Leaf all-electric car to establish the analysis's baseline. The UCS study expressed the results in terms of
miles per gallon instead of the conventional unit of grams of
carbon dioxide emissions per year. The study found that in areas where electricity is generated from natural gas, nuclear, hydroelectric or other renewable sources, the potential of plug-in electric cars to reduce greenhouse emissions is significant. On the other hand, in regions where a high proportion of power is generated from coal,
hybrid electric cars produce less CO
2 emissions than
plug-in electric cars, and the best fuel efficient gasoline-powered
subcompact car produces slightly less emissions than a plug-in car. In the worst-case scenario, the study estimated that for a region where all energy is generated from coal, a plug-in electric car would emit greenhouse gas emissions equivalent to a gasoline car rated at a combined city/highway fuel economy of 30 mpg
-US (7.8 L/100 km; 36 mpg
-imp). In contrast, in a region that is completely reliant on natural gas, the plug-in would be equivalent to a gasoline-powered car rated at 50 mpg
-US (4.7 L/100 km; 60 mpg
-imp)combined.
[78][79]
The study found that for 45% of the U.S. population, a plug-in electric car will generate lower CO
2 emissions than a gasoline-powered car capable of a combined fuel economy of 50 mpg
-US (4.7 L/100 km; 60 mpg
-imp), such as the
Toyota Prius. Cities in this group included
Portland, Oregon,
San Francisco,
Los Angeles,
New York City, and
Salt Lake City, and the cleanest cities achieved well-to-wheel emissions equivalent to a fuel economy of 79 mpg
-US (3.0 L/100 km; 95 mpg
-imp). The study also found that for 37% of the population, the electric car emissions will fall in the range of a gasoline-powered car rated at a combined fuel economy between 41 to 50 mpg
-US (5.7 to 4.7 L/100 km; 49 to 60 mpg
-imp), such as the
Honda Civic Hybrid and the
Lexus CT200h. Cities in this group include
Phoenix, Arizona,
Houston,
Miami,
Columbus, Ohio and
Atlanta, Georgia. An 18% of the population lives in areas where the power supply is more dependent on burning carbon, and emissions will be equivalent to a car rated at a combined fuel economy between 31 to 40 mpg
-US (7.6 to 5.9 L/100 km; 37 to 48 mpg
-imp), such as the
Chevrolet Cruze and
Ford Focus. This group includes
Denver,
Minneapolis,
Saint Louis, Missouri,
Detroit, and
Oklahoma City.
[79][80][81] The study found that there are no regions in the U.S. where plug-in electric vehicles will have higher greenhouse gas emissions than the average new gasoline engine vehicle, and the area with the dirtiest power supply produces equivalent to a gasoline-powered car rated 33 mpg
-US (7.1 L/100 km; 40 mpg
-imp).
[78]
The following table compares well-to-wheels greenhouse gas emissions estimated by the
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency for series production
plug-in electric cars from major carmakers available in the U.S. market by April 2012. For comparison purposes, emissions for the average gasoline-powered new car are also included. Total emissions include the emissions associated with the production, transmission and distribution of electricity used to charge the vehicle
