Electric vehicle

A electric vehicle is a Véhicule whose propulsion is ensured by an engine functioning electrical energy.

Railway vehicles

The rail-bound transport is that which most largely calls upon the electric traction. If the steam traction almost disappeared, there remain many Diesel loco. The urban railway means of transport are almost all electric. See the articles:

Locomotive electric
Subway
Tram

Road vehicles

The electric road vehicles were born at the beginning of the 20th century, the Jamais Satisfies was thus the first car to exceed the 100km/h, of small vehicles of delivery moreover were used. The Engine spark-ignition made much more progress than the accumulators and the electric road vehicle fell quickly in disuse. Automobile transport will start to be concerned with seek in the Electric car means of transport pollutant not the air during its operation, with the advent of the questions of pollutions air (CO₂ and particles) and sound.

8 000 electric vehicles circulate in France of which 5 000 cars on the 11 000 present in Europe. The number of vehicles is definitely lower than the plans envisaged at the time of their introduction. The electric vehicle however continues to be presented as the solution available in term of clean transport. Very few private individuals have a Electric car whose territorial collectivities and certain large companies were the principal purchasers. The principal owner of electric cars in France is La Poste, it decided to test new electric vehicles: Cleanova II, based on the Renault Kangoo. The distribution of the mail is particularly demanding for the vehicles: the latter undergo an intensive urban use and alternate departures and stops permanently. Their fuel consumption is thus usually the double of that of a vehicle used “normally”. La Poste exploits today a car fleet of almost 50.000 light vehicles and utilities and could in the long term use only electric vehicles

However, of people estimate that, if its batteries are reloaded with nuclear power, an electric vehicle is Co-person in charge of the harmful effects produced by atomic industry.

From a technical point of view, the load of the batteries is not done without loss (output of the powerplant, loss of transmission electricity to the user, loss with the load, loss with the discharge, output of the electrical motor) what reduces the energetic efficiency since the electric production until the traversed kilometers. The batteries are moreover particularly heavy, increasing energy necessary to the displacement of the vehicle and its Inertie. The power instantaneous available of a battery decreases as it discharges what involves performances reduced at the end of the autonomy; finally its full capacity (which determines autonomy) falls very quickly with the passing of years and according to the number of cycles of load and discharge.

The batteries are particularly expensive, with the purchase on the one hand but also to recycle because they consist of particularly toxic heavy metals.

But the electric vehicles also have tempting advantages. Their “fuel” is less expensive, they are simpler of maintenance and the engine can carry out up to 1 MILLION km for the cars. The overcost with the purchase is reduced by State aid, a Electric car is deadened in 6 years and an electric scooter in 2 years compared to a conventional model.

Their principal disadvantage lies in their weak autonomy, their raised purchase price, in particular for the batteries which are generally proposed in hiring by the manufacturers, a service after sale unsuited (as well at the level to know it to make as geographical distribution) and an extremely weak resale price because of inexistence of the request. The economy of the electric vehicle makes that its kilometric cost price (prk), integrating the whole of the costs and products (cost of acquisition, state aid, product of resale), is largely higher than that of a diesel vehicle.

Electric cars

Under optimal conditions (without made uneven, without congestion, with vacuum and with a rigorous management of the load and the discharge of battery), they can traverse 50 km with batteries with the lead, 80 to 100 km with batteries Nickel-cadmium and 200 km with batteries Lithium-ion but the price and the control of technologies are of as much less favorable than autonomy is important.

The price of the batteries is particularly important, the manufacturers generally propose them with the hiring at a price imposing an intensive use of the vehicle to be profitable.

It is considered that the electric cars equipped with lead-acid batteries would cover 80% of the urban uses.

Electric heavy vehicles

The electric Autobus are generally of small vehicles equipped with interchangeable racks of lead-acid batteries, used on very short distances. They for example are employed in Rome and Arcachon to transport the passengers in the small streets of the closed center town to circulation. Autonomy remains a significant point, initially because it forces to often change the batteries and that these change must be done in a place close to the line. It is thus necessary to have a hangar close to the zone of exploitation.

One also finds a certain number of hybrid vehicles and also the Trolleybus which is an electric bus supplied with poles connected on two air contact systems.

Among the alternatives, there exists also the trolley bus/electric bus used in bus electric mode in center town, which makes it possible to be freed from the electric feeders in the city, then supplied with electric lines apart from the center. This second mode then allows the food of the system of propulsion and the refill of the batteries for the autonomous operation in the central part of the way. This approach makes it possible to be freed from the problem of change of battery for refill evoked previously.

The vehicles of roadway system, in particular the garbage dumpsters, know a certain number of electric applications. These vehicles can profit from a bimodal, electric propulsion downtown and thermics towards the reprocessing plant.

The electric Scooter S

The electric scooter is an interesting application because the legal limitation in France of performance imposed on the two wheels of less than 50 cm makes it possible to obtain performances very close to those of the thermal vehicles. The electric scooters are reloaded in a few hours on a simple socket-outlet 220V 16A. (In the 2006 only VAE, Bicycles with electric assistance , is equipped with a loadable removable battery in residence.)

One can await from an electric scooter a speed of 45 km/h for an autonomy from 40 to 70 km.

The next generations of electric scooters should have performances comparable with the scooters of 125 cm: speed up to 110 km/h and an autonomy of 100 km.

A success conditioned with the improvement of the batteries

In the current of the year 2005, the idea of the electric car remade its appearance. Projects carried by foreign industrialists in the world of the car, put on technologies of battery S definitely more powerful than the antiques lead-acid batteries. Some prototypes were produced, of which some were conceived like vehicles with whole share and not like electrified conventional vehicles.

These technological advances to come show the possibility for clear improvements whereas the performances offered by the fossil fuels stagnate since years. The market evolution of the Oil, other technologies of clean vehicles and sensitivity of the public opinion on the questions of the Pollution and the Gaz to greenhouse effect will decide future of these vehicles.

The future batteries will have to age without losing their capacity, that it is with time as with the cycles of load and discharge, and being made up of materials which can be recycled and nonpolluting (i.e. without heavy metals), to correspond to this ecological ideal.

Air vehicles

The Air transport does not call upon electrical energy. Primarily, that is due to the important weight of the batteries or the enormous surface of solar collectors necessary to produce energy. These elements go highly against the establishment in a Avion which has drastic constraints of weight and size.

However, the energy, the power available and the weight of the new batteries allow their incorporation some Aéronef S, such as the ultralight motoplaneurs with electric motorization.

The energy supplied on board allows the successive take-off, and even several takes-off without refill of the batteries. The flight continues then after retraction of the propelling whole in the fuselage, by finding qualities of flight and smoothness of a good sailplane (smoothness 40 typically). Several models are available on the market such as l'" APIS E" and the " SILENT E" for example.

Developments continue to improve the performances of the propelling unit and are the project object multiple, as well in the universities as among industrialists. Obviously, the ideal would be to reload in flight the batteries, which is possible by solar panels or the use of the engine out of electric generator at the time of a prolonged descent, propeller out of winch.

This design would then make it possible to imagine a diurnal flight with the liking of the sun. The evolution of the performances of the photovoltaic solar panels, in performance and costs, leaves think that this idea is not any more one Utopia. (see on this subject the prototype Icare 2)

As an information, there had the flight of an electrical appliance models reduced, called " SOLONG UAV" , (with batteries and solar panels), one duration of more than 24:00 in California, flight carried out in automatic piloting for obvious reasons of visibility and altitude of vol. It is also necessary to quote the growing interest in the field of the Drone S of all sizes of civil and military use for the electric propulsion.

Projects associating electric propulsion photovoltaic panels and combustible battery are also the subject of studies for being able to carry out flights of long life to high-altitude.

It is appropriate, to finish currently quoting the project of round the world tour in the solar plane in study in Switzerland by a team joined together near a famous aeronaut: the project Solar Impels.

Also let us greet the flight the 7/17/2006 of a plane developed in Tokyo Institute Technology and manually-controlled by a student weighing 53 kg. This electrical motor plane uses the energy contained by a whole of 160 piles type AA. Flight with license to traverse the distance of 391 m to 5 m of the ground.

To finish, it is advisable not to forget to mention electric sailplane ANTARES 20th.

Ships

The electric propulsion is used for warships: Underwater S (for its anaerobic operation as of 1860 and for its acoustic advantage) and Aircraft carrier. They manufacture their energy thanks to a Nuclear plant embarked. Very early, some Steamer S of luxury and ships of strong tonnage also used the turboelectric propulsion like - in the Années 1930 - the Normandy (France), Patria (Germany) or - more recently - the Queen Mary 2.

Warping

Advantages of the electric propulsion are then:

the reduction of the vibrations generated by a motorization of high power (submarines or cruising ships),
perfect control of the engine torque (for the Ice-breakers or the ships with positioning by satellite, or the ferries),
the simplification of the architecture of the ship, by physically separating energy production and motorization (for the tankers)
decreased maintenance (for all the ships).

Model making

The weak autonomy of the batteries is not a problem for the reduced models, which use electricity for the propulsion and the order of small boats, of cars, motoplaneurs, planes and even recently, small helicopters.

See too

clean Vehicle
Transport
Vehicle

External bond

http://www.electric-road.eu
PROVES.
http://www.citelec.org/fr/
EVCanada
Forum of very active VE

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