Progression Toward EVs

Moderator: Bill Boyce, Sacramento Municipal Utility District

Tom Gage, President and CEO, AC Propulsion

Topic: EV vs PHEV

• US uses oil for a lot of things, much of it very efficient
• However, US is addicted to gasoline and we use gas very inefficiently
• Electricity best substitute for gas, lots of off peak, can be sustainable
• US already has 8 Million plugins - RVs! They plug in to 120 and 240 and some have a lot of high power appliances
• Even if we all use Priuses, we could cut our gas use by half but would still use twice as much per capita as the rest of the world
• Early lead-acid electric vehicles cost about $0.15 per mile for battery cost
• In 2000, came out with Gen 2 system that incorporated bi-directional charger with grid-tie and UPS capability
• In 2003 equiped tzero car with Li-ion and enabled 300 mile range and 0-60 mph in 3.6 seconds
• In 2006, built eBox based on the Toyota Scion XB. 120 mile range, 0-60 in 7 seconds, 95 mph top speed
• Prius has 50 kW motor
• Cost is currently a big issue with pure EV
• Electricity 3c gas 16c per mile, battery cost $800 per kWh, eBox gets 4 miles per kWh, so $200 per mile of range
• V2G can produce $300/month for regulation services
• Battery cost is 40c /mile assuming $24k for 35 kWh pack and a life of 60,000 miles
• If battery cost comes down to $18k and life is 120,000 miles would be 15c per mile
• Customers will learn more about EV and decide what is important

JB Straubel, CTO, Tesla Motors

• Tesla is 4 years old, 300 employees, 180 engineers, $170 million spent to date
• More than 1100 pre-sales and waitlist (some people have put $50k down)
• Expect 1,800 sales in 2009
• Tesla Roadster: 53kWh battery (6831 cells), 185 kW AC motor, 230 mile range (EPA certified), 125 mph top speed
• Sports Sedan: Planned for 2010, 0-60 in less than 6 seconds, 4 door, 160 miles to 220 mile range, $60k cost. Project 10-20k sales
• Sports Compact: smaller car that is lower cost, sell over 100k in partnership with other companies
• It was easy to build prototype, hard to get fully certified and crash tested for sale in US
• Batteries have 180 Wh/kg energy density, total pack is about 125 Wh/kg

Willett Kempton, University of Delaware, PJM ISO

• Drives eBox from AC Propulsion, now gas car feels sluggish
• PJM ISO did a test and found batteries are good at regulation services
• Regulation services 2004 $42 $/MW-h, 2006 $32
• Regulation services value: 80% availability, regulation price $40mW-h, 15kW connection,  Gross Present Value (GPV) is almost $30,000
• Spinning reserves for above about 1/4 the GPV
• MAGICC is planing 1MW demonstration of 200+ vehicles
• The PJM frequency regulation signal communicates over the Internet then over Powerline, but could do it over cell phone

Dave Patterson, Senior Manager for RD, Mitsubishi

• EV most efficient wells-to-wheel, lowest CO2, lowest per mile cost, minimizes noise pollution
• iMiEV Mitsubishi electric vehicle, seats 4, 47kW motor, range is 160km, 16kWh battery (6 miles/kWh for JA test cycle)
• iMiEV sales launch 2009 in Japan
• Cost in US would be about $50k at initial production levels
• US range would probably be 75 miles but there is much testing and changes that will need to be done for the US market