CHARGED Electric Vehicles Magazine - Iss 12 FEB 2014

ELECTRIC VEHICLES MAGAZINE

ISSUE 12 | FEBRUARY 2014 | CHARGEDEVS.COM

Brammo CEO

Craig Bramscher

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Brammo

Empulse R QUANTIFYING BATTERY RISK & THERMAL SAFETY P. 16

Q&A WITH TOM GAGE P. 38

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THE TECH CONTENTS

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If you can’t measure it, you can’t manage it Quantifying battery risk and thermal safety

22 Silicon rally

EnerG2’s new carbon-silicon nano-composite

26 The battery insiders Q&A with the Bitrode Corporation

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current events 8

New pomegranate-style silicon anode revealed ORNL delivers real-time view of electrochemistry

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Phinergy and Alcoa to commercialize Al-air batteries

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Kia Soul EV to use new SK Innovation battery cells Mitsubishi makes motor with built-in SiC Inverter

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Echo Automotive offers PHEV option for Ford and GM vans

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Tesla reveals plans for its battery “Gigafactory”

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BMW and SGL to double carbon fiber production

70 On the right track

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OLEV Technologies’ dynamic wireless charging

76 Level 1 for all

Telefonix’s new Level 1 charging stations

82 Infrastructure Testing Converging industries mean testing and validation challenges for the OEMs

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Delaware project to bring entire state within EV range DENSO tests wirelessly charged delivery truck

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Fraunhofer ESK develops communication methods for V2G

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Hawaii bill would require EVSE in parking lots

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Sun Country Highway to use ABB dual-port fast chargers

68

Solar power storage system uses EV batteries

ABB to supply DCFCs for China’s DENZA EV

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CHAdeMO spreading, Association preaches coexistence

69

THE VEHICLES CONTENTS

38 Q&A with Tom Gage 38

The EV pioneer talks ZEV mandates, Tesla, BMW and vehicle-to-grid technology

46 An efficient future

Report: The effects of regulations on the automotive sector

54 Brammo

CEO Craig Bramscher on the early days, growth and future of the leading electric motorcycle company

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90 These are no golf carts The VW Golf goes electric with two new models

current events 32

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Report: 2014 plug-in production will rise 67% Toyota begins testing wireless charging system

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BMW X5 PHEV prototype highlights eDrive strategy

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Nashville buys seven Proterra electric buses Kia unveils new Soul EV, on sale this year

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EU votes in tougher 2021 emissions standards

Beijing ups EV incentives, OEMs crowd the market

Publisher’s Note Exporting EVs Tesla recently released some details of its plan to build a battery Gigafactory. It’s a long-term strategy that clearly highlights the potential of a thriving EV economy.

To meet worldwide demand for Tesla’s current and future models, the company will build the largest lithium-ion battery facility on the planet - right here in the US. It predicts that at full volume production, the new plant will drive down the cost of battery packs by more than 30 percent, and more importantly, it will employ some 6,500 Americans.

At the same time, Tesla is moving full speed ahead with plans to expand sales in China. It expects Chinese Model S sales to contribute one third of global sales growth this year.

That’s right - the EV standard-bearer from Silicon Valley will be manufacturing the world’s most advanced battery-powered cars in the US and then exporting them to China. Other EV innovators in the States, like Brammo Motorcycles, are on course to do the same.

And yet, some in our political class and certain media outlets continually attempt to derail the EV momentum. Fox Business News recently aired a fiveminute discussion with a “well-known and respected car expert” that compiled a mountain of plug-in negativity, including some staggeringly misleading statements. The segment claimed that cold weather “cuts battery life in half,” that EVs are troublesome because they need regular battery/electronic maintenance like changing the “inverter fluid,” and that there are gas-powered options out there that can get “better fuel economy.”

In addition to the public-perception war that plug-ins face, Tesla itself is fighting some very real legal battles on the state level. Dealership associations across the country are routinely challenging Tesla’s right to sell directly to consumers, in an attempt to preserve the legacy dealership model. Lobbyists for the dealers have been successful in some states, and the fight has been so taxing on the young car company that it brought CEO Elon Musk to tears during last year’s shareholders meeting, when he called the dealers’ efforts a “perversion of democracy.”

There is no doubt that electrification will have an increasingly larger role in the future of transportation. We can continue to invest and reap the benefits as technology leaders, or stick our heads in the sand and watch as more high-tech, high-paying manufacturing jobs leave our shores. So I say, embrace electric vehicles or get out of our way!

EVs are here. Try to keep up.

Christian Ruoff Publisher

ETHICS STATEMENT AND COVERAGE POLICY AS THE LEADING EV INDUSTRY PUBLICATION, CHARGED ELECTRIC VEHICLES MAGAZINE OFTEN COVERS, AND ACCEPTS CONTRIBUTIONS FROM, COMPANIES THAT ADVERTISE IN OUR MEDIA PORTFOLIO. HOWEVER, THE CONTENT WE CHOOSE TO PUBLISH PASSES ONLY TWO TESTS: (1)TO THE BEST OF OUR KNOWLEDGE THE INFORMATION IS ACCURATE, AND (2) IT MEETS THE INTERESTS OF OUR READERSHIP. WE DO NOT ACCEPT PAYMENT FOR EDITORIAL CONTENT, AND THE OPINIONS EXPRESSED BY OUR EDITORS AND WRITERS ARE IN NO WAY AFFECTED BY A COMPANY’S PAST, CURRENT, OR POTENTIAL ADVERTISEMENTS. FURTHERMORE, WE OFTEN ACCEPT ARTICLES AUTHORED BY “INDUSTRY INSIDERS,” IN WHICH CASE THE AUTHOR’S CURRENT EMPLOYMENT, OR RELATIONSHIP TO THE EV INDUSTRY, IS CLEARLY CITED. IF YOU DISAGREE WITH ANY OPINION EXPRESSED IN THE CHARGED MEDIA PORTFOLIO AND/OR WISH TO WRITE ABOUT YOUR PARTICULAR VIEW OF THE INDUSTRY, PLEASE CONTACT US AT CONTENT@CHARGEDEVS.COM. CHARGED ELECTRIC VEHICLES MAGAZINE IS PUBLISHED BY ISENTROPIC MEDIA. COPYRIGHT © 2014 BY ISENTROPIC MEDIA. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. REPRINTING IN WHOLE OR PART IS FORBIDDEN EXPECT BY PERMISSION OF ISENTROPIC MEDIA. MAILING LIST: WE MAKE A PORTION OF OUR MAILING LIST AVAILABLE TO REPUTABLE FIRMS. IF YOU PREFER THAT WE DO NOT INCLUDE YOUR NAME, PLEASE WRITE US AT CHARGED - ELECTRIC VEHICLES MAGAZINE, ATTN: PRIVACY DEPARTMENT, PO BOX 13074, SAINT PETERSBURG, FL 33733. POSTMASTER: SEND ADDRESS CHANGES TO CHARGED - ELECTRIC VEHICLES MAGAZINE, ATTN: SUBSCRIPTION SERVICES, PO BOX 13074, SAINT PETERSBURG, FL 33733. SUBSCRIPTION RATES: $29.95 FOR 1 YEAR (6 ISSUES). PLEASE ADD $10.00 FOR CANADIAN ADDRESSES AND $36.00 FOR ALL OTHER INTERNATIONAL ADDRESSES. ADVERTISING: TO INQUIRE ABOUT ADVERTISING AND SPONSORSHIP OPPORTUNITIES PLEASE CONTACT US AT +1-727-258-7867. PRINTED IN THE USA.

Christian Ruoff Publisher Laurel Zimmer Associate Publisher Charles Morris Senior Editor Markkus Rovito Associate Editor Jeffrey Jenkins Technology Editor Joey Stetter Contributing Editor Nick Sirotich Illustrator & Designer Nate Greco Contributing Artist Contributing Writers Jeffrey Jenkins Michael Kent Charles Morris Markkus Rovito Joey Stetter Jeffrey Wishart Contributing Photographers Derrick Story Justus Bluemer Luc Viatour Raji Purcell Redcorn Studios Revolve Eco-Rally Ronira Fruhstuck Cover Image Courtesy of Brammo Special Thanks to Kelly Ruoff Sebestien Bourgeois For Letters to the Editor, Article Submissions, & Advertising Inquiries Contact Info@ChargedEVs.com

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CURRENTevents

Researchers at Stanford University and the DOE’s SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory think they can overcome obstacles to using silicon in Li-ion batteries using an electrode designed like a pomegranate, with silicon nanoparticles clustered like seeds in a tough carbon rind.

“Experiments showed our pomegranate-inspired anode operates at 97 percent capacity even after 1,000 cycles of charging and discharging, which puts it well within the desired range for commercial operation,” said lead researcher Yi Cui. In the new study, recently published in Nature Nanotechnology, the team used a microemulsion technique common in the oil, paint and cosmetic industries to gather silicon yolk shells into clusters, and coated each cluster with a second, thicker layer of carbon. These carbon rinds hold the pomegranate clusters together and provide a sturdy highway for electrical currents.

And since each pomegranate cluster has just one-tenth the surface area of the individual particles inside it, a much smaller area is exposed to the electrolyte, thereby reducing deposits to a manageable level.

Although the clusters are too small to see individually, together they form a fine black powder that can be used to coat a piece of foil and form an anode. Lab tests showed that pomegranate anodes worked well when made in the thickness required for commercial battery performance.

While these experiments show the technique works, Cui said, the team will have to solve two more problems to make it viable on a commercial scale: They need to simplify the process and find a cheaper source of silicon nanoparticles. One possible source is rice husks, a waste product that could be transformed into pure silicon nanoparticles, as his team recently described in Scientific Reports.

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Researchers at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory have used a new microscopy technique to get a glimpse at electrochemical processes in batteries at nanoscale resolution and in realtime.

In a study published in Chemical Communications, the ORNL scientists described an enigmatic phenomenon in Li-ion batteries called the solid electrolyte interphase, or SEI, a nanometer-scale film that forms on a negative electrode due to electrolyte decomposition. The SEI plays a key role in controlling battery functionality, but even after three decades of research, details of the SEI’s dynamics, structure and chemistry during electrochemical cycling are still debated.

Researchers typically study the SEI through “postmortem” methods, in which a cycled battery is disassembled, dried and analyzed. This new in situ method is far superior, providing an image of the electrochemical reaction products as they form. The technique is able to image the formation of crystalline particles one billionth of a meter in size.

The researchers formed a miniature electrochemical cell by enclosing battery electrolyte between two transparent “windows,” which seal the volatile electrolyte from the microscope’s vacuum environment and allow the electron beam to pass through the liquid. To reproduce a battery charging cycle, they applied a potential at the working electrode and monitored the resulting changes in current.

“When you cycle a real battery, the interphase structure can form, break, and reform again, depending on how thick the layer grows, so we need to look at improving its structural stability,” said ORNL staff scientist Raymond Unocic. “But at the same time, we have to think about making the interphase more efficient for lithium-ion transport. This study brings us one step closer to understanding SEI formation and growth.”

Photo courtesy of Oak Ridge National Laboratory

New pomegranate-style silicon anode revealed

ORNL delivers real-time view of electrochemistry

THE TECH

The Israeli startup Phinergy has signed a joint development agreement with aluminum giant Alcoa to further develop Phinergy’s aluminum-air batteries.

The companies will collaborate on new materials, processes and components to commercialize Phinergy’s battery, which it claims can be used as a range extender and increase an EV’s range by 1,000 miles. Phinergy’s aluminum-air battery uses water and oxygen from the ambient air to unleash energy stored in aluminum.

“Alcoa’s extensive technical materials expertise, along with our deep roots in bringing new products to market in the automotive industry, were of great interest to Phinergy as its revolutionary aluminum-air battery moves from research to commercialization,” said Alcoa CTO Dr. Raymond Kilmer. “Automotive manufacturers are looking for technologies that enable zero-emission cars to travel the same kinds of distances as gasoline-powered cars. The aluminum-air range extender has the potential to meet that challenge.”

Photo courtesy of Phinergy

Phinergy and Alcoa to commercialize Al-air batteries

“Electric vehicle adoption has been slowed by the limited range of regular batteries,” said Aviv Tzidon, CEO of Phinergy. “With Phinergy’s technology and Alcoa’s industrial leadership across both the aluminum value chain and the automotive market, we see an exciting opportunity to help move electric vehicles into the mainstream.”

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CURRENTevents

Mitsubishi makes motor with built-in SiC Inverter

Kia’s new Soul EV will use lithium-ion polymer battery cells supplied by SK Innovation, the result of a three-year joint development program between the two companies.

The SK pack has 192 cells in eight modules, for a total capacity of 27 kWh. It boasts an impressive energy density of 200 Wh/kg, and is expected to give the Soul EV a range of around 124 miles. Kia predicts a charging time of 25 minutes (100 kW DC), 33 minutes (50 kW DC) or up to five hours (6.6 kW AC).

The cells use nickel-rich NCM (nickel-cobaltmanganese) cathode material, and an electrolyte additive designed to prevent degradation of battery performance at both low and high temperatures.

The battery pack features a heating system that warms up the battery while the car is plugged into the grid, as well as an overcharge protection device that cuts the high-voltage circuit if swelling should occur due to overcharging.

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Mitsubishi Electric Corporation has developed a prototype EV motor drive system with a built-in silicon-carbide inverter that it claims is the smallest of its kind. As EVs require large spaces to accommodate their battery systems, Mitsubishi sees a strong need to reduce the size and weight of motor systems to leave a decent amount of space for passengers and cargo.

Photo courtesy of Mitsubishi Electric

Photo courtesy of SK Innovation

Kia Soul EV to use new SK Innovation battery cells

The 14.1 L, 60 kW motor is able to integrate a cooling system, thanks to the cylindrical shape of the power module, which accommodates parallel cooling ducts for the motor and inverter. Improved thermal resistance between the motor drive system and cooling system allowed the system to be downsized even further and ensures stable cooling with a low-power pump.

The new system is designed to be equal to existing EV motors in power and volume, so it could possibly be a drop-in replacement.

Mitsubishi plans to commercialize the new system after finalizing technologies for motor/inverter cooling, further downsizing and additional efficiency gains.

THE TECH

Echo Automotive offers PHEV option for Ford and GM vans Echo Automotive, a developer of aftermarket plug-in hybrid powertrains, plans to extend its EchoDrive system to GM 2500 and 3500 vans, including the Chevrolet Express and GMC Savana, model years 2010-2014.

EchoDrive is already available for Ford E-Series vans - orders are currently being accepted, and production is scheduled to begin later this year. Production of the GM version is expected to commence in the first quarter of 2015. The Ford E-Series and Chevrolet Express are the two top vans in North American commercial fleet registrations.

The EchoDrive conversion system comprises a 30 kW traction motor; modular Li-ion battery pack with 2.2 kWh modules; 650 A inverter and power electronics; onboard charger; and hybrid controls.

ISTERY

+44 (0)1865 407 017 info@oxisenergy.com www.oxisenergy.com

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EchoDrive is designed to offer fleet managers a lowcost route to high fuel efficiency as well as a long product lifespan. Financing options are available. The company is targeting Class 1-5 fleet trucks, and has service agreements with Meineke Car Care Centers and Dickenson Fleet Services to serve as installers.

“The addition of support for the Chevrolet Express platform is a natural expansion for EchoDrive from both a technical and a market perspective, and one that allows more fleets to benefit more fully from our EchoDrive plug-in hybrid system,” said CEO Dan Kennedy. “We look forward to demonstrating the impact EchoDrive delivers to fleet managers in reducing operating costs, delivering greater fuel efficiency and promoting sustainability across both the Ford and GM platforms.”

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CURRENTevents Tesla reveals plans for its battery “Gigafactory”

Construction is to begin this year, and battery production is expected to begin in 2017. By 2020, cell output will be 35 gigawatt-hours (GWh) per year, and pack output will 50 GWh per year. Tesla expects the new plant to help it reduce its battery pack cost by over 30 percent.

Tesla seems to have the enormous financial requirements for the new plant estimated to be between $4 and $5 billion - under control. The company will invest $2 billion directly, which it raised through convertible senior notes in a public offering that was larger than initially expected.

The rest of the capital is expected to come from partners. Tesla has been collaborating on the Gigafactory with Panasonic, Sanyo and other suppliers, who have already committed around $1 billion.

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Images courtesy of Tesla Motors

As promised, Tesla has released some details of the unprecedented battery manufacturing facility, dubbed the Gigafactory, which it will need in order to meet its goal of producing 500,000 EVs in 2020 a goal that will require more battery cells than 2013’s total global production.

The details of the plant, which the company released in a six-page presentation, are still pretty vague. The facility, which will be built somewhere in the Southwest, and powered partly by huge wind and solar installations, will encompass every step of battery cell and pack fabrication, from the manufacture of electrodes, separators and electrolyte to the assembly of new packs and recycling of old ones.

THE TECH

BMW and SGL to double carbon fiber production BMW and its partner, the SGL Group, plan to invest more than â‚Ź100 million ($137 million) to double their joint production of carbon fiber to 6,000 metric tons a year, according to German news outlet Handelsblatt.

BMW’s new i3 and i8 plug-ins make greater use of lightweight, super-strong carbon fiber reinforced plastic (CFRP) than any vehicles to date. The company will also begin using CFRP in its new 7 series vehicles in 2015.

BMW and SGL formed a joint venture in 2009 to manufacture carbon fibers and fabrics. SGL opened a carbon fiber manufacturing plant in Moses Lake, Washington, in 2011. The plant now runs two carbon fiber lines, each with an annual capacity of 1,500 metric tons.

The Moses Lake carbon fibers are sent to Wackersdorf, Germany to be processed into lightweight

carbon fiber fabrics, which are sent to the BMW plant in Landshut, Germany, where CFRP components are produced, ready to be assembled into new i3s.

Measure it Manage it If you can’t you can’t

Exponent engineers discuss battery risks and quantifying thermal safety

By Michael Kent

A

ny type of energy storage technology has some risk associated with the unanticipated release of stored energy. Failure of a pumped-hydro storage system, for example, can lead to flooding. Hydrocarbon fuels like gasoline, diesel or methane can ignite into flames. When it comes to lithium-ion batteries, the primary mode of energetic failure is thermal runaway - a chain reaction in which an increase in temperature causes a further increase in temperature in an uncontrollable way. This can lead to fires and the release of harmful gases.

The incidents of thermal runaway with batteries used in consumer products like EVs and laptops are extremely rare yet highly publicized. Because the technology used for these batteries is relatively new, any media reports of failures spread quickly.

“Fires are newsmakers. Explosions make headlines,” said Dr. Vijay Somandepalli, managing engineer at Expo-

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nent Failure Analysis Associates. “But, at the end of the day, the risk of failure is very small, and the performance that you can get out of these types of batteries is enormous.”

Exponent has a long history in failure analysis, and Somandepalli told Charged that he thinks the EV world is following the normal trends to make a new technology - like Li-ion batteries - better. However, he believes EVs are doing it quicker. “We now have a lot more knowledge and data to base changes and improvements on,” he explained. “So we can fix problems much faster.”

In an effort to further accelerate the evolution of Li-ion safety, Somandepalli and his colleagues at Exponent are paving the way for better methods to quantify the thermal safety of cells, modules and battery packs.

“If you can’t measure it, you can’t manage it. That’s the mantra I go by,” he said. “If we understand the hazards

Photo courtesy of Exponent

THE TECH

A cone calorimeter used by Exponent Failure Analysis Associates

and failures of Li-ion batteries better, we can devise better means to prevent them and to mitigate or control the consequences of catastrophic events.”

Measuring it The performance and electrical characteristics of commercially available Li-ion cells are extensively tested and quantified, and the information is easily available in data sheets from manufacturers or other industry sources.

“The problem is that if you’re looking for thermal safetyrelated information, there is not a whole lot out there,” explained Somandepalli. “There is a lot of research that has been done, but for commercial cells on the market it’s hard to find that information, and the typical thermal safety-related tests are pass/fail.” If you want to improve battery safety, you need to be able to measure battery safety. That means the industry needs some kind of

“

If we understand the hazards and failures of Li-ion batteries better, we can devise better means to prevent them and to mitigate or control the consequences of catastrophic events.

”

metrics to quantify the hazard. Also, advances in electrochemistry and electrolyte technologies have made direct comparisons between different cell types and manufacturers a difficult and unscientific process. “There is no way to say which cells are better and by how much,” said Somandepalli.

Somandepalli thinks it would be best if there were a set of absolute metrics to quantify battery safety. “Then

FEB 2014 17

FIGURE 1

20

15

Images courtesy of Exponent

HRR (kW)

Energy Release Patterns Low SOCs Compared to 50% SOC and Higher

250

10

5

0 0

50

100

150

200

Time (s)

“

250

you could say, Cell A is x get a whole lot of data.

A standard fire calorimeter Cell-Hazards and Cell B is y Except most of that data does not provide useful data for Cell-Hazards. But there isn’t won’t make any sense materials that burn with complex such a measurement yet that when comparing Li-ion combustion chemistries, selfI know of,” he explained. “Or cells. A standard fire calowe could use relative mearimeter does not provide generated oxygen, different active surements that say things useful data for materials material and energy content. like, Cell A is some percentthat burn with complex age better than Cell B for fire combustion chemistries, resistance.” self-generated oxygen, different active material and enThe team at Exponent looked at fires and explosions ergy content.” that can happen with a thermal runaway event and asked “What do we need to be able to quantify this?” On the Fire metrics fire side, they thought questions worth answering would Using a modified cone calorimeter, the engineers at include: “What comes off of failing batteries and causes Exponent developed, for the first time, tests to precisely them to burn? How hot can they burn?” and “What are quantify the heat release rate and the total energy rethe energy release characteristics in a thermal runaway?” leased from cells when they undergo a combustion event.

On the explosion side, important data would answer: Using these tests, different safety-related parameters of “What is the fuel? What gases are coming off the cells?” cells with different chemistries can be compared diand “How much bang can these gases create?” rectly in a quantifiable and repeatable manner. The Data Typically for fire hazard tests, a fire calorimeter is used generated can also be used in developing and improving to measure heat release or energy release information. computational models for analyzing thermal runaway “That’s great,” said Somandepalli. “We can test cells and and cascading thermal failures in modules and packs,

”

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THE TECH FIGURE 2

Gases released from cells at different SOCs

Gas

100% SOC (%vol)

50% SOC (%vol)

150% SOC (%vol)

Roth et al.* Test 1/Test 2 (%vol)

Carbon Dioxide Carbon Monoxide Hydrogen Total Hydrocarbons

32 3.61 30 34

30 22.9 27.7 19.3

20.9 24.5 29.7 24

61.4/75.8 15.1/6.4 5.1/5.9 7.4/1.9

* Roth EP, Crafts CC, Doughty DH, McBreen J, “Advanced Technology Development Program for Lithium-Ion Batteries: Thermal Abuse Performance of 18650 Li-ion Cells,” Sandia Report: SAND2004-0584, March 2004

depalli. “Developing better thermal management systems for battery packs requires a clear understanding of the heat generation mechanisms and kinetics associated with the failures of Li-ion batteries.”

Explosion metrics Another potentially hazardous Li-ion failure mode occurs when flammable and toxic gases are emitted from failing cells and distributed into confined areas where other energized systems, or occupants, may be present. For an EV, the confined area could be a portion of the chassis, the occupant area of the vehicle or

These gases tend to be complex mixtures, so data is needed to know how these mixtures vary with SOC, and how they vary with different cell chemistries.

and developing strategies to prevent them.

For example, one test revealed how the energy released during combustion related to the state-of-charge (SOC) of a cell. The data from a small 2.1 Ah (7.7 Wh) pouch cell (Figure 1) shows a completely different energyrelease pattern for low SOCs compared to 50% SOC and higher, where a very sudden release of energy is observed when the cells catch fire.

“Once you’re able to measure these different variables using the modified calorimetry technique, then the data begins to provide some useful information,” said Soman-

the garage in which the EV may be parked.

To quantify an explosion hazard, the fuel composition, the amount of fuel and the amount of “oomph” the fuel has have to be measured. “To find that oomph you need the maximum pressure and the rate of pressure rise - the dP/dt - the fuel gas can create”. So Exponent developed a test method that captures and quantifies the composition of gases vented from batteries. The technique causes the cells to fail under bad conditions, and the released gases are captured and then tested in a combustion sphere to quantify their explosivity.

Using this information, explosion prevention or protection systems can be designed and optimized for use on battery compartments. The compositional analysis also aids in quantifying the health effects of human exposure to the vented gases.

These gases tend to be complex mixtures, so data is needed to know how these mixtures vary with SOC, and how they vary with different cell chemistries. For example, Figure 2 shows the different amounts of hydrogen, carbon monoxide and hydrocarbons released from cells

FEB 2014 19

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at different SOCs. These are the gases that could feed possible explosions.

“We can then compare that with pure hydrocarbon gases, like methane and propane,” explained Somandepalli. “In this test, the thing that jumped out at us right away was that the battery vent gases were more energetic than many pure hydrocarbons. And the flammability ranges of these gases are also higher than those of many pure hydrocarbons.”

Management With a thorough understanding of the hazards, thermal management systems can be designed to detect, prevent and control runaway conditions in modules and packs.

The test data can also be used to develop protection strategies based on existing knowledge. “For example, there is an equation that tells you how much vent area, or blow off panel area, you need to provide protection from an explosion,” said Somandepalli. “It’s a commonly used

“

There is a lot of science that can be transmitted between different industries...

”

calculation, straight out of the NFPA 68 standard, and these new test methods provide the variables needed for this calculation.”

Exponent has over 600 consultants, and about 450 of them have PhDs in different technical disciplines including material science and mechanical and electrical engineering. Its clients are spread across the globe, and Somandepalli says the company’s diverse work has led to a mountain of institutional knowledge about failure analysis and prevention. “There is a lot of science that can be transmitted between different industries, and we’re able to see things, be it in design techniques, testing or safety, that make us wonder, ‘Can we help people in other industries with this?’”

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Seattle’s EnerG2 stands to reap the benefits of exploiting silicon as a battery anode material with its new carbon-silicon nano-composite.

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I

DOE Recovery Act grant, which covered 75% of the cost

t seems that every time the hottest new smartphone or tablet comes out, one of the biggest points of of building a 73,000-square-foot manufacturing facility in contention among users is its battery life. The demands Albany, Oregon. That plant opened in early 2012 and can put on the batteries run them down faster than users now produce tens of tons of carbon materials a month, depending on demand. would like, and the OEMs can’t simply increase the batIn January, with its infrastructure in place, EnerG2 anteries’ size while still hitting their targets for device size, nounced its greatest breakthrough yet: an anode material weight and cost. It’s a small version of the same problem electric vehicles have with their batteries. Once you spot for lithium-ion batteries that blends carbon and silicon, is the new gadgets making big leaps in battery performance, meant to replace commonly used graphite materials, and it’ll be time to get excited about EV batteries as well. That supposedly offers five times better battery cycle life and should signify that after countless early-stage announcehigher energy density than other silicon anodes. ments of advanced battery technology, the ball is finally rolling.

The taming of silicon Most manufacturers are We’ve seen it many times: It’s been a little more than a year capable of getting very close since EnerG2’s manufacturing A small startup company has promising battery intellecfacility went online, producing to the theoretical maximum its hard carbons for Li-ion antual property, receives funding, amount of lithium that develops its technology, scales odes. According to the company, graphite can store. up to production readiness, and it’s the only plant in the world of its kind - dedicated to commerthen seeks customers in the cial-scale nano-engineered carbons for high-performance consumer electronics space with the idea of eventually (hopefully) moving into EVs. Such is the case for Seattle energy storage. Dr. Feaver told Charged that EnerG2’s company EnerG2, which launched in 2003 with some hard carbon anode material already presented signifimaterial science IP from co-founder and CTO Dr. Aaron cant advantages in capacity, power, efficiency and cycle life over the graphite anode materials typically found in Feaver, who was working on a PhD from the University Li-ion batteries. However, compositing their hard carbon of Washington.

After several years of focusing on gas-storage technolo- with silicon was the logical next step. gies, EnerG2 switched focus about six years ago to its “Hard carbon - and especially graphite - have really hit Carbon Technology Platform - advanced carbon materitheir maximum capacity,” he said. “Most manufacturers are capable of getting very close to the theoretical maxials for lead-acid batteries and ultracapacitors. During mum amount of lithium that graphite can store.” that period, the company raised about $24 million in venture capital, and in 2009, it received a $21.3 million Feaver said that silicon can store about 10 times more

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FEB 2014 23

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Photo courtesy of Jay Inslee/Flickr

lithium by weight than graphite can. However, while silicon appeals greatly to anode developers, it comes with a caveat as well.

“Silicon undergoes a very large volume change when it takes on all that lithium,” said Feaver, “so it has a tendency to expand and contract as you charge and discharge the battery. Gradually it pulverizes itself inside the battery, and your electrode fails eventually... or rapidly in plenty of cases.”

EnerG2’s breakthrough has been to incorporate silicon into its hard carbon. “The powerful chemistry approach we use to produce these materials can incorporate silicon into the material before we carbonize it,” Feaver said. “It’s a very interesting approach unique to EnerG2. It’s given us the ability to tailor the amount of silicon and to use different silicons as a starting point. We’ve seen really fantastic cycle life on batteries with our new carbon-silicon anode material. Pretty much across the board we see a very large improvement in cycle stability.”

Because the new material was developed as part of EnerG2’s Carbon Technology Platform, the company was able to upgrade Rick Luebbe, EnerG2 CEO (left) and Jay Inslee, Governor of Washington (right) its factory relatively quickly to produce the carbon-silicon solution at scale.

“Our competitors are still working in the lab,” said Rick Luebbe, EnerG2 co-founder and CEO. “Meanwhile, we’re able to work rapidly at large of five to ten times what they would get with the silicon scale, because this new product is a drop-in for our exist- on its own.

Luebbe said that their process is “silicon-sourceing plant. US manufacturing as a whole will benefit from agnostic,” but that the company is looking to establish a our breakthrough.” definitive source. “We are still evaluating the best silicon sources,” he said, “so anybody who thinks they have a reThe search for a source ally good fundamental silicon product, we are interested While EnerG2 is capable of mass-producing its carbonin testing it. But the process is scaled, and we can make silicon nano-composite, it still has the task of choosing the composite now.” the best silicon source for production. Different silicon In testing silicon sources, EnerG2 seeks the sweet spot sources provide varying results and at varying costs.

“Whether it’s a really good silicon or a mediocre silicon between the best performance and the best price. Luebbe has seen a huge range in silicon prices, from $10/ material on its own, across the board we see a phenomenal improvement in cycle stability and cycle life by taking kg on the low end to as much as thousands of dollars per kilogram. that silicon and incorporating it into our carbon,” Feaver “You can have great performance, but if it’s not cost-efsaid. “We don’t see any degradation in capacity in most fective, it’s not going to get adopted,” Luebbe said. “One of cases, and in plenty of cases we actually see an improveour objectives from the beginning was to keep the cost of ment in capacity.” He added that they’re seeing cycle life

THE TECH

“

Our competitors are still working in the lab.

Meanwhile, we’re able to work rapidly at large scale, because this new product is a drop-in for our existing plant.

”

our hard-carbon technology in the same range as current hard carbons employed in vehicle batteries. We’ve been able to do that. So ideally we want to find a silicon source that boosts the performance without raising the price.”

CE to EV Soon EnerG2 will be sending samples of its carbon-silicon composite anode material to prospective customers in the consumer electronics (CE) world. While Luebbe said he wants EnerG2 to eventually serve the “cross-

section of the battery space,” including EVs, the practical move is to go after CE applications first.

“They qualify much more quickly and get to commercial revenues faster than EV batteries will,” Luebbe said. “[CE] is a great place to get approval points, get some market traction and start developing products.”

Luebbe said that it’s too early to tell how long it might be before EnerG2’s new anode material finds its way into EV battery packs, but he thinks they’re pretty close to being in the “strike zone” for EVs. Part of the process will depend on how good their final silicon source turns out to be.

“We’re definitely in the strike zone for consumer electronics applications,” Feaver added. “I think that’s going to go extremely well. Any situation you put it in does depend on the silicon, the battery architecture you put the material into, and all kinds of nitty-gritty details associated with building a battery. But the results we’re seeing are very exciting for both consumer electronics and automotive.”

Along with Bitrode’s parent company, Sovema, and sister division, Solith, the group has its hands all over battery development, manufacturing and testing.

26

Photo courtesy of Bitrode Corporation

Industry Insiders

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Q&A

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n many ways, the Bitrode Corporation has the ultimate inside scoop on the battery industry. Along with its parent company, Sovema, and sister division, Solith, the group has its hands all over battery development, manufacturing and testing. The companies supply equipment and support to many of the biggest names in automotive-grade battery manufacturing.

Acquired by Sovema in 2008, Bitrode’s main area of expertise is battery formation and testing equipment for both production and development laboratories. Sovema and Solith cover the battery manufacturing process for lead-acid and Li-ion batteries, respectively. Bitrode’s chargers and testers join in the process at the first charging event, and also cover validation and end-of-line testing.

The company is noted for having a premier high-speed, end-ofline tester that large volume production facilities need.

The battery industry in the US has been on quite a roller coaster ride for the past few years. After the stimulus funding in 2009, cell makers and material suppliers around the country ramped up production capacity with optimistic visions of a new EV market.

However, the market didn’t grow quite as fast as everyone had hoped.

Charged recently caught up with the folks at Bitrode to get their thoughts on the current state of the industry.

FEB 2014 27

Charged: Some have argued that the stimulus funding in 2009 could be viewed as a challenge, rather than a blessing for the battery industry, and that organic growth leads to a healthier, more stabilized marketplace. Do you think that’s fair to say?

time by the right companies? Sure, you could make an argument that there is some percentage that was not.

David Rice, Vice President and General Manager at Bitrode Corporation: If you look back at where we were and what the stimulus money did, you could probably make a case both ways. I tend to be more of an optimist.

On the EV adoption side, I think the timing wasn’t great, in that the market was not yet ready with the infrastructure needed and customer education needed, and so the forecasted demand given by industry pundits early on was grossly overstated for the near term. The results show that the market didn’t get the adoption early on. But, now, we’re already seeing the signs of a market in transition to a more realistic organic growth phase, because not only are we starting to see the prices of EVs come down, but the fear of the unknown is being calmed for the consumers as the reliability and performance of the EVs are being proven again and again.

From the battery industry standpoint, human nature is that everyone hoped we were on that transition point of the hockey stick curve. We weren’t quite there yet. But if you look at the advancement of technology and renewable energy utilization that has happened in the last few years, it’s phenomenal.

I think that in terms of EVs, after a slow start, we’re finally seeing real traction now and starting to see a market with true momentum and leverage. So, it’s going to go.

People are excited about plug-in vehicles, and there are a lot of different startups that are coming into the industry.

The big questions are: How quickly is the growth going to go? And, How exactly is the overall market going to play out?

David Rice: I recently completed my first year as General Manager at Bitrode. Last year, when I came on board, it was a time when the industry was going through the loss of the stimulus. Everyone was reorganizing, and now we’re seeing consolidation of markets. A validation of early theories, projections and ideas has led to a normal business cycle of any new product or market…and in this case it’s lots of products and a brand new market.

The stimulus led to this huge mountain of opportunity and work, and that was something that we benefitted from greatly. Today, the exciting part for us is that Bitrode is in a good position, poised well to support the market, with our on-time shipments averaging over 90 percent. We are well known for our excellent field service and support, which is a fundamental requirement of both labs and formation customers.

I’m excited to see a lot of things coming back to the states. We’re right out of St. Louis, born and bred and made in the USA, which is a great thing for our country.

John Grimm, Director of Sales & Marketing at Bitrode Corporation: I agree. How effectively or efficiently was that money spent? I think that’s an issue we could circle back to with respect to creating challenges for the industry. In other words, was the right money spent at the right

Mike Kuznetsov, Engineering Manager at Bitrode Corporation: I’ve been with Bitrode for 18 years, and often joke that the only continent we don’t have products in is the one populated with penguins, Antarctica. We’re on every other continent, including Australia and Africa.

“

Charged: So, the roller coaster effect of the stimulus funding is starting to level out?

...we’re already seeing the signs of a market in transition to a more realistic organic growth phase...

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”

Charged: So, do you see the US as the big growth market?

John Grimm: Yes, we certainly do, but Bitrode is very much a global company, and we’re seeing growth opportunities throughout all regions of the world. In fact, we are making continuous improvements and additions to our global sales and service channels to support this growth. When I joined Bitrode recently, I was amazed at our installed base of equipment across the globe. Our reach and market position is extraordinary.

Photo courtesy of Bitrode Corporation

THE TECH David Rice: And product quality is still fantastic. We have units that are decades old that we still service and maintain.

Charged: As the industry evolves, are your customers’ needs and requests growing more sophisticated in terms of feature sets?

David Rice: Yes. A few years ago we wouldn’t have been involved with racing teams. Now we have the pleasure of working with customers who are engaged with the Formula E Championship that are pushing us to newer and higher levels. That’s a niche market, but it’s exciting to support the customers that push our equipment to its limit, which makes us push ourselves to provide equipment that can meet the most demanding needs of our customers.

Everyone is also trying to learn more and gain a better understanding of new chemistries. They’re trying to optimize the quality of charge capacity, and refine their processes so that the actual finished product is optimized.

They’re achieving levels now that they couldn’t do several years ago. That’s what cutting edge development is all about, and that’s the fun part. It’s going to give us, as consumers, better energy density and more miles per charge.

Mike Kuznetsov: A good example of new things we can do is the size of the drive cycles that our customers are now using for testing. The data is typically collected from someone who drives a real vehicle on the road. They collect it, then they convert the data for use with our testing equipment. This way they can have different driving scenarios for use in battery pack testing.

Each drive cycle program consists of a sequence of steps that tell the battery to charge at some current for a certain amount of time, then discharge at a different current for a period of time, and so on. To simulate real life, you need several thousand steps, or even tens of thousands of steps. So, we added the capability to support essentially an unlimited number of steps in the drive cycle to our architecture. With the system we originally developed, it was limited to several thousand steps, which is still pretty significant, but limited. And over the years the requirements grew.

One of our customers called me directly and asked for this feature, so Bitrode added it to our systems. At the time we were very specific to this particular customer’s

“

To simulate real life, you need several thousand steps, or even tens of thousands of steps.

”

need, and it’s in our culture to modify our equipment to meet the needs of our customers.

Charged: Is that your secret for success, to quickly adapt to customers’ needs?

Mike Kuznetsov: When it comes to exotic demands, Bitrode is the champion. We have built our reputation over five decades that we can and will customize our equipment or develop new equipment to do something that nobody else would even consider. Our partnership with Solith and Sovema allows us to do even more than what we used to be able to do in the past. Customization is our specialty.

We have standard product platforms that we developed, but we can enhance or modify each product based on our customer’s specific application criteria. We are flexible and open to meet new and changing needs. That

FEB 2014 29

THE TECH sets us apart. Our existing customers know this, and our new customers are delighted to find they have direct access to our product engineers, technicians, tech support and service, who are personally engaged in their concerns.

Every project that comes to us has customer-required enhancements that we are willing and able to support.

Part of our culture has always been to be very customerfocused.

David Rice: The nice thing about a Bitrode product is that our customers don’t have to buy a standardized product and force a fit to make it work. They can start from our base product and then get what they want.

That’s a significant difference with the new and emerging chemistries and applications in this vibrant market.

Charged: Because your systems are highly customized, and you adapt to the needs of each customer, does that make it more difficult to market? In other words, is it a challenge to explain your capabilities in a brochure?

David Rice: The best way for us to market is to say, “Tell us what you need!” Because in almost every single case, the answer is, “Yes, we can!”

Mike Kuznetsov: Every time there is a charge that goes into the battery or out of the battery, we cover that segment. We have specialized in batteries and their chemistries for decades - we specialize in making equipment for those that build new batteries, cells or modules and need equipment capable of testing at new limits never before seen.

David Rice: For example, for our high-volume battery producers, to my knowledge we have the fastest throughput end-of-line testers available today.

Mike Kuznetsov: To answer your question, yes it is a challenge to communicate all of our capabilities. We even have customers that have been using our equipment and our architecture, but find that they may be unaware of all of the new features our equipment supports, like the unlimited number of steps in the drive cycle that I mentioned previously.

Another great new feature is monitoring the test process on the Web. Remote monitoring was part of our system from the very beginning, but it was limited to the

30

local area network computers. Now we have web-based monitoring. You can see what each circuit is doing at any given moment. This is an example of a function that customers who purchased our systems five years ago may not be aware of, because they didn’t need it at that time.

Yet, it was already onboard. It’s part of what we do to stay ahead of the market by anticipating our customers’ needs before they truly need it.

“

We specialize in making equipment for those that build new batteries, cells, or modules and need equipment capable of testing at new limits never before seen.

”

Another customer asked us to open our interface. We did what is now a popular buzzword called hardwarein-the-loop, or HIL - which the more I hear, the more meanings it apparently has in the public’s view. Everyone interprets it differently; it’s evolving. What it boils down to is that there is peripheral equipment, or a battery itself, that needs to communicate with our system.

Our system is engineered by design to have three ways to accommodate external communications. Customers can keep our system as is with all the benefits of our VisuaLCN software that it comes with, plug in the system and have a control in parallel with what we provide on the embedded control level. They can also do the same thing plugging in on the PC level, if it makes more sense from their architecture standpoint. And the third approach is to take our server out of the picture completely, and we provide protocol to control our system by any third-party software. So it’s versatile, which is what our customers have asked for depending on their individual lab systems in place. We try to accommodate every architecture on the market for every possible customer scenario. Some may be set up already using a different lab protocol - and they may not want to train technicians to work with ours - so they can drop it straight in and control our equipment.

The communication disconnect in this case comes from this HIL buzzword. If someone looks at our brochures, “HIL” may not be there, but there is a different wording that translates into HIL if you know how to read it. That’s why we prefer to simply say, “Yes, we can.”

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CURRENTevents Toyota begins testing wireless charging system

The research firm IHS Automotive predicts that worldwide production of plug-ins will soar to more than 403,000 in 2014, a 67% increase.

The Europe region will account for the largest share of production at more than 40%, with the Americas and Asia-Pacific each making up about 30%.

“European emissions standards are tightening in the second half of this year with the implementation of the European Commission’s Euro 6 legislation,” said IHS analyst Ben Scott. “At the same time, European automakers are introducing compelling new EV models, such as the BMW i3. These factors will boost EV demand and manufacturing in Europe in 2014.”

IHS also made the following predictions for the electrifying year ahead: • The global number of EV charging stations will pass 1.1 million units by the end of this year.

“Although most of the installed base is for domestic charging, almost 35,000 charging stations are expected to be installed this year in the public or semipublic domain,” Scott said.

• Lithium-ion battery prices are decreasing as a result of a price war between LG Chem and Panasonic, and carmakers will soon be offering 40 kWh batteries, which translates to at least a 150 mile range. “Less than $250 per kWh for a lithium-ion battery is the generally accepted price level for these batteries to become mass market in automotive - a price we will get closer to this year,” Scott said.

• Plug-in prices are expected to decrease in 2014, as more OEMs enter the market place. However, government incentives are still critical if countries are serious about EV adoption.

32

Photos courtesy of Toyota

Report: 2014 plug-in production will rise 67% Toyota will begin verification testing of its newly developed wireless charging system in late February.

Toyota developed the system in cooperation with WiTricity, an MIT spin-off that the automaker has been cooperating with for several years.

Toyota Managing Officer Satoshi Ogiso announced in August that the next-generation Prius Plug-in Hybrid would include a wireless charging option.

The charging system transmits electricity by using the magnetic resonance resulting from changes in magnetic field intensity between a transmitting coil on the ground and a receiving coil on the vehicle. It operates at a frequency of 85 kHz, with input voltage of 200 VAC and charging power of 2 kW. Charging time is estimated at about 90 minutes.

The system can reduce drops in power transmission efficiency that can be caused by misalignment or height differences between the transmitting and receiving coils. It is designed to minimize electromagnetic interference on nearby equipment, and the ground-installed transmitting coil is robustly built to withstand a vehicle driving over it.

To enable the driver to park in an optimum charging position, Toyota has developed a new parking assist function that shows the position of the transmitting coil in the parking space. The new function is coupled with Toyota’s Intelligent Parking Assist system.

The one-year verification test will involve three PHEVs in use in homes in Japan, and will assess user satisfaction, ease of use, misalignment rates and charging behavior.

THE VEHICLES Members of the press took BMW’s X5 eDrive PHEV for a test drive at a February event in Germany. BMW also presented several elements of its EfficientDynamics strategy, which depends on a combination of ever-more-efficient gasoline and diesel engines with eDrive electrified technology developed by the BMW i sub-brand.

“We are planning to have a plug-in hybrid in each and every model series,” BMW’s head of production for large vehicles, Peter Wolf, told Motoring.com.au back in September. All key eDrive components, such as electric motors, high-voltage batteries and power electronics, will be developed in-house.

The X5 PHEV prototype can do 0-100 km/h in less than seven seconds, and is expected to offer fuel efficienFINAL-L1_ad-for_charged.pdf 1 2/18/2014 5:48:35 AM

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Photos courtesy of BMW

BMW X5 PHEV prototype highlights eDrive strategy

cy of about 62 mpg and an electric range of over 18 miles.

BMW’s xDrive intelligent all-wheel-drive system automatically splits torque from the electric motor, the fourcylinder gas engine, or both, in a variable ratio between the front and rear wheels for optimal traction and stability. Anther innovation in the X5 is BMW’s proactive drive system, which uses electronic sensors, radar and camera sensors, the navigation system, and even the vehicle’s turn signals to anticipate driving situations in advance and adapt gear changes in real time for maximum efficiency.

www.midtronics.com/transportation

@ Midtronics

THE VEHICLES

Kia unveils new Soul EV, on sale this year

Nashville buys seven Proterra electric buses

Photo courtesy of Proterra

Photos courtesy of Kia

Proterra has announced the sale of seven electric buses and a charging station to the Nashville Metropolitan Transit Authority (Nashville MTA). The buses will be built at Proterra’s manufacturing facility in Greenville, South Carolina, and delivered this year.

The funds for the new buses came from a federal Clean Fuels grant and matching funds from the city. Proterra was selected through a competitive procurement process that included bids from Wave, New Flyer, EV America and BYD. The Proterra buses will serve the free Music City Circuit, which connects the country music hot spots of Broadway with other downtown tourist attractions, hotels, residences and offices.

“We are committed to investing in transit improvements that better our community by reducing harmful emissions and improving fuel economy,” said Paul J. Ballard, CEO of Nashville MTA. “By incorporating the Proterra buses into our fleet, we are moving in the right direction to ensure Nashville MTA’s transit services benefit the environment for years to come.”

“We are extremely pleased that Nashville MTA has selected Proterra as their provider of electric transit solutions,” said Proterra CEO Garrett Mikita. “Our company has proven our ability to provide longterm cost savings and improve an authority’s dependence on fossil fuels, as evidenced by our growing list of customers.”

Kia unveiled its 2015 Soul EV at the Chicago Auto Show. Scheduled to go on sale in the third quarter of 2014, the compact hatchback will be Kia’s first EV sold in the US, initially in just a few states, including California, Oregon, New York, New Jersey and Maryland. Pricing will be announced closer to launch.

Located beneath the floor, the 27 kWh, air-cooled, 200 Wh/kg battery is expected to yield a range of 80100 miles. The 360-volt 96-cell lithium-ion polymer battery features a nickel-cobalt-manganese cathode, a graphite-based anode, a gel electrolyte and ceramic separators.

Drivers can choose among four regeneration modes using Kia’s third-generation system to capture up to 12 percent of the car’s kinetic energy.

The Soul EV features a 6.6 kW on-board charger, and a CHAdeMo 480 V DC fast-charging port.

The front-wheel drive Soul EV is powered by an 81.4 kW, 109 hp liquid-cooled AC synchronous permanent magnet motor, producing 210 ft-lb of torque. For pedestrian safety, the Soul EV is equipped with a Virtual Engine Sound System that emits an auditory alert at speeds below 12 mph and whenever the car is in reverse.

FEB 2014 35

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THE VEHICLES

CURRENTevents

Beijing ups EV incentives, OEMs crowd the market

The European Parliament has approved the world’s toughest carbon dioxide standards for new cars.

The new rules will limit emissions to 95 grams of carbon dioxide per kilometer (g/km) as an average across all new cars sold in the 28-nation bloc from 2021, compared with the existing limit of 130 g/km.

The European Commission wanted the target to apply from 2020, but German carmakers such as Daimler and BMW campaigned hard for more time to implement the legislation, and succeeded in getting it delayed by one year. Most greenies praised the agreement as a step in the right direction.

“All’s well that ends well,” said EU Climate Commissioner Connie Hedegaard. “The 95 g target is achievable by employing technologies available today. But it is clear that long-term clarity is important for the car industry. This is why the Commission will now focus on the next step and come up with ideas for a post-2020 target in the coming months.”

“This one-year delay was an unnecessary weakening to please luxury German carmakers. Nevertheless, the final agreement is still a good deal for the environment, EU economy and drivers – reducing fuel use and CO2 emissions by 27% over 6 years,” said Greg Archer of environmental group Transport and Environment.

However, the group said the improved efficiency in 2020 would be much less than officially stated unless a new testing system is introduced as part of the new emissions standards. “The current test is unrepresentative, with weak rules that carmakers manipulate, leading to fuel economy figures on average 23% worse in tests than typically achieved on the roads.”

Photo courtesy of justusbluemer/Flickr

EU votes in tougher 2021 emissions standards

Chinese cities allow only a fixed number of new vehicles on the road each year, using a lottery system to allot licenses. According to China Daily, Beijing’s transport authority cut the yearly quota to 150,000 for 2014, and some 1.84 million residents have already applied. However, the city will offer 20,000 license plates for fully electric cars through a separate lottery in 2014, and will increase that quota to 30,000 in 2015 and 60,000 in 2016.

Both the central and local governments also offer subsidies. EV buyers can receive a maximum subsidy of 57,000 yuan from the central government, and an additional 57,000 yuan from the Beijing transport commission (only Chinese brands are eligible).

Despite the incentives, many potential buyers are hesitant, citing range anxiety and lack of public charging as their biggest concerns. China News Service reported that there were about 70 charging stations in Beijing at the end of 2013, most serving public vehicles. The city government has announced plans to install 1,000 new public chargers in 2014.

Whatever the challenges, the potential in the Asian market is huge, and both foreign and Chinese brands are scrambling to get into the game.

Tesla hopes the Chinese market will help it to double annual sales in 2014. “Although we are not eligible for the central government’s subsidies now, we hope to acquire local non-financial support such as free license plate allocations in big cities and favorable parking measures to make the car more attractive to potential owners,” said Jerome Guillen, Tesla’s VP for sales and service.

Daimler kicked off sales of its smart fortwo electric drive in Beijing and Shanghai last November.

Annette Winkler, global head of smart, told China Daily that the company is “actively communicating with regional governments city by city for some incentives or local support.”

BMW Brilliance unveiled the 1E, the first electric crossover of its new brand Zinoro, at the Guangzhou auto show in November. It said the model will hit the market this year.

FEB 2014 37

Q&A

h wit

Tom Gage The EV trailblazer on ZEV mandates, Tesla’s early days, BMW’s EV commitment and vehicle-to-grid technology

By Charles Morris

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Photo courtesy of Tom Gage - EV Grid

THE VEHICLES

is one of America’s true EV pioneers. He’s perhaps best known as one of the designers of the tzero electric sports car that provided the inspiration for the Tesla Roadster. However, that is far from his only contribution to the electric mobility field. Charged recently caught up with Gage for a chat about California zero-emission mandates, the early days of Tesla, building powertrains for BMW, and his latest venture, integrating EVs into the power grid of the future.

After earning a mechanical engineering degree from Stanford, Tom worked at various car-related jobs, mostly in the racing/high-performance world.

Tom Gage: My first job out of college was working in a sports car shop in Atlanta, where we did what was then called de-smogging cars - taking off the emission control equipment so they would run better. In the 1970s, the emission controls really hurt the performance of the cars and often didn’t work very well either.

Charged: That’s kind of ironic in light of your later work with EVs. Gage: Yes (laughing). I figure I’m paying penance now.

Charged: I understand you worked at Chrysler on an EV program.

Gage: Yes. I had eventually gone back to school and got an MBA and then went straight into Chrysler. I was in the Regulatory Affairs Department, and we were involved in all kinds of legislative issues relating to fuel economy and emissions. That was right around the time the zero-emission vehicle (ZEV) mandate first came out in California, so we were looking into EVs, hybrids and the like.

“

Within each company, there are the diehard internal combustion fans... and the guys that look into the future and see that things change...

”

FEB 2014 39

Photo courtesy of Tom Gage - EV Grid

Charged: Chrysler seems to be the least interested in EVs of the major manufacturers these days, but I have a theory that in most companies there are probably two different factions - there must also be pro-EV people at Chrysler. Do you think that’s accurate?

Gage: Yes. I think the number of people is growing, but it doesn’t necessarily make sense for every carmaker to go into EVs now because the market is so small. Back in 1990, GM showed the Impact - the prototype EV1 - at the LA Auto Show, and in April 1990, they announced that they were going to put it into production. Then, in August 1990 CARB came out with the ZEV mandate, and they justified it in part by saying that if GM could do it, then so could the other automakers. The reality was that it was such a niche market back then that, if GM had done it on its own, it might have been able to succeed, partly on the basis of having a technology niche and a publicity benefit. There was no market at all back then, so GM’s strategy made sense if they were the only player. But once the ZEV mandate was put in place, it didn’t make sense for anyone on any kind of commercial basis. So, when the ZEV mandate ruined the GM strategy, then that whole sequence of events took place with the mandate having to be rolled back because it was over-aggressive.

“

The same rules apply now. Nissan has taken the lead, BMW has taken the lead, and the other carmakers are in varying degrees of planning for the future. Companies like GM and Chrysler - I don’t know what their financial health is, but Chrysler was always kind of struggling they can play a wait-and-see game. Within each company, there are the die-hard internal combustion fans who say that’s the only way to make any money, and the guys that look into the future and see that things change in this business. They change slowly, but they do change. And once the change starts, you can’t really turn it back.

[The ZEV mandate’s] first implementation was counterproductive.

It really set back the cause for several years.

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”

Charged: Do you think the ZEV mandate is actually counterproductive?

Gage: I think in the long term it’s had a strong effect in pushing carmakers and the market to get into EVs. Its first implementation was counterproductive. It really set back the cause for several years. It was first promulgated in 1990, and here we are 23 years later and we’re really just getting started.

Charged: In another sense, it kind of opened up a door for Tesla to get in there and do their thing.

Gage: It did. It’s very hard to judge what would’ve hap-

THE VEHICLES pened in another scenario. The ZEV mandate actually helped AC Propulsion in the early days. We did play a role in the starting of Tesla, so I wouldn’t say it was a bad idea, but it might have worked better if they had done it a little differently.

Charged: The first time around, the car companies’ lobbyists managed to pretty much kill the ZEV mandate.

This time, they’ve tried, but they haven’t succeeded in doing that. What’s different this time?

Gage: I think the technology has come a long way. You’ve got car companies out there that say they’re going to do this. I think the global warming story has gotten stronger, and I think the bigger factor is petroleum dependence it’s not just a tree-hugging, air-quality issue anymore. It’s a very big strategic, economic and national security issue. I can remember very distinctly back in the early to mid-90s when it was seen as just an air-quality problem or just an LA problem. But I think dependence on petroleum is an issue that resonates on both sides of the political spectrum to a much greater degree.

“

program where he was one of the lead technical guys.

He had clashed with GM on that program about various ways of doing things and thought he had a better idea, so he started AC Propulsion.

When I drove his prototype car, that was the light switch right there, because he really knew what he was talking about, and he put it into practice with this conversion that he practically built right in his front yard. I got in it and drove around the block, went up the freeway onramp and when I looked down, I was doing 80 merging onto the freeway, going uphill.

This was a Honda Civic he’d converted. It had the first 200 hp electric drive system that he had built. I came down off the freeway just in front of the shop and he said, “Stop here.” He flipped a switch and said, “Now, floor it.”

What he had done was turned off the traction control.

I floored it and the front tires turned into smoke (laughing).

I think the bigger factor is petroleum dependence - it’s not just a tree-hugging, air quality issue anymore, it’s a very big strategic, economic and national security issue.

Charged: When you first got interested in EVs, was there any kind of epiphany?

Gage: Yes. It was very clear-cut. I left Chrysler in 1992, primarily to get back to California. I took a job at SRI Consulting, which was sort of a think tank in Menlo Park. This was in the early days of the mandate, and Honda came to us asking for an exhaustive survey of standards, regulations and practices relating to the EV. Of course, it was a very new field. We set about just doing research. It was back in the day when all the different engineering standards and government regulations specific to EVs didn’t exist.

I went down to Southern California to start talking to people who were in the EV business. There were a bunch of small shops doing EV conversions and stuff, and most of them were pretty amateurish or even crackpots. On that trip, I went to AC Propulsion, which had just been founded. Alan Cocconi had come off the GM Impact

Charged: And that was the moment?

Gage: Yes. It was a double whammy. I knew a thing or two as an automotive engineer - not that much about EV technology - but he explained it in a way that showed that the other guys really didn’t know what they were talking about. But he did, and he had the hardware to back it up. I started helping him out on the side, one thing led to another, and within a year I was pretty much full time at AC Propulsion.

Alan Cocconi had developed a range-extending trailer, which was a motorcycle engine connected to a generator that we towed behind the Honda Civic. He drove it to Washington to participate in the Partnership for a New Generation of Vehicles (PNGV), which was a program to funnel federal funds to the Big 3 to help them build an 80 mpg car. Of course, with even moderate use of electriconly driving, Alan’s EV/trailer combo got well over 80 mpg, but to the PNGV, it wasn’t “real,” so he had a pretty cool reception - the carmakers thought he was making them look bad. Al Gore was trying to make hay with the automakers, so they didn’t really want this upstart in there. PNGV turned out to be a bit of a boondoggle and died quietly.

”

FEB 2014 41

I met him in Detroit, and we made the rounds. We went to Chrysler, Ford and a few other places, and then I drove with him across the country back to California. On the way back, we hit a snowstorm in Wyoming, which was quite an adventure. That was really the start of my full-time efforts at AC Propulsion.

Charged: AC Propulsion’s tzero electric sports car caught the imagination of Tesla founders Martin Eberhard and Elon Musk, and they ended up licensing the company’s powertrain technology. How did you first hook up with the Tesla guys?

”

lenge Bibendum that year. Martin was pretty impressed - we all were.

That was in September 2003, and in November I remember going to the LA Auto Show with him and he started talking up the guys in the Lotus booth, saying that he wanted to convert a Lotus Elise. That was sort of the start of Tesla right then. Then, he borrowed the tzero for about three months. He took it up to northern California and used it to woo investors - show them what he was talking about and that it could really be done. I think it was pretty key in getting the company off the ground.

The tzeros (we built three of them) were completely hand-built cars - there was almost nothing but headlights and shock absorbers and things like that that were taken from other cars. All the major parts were hand-built. It was a Sportech kit, but we actually changed the frame

Photo courtesy of Tom Gage - EV Grid

Gage: I had a neighbor named Steve Casner, who had a Toyota RAV4 electric, and I always had an EV in my front yard, so we got to talking. He was working at a company with Martin Eberhard, so he told Martin about me. Martin called me, and he had all these schemes, and I was sort of talking through what the realities were. We were just converting the tzero over to lithium-ion batteries. He got involved with that. He actually put some investor money - a small amount - into AC Propulsion, and we finished the conversion of the tzero to lithiumion batteries. We drove it from LA up to San Francisco for the Michelin Challenge Bibendum event. We drove it with only one stop, so it was obviously getting much better range with the reduced weight and increased capacity of the lithium-ion batteries, which had replaced the lead-acid batteries. It had the highest score in the Michelin Chal-

“

...he started talking up the guys in the Lotus booth, saying that he wanted to convert a Lotus Elise. That was sort of the start of Tesla right then.

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THE VEHICLES going?” I said we weren’t going to build any more tzeros. So that to some degree was the impetus for him to get into the business. “Well, if you’re not going to build it, I’ll build my own” - that type of thing.

Photo courtesy of Revolve Eco-Rally/Flickr

Charged: I have a vision of those days as being fun, freewheeling times, kind of like the early Internet days.

“

I think as time plays out, BMW’s commitment to electric propulsion is going to be recognized as an important strategic shift for the company.

”

and the body by the time we built the second car. The Sportech was sort of the template. Even on the Sportech, everything was hand-built, and then we changed the Sportech to better fit the electric car.

We realized that with the tzero, we couldn’t make money, let alone meet crash test standards and the like, so we sort of changed gears and started developing the eBox, an EV conversion based on the Toyota Scion xB. The plan was to commercialize that and get some money to do so, so I went to see Elon Musk. I took the tzero and he drove it. I said what we’re really looking for is money to do this eBox, and he said (more or less) that he wasn’t interested in the eBox - it was too mundane. He wanted a sports car.

I said he should talk to Martin Eberhard. Martin hired JB Straubel, Elon got involved, and the rest is history.

Charged: You guys thought the eBox had a better chance at being commercialized, but Musk and Eberhard were more interested in the tzero because they thought that was a sexier deal?

Gage: Yes. After we won the Michelin Challenge Bibendum, Martin said, “Are you going to build my car, how’s it

Gage: It was really fun - it was really an underdog, David-and-Goliath kind of thing. We knew it could be done, we knew how to do it. Car companies are big, dumb and stupid, and they couldn’t do anything right. Then the government was in there, and the politicians were doing the wrong thing. So there was a real sense of being at the beginning of a process and knowing with a great deal of assurance that you were onto something that the rest of the world’s going to catch up with over time. I think that’s been borne out to some degree - maybe it took longer than we thought. It was very gratifying to be a part of that.

Charged: AC Propulsion went on to provide powertrain components for a lot of different cars, including the electric version of the MINI. Gage: Yes. I think as time plays out, BMW’s commitment to electric propulsion is going to be recognized as an important strategic shift for the company. The MINI E was a case study in corporate decisiveness. The success of their electrification plan really required more information about EVs in general in the real world (the technology, the customers, the infrastructure), because BMW, unlike most of the car companies, hadn’t been a part of the original mandate. They didn’t have any EV knowledge from that, and they hadn’t been part of the fuel cell program because they had an internal combustion vehicle that ran on hydrogen. They really had nothing related to electric propulsion and batteries at that time, or nothing recent or significant. So, when they came to AC Propulsion and said let’s do the MINI E, I think they wanted to get smart in a hurry, and they did. We signed the contract in January of 2008, and by the end of the year, there were 500 MINI Es on the road in California.

A ZEV provision was one of the reasons for the timing.

They could get extra ZEV credits by getting those cars

FEB 2014 43

Charged: You’re now president of a company called EV Grid.

complete, but they had to be on the ground in California for that provision to be effective. So, they shipped all the cars to California and eventually they put some of them into service in New York and New Jersey as well. Then, they were getting such good results, they ended up building a total of over six hundred and putting them, in small numbers, in London, Berlin, Paris, Tokyo, Shanghai, Beijing, Mexico City, Rio de Janeiro - all over the place.

AC Propulsion provided the motor, the inverter, the charger, the battery and the battery management system - everything that made the car go.

The battery was our design. We contracted with the companies that actually assembled the batteries. Fundamentally, everything that was in the eBox went into the MINI E. So all that work that was done on the eBox didn’t really achieve fruition as an eBox, but it did as a MINI E.

“

Gage: Yes. It was really kind of a path of opportunity once I left AC Propulsion. I’d been working since 2000 or so with Professor Willett Kempton at the University of Delaware, and we developed the concept called vehicleto-grid, (V2G), where the EV, because it has a battery on board and a charger that’s connected to the grid, can respond to signals from the grid operator, and interact with the grid in ways that support grid stability.

The AC Propulsion drive system was particularly useful for this, because not only could it regulate its charge rate up and down, it could actually go into negative charge, or discharge. So, it could take power from the grid, charging its battery, or it could discharge its battery into the grid and actually eject power back. So this allowed the kinds of minute adjustments that are needed to keep the grid stable - grid regulation. This is a revenue-generating service that the grid pays for. Usually, it’s done by giant generators that produce more power or produce less. Batteries are very effective - in fact they’re more effective because they can respond faster to grid demands.

The University of Delaware developed the technology to communicate, control and provide this service from grid-connected cars, and AC Propulsion developed this drive system to provide the cars. Over the years, they’d been able to finance about five cars - they were doing this on an experimental basis. But the problem was that you really needed a hundred cars or so to have a significant effect on the grid. Nobody had a hundred cars to begin with, let alone the money to buy them, so it was just sort of a science experiment. When the MINI E program started winding down, they had six hundred MINI Es, and all of them had this bidirectional charger feature that hadn’t really been implemented. I talked to BMW, and we

...they had six hundred MINI Es and all of them had this bidirectional charger feature that hadn’t really been implemented.

Charged: AC Propulsion also worked with the Taiwanese company Yulon on an electric version of the Luxgen minivan. What ended up happening with that?

Gage: Well, Luxgen also got a license to produce the drive system after Tesla did. We had their full cooperation. They also ended up buying quite a number of drive systems from AC Propulsion… they had a license to produce the drive system, but they ended up buying quite a number from AC Propulsion as well. I believe they built

44

”

Photo courtesy of Derrick Story/Flickr

several hundred of those Luxgen minivans, maybe more than that by now. Their whole program is essentially funded by the Taiwanese government, so it’s moving rather slowly.

Photo courtesy of Tom Gage - EV Grid

THE VEHICLES agreed that we could take some of the MINI Es and put them to use in a larger-scale V2G demo.

So, that was the start of EV Grid. Since then, we’ve gotten involved in quite a bit of other battery-related activity.

We took over the battery operation that AC Propulsion had - so now they’re just doing drive systems and we have a license for all of the battery and battery management technology. We’re also getting involved in battery second-use development, which the car companies are very interested in, because they see it as a way to capture residual value from the battery. There’s a lot of opportunity out there in the field of integrating EV batteries and the power grid, and we’re looking for commercialization prospects as we go forward.

Charged: Is there anything that’s not getting covered in the media a lot, something that people have overlooked, that could be an important trend on the EV scene?

Gage: The thing we’re looking at, not to say that we have a solution or anything, is the scale of EV commercialization. One percent of the fleet is over two million EVs. Ten percent would be twenty-five million, and the amount of battery capacity in terms of both power and energy that will then be connected to the grid is completely unprecedented, and that’s not widely recognized.

That level of battery capacity has to be integrated in the grid in a very intelligent, sophisticated, complex way, otherwise all these batteries will just be random loads on the grid without any control, and the grid will be in chaos. To provide the upgrades and other control schemes necessary as sort of a hodgepodge, a patch-up job, will degrade the usefulness of the grid. So, the level of integration has to be significant, and it probably has to involve a much greater degree of intelligence and communications and smarts that has so far eluded the utility industry. They’re very old-school, and they haven’t really been brought into the high-tech arena at all.

It’s partly because of the way they’ve been regulated and managed over the years, and partly just because they’re a very conservative industry.

“

Charged: They’re so fragmented. There are thousands of them and every state has different regulations.

Gage: Yes. They just have a completely different business model. In the auto industry you say, “What’s the investment, what’s the expected return, what’s the profit?” It’s a very straightforward way of looking at projects. The utility industry doesn’t look at it that way. We look at using car batteries as a way to support the grid and mitigate the effect of those very same batteries as a very costeffective approach. They say, what we need is giant batteries in a warehouse to offset all the batteries in the cars, which is probably the most expensive solution. But they see it as a way to get a return on their investment. It’s just a different way of looking at the world, and it’s all regulated.

It’s not totally governed by economics, it’s governed by politics as well. It’s going to be very interesting.

One aspect that’s having a big impact in my area is that the Department of Defense has bought into the idea of a smart grid in a big way because they see it as a missioncritical approach to operating a base in the future, so that they can be completely independent of the overall grid in the event of some kind of an emergency. So, what they’re doing is a little different from what has to be done in the commercial sphere, but it also does lend quite a bit of credibility to the idea that EVs will not just be a dumb load, but will be an active player in operating the grid.

They say, what we need is giant batteries in a warehouse to offset all the batteries in the cars, which is probably the most expensive solution.

”

FEB 2014 45

An

Graphics by Raji Purcell

Efficient Future Report:

Industry Report

The Effects of Fuel Economy and Emissions Regulations on the Automotive Sector

By Jeffrey Wishart, Ph.D. Jeffrey Wishart, a Senior Project Engineer at Intertek, conducts research and development on products and services in the areas of energy, the environment, and advanced transportation. In addition to his supervisory position at Intertek, Dr. Wishart worked for several years at ETEC LABS (the research and consulting division of ECOtality) and at a utility company in Queensland, Australia, conducting research into emerging energy technologies.

T

he automotive industry is undergoing significant changes, with a push for fuel economy increases and emission reductions that is driving development and technological advancement. There are indirect factors like geopolitical considerations and environmental concerns, but the largest drivers are three direct government mandates: 1. Corporate Average Fuel Economy regulations 2. California Air Resources Board zero-emission vehicle mandate 3. Federal emissions standards

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THE VEHICLES

Corporate Average Fuel Economy regulations Administered by the National Highway Transportation Safety Administration (NHTSA), Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) regulations were first enacted by Congress in 1975 in the wake of the Arab oil embargoes.

The purpose of the CAFE program is to increase the fuel economy of passenger vehicles and light trucks. The targets are sales-weighted and different for each original equipment manufacturer (OEM). Each OEM must ensure that its fleet meets its yearly target or face financial penalties.

In 1975, before the legislation was enacted, the average fuel economy of passenger vehicles was 13.5 mpg. In the original legislation, passenger vehicles and light trucks were treated separately. The legislation required passenger vehicles to achieve 18.0 mpg beginning in 1978.

The target increased to 27.5 mpg by 1985, In 1975, before and that goal was the legislation achieved. However, in the 1980s, the was enacted, requirements were the average eased by the NHTSA to 26.0 mpg for model fuel economy of 1986-1988, and passenger vehicles years then increased back was 13.5 mpg. to 26.5 mpg in 1989.

The easing was likely a result of OEM lobbying efforts, which claimed that consumers were looking for larger cars and engines as a result of lower gasoline prices.1 Concurrently, light trucks had to achieve 17.2 mpg and 15.8 mpg for two-wheel drive and four-wheel drive models, respectively, beginning in 1978. The two categories for light trucks were eventually combined into one, and the single target increased to 22.7 mpg for 2007.

There were no legislative changes to the CAFE program until 2007, when the targets for passenger vehicles and light trucks were combined into a single target of 35 mpg by 2025, with increases to begin in 2011. The concept of a vehicle “footprint” was introduced at that time as well, which is calculated by multiplying the wheelbase by the track dimensions. “Ceiling” and “floor” targets were set for passenger cars with footprints of 41 ft2 or less and

55-ft2 or greater, respectively, with a linear relationship between these two limits. Similarly, light trucks had ceiling and floor targets for footprints of 41 ft2 or less and 75 ft2 or greater.

In 2009, the Obama Administration pushed the standards much higher, mandating the overall target to be 34.1 mpg by 2016. Two years later, a target of 54.5 mpg was established for 2025. Incentives for electric vehicles (EVs), plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs) and fuel cell vehicles (FCVs) were also created through “multipliers,” which are 2 for EVs and FCVs and 1.6 for PHEVs in 2017 and phase down to 1.5 for EVs and FCVs and 1.3 for PHEVs in 2021.

The CAFE program has clearly incentivized the OEMs to increase fuel economy through various methods. The program specifies only the end goal, not the means.

The Obama Administration pushed the standards much higher in 2011, mandating a target of 54.5 mpg for 2025.

CAFE Facts

OEMs that do not meet their CAFE obligations must pay $5.50 per vehicle for every one-tenth of a mpg below their target that their fleet achieves.2 Passenger vehicles and light trucks were originally defined as vehicles with a gross vehicle weight rating (GVWR) of 6,000 lbs or less, but this definition was amended to 8,500 lbs or less in 1980.

The CAFE-derived fuel economy is, on average, some 28% higher than that derived from the full 5-cycle testing, and can be as high as 42% higher.3

FEB 2014 47

California Air Resources Board ZEV mandate The California Air Resources Board (CARB) is the department within the California Environmental Protection Agency tasked with improving the air quality of the state, and has vehicle emissions regulations as part of its mandate. CARB first developed its zero-emission vehicle (ZEV) mandate as part of the overall Low-Emission Vehicle regulations in 1990. It set a target for 1998 that 2% of vehicles for sale by large OEMs had to be ZEVs, increasing to 5% in 2001, and 10% in 2003. Due to several factors, including the technological and cost limitations associated with ZEV market introduction and OEM lobbying, the interim 2001 target was removed and the 2003 target was modified to include 2% ZEVs, 2% Advanced Technology partial-ZEVs, and 6% partial-ZEVs. The 2003 targets remained in place while negotiations between CARB and the automotive manufacturers took place. When the Environmental Protection Agency granted California its waiver in December 2012, the current round of the ZEV mandate went into effect. This mandate requires ZEVs (which include EVs and FCVs) and PHEVs to be sold in ever-larger numbers beginning in 2018. EVs and FCVs are considered full ZEVs under this mandate, while PHEVs get partial credit based on their all-electric range. EVs are further segmented into Types 1 through 5, which correspond to ranges and recharge times: a higher Type number earns the OEM more credits per vehicle sale. There is The mandated also a cap on the percentage PHEVs that an individual number of ZEV of OEM can sell to adhere to and PHEV sales the mandate. The mandated reaches 22% of number of ZEV and PHEV sales, as a percentage of overall sales in overall sales for each OEM, started at 11% in 2009 and 2025. reaches 22% in 2025 with a minimum of 16% being ZEVs (i.e., PHEVs cannot make up more than 6%).4 Many of the new ZEV vehicles have been delivered solely to the California market, and are known as “compliance vehicles” because they are only built to “comply” with the CARB mandate. There is little doubt that the CARB mandate has resulted in more ZEV development than would have happened in its absence, and the ever-increasing requirement is likely to stimulate further technological advancements.

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CARB ZEV Facts

CARB defines a “large OEM” as a manufacturer with production of 60,000 passenger vehicles, light-duty trucks, and medium-duty vehicles.

Manufacturers with lower production levels must meet less onerous ZEV requirements.

A partial-ZEV (PZEV) is defined as a vehicle that has no evaporative emissions from its fuel system, has a 15-year/150,000-mile warranty, and meets super-ultra-low-emission vehicle standards, meaning that it produces 90% fewer emissions than the average 2002 model year car.

An Advanced Technology partial-ZEV (ATPZEV) is a PZEV that either uses no gasoline or uses some advanced technology such as hybridization to achieve a higher fuel economy. CARB also introduced the Enhanced AT-PZEV (then changed it to Transitional PZEV) for PHEVs and hydrogen internal combustion engine vehicles (HICE). In order to achieve Transitional PZEV status, PHEVs must warranty their batteries for 10 years/150,000 miles. No OEM yet to offers this warranty. No production HICE vehicle is currently available.

The states that currently adhere to California emissions standards (known as “CARB states”), and may adopt the ZEV mandate, are: California, Connecticut, Delaware*, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Oregon, Pennsylvania*, Rhode Island, Vermont and Washington*. *These states do not include all warranty provisions, and the 150,000 mile/10 year requirement of CARB is not enforced.

ZEV credits can be earned by one OEM and sold to other OEMs. Tesla Motors sold the most credits between October 1, 2012 and September 30, 2013 with 1,311. GM bought the most with a total of 876. Because the sales are between private companies, the monetary values of the transactions are unknown.5

THE VEHICLES Federal emissions standards The federal emissions standards were first introduced as part of the Clean Air Act of 1963. The standards were enacted country-wide in 1968, and are currently enforced by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) for light-duty vehicles. In 1990, the Clean Air Act was amended and the standards strengthened. In the same year, California adopted the LEV regulations, which are more stringent than the federal standards. The standards regulate a variety of tailpipe emissions called criteria air contaminants (particulate matter, carbon monoxide, various nitrous oxides, total hydrocarbons, and non-methane hydrocarbons), and the federal standards have been tightened gradually through multiple phases6: • Tier 1: Phased in between 1994 and 1997, Tier 1 required vehicles to reach standards that placed cars into a single category and light trucks into four categories, based on weight.

• National LEV program: Beginning in 1999 for some northeastern states and nationally in 2001, this program was voluntary and served as a transition between the Tier 1 and Tier 2 standards.

• Tier 2: Phased in between 2004 and 2009, Tier 2 put all light-duty vehicles in the same emissions category, which was more stringent than Tier 1 standards.

Light-duty trucks and medium-duty passenger vehicles were also now included in the standard. Vehicles are assigned to a “bin” number between 1 and 11 (where 1 is the cleanest and 11 the dirtiest); however, Bin 11 was never applicable to passenger vehicles.

Bins 9 and 10 were eliminated after 2006 for passenger cars, and after 2008, Bins 9 through 11 were eliminated for light-duty trucks and medium-duty vehicles.

This means that currently, Bin 8 is the highest level of emissions that an applicable vehicle can have and be sold in the US. Tier 2 standards also reduced the sulfur content from a maximum of 200 ppm in 2004 to a maximum of 80 ppm in 2006. Diesel fuel was required to reduce the level of sulfur to a maximum of 15 ppm in the same year.

• Tier 3: These standards have been proposed, but not implemented at present, and the Tier 2 standards remain the current law. The Tier 3 standard would harmonize the federal emissions standard with California’s Low-Emission Vehicle program, which has already been implemented (for years 1994 through

2003) and strengthened for LEV II (phased in between 2004 and 2010) and for LEV III (to be phased in between 2015 and 2025)7. The Tier 3 standard would continue the reduction in tailpipe and evaporative emissions from vehicles and expand the coverage to some heavy-duty vehicles. The sulfur content of gasoline would also continue to be decreased.

The federal emissions standards are different from the CAFE standards in that there are no financial penalties vehicles that do not meet the standard cannot legally be sold. But US drivers continue to buy large vehicles (for instance, the Ford F-150 truck has been the best-selling vehicle for 32 consecutive years8), Vehicles that and other things being equal, larger vehicles produce more do not meet emissions than smaller ones. The the federal federal emissions standards are emissions therefore effecting a reduction in standards emissions per unit size of vehicle, and contributing to an overall re- cannot legally duction in emissions that results be sold. in improved air quality.

Emissions Standards Facts

The Obama Administration established rules in 2011 mandating a 20% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions for heavy-duty trucks from 20142018. New rules are being established for 2016, although the details have not yet been released.9 Test procedures for the federal emissions standards were modified and phased in between 2000 and 2004 to include the 5-cycle methodology, also known as the Supplemental Federal Test Procedure.

Mandated innovation While there is some debate about the amount of new technology that is needed to meet all three of these mandates, the targets are sufficiently ambitious that the OEMs must make significant changes to their fleets in the coming decade. As a result, there has been rapid development across the automotive industry, with each OEM devising a different strategy for meeting the targets.

FEB 2014 49

Conventional powertrain technology development: engines, lubricants, transmissions It can be argued that the era of large engines in passenger vehicles is mostly over. However, consumers today still want the same power and torque, in addition to fuel efficiency. Smaller displacement engines are being incorporated in cars (4-cylinders are replacing the V-8s), but automakers are exploring the use of superchargers and turbochargers to maintain power and torque at the desired levels (Ford’s celebrated EcoBoost engines are a prime example). These advanced engines often need specialized lubricants, use transmissions with higher numbers of gears, and must also run cleanly as emissions requirements become more strict. Development of conventional powertrain technologies like engines, lubricants and transmissions is generally an underappreciated avenue of meeting the government mandates for the OEMs, and all of the major automakers are diligently pursuing them.

materials must be overcome. Some advanced materials have inherent properties that allow for more thermal expansion, creep and warpage, and these concerns must be addressed whenever the materials are used. Finally, the costs of advanced materials must be reduced or their introduction will be severely hampered.

Alternative fuel adoption Alternative fuels with lower emissions than gasoline or diesel include ethanol, natural gas, propane, and hydrogen. All four are used in modified internal combustion engine vehicles, and hydrogen is also used in FCVs. With the exception of flexfuel vehicles (FFVs), there aren’t currently many alternative fuel models in production. FFVs have been on the market for over 100 years, and in fact, the Ford Model T was a flex-fuel vehicle, with gasoline and ethanol as the fuel options. There are currently some 15 million FFVs11 in the US, and the modern FFV can be fueled with either gasoline or E85, a blend of 51-85% ethanol and gasoline12, with only minor mechanical differences.

In 2011, GM led the way with 25 models, followed by 18 by Ford and 11 by Chrysler, which were nearly double the available models in 2007. The foreign OEMs marketed the balance, with 16 models spread amongst them. Sales of FFVs are higher in the Midwest due to proximity to the corn farmers and local support for this fuel, along with more ethanol infrastructure. Outside the Midwest, the infrastructure is far less common, and sales of FFVs are much lower. It is also common for an owner of an FFV to be unaware of the flex-fuel capability of the vehicle.

The fuel economy of an FFV running on E85 is calculated by ignoring the ethanol volume and only using the gasoline volume, thereby dramatically inflating the fuel economy value. The overall fuel economy is found by averaging the mpg values of the vehicle running on E85 and running on regular gasoline.13 FFVs can also help an OEM meet its CAFE requirements through what some critics say is a loophole in the standard, by which every FFV sale gives a credit to the OEM and will allow less fuel efficient vehicles to be sold. However, in the CAFE rules for 2017-2025, the OEM will be responsible for providing

The process for producing and forming these advanced materials, and the full cycle time, needs to be comparable to conventional materials.

Vehicle weight reduction In a recent DOE study10, it was demonstrated that a 10% reduction in vehicle mass can result in a 3-4% reduction in fuel consumption. Therefore, making vehicles lighter is a key component in reaching fuel economy mandates. In place of the traditional steel used in a car or truck, more lightweight materials are being used.

Current trends for advanced materials in the automotive industry are different for structural and nonstructural materials. In structural materials, the trend is increased usage of aluminum, high-strength steel, Glass Fiber Reinforced Polymer, Carbon Fiber Reinforced Polymer, and a hybrid of metal joined to polymers. Structural foam is beginning to be used as well. For non-structural components, the trends include more natural fiber polymers, unfilled thermoplastics, and foamed polymers.

The new materials cannot simply reduce weight. They must equal or improve upon the materials they replace in terms of structure, safety to the occupants and performance. From a manufacturing standpoint, the process for producing and forming these advanced materials, and the full cycle time, needs to be comparable to conventional materials. The challenge of joining dissimilar

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THE VEHICLES Photo courtesy of Ronira Fruhstuck/Flickr

Outside the Midwest, the infrastructure is far less common, and sales of FFVs are much lower.

The fuel economy of an FFV running on E85 is calculated by ignoring the ethanol volume and only using the gasoline volume. a reliable estimate of the actual amount of ethanol being used to fuel the FFVs it has sold in order to obtain CAFE credit. This stipulation could drastically reduce the value of an FFV sale to the OEMs, as the proportion of fueling of FFVs with ethanol is unfavorably low. Most FFVs are fueled with gasoline much more frequently. Of the approximately 13 million FFVs on the road in 2011, fewer than one million were actually fueled with E85.14 Ethanol is also blended with gasoline for regular fuel - up to 10%, as part of the Energy Security and Independence Act of 2007. This act mandated that a growing amount of renewable fuels be part of the conventional fuel system, from 9 billion gallons in 2008 to 36 billion gallons by 2022. In 2013, 14 billion gallons of corn ethanol and 2.75 billion gallons of more advanced biofuels such as cellulosic ethanol and biodiesel were blended.15 The ethanol mandate is very controversial and is seen by critics as an unnecessary subsidy of corn farmers to make a biofuel, with debatable environmental benefits, that drives up food prices (especially in Latin America).

A push to move to a 15% ethanol blend is currently being fought between ethanol and OEM lobbies; the latter believe that more ethanol in the blend will harm vehicle engines.

More advanced biofuels are less controversial but have problems with scaling to become significant.

Other than FFVs, alternative fuel vehicles (AFVs) are largely a mix of prototypes and low-volume production vehicles, mostly in fleet operations. In 2011, the total number of AFVs (excluding the 67,000-plus vehicles powered by electricity, which are often included in the AFV total) was 1.12 million vehicles. There were 139,000 liquid propane gas (LPG) vehicles, 118,000 compressed natural gas (CNG) vehicles, 3,436 liquefied natural gas (LNG) vehicles and 527 hydrogen vehicles. As a whole, the number of AFVs increased by over 10% from 19952011.16 The compressed natural gas Honda Civic NGV is selling in modest numbers, and Honda also has the FCX Clarity FCV, which has been available for lease at $600/ month in California since 2008 (there are only approximately 50 lessees17). Ford has announced the F-150 in CNG and LPG versions for the 2014 model year. These examples and the above numbers illustrate that AFV models do not account for a significant proportion of the US fleet. This may change with a recent push for more natural gas vehicles, most notably highlighted in the 2014 State of the Union address by President Obama. However, there is no guarantee that any alternative fuel will garner significant market share.

Powertrain electrification Many automotive insiders believe that the electrification of vehicles will only accelerate in the future. Vehicle electrification can take many forms. At one end of the spectrum, more robust 12 V batteries are required as more amenities are packed into vehicles. Next up are stop-start vehicles that shut down the engine at stops in order to save fuel. When the engine is off, at a red light for example, the alternator is not charging the battery or supplying power for amenities and peripheral equipment like air conditioning, windshield wipers, and dashboard

FEB 2014 51

Toyota photos Š CHARGED Electric Vehicle Magazine Citroen C2 Stop-Start Photo courtesy of Alan_D/Flickr

lighting. Many European vehicles sold now have stopstart capability, and it will begin to become commonplace in the US in the near future - with a possible fuel economy improvement of up to 10%. Some vehicles sold in the US already offer it, like the Ford Fusion, which offers a stop-start feature as a $295 add-on. Further along the electrification line are micro-hybrids, which have stopstart capability as well as an electric motor connected to the drivetrain. Stop-start vehicles and micro-hybrid vehicles are often confused, but micro-hybrids differ by providing regenerative braking capabilities.

Beyond micro-hybrid vehicles, a high-voltage (HV) battery can be used for propulsion and regenerative braking energy storage. A mild hybrid like the Chevrolet Malibu ECO has stop-start capability, and an electric motor assists the engine in propelling the vehicle at launch and during accelerations. The HV battery is recharged via the engine or through regenerative braking.

The next step along the spectrum is a full hybrid like the Toyota Prius. A full hybrid has stop-start capability,

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and its electric motor is sufficiently powerful to allow for all-electric driving capability, although some full hybrids only have all-electric launches. Micro, mild, and full hybrids make up the hybrid electric vehicle (HEV) family.

HEVs are much more efficient than conventional vehicles, but in order to achieve a truly significant reduction in petroleum usage, vehicles need to be propelled by off-board energy. With PHEVs, much more of the propulsion energy is electrical, and the efficiency of the vehicle increases dramatically.

The opposite end of the vehicle electrification spectrum to a conventional vehicle is the EV. With no ICE, the efficiency is some three times higher than a conventional vehicle. The drawbacks include shorter ranges and longer refueling times. However, for a commuter vehicle that travels a constant distance on a daily basis (which describes a majority of driving in this country), the EV is tough to beat. Furthermore, the EV is a ZEV, and can dramatically reduce local pollution and GHG emissions.

OEMs also have the option of a hybrid (pardon the

THE VEHICLES References

For more details about fuel economy and emissions regulations, consult our references: [1] Government Accountability Office (2007), “Vehicle Fuel Economy: Reforming Fuel Standards Could Help Reduce Oil Consumption by Cars and Light Trucks, and Other Options Could Complement These Standards,” Report to the Chairman, Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation, U.S. Senate.

[2] Congressional Budget Office (2003), “The Economic Costs of Fuel Economy Standards Versus a Gasoline Tax,” accessed February 11, 2014.

[3] Union of Concerned Scientists (2011), “Translating New Auto Standards into On-Road Fuel Efficiency,” accessed January 25, 2014.

[4] California Air Resources Board (2012), “Final Regulation Order: §1962.2 Zero Emission Vehicle Standards for 2018 and subsequent Model Year Passenger Cars, Light-Duty Trucks, and Medium-Duty Vehicles,” accessed January 21, 2014.

[5] S. Blanco (2013), “Tesla sells most ZEV green car credits, GM tops buyer list,” http://green.autoblog.com, accessed February 18, 2014.

[6] DieselNet, Emissions Standards-United States, Cars and Light-Duty Trucks - Tier 1, http://www.dieselnet.com/standards/us/ld.php, accessed January 24, 2014.

[7] California Air Resources Board (2013), “The California Low-Emission Vehicle Regulations,” accessed February 17, 2014.

[8] Ford media release (2014), “All-New Ford F-150 Redefines Full-Size Trucks as the Toughest, Smartest, Most Capable F-150 Ever,” accessed February 17, 2014.

[9] B. Walsh (2014), “White House to Toughen Fuel Standards for Heavy-Duty Vehicles,” accessed February 18, 2014.

[10] R. Carlson, H. Lohse-Busch, J. Diez, and J. Gibbs (2013), “The Measured Impact of Vehicle Mass on Road Load Forces and Energy Consumption for a BEV, HEV, and ICE Vehicle,” SAE Int. J. Alt. Power. 2(1):105-114, 2013, doi: 10.4271/2013-01-1457.

[11] J. Motavalli (2012), “Flex-fuel amendment makes for strange bedfellows”, New York Times, March 1, 2012, accessed Feb 13, 2014.

[12] National Renewable Energy Laboratory, http://www.afdc.energy.gov/ vehicles/flexible_fuel.html, accessed February 14, 2014.

[13] S. Davis, S. Diegel, and R. Boundy (2013), “Transportation Energy Data Book: Edition 32”, Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy, US Department of Energy, pp. 6-3.

[14] P. Bedard (2006), “Ethanol promises: Farm-raising our own energy independence: Could it happen?”, Car and Driver, accessed February 24, 2014.

[15] C. Kenny (2014), “Congress Wakes Up to the Bad News About Biofuels”, http://www.businessweek.com, accessed February 12, 2014.

[16] S. Davis, S. Diegel, and R. Boundy (2013), “Transportation Energy Data Book: Edition 32”, Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy, U.S., Department of Energy, pp. 6-3.

[17] A. Max (2010), “Hydrogen still in the eco-car race”, http://www. timesfreepress.com, accessed February 11, 2014.

[18] J. Berkowitz and C. Csere (2012), “The CAFE Numbers Game: Making Sense of the New Fuel-Economy Regulations”, http://www. caranddriver.com, accessed February 10, 2014.

Along with active grill shutters, technologies like electric heat pumps, stop-start systems, highefficiency lights, and solar panels can earn the OEM off-cycle credits. pun) of an AFV and vehicle electrification in the FCV. FCVs have zero emissions at the tailpipe, and although they are less efficient than EVs, refueling time and range can be comparable to a conventional vehicle.

Off-cycle credits Off-cycle credits are methods for reducing fuel consumption that are not reflected by dynamometer testing. For example, grill shutters that can close at highway speeds to reduce air drag will give real-world fuel economy numbers that will not show up on the EPA fuel economy label, thereby saving the consumer money. As a result, the federal government gives credit to the OEMs for including these technologies by allowing the OEM to adjust the EPA fuel economy number to help meet the CAFE fleet requirement. Along with active grill shutters, technologies like electric heat pumps, stop-start systems, highefficiency lights, and solar panels can earn the OEM offcycle credits. It should be noted that stop-start systems do affect the dynamometer test results, but the test result effects are small and the larger, real-world effects are not captured.18 The off-cycle credits are set to be implemented in the 2017-2025 timeframe.

An efficient future Big changes are afoot in the automotive industry, with no certain path forward. While the government mandates mean more efficient vehicles with fewer emissions, anybody who claims to know the exact mix of methods to meet the various mandates is, as the saying goes, either Lord, Liar, or Lunatic. Each OEM will direct its R&D in an idiosyncratic direction, and the ultimate decider will be the consumer.

Only time will tell how the market evolves for conventional vehicles, electrified vehicles, alternative fuels, and complementary technologies. The market of 2025 will no doubt be very different from the one we have today, and that can only be seen as a mark of progress.

FEB 2014 53

BRAM CEO Craig Bramscher on the founding, growth and future of the leading electric motorcycle company

By Charles Morris

MMO “

The common thread is seeing where technology’s going and getting on that wave.

Photo courtesy of Brammo

”

lectric motorcycles are one of the most interesting stories in the EV world today, both because of their recent impressive accomplishments on the racetrack and because of the future potential for high-volume sales, especially in international markets. Ashland, Oregon-based Brammo is one of the leading makers of two-wheeled EVs, and its story has much in common with that of a certain other up-and-coming EV manufacturer.

Founder Craig Bramscher is a serial entrepreneur who developed his business-building skills in the course of running several companies. Prior to Brammo, he was the founder and CEO of DreamMedia, a company that created some of the first large corporate websites before being acquired by USWeb in 1997. “The common thread is seeing where technology’s going and getting on that wave,” said Bramscher. “That’s what I think we’ve done again with Brammo.”

Bramscher told Charged the story of Brammo, which takes its name from a nickname of his that (somewhat ironically) evokes the sound of a noisy motorcycle. “Brammo actually started out as a cool hobby business. I planned on building a supercar for what I call ‘pro-athlete-size’ guys. At the time, people were pimping their Escalades and spending a few hundred thousand dollars to make them cool because there was no sports car that Shaquille O’Neal or big athletes could sit in. My goal was to build a car that was comparable, technology-wise, to a McLaren F1, but have it be American-designed, built and engineered. We were making great progress on that, but the world started to change, and a thousand-horsepower, thousand-foot-pound torque supercar with gas mileage you can’t even measure started to lose favor while we were developing it.”

“Also, even before we came to the conclusion that we needed something that was greener and still fun, we wanted to get our manufacturing chops down and improve our credibility as a new brand. So we licensed a car from the UK called the Ariel Atom [which holds the record for fastest 0-60 mph acceleration of any streetlegal car], and started to produce that in the US under our own brand, with refinements for the North American market. That opened a lot of doors for us, got us in front of a lot of people. Jay Leno was one of the first guys to buy one.”

One of the lessons Bramscher learned from working with the Ariel Atom was that American motorheads seem to get more excited about a car’s power-to-weight ratio than about sheer speed. “We don’t have an autobahn, so most people can’t really go two hundred miles an hour anyway. It’s more about the excitement of the torque and stepping on the pedal and getting mashed into the seat.

That’s how we really got to electric - it was the torque, it wasn’t the green, initially. We had worked on [an electric] prototype concept based on the Ariel Atom, because it was only a twelve-hundred-pound car. Where batteries and electronics were at that time, it started to make sense.”

However, the original licensor of the Ariel Atom demanded an exorbitant royalty rate, so Bramscher and company decided to build their own car instead. This was in the days before Tesla hit the headlines.

“We got so enamored of the electric performance that we realized, wow, there’s really something here, so let’s figure out if we can be one of the early folks to solve the problems of electric vehicles. But no matter how we did the math, we kept realizing that the batteries just weren’t quite there yet. The lithium-ion batteries were much better and made it feasible, but it still wasn’t quite enough range.”

Capital requirements were another factor. The Brammo team figured that they could probably get an electric motorcycle to market and become profitable with a couple hundred million dollars, whereas for a car, they’d

need a couple billion.

“So we focused on the motorcycle, and we knew it was actually a more challenging problem because of the amount of space and the power-to-weight ratio. A car or a bus has a lot more room and a lot more weight that we can deal with than a motorcycle. But we also thought that, if we could be one of the first great electric motorcycles, we will have solved problems that even the car makers won’t have to deal with yet. That’s kind of a nutshell version of why electric and why motorcycles.

It literally did start in my garage, and now we’re in a hundred-thousand-square-foot former Walmart building in Talent, Oregon. So it’s been a long road, but it’s been a great road.”

The technology was evolving fast, and Bramscher and his team were learning so much so quickly that they decided to delay the launch of their electric motorcycle until they really had it right. “You get enamored with a new idea or new technology, and it’s easy to say ‘Let’s launch it. It’s new. It’s different. It’s better.’ But I look at it like software: When you’re working on version 1.0, it’s hard to release version 0.5.”

“We struggled a lot early on with the whole battery problem because we assumed that multibillion-dollar companies that have been working on batteries for a long time would have a solution, and that we would never have to bother with that. It turns out, it just wasn’t the case and they weren’t moving fast enough. They weren’t pushing the envelope.”

don’t have an “We autobahn...It’s more about

the excitement of the torque and stepping on the pedal and getting mashed into the seat.

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”

Race on Sunday, sell on Monday As the new bike developed, it was spending a lot of time testing its mettle on the race track, so the team had a “laboratory of asphalt” where they were learning things that they wouldn’t have learned if they had focused solely on a production bike. “When Toshiro Honda said that Honda is what it is because of racing, I thought that was just an engineer’s excuse to get to go to the track. But, it really does turn out that, by setting deadlines like a race date or a speed performance level with a fixed time, you

THE VEHICLES

Brammo Empulse RR

Photos courtesy of Brammo

Brammo Enertia

push people to do things that are a little more outside the box. I think engineering in general is a conservative practice. It’s about safety and performance, but kind of safety first, and when you go racing, you move a little faster. I think there was probably two and a half years of development of racing that ended up leading to the Empulse.”

“We were working on the Enertia as a production bike - it wasn’t a racing bike. It wasn’t a scooter, but it wasn’t a Ducati Monster competitor yet, either. So, the Enertia came out really as a commuter and an alternative to a scooter, so you could be in the motorcycle club. It was upright and comfortable and fun and easy to ride and a blast and all of that. It wasn’t going to go a hundred miles an hour.”

However, racing continued to push Brammo to build high-performance bikes, such as its TTX, which made its

Brammo Empulse

debut in a race around the Isle of Man, and then evolved into the production Empulse and the new Empulse RR, a race bike that goes 170 miles an hour and has been beating some gas bikes in races. “That’s the future of the technology, and we’ll always follow that path and let racing help us accomplish both R&D and marketing and also pushing the envelope so we can continue to improve what we bring to production.”

Brammo is still actively engaged in racing. “It’s always a challenge, because motorsports is quite expensive. It’s not the biggest priority for capital, but it’s a priority. This year is very much focused on production. We’ll still be going to races, but it won’t be as big an effort until we’re ready to develop the next bike. I’d say 2015 will probably be a bigger year for racing again, as we continue to evolve. It is a big part of the heritage of the company, and it will continue to be.”

FEB 2014 57

“

Now, we’re signing up traditional motorcycle dealers that want to bring a new brand on - it just happens to be electric...

Dealing with dealers Brammo was hoping to distribute its bikes through Best Buy stores, but that deal didn’t work out. “In America, there are twenty to thirty million motorcycle riders, and to get in front of them, most people put bikes in motorcycle stores, and that’s a limited number of visits and impressions. Best Buy was getting hundreds of millions of visits a year, so the idea was to take the Enertia, which was appealing to people who understood electronics or that liked new technology, and [to sell it at] Best Buy. They were looking at electric vehicles in general for distribution, because they are an electronics store. I still believe it was a great idea, we ended up selling a lot of bikes in the few stores that we were in. But, I think it was so new for the blue shirt guys that it was hard to keep those people trained and get enough exposure with them, because of the turnover and

58

so forth. The other problem was that the market really changed for companies like Best Buy in 2009, after the 2008 debacle. So I think it was just a case of bad timing.”

“Around that time, the Empulse was coming out, and suddenly our products could be sitting alongside a BMW or a Ducati or a Harley or something like that, in a motorcycle store. So, now we’ve gone kind of full circle.

Now, we’re signing up traditional motorcycle dealers that want to bring a new brand on - it just happens to be electric but it’s competitive with gas.”

Brammo currently has fifty dealers, and plans to expand that number to a hundred pretty quickly.

”

Motorcycles in Paradise In an interesting parallel with Tesla, Brammo lucked into a chance to acquire an enormous new facility in an ideal

Photos courtesy of Brammo

THE VEHICLES

location, one that would offer it plenty of room to scale up future production. “We were planning on building a facility, and then that Walmart building became available in Talent, which is just one more exit off the freeway from where we were. It is a hundred thousand square feet and even though it’s more than we need today, it’s on target for what we need over the next few years as we scale up.

And it has allowed us to consolidate all of our efforts.

So, we’re set to scale to the point of profitability and high volume.”

“Oregon is super-supportive of green endeavors and clean tech and things like that, so we feel like we’re in the right place. Probably more important, there’s a sixtymile loop right outside our front door that’s one of the most amazing rides in the country. Even though we have seasons here, there are three hundred some-odd days of riding weather. It’s a great place for a company like this.

Having lived through the dot-com era, we want people to be here for the long haul and not get burned out and have a balanced life. They can go skiing or fishing or riding, and I think everybody’s better for it in the long haul.”

people like motorcycles, “Ifthere’s only so many cool

jobs. If you happen to like electric motorcycles, that pool is smaller.

”

The Ashland lifestyle was a help to the company as it recruited lots of talent from outside the area. “If people like motorcycles, there’s only so many cool jobs. If you happen to like electric motorcycles, that pool is smaller.

The electrical engineers and mechanical engineers that love racing and motorcycles and all that - if we can get them to visit, they usually fall in love.”

Electrifying the world Brammo has big plans for international expansion.

“Now that the 2014 Empulse is homologated, we can

FEB 2014 59

around [electromagnetic compatibility], the things that happen when you have a lot of electronics on board.

Those challenges are unique for Europe versus the US, so we have to make sure the bike would be street legal in both locations, and once it is, then we can start selling them there.”

market “In the European motorcycles are

transportation - in North America, they’re really recreation, so there’s a bit of a difference in demand and interest.

”

Photos courtesy of Brammo

expand into Europe. In the European market motorcycles are transportation - in North America, they’re really recreation, so there’s a bit of a difference in demand and interest.”

“We’re already in Hong Kong with Jackie Chan, who is actually our distributor through a company there. We’ve got the footprint, and now we need to build up sales and produce product. We were somewhat constrained before in our space, but now we have the ability to scale up based on demand. This year is about getting bikes into customers’ hands and growing the brand, so the word starts to spread.”

Making sure the bikes are street legal in different international markets is an ongoing effort. “There are rules to get any new bike on the street and every year they need to be homologated for that. Because electric is so new, there are different rules around it. Obviously, emissions are no problem, and obviously the testing that we’ve done makes the bike very safe. Questions arise

THE VEHICLES

The 2014 Empulse embodies many new and improved components 2014 and beyond The 2014 Brammos feature a lot of refinement and subtle improvements over last year’s models. “To the naked eye, it’s pretty similar to the previous year, but the refinements are there at almost every level, so it’s a second-generation version of the bike that is more refined and super highquality. Now that we’ve launched the battery warranty as well, we really refined the battery packs, which are Brammo-designed, engineered and built.”

Brammo bikes feature a 3 kW Level 2 charger. DC fast charging could be a practical option for the future.

“We do it on the race bikes now. There’s two ways to get production cost down on a vehicle. One is to get the cost of batteries down and the other one is to have to put less battery on board. The only way you’re going to get to that is fast charging. I think that’s where the industry is going to go.”

“If it’s a bigger bike, say a thousand-CC equivalent with a lot more battery on board, Level 3 charging really changes the game for that. The standards are developing for Level 3, so we’re always keeping an eye on it and seeing what BMW and Nissan and all those guys are doing, because as those charging stations evolve, we need to follow that and make sure we’re compatible with

Our R&D will never stop “ until electric is as mature as gas, and it took a hundred years for gas...

”

whatever the latest and greatest car charging network is.”

Brammo has an eye on the next iteration already. “The technology continues to evolve at a pretty rapid pace. Our R&D will never stop until electric is as mature as gas, and it took a hundred years for gas to get to where it is today, so there’s a lot of work to be done on electric. We’ll see more and more range and a little bit more speed out of subsequent years of each product.”

“We’re also looking at other platforms we can go after.

The Empulse is really a sport bike, alongside a Triumph Triple or a Ducati Monster or something like that. There are other segments that we’re interested in pursuing everything from dirt bikes to cruisers to large scale bikes - but they’re always limited by the technology.”

Brammo is also exploring the possibility of building drivetrains beyond two wheels. It’s developing a

FEB 2014 61

it’s similar to people who “Ibuythinka Tesla...at the end of the day,

you want something that’s cool and fun if you’re going to spend the money on it.

Taking it to Wall Street Brammo has been talking about an IPO, but the goal is to achieve profitability first. “I’ve been vocal about an IPO as a goal of the company. Time moves on and things always take longer than you’d like, so the ultimate goal is to have a path to great profitability and go public. I should probably stop suggesting a time. We’re going to do it as

62

soon as it’s appropriate and we’re always working with the investment bankers from New York to keep them abreast of where we are, so that when the timing is right, both for the market and for Brammo, we’ll move down that path.”

“Our goal is to go public and be profitable on less than two hundred million dollars total capital in the company, whereas, if you look at Tesla or any car company, it’s a couple billion dollars. It’s an order of magnitude less capital, but you still need to raise it, so we’re almost always out raising money to get us to the next stage.”

Brammo currently has around seventy employees, a number that will probably grow as it raises more capital.

It doesn’t release production or sales numbers, but may start doing so as its get closer to the IPO. Along with raising more capital, the company’s other top priority is expanding into European and Asian markets, which it sees as the key to remaining a market leader. BMW has announced plans to produce an electric scooter, and Bramscher expects all the other motorcycle

Photo courtesy of Brammo

relationship with Polaris, the leading builder of utility and neighborhood EVs, which recently acquired Gem Vehicles and the European company Goupil, and is very interested in offering electric versions of its products.

“They are investors and there are some things we still can’t go into too much detail about. We’re a great fit with them - they’re very helpful to us in scaling the company in terms of their know-how and expertise. They’re obviously the leading side-by-side manufacturer in the world, so we’re working on things with them that will bring our technology and their capability to market.”

”

THE VEHICLES companies to get into the market sooner or later. Several of them have prototypes or concepts out there. “Almost all of them stay in contact with us, probably to get in touch with what we think the market’s doing because we’re obviously out there, focused on it a hundred percent. We have some idea where everybody is, and we believe we have an advantage. Obviously, those are very big companies, so we want to work to get market share, so as the market evolves, we can be in a good position.”

There are several other manufacturers dedicated to electric motorcycles, but each one seems to occupy a different niche. Bramscher sees Zero as a possible competitor for the Enertia. “They evolved from a mountain bike developer and originally designed it lightweight, so the earlier bikes were a lot different than the bikes today. They had really focused originally on dirt, and we had always focused on the road. So, we’re looking at dirt and they’re pushing more toward the road. I think there’s room for all of them out there.”

Changing the way consumers think about EVs Qualcomm is redefining the way EVs are charged with its Qualcomm Halo™ Wireless EV Charging technology.

WEVC untethers the EV from unwieldy cables and delivers a little and often charging solution for anytime – anywhere wireless charging. qualcommhalo.com

Ride one, and you’re hooked An electric motorcycle may seem like a niche product, but that may change as more and more riders experience them. “What we’ve found is, if we get people who love motorcycles on the bikes, they’re always stunned with both the performance and the fact that in many ways it’s a better experience. Anybody who loves a motorcycle and rides this has a good shot at buying one. The total cost of ownership is cheaper, and these things handle amazingly well, because of the weight distribution and the way we’ve designed it.”

“Most of the people who are buying the Empulse have had multiple bikes and are kind of refined motorcyclists in terms of sophistication. There’s another batch of them who just love new technology and probably wouldn’t be riding a bike. But once it’s electric, they’re there. I think it’s similar to people who buy a Tesla - they may be a car lover, or they may be interested in the zero emissions.

But, at the end of the day, you want something that’s cool and fun if you’re going to spend the money on it.”

CURRENTevents DENSO tests wirelessly charged delivery truck The University of Delaware and the state Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control (DNREC) will collaborate on a pilot program to install a few strategically placed EV charging stations to enable long trips in the state.

The new project, which has a budget of $80,000, will take into account driver convenience, as well as traffic patterns to major destinations, in choosing locations for five or six new charging stations. Planners noted that, in the Mid-Atlantic region, public chargers are clustered within metropolitan areas like Philadelphia and Baltimore, and are not well located for en-route charging.

The 16 kW stations will be no more than 50 miles apart, making the entire state within an electric car’s range. The service will be offered free to users through at least 2014.

“A well-planned electrical highway in Delaware makes it easier for drivers of electric cars both from Delaware and surrounding states to patronize Delaware tourist destinations - from nightlife on the Riverfront to popular shopping districts to our beaches,” said Nancy Targett, dean of UD’s College of Earth, Ocean, and Environment (CEOE). “Of course, environmentally, air pollution and the need for gasoline are reduced.”

“Through our innovative partnership with the University of Delaware, our state will help accelerate the widespread adoption of electric vehicles throughout the Mid-Atlantic region and seize both greater air quality and economic development benefits for our state,” said DNREC Secretary Collin O’Mara. “No longer will any Delawareans or visiting owners of electric vehicles have to worry about running out of electricity while traveling in the First State.”

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Photos courtesy of DENSO

Delaware project to bring entire state within EV range

Global automotive supplier DENSO is beginning a ten-month field test of its wireless battery charging system in Toyota City, Japan. The test is intended to identify any potential operational issues and look at ways to enhance the convenience of wireless charging.

For the test, DENSO has equipped a Yamato Transport delivery truck to wirelessly receive the energy from a transmission pad located on the pavement of a 7-Eleven parking lot. The electricity in the truck’s battery will be used to power the truck’s refrigeration system while the engine is stopped during pickups and deliveries.

DENSO is working to reduce the size, weight, and cost of its wireless charging system, which it plans to commercialize by 2020.

THE INFRASTRUCTURE

Image courtesy of Fraunhofer ESK

Fraunhofer ESK develops communication methods for V2G To enable the intelligent grid of the future, Fraunhofer ESK is developing underlying communication methods for a uniform energy management system. At the Hannover Trade Fair in April, ESK researchers will demonstrate how a charging station can serve as an interoperable node between an EV and a network control center, using the ISO/IEC 15118 and IEC 61850 standards.

Digital communication before, during and after charging is crucial for vehicle authentication, timedelayed charging and dynamic billing models, and also allows charging station operators to offer customers a range of value-added services. This requirement led to the creation of the ISO/IEC 15118 standard.

“Our experience has shown that charging station manufacturers are still shying away from the standard because the implementation is too complex,” says Dr. Erik Oswald from Fraunhofer ESK. “For this reason, we developed a reference installation that significantly streamlines the implementation.”

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As part of the SmartV2G research project sponsored by the EU, ESK researchers developed an enhancement of the 15118 standard to effect communication between the charging station and the EV. To date, energy providers and grid operators have used proprietary protocols to communicate with elements in their networks. With the enhancement and implementation of the IEC 61850 standard, Fraunhofer ESK now offers one standard for communicating with all elements in a network, enabling simple integration of charging stations and EVs into the smart grid.

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THE INFRASTRUCTURE

Sun Country Highway to use ABB dual-port fast chargers

Hawaii bill would require EVSE in parking lots

Senate Bill 2651 would apply to parking lots with 100 spaces or more, and would go into effect in 2015. The bill was approved unanimously by the Senate Committee on Energy and Environment on January 30. It moves next to the Committee on Judiciary and Labor before coming up for a third and final reading in the Senate.

The measure would establish fines of $1,000 and up for parking lot owners who fail to provide the required charging stations. Scofflaws would be allowed 120 days to comply.

Several EV organizations and a dozen individuals testified in support of the bill.

Photo courtesy of ABB

The Hawaii State Senate is considering a bill that would require owners of parking lots to provide at least one exclusive space equipped with an EV charging station.

Canadian charging operator Sun Country Highway has announced a partnership with ABB, and will add the EVSE giant’s 400 V DC dualport chargers to its network, which already includes hundreds of Level 2 charging stations.

“We plan to move ahead with 20 or more installations this year,” said Christopher Misch, Vice President of Sun Country Highway. “Quick charging is well known to help EV owners get farther more quickly, while also minimizing range concerns that potential and future EV drivers may have when making a decision about purchasing an electric vehicle.”

“DC fast chargers are very complementary to existing charging infrastructure,” added Misch.

“Studies show that 80‐90% of electric vehicle charging is done at home or at the workplace. But to make interstate travel more realistic, faster charging is imperative.” Locations targeted for the new DC charging stations include shopping malls and highway service centers.

“We love the versatility of dual-port CHAdeMO and SAE Combo that ABB brings to the table because it means that no EV with DC charging capability is left out of the picture,” said Misch. “Whether someone owns a Mitsubishi iMiEV, Nissan LEAF, Tesla Model S, BMW i3, or any other EV coming to market, we will have a charging solution to get drivers to 80% state of charge in about 25 minutes.”

FEB 2014 67

CURRENTevents

ABB to supply DCFCs for China’s DENZA EV

Sumitomo Corporation has developed and installed the first large-scale power storage system that uses used EV batteries. This prototype commercial-scale (600 kW, 400 kWh) storage system consists of sixteen used EV battery packs.

Located on Yume-shima Island, Osaka, the system began operation in February. Over the next three years, Sumitomo will measure the facility’s smoothing effect on energy output fluctuation from the nearby Hikari-nomori solar farm.

Sumitomo and Nissan created the joint venture 4R Energy Corporation in 2010, to address the secondary use of EV lithium-ion batteries. The used EV batteries that will be recycled into this storage system have gone through thorough inspection and maintenance at 4R, to confirm safety and performance.

Sumitomo’s Battery Business Development Manager Norihiko Nonaka said, “We are pleased to be a part of such an important verification project that can both utilize used EV batteries and provide a large-scale power storage facility, which are important issues that need to be addressed for the future of renewable energy.”

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Photo courtesy of Sumitomo Corporation

Solar power storage system uses EV batteries

Power and automation technology group ABB has announced a strategic collaboration with BYD Daimler New Technology (BDNT) to supply DC fast chargers over the next six years for the DENZA EV, which is scheduled to make its debut at the Auto China trade fair in Beijing in April.

The Chinese government has introduced a DC fast charging standard called GBT, which will enable drivers to charge their vehicles at home or at public charging stations, according to ABB. Public DC fast charging is expected to be rolled out in China soon.

ABB’s wall-mounted chargers, which feature a mobile app that allows remote control of charging sessions, will be sold through DENZA dealerships along with the vehicles. First deliveries are expected in mid-2014.

“We are honored to be a partner in this venture to move urban transportation forward in a more sustainable way. By combining car sales with fast chargers, DENZA is taking a bold step to address a key obstacle for potential buyers of EVs,” said Ulrich Spiesshofer, CEO of ABB Group. “ABB’s EV charging solutions have been expanding rapidly worldwide as the underlying technology combines our key strengths in power electronics, software, service and power distribution.”

The fully electric DENZA is designed for journeys of more than 200 km. BDNT’s market research shows that Chinese consumers value long-range EVs, and expect short charging times. The first DENZA dealership is scheduled to open in Beijing in the middle of this year, with outlets in Shanghai and Shenzhen soon to follow.

“The DENZA represents a significant step in sustainable transportation for the Chinese automotive market. It was vital that we had the right partner to support this innovative concept,” said Arno Roehringer, COO of BDNT. “ABB is the ideal technology partner for us, and - equally important - it has the service expertise to install this solution.”

THE INFRASTRUCTURE

CHAdeMO spreading, Association preaches coexistence The Japanese-backed DC fast charging standard is steadily spreading across the globe. Nissan recently installed Europe’s 1,000th CHAdeMO charger, and growth in Japan and the US has been similarly swift. As of January 2014, there were 1,967 CHAdeMO chargers in Japan, 1,020 in Europe and 554 in the US. According to a recent statement from the CHAdeMO Association, these chargers serve over 131,000 EV drivers, accounting for two thirds of the passenger EV market.

“We are pleased to see this result, as this is a clear testimony that CHAdeMO fast charging technology has won the trust of investors and consumers alike in different countries in Europe,” said Jorge Sanchez, the CHAdeMO Association’s European President.

CHAdeMO fast chargers can be found in 25 countries across Europe. Ireland, Denmark and Estonia have established nationwide CHAdeMO charging networks, and Norway and the Netherlands are expected to follow suit soon.

Even as it crows about the rapid rise of its standard,

the CHAdeMO Association is pushing for peaceful coexistence with the Combo standard that’s backed by the European Parliament and the German automakers. In its statement, the Association said that “multisystem chargers that are equipped with multiple connectors should be the answer going forward.”

“With multi-standard chargers, EV drivers can simply select, like Regular and Diesel, the right connector for the EV they drive,” affirms Joseph Beretta, President of AVERE-France. “Depending on the EV mix of the region, this can be an attractive and practical solution for EV drivers, investors, and automakers. More than anything, such multi-standard chargers should help accelerate emobility in Europe, which is essential.”

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On the

Right Track Born of a Korean academic invention, OLEV Technologies’ dynamic wireless inductive charging system lets vehicles top up while in motion, potentially trimming battery pack sizes by two-thirds.

By Markkus Rovito

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THE INFRASTRUCTURE

W

Inductive charging has largely remained one of those technologies that always seems a few years away.

hen one thinks of Nikola Tesla and electric vehicles, the obvious connection points to Elon Musk’s favorite part-time project. However, we also have to give the Serbian inventor proper credit for pioneering technology that eventually may become even more important to EVs than battery breakthroughs. Tesla’s obsession with wireless power transmission defined much of his life. When he first demonstrated wireless energy transfer in 1891, he may not have thought about using the breakthrough to power a motor carriage - an invention a mere five years old at the time - although we wouldn’t put it past him.

We know that in many ways Tesla was far ahead of his time, and it was more than a century after his first wireless power demonstration that a form of wireless energy transmission known as inductive charging would be used to juice up the infamous General Motors EV1 and others such as the Toyota RAV4 EV. Those Magne Charge (also known as J1773) chargers used induction, but they still required the insertion of a paddle-type plug into the vehicle.

Hands-free inductive charging made a quiet debut in 2002, when the Italian cities of Turin and Genoa activated a couple dozen electric buses that were charged with induction coils installed in the bus chassis and at stopping points along the route. The German company ConductixWampfler produces the Inductive Power Transfer (ITP) system, which is still in use today. However, like hydrogen vehicles, inductive charging has largely remained one of those technologies that always seems a few years away.

FEB 2014 71

Finally, those years for inductive charging are creeping up on us. In addition to Conductix-Wampfler, companies like Qualcomm, Momentum Dynamics, WiTricity, Evatran and WAVE have systems on the path to wide commercial availability.

A key turning point may have been in 2009, when WiTricity demonstrated wireless inductive power at a TED conference, and Evatran, maker of the Plugless Power EVSE based on inductive charging, was founded.

That was also the year that researchers at the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST) first tested its On-line Electric Vehicle (OLEV) system.

This inductive charging scheme uses a technology called Shaped Magnetic Field in Resonance (SMFIR), which places lengths of cable beneath the street surface and allows compatible vehicles to receive a charge automatically while still in motion. In 2009, KAIST installed a system on its own campus and was able to charge vehicles inductively with 60 percent efficiency over a gap of 12 cm.

Since then, KAIST has steadily improved all aspects of OLEV, and spun off the technology into two companies: OLEV Korea and OLEV Technologies in Boston, launched in 2011. With a recently appointed CEO and a new round of angel funding, OLEV Technologies is poised to commercialize its wireless charging technology for commercial and industrial EVs in the US. Power strips Bryan S. Wilson, CEO and President of OLEV Technologies since December, arrived at the company 12 years after founding and successfully growing Northeast Wireless Services, which developed infrastructure for broadband wireless service providers. While his new post also deals with growing a wireless infrastructure business, it’s a whole new world for the executive. Still, he thinks that OLEV’s unique technology and cost-saving propositions practically speak for themselves.

For example, compared to OLEV’s 2009 results, the system can now charge with 85 percent efficiency at 100 kW over a gap of 20 cm. And with OLEV, vehicles can charge while in motion.

“Instead of having a coil that creates the inductive field - basically a dot like a manhole cover that the vehicle has to be stationary over, our inductive charging system is linear and charges in a strip,” Wilson said. “The vehicle can be charged either moving or stationary. A bus might

72

OLEV’s system can now charge with 85 percent efficiency at 100 kW over a gap of 20 cm. And vehicles can charge while in motion. stop for three minutes and pick up a charge, but if that bus needs additional power to go up a steep hill, our system can send the power directly to the motor while in motion.”

Last August, OLEV Korea set up its system for two buses in Gumi, South Korea, each running a continuous 24 km inner-city route. As an example of a typical application of the OLEV charging system, charging apparatuses are installed beneath the street in strips of concrete-encased wires 5 m at a time. The wires create the inductive charge, and when needed are placed in series, as in the case of “take-off segments” - 20 m strips that provide an extra lift for accelerating up hills.

“If it’s a 20 m strip, it’s not all 20 m turned on at the same time,” Wilson said. “It’s only 5 m turned on at any given time. They all run off of the same inductive inverter, so if you have five segments of charging strip, you don’t need five different electronic controllers - it’s all controlled by the same unit.”

The inductive charging begins almost instantaneously as soon as the vehicle is within reach of the charging electronics. Naturally, the idea is to install only as much charging infrastructure as needed - usually 10-15 percent of a total route, according to Wilson - but there is no limit to the length of the segmented charging strips.

“Obviously, if there’s one 5 m strip, and the vehicle’s running at 50 mph, it’s not going to pick up much of a charge,” Wilson said. “But the segments turn on and off as the vehicle goes over them. You theoretically could have an endless strip - the vehicle would charge the whole time it’s going regardless of the speed - and you’d never run out of battery charge. You could put in one of our charging systems around the Indianapolis Speedway and run a bus around it at 100 mph forever.”

Benefits & applications That life-size Hot Wheels racetrack scenario sounds like a blast, but OLEV rather has its sights set on economizing the performance of many types of heavy-duty industrial

Image courtesy of OLEV Technologies

THE INFRASTRUCTURE

Battery Reduced capacity by as much as twothirds

Pick-up System Power collection with high transmission efficiency installed on vehicle underbody

and commercial vehicles. By reducing the amount of batteries that such vehicles need by as much as twothirds, OLEV’s system can also reduce the weight and cost of vehicles, according to Wilson, while allowing them to stay in service longer with its high-power charging.

Each of the current OLEV pickups charges at 20 kW, so on a large vehicle installation, five pickups along the bottom of the chassis would combine for a 100 kW charge rate. The OLEV companies and KAIST are working on a system that would charge at 200 kW, to hit the marketplace soon.

“Because we can charge at 100kW, we are most suited for transit buses or off-road vehicle applications, like airport equipment, cargo ship terminal equipment or mining equipment,” Wilson said. “Anything where a vehicle needs to be in service for a long period of time

Powered Track Economically-competitive in-road power supply

OLEV’s system can also reduce the weight and cost of vehicles, while allowing them to stay in service longer with its high-power charging. and needs to have no emissions, or reduced emissions.”

The high power of the OLEV charging system currently makes it impractical for consumer vehicles because of the equipment needed on the vehicle. “The pickups themselves are designed for high-power transfer, and weigh about 400 lbs apiece,” Wilson said, “so it wouldn’t make sense to put something like that on a Nissan LEAF. But it sure makes sense to put it on a 40,000 lbs transit bus if you can save thousands of pounds in battery weight by doing that. So we’re probably not going to compete

FEB 2014 73

Photo courtesy of OLEV Technologies

THE INFRASTRUCTURE

“

in the space with WiTricity It sure or Plugless, which are trying makes sense to do an installation for to put it on somebody’s driveway or a 40,000 garage.”

OLEV’s specific market lbs transit niche gives it the advantage bus if you of going after service vehicles can save that currently show a total cost of ownership savings thousands when electrified, and then of pounds making their lifetime in battery costs even lower. Wilson weight. also mentioned that it doesn’t hurt that there are currently federal and other subsidy dollars available to municipalities to add electric buses to their rosters.

“It’s attractive for operators to pay the premium for electric busses right now,” Wilson said. “In terms of acquisition costs, electric buses aren’t really competitive with diesel busses, but for total cost of ownership, they’re much more attractive. Our infrastructure that goes in the road can charge all of the buses on that route. So if you have 10 buses that typically run a 10-mile route around the city, and you can reduce the batteries by two-thirds on all of them, then it’s more of a cost savings using our technology. These things are easy to install overnight at a low cost. There are no moving parts; there are not a lot of electronics. What goes on the bus is just an inductive pickup. There’s a small box that goes on the roadside that connects to the electrical grid. The system’s really low maintenance.”

With OLEV’s SMFIR system on the verge of going into production, the company is seeking capital that would enable it to produce the hardware in the United States, rather than ordering it from Korea. Concurrently, Wilson is courting as many potential customers as possible. “We are reaching out to electric bus companies, municipalities, marine terminal operators, mining companies, airlines and anybody who has an electric vehicle they need to keep in service and either reduce costs or weight,” Wilson said.

OLEV’s system can potentially save its customers additional money by avoiding standalone large-capacity recharging facilities, and save employee person-hours

”

“

by eliminating the need for battery swaps and other tasks. Wilson gave the example of industrial warehouse forklifts, which are often subject to expensive battery swapping. “With our system, they never have to go offline,” Wilson said. “They can recharge while in motion, or the operator can just park it in a certain place to recharge. Potential customers also have told us that in situations where they need to plug in a vehicle to recharge the batteries, a specific employee has to do that - they can’t just let the operator plug it in. It has to do with union regulations and operational protocols.”

Because the OLEV SMFIR system is not a pantograph-type system like the one commonly used on electrified streetcars, the vehicles can move off the specified route at any time. That makes it attractive in cases where a set route is usually followed but is not constant, like the aforementioned warehouse vehicles or airport baggage handling systems and aircraft tugs.

The possibilities for KAIST’s system, which is now in pilot programs in the Seoul, Jejudo, Daejeon, and Sejong regions of South Korea, are legion. And now, four years after SMFIR was named to Time Magazine’s 50 Best Inventions of 2010, this could be its time to make its mark on American transportation and industrial efficiency.

With our system, they never have to go offline.

”

FEB 2014 75

Telefonix bets on slower and more affordable commercial charging stations

By Charles Morris

76

Image courtesy of Telefonix

Level FOR ALL

THE INFRASTRUCTURE

W

If you’ve ever pulled the phone out of the armrest on an airplane, you’ve used one of Telefonix’s retractable cord reels.

hile most of the discussion about commercial EVSE seems to revolve around peoples’ desire for ever-faster charging, Telefonix has taken the opposite approach, producing what is designed to be the first true commercial Level 1 charging station on the market.

Like many another great idea, the inspiration for the L1 PowerPost came as a serendipitous observation in the course of developing a different product.

Telefonix has a long history in the aviation business, making retractable cord reels and other electronic products. If you’ve ever pulled the phone out of the armrest on an airplane, you’ve used one of Telefonix’s retractable cord reels.

Two years ago, Allen Will, the company’s Director of Business Development, saw a need in the EV charging marketplace for a retractable cord reel, so Telefonix designed a reel for a Level 2 charging station. After that product was designed and prototyped, it occurred to Will that there was a greater need for commercial Level 1 charging station products. He realized that many charging station users are parking their cars all day - at work, for example - so their vehicles are charged within a couple of hours, and a more costly Level 2 charger may sit idle for the rest of the day.

With this in mind, Telefonix developed the L1 PowerPost, a commercial Level 1 charging station with a heavy-duty retractable cord reel. It’s designed to be a low-cost, simple and easy-to-use piece of equipment that meets the needs of people who are parked for half a day or more.

FEB 2014 77

Charged spoke with Robert Tortorello, Telefonix’s Director of Sales & Marketing, who told us how the company introduced the L1 PowerPost at a conference in May 2013, and started shipping in September. One of the first orders was for the Denver International Airport. “Airports are a perfect location for commercial Level 1 - most people are parked at the airport for at least a day. Those stations are, in fact, being used quite a bit. They installed ten units and now report consistently high usage.”

More orders from universities and workplaces followed. At the time, Level 1 wasn’t covered by any of the state and federal programs that offer incentives for installing commercial chargers. Telefonix became active in the Illinois EV Advisory Council, and worked with the state of Illinois to include Level 1 commercial charging stations in its incentive program, which offers a fifty percent rebate, with a cap of $7,500.

For installations where Level 1 charging is appropriate, the cost savings versus Level 2 are significant. Level 2

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“

Most people don’t travel much more than twenty miles each way to get to work, and that can easily be recovered with the Level 1 unit in four or five hours.

”

chargers can cost up to $6,000 per unit, but the L1 PowerPost is priced at $1,495.

Ongoing electricity costs are also a factor. “Many facilities are billed for electricity based on their peak energy demands,” says Tortorello. “If you’ve got enough Level 2 units at 30 or 40 amps each, that could add just enough to the peak energy demand to boost the facility into another electric rate bracket. Most people don’t travel much more than twenty miles each way to get to work, and that can easily be recovered with the Level 1 unit in four or five

Photo courtesy of Telefonix

THE INFRASTRUCTURE

“

Typical consumer cord reels have brushes and slip rings.

The one made by Telefonix has a continuous electrical connection from end to end...there’s no possibility of sparking or arcing.

”

hours. Even if you go thirty miles, you can recover that in the eight hours that you’re in your office. It spreads out that energy use quite nicely, without the risk of being pushed into a higher electricity rate.”

Telefonix’s rugged retractable cord reels are another selling point. Denver International’s RFP mentioned its concern about cords lying on the ground, which could trip people, or be damaged.

A skeptic might ask, “Why not just install some 120-

volt outlets?” However, a standard electrical receptacle isn’t designed for EV drivers to be plugging in and out several times a day. “If you check into the UL testing of an outlet, they only test receptacles for about 50 cycles,” says Tortorello. “Secondly, you’re going to have people with EVs plugging in their cord set, which presents a theft risk. That cord set, as you know, is expensive; it’s at least $400 to replace.”

“The retractable cord reel made by Telefonix is not at all like a cord reel you may purchase at your local hardware store - such as a trouble light,” Tortorello explains. “Typical consumer cord reels have brushes and slip rings. The one made by Telefonix has a continuous electrical connection from end to end. As a result, there’s no possibility of sparking or arcing. It is also completely waterproof. UL tested it to 6,000 cycles, but Telefonix engineering tests have exceeded 20,000 cycles. We expect that cord reel to last for the life of the unit.”

Along with many industry observers, Tortorello has

FEB 2014 79

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THE INFRASTRUCTURE come to the conclusion that charging EV drivers for electricity is not necessarily the best solution. “At Denver International, they looked at the cost of the electricity, and found that it’s typically less than a dollar a day, so they decided not to charge people for that and make it part of the overall parking experience. A lot of corporate parking lots are looking at the same thing. The reason is

the energy costs are quite minimal, but the equipment to try and collect money - credit card readers and RFID and all the other types of devices - adds cost and complexity.

Often, when a charging unit is down, it’s not because of the actual charging components, but because of the communication or revenue-collecting devices that are in it.

Our approach was to keep this as simple as possible, but we are working on low-cost, optional modules for networking, metering and payment if a customer truly needs that functionality. There are a lot of potential customers that are interested in knowing when, as well as how much energy was used.”

“

Photo by CHARGED Electric Vehicle Magazine

Often, when a charging unit is down, it’s... because of the communication or revenue-collecting devices that are in it.

”

One issue that the charging industry is closely following is the question of whether the IRS is going to decide that workplace charging constitutes a taxable benefit. “We’re not sure how that’s going to play out because, again, the cost of the energy that’s used is less than the cost of a cup of coffee, and coffee at the office is not an IRS issue,” explained Allen Will.

“When you have an EV, you learn quickly what electricity costs. For example, at my house, I’m paying maybe 30 to 40 cents an hour for electricity. I love to plug in when it’s available, but some of the costs to charge in public are often 4 or 5 times what I pay at home. Everybody who drives a gasoline car knows about miles per gallon and what a gallon of gas costs. To change your thinking to miles per kilowatthour happens pretty quickly - the math is simple.”

If the IRS eventually requires traceability and reporting, then “Telefonix will make sure that the L1 PowerPost complies with all future needs,” said Will. “But we will always stay true to a simple, robust, and economically viable product.”

FEB 2014 81

Plug-in vehicles interact with the outside world in a much more complicated way than legacy gasguzzlers do.

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Photo courtesy of Redcorn Studios [Matt]/Flickr

Exhaustive

THE INFRASTRUCTURE

Infrastructure Testing

By Michael Kent

Converging industries present challenges for automakers and opportunity for diversified firms like the P3 Group

I

n the past few decades, the automotive industry has seen a shift from traditional mechanical systems to a world dominated by electronics, chips and software. If you go to a car show and look in the engine compartment of an older vehicle, you’ll see only a handful of connections from the cockpit. Modern vehicles, however, are built with an incredible amount of wiring harnesses and upwards of 20 million lines of code residing onboard.

In addition to the electronics and software systems, there is now an automotive convergence with the telecommunications and energy industries that’s bringing a whole new layer of complexity to the cars hitting the road.

FEB 2014 83

Plugged in to problems This merging of industries presents a new set of challenges for OEMs in terms of how they test and validate their systems. Plug-in vehicles, for example, interact with the outside world in a much more complicated way than legacy gas-guzzlers do. The automakers now need to work with many infrastructure providers and hardware partners to be certain that a newly launched vehicle works flawlessly in many different environments.

A car maker also needs to have a completely different set of talents within its organization - talents like software, computer and electronics engineering, which are in high demand in today’s digital age.

“There is a scarcity of talent and a new way of thinking within automotive, so OEMs have to adapt their

“

There is a scarcity of talent and a new way of thinking within automotive, so OEMS have to adapt their traditional processes and development cycles.

”

“When automakers introduce a plug-in car to a new market, they cannot be sure how it will cope in this environment, because every charging station and every public utility is different,” explained Erol Gürocak, Senior Consultant at P3 Group, who leads the company’s Charging Test business. “After all, this is the first time that cars are interacting with infrastructure, and the first time players from these three industries are coming together: utility companies, EVSE manufacturers and automakers.”

Of course, there are specifications and norms that everyone is supposed to follow to avoid interoperability issues. However, in the first iteration of any new technology there are inevitably bugs and unpredictable variables that need to be worked out.

“In real life, we’ve found that they’re not working together in every case. This is why we started this project,” said Gürocak. “We test from a user’s perspective what happens if you try to charge a new EV in all possible environments.”

In validation projects with David Woessner different OEMs, P3 has put three

Infrastructure testing Of particular interest to Charged readers is the 100-plusperson team working on eMobility projects [eMobility is a German term describing new mobility concepts based on electrified vehicles]. One of the projects, known internally as Charging Validation Performance Testing, is helping the OEMs eradicate the problem of EVSE interoperability.

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Photos courtesy of P3 Group

traditional processes and development cycles,” explained David Woessner, Senior Executive Advisor at P3 Group.

“It’s a completely different set of engineering skills that now has to be integrated into a vehicle.”

The P3 Group is a global consulting and engineering services company with a focus in four industries: energy, telecommunications, automotive and aviation. With a wide-ranging set of experts from these industries, the firm has found itself in a unique position to help car companies cope with the evolving auto landscape. P3 has formed cross-functional teams to support OEMs with new and emerging technologies.

THE INFRASTRUCTURE plug-in models through the wringer.

The comprehensive testing regime starts with a new vehicle that is very close to market, about three to six months before its launch.

The projects, which span Europe, Asia and North America, are divided into two parts: public and private Erol Gürocak charging. Each one puts about 60,000 km on a brand-new vehicle.

The last vehicle was tested at about 1,200 charging stations.

“We try to test in real conditions, not a simulation of the car or simulation of the grid,” explained Gürocak.

“In the last project we found more than 100 charging abnormalities. They were not only concerning the car, they were also concerning the EVSE tied to the grid.”

One of the biggest challenges in charging station interoperability is the large number of different providers of EVSE hardware worldwide. In Germany alone, there are about 60 providers for about 2,500 charging stations.

“All of them are different in a way,” said Gürocak. “For example, there is a specification for the communication between the charging stations and the car, and we found many failures of the EVSE to provide the right signals.

The car couldn’t get the right information about things like the available power, and as a consequence, didn’t start charging at these stations.”

The team also tested many different aspects of authentication, like what happens to a session when charging is delayed by the car, and whether public charging can be interrupted when another user swipes their RFID card.

They also found a few unique problems. For example, in some cases the EVSE couldn’t be physically connected to the car, not because of the shape of the plug and socket, which are well-defined in the specifications, but because of the shape of the connector’s handle. “It’s not set in the norm what the handle should look like,” explained Gürocak. “Sometimes there is a problem because the handle is bent in such a way that you could not connect it.”

Grid quality For a complete understanding of every charging environment, P3 developed its own unique testing equipment. Beyond the car and the EVSE, the quality

of the grid - i.e. current and voltage - is an important factor. “We have to ensure that the car can handle the real voltage and current, which are much more ‘dirty’ and complex than just a sinus signal,” explained Gürocak.

“We test them all together, because with all the signals to compare to each other we have the opportunity to say whether the failure was caused by the grid, station or car.”

For example, one test completed in Italy was next to a train station, and every time a train came in, the grid quality got very poor. “At these moments, only when the train entered, we measured ripples on the grid and on the CP-signal that comes from the charging station that tells

“

In the last project we found more than 100 charging abnormalities. They were not only concerning the car, they were also concerning the EVSE tied to the grid.

”

the car the state at the moment - can I charge or can I not charge. These ripples made the CPU signal so bad that the charging stopped.”

In the end, the car manufacturer has to add filters, so if this happens, it does not influence the charging.

Test cases At every charging station, three different tests are being performed. First, P3 examines the quality of the grid - the frequency, possible harmonic problems, etc.

Next, the engineers run through a series of charging test cases. The company has over 150 different test cases that it has compiled for different scenarios. For example, it tests the charging features that OEMs build into the car, like timed or delayed charging. “This is when someone says ‘I would like to start charging at 8 pm,’ or ‘please charge when the rate is the cheapest, because I have ten hours before I have to leave with the car but only need six hours of charging,’” explained Gürocak.

This case is tested at every station, and the company reports a lot of failures associated with session identification. “Often, you lose the identification with the station if you don’t start charging immediately.”

Not all of the 150 test cases need to be run at every

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“

In the future these control units will be much closer to the value set in the norm. But at the moment the cars need to solve some abnormalities in the charging stations.

station, because they quickly found out which charging stations and providers always worked in certain cases and which displayed problems.

Finally, after the grid quality and test cases, the charging station itself was tested. The teams documented: How long will there be identification when you start the process? When exactly will it end? and Is the HMI functioning properly?

The fix Part of P3’s mission in these projects is to work with EVSE companies to solve the problems, because some of the failures can’t be fixed on the vehicle side alone.

Ultimately, the producers of EVSE and the vehicle OEMs need to work together to hone the specifications.

P3 explains that today’s plug-in vehicles are built with robust control units to account for the many variations found when charging in the real world. But this robustness is expensive. “In the future these control units

”

will be much closer to the value set in the norm,” said Gürocak. “But at the moment the cars need to handle abnormalities in the charging stations. Eventually, the OEMs and the EVSE manufacturers have to work together to solve interoperability problems.”

It’s getting better all the time Exhaustive testing in the automotive world is extremely important, because customers have become accustomed to vehicles that work seamlessly in all environments and run for well over a decade. For the EV industry to thrive, it must meet or exceed that expectation. Customers won’t care what caused the car to stop charging - all they will see is that their new EV doesn’t work.

Fortunately, P3 reports a noticeable decrease in interoperability issues over time. “There is already a lot of work that has been done to solve some of the early problems,” said Gürocak, “but there is more to do on all sides.”

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The goes electric with two new models The 40-year old Volkswagen Golf only gets better with age. Four decades after its introduction in 1974, the Golf line has sold in excess of 30 million units, making it the bestselling European car of all time. Now, trying to leave no potential Golf sales on the table, VW is making the Golf product line available with nearly every powertrain conceivable, including plug-in hybrid (PHEV) and full electric.

Volkswagen’s Modular Transverse Matrix (MQB) platform allows the high-volume Golf to accept all drive types. Existing models already accommodate standard gasoline, diesel, and natural gas. In mid-February, VW announced the expansion of the Golf family to include the Golf GTE PHEV and the fully electric eGolf. The company also made its intentions clear that a hydrogen fuel cell Golf will join the line “as soon as developments make it possible.”

Who knows how long “developments” might take, but meanwhile, the eGolf is on sale now in Germany at a price of €34,900 ($48,158). By comparison, the ICE Golf starts at €17,175 ($23,700), and the BMW i3 EV has a base MSRP of €34,950 ($48,227) in Germany. As the eGolf spreads to other markets, it’s scheduled to hit selected American regions in the fourth quarter of 2014.

On its exterior, the eGolf distinguishes itself with C-shaped LED running lights. On the inside, an 85 kW motor supplies maximum torque of 270 Nm, and a 24.2 kWh liquid-cooled lithium-ion battery comes with an 8-year/160,000 km guarantee. Driving range falls between 130-190 km, depending on the nature of

These are no golf carts

By Markkus Rovito the route, driving style and car load. Volkswagen developed the eGolf ’s motor, transmission and battery inhouse, and the company claims better efficiency (12.7 kWh/100 km) than the Nissan LEAF (15 kWh/100 km).

If a PHEV better strikes your fancy, you’d better reside east of the Atlantic, because Volkswagen has no plans to bring the Golf GTE PHEV stateside. It has a 31-mile all-electric range, courtesy of an 8.8 kWh liquid-cooled lithium-ion battery and a 101 hp electric motor, integrated into the housing of the six-speed DSG automatic

transmission, which was developed specifically for hybrid vehicles. A 1.4-liter, 148 hp turbocharged and direct-injection TSI engine tops it off and adds up to system power of 201 hp, maximum torque of 258 lb-ft, and combined fuel economy of 157 mpg.

The Golf GTE’s top speed is 81 mph in electric mode, or 135 mph in hybrid mode, going from 0-62 mph in 7.6 seconds. Further energy-efficient electrification comes via an electro-mechanical brake servo and an electric air conditioning compressor. Volkswagen quoted a Level 1 charging time of 3.5 hours and a Level 2 time of 2.5 hours.

Like all Golf models, both the eGolf and Golf GTE come with a touchscreen, although with some additional data feedback for EVs. These include VW’s “driving range monitor,” an “energy flow display,” and “zero emission statistics.” Drivers can choose an optional navigation system and also install a free app to their smartphones that controls certain car functions.

Photos courtesy of Volkswagen

CHARGING FORWARD

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