ELECTRIC VEHICLES MAGAZINE
ISSUE 25 | MAY/JUNE 2016 | CHARGEDEVS.COM
ELECTRIC
MILES AS A SERVICE Evercar brings its fleet of EVs to Uber, Lyft, Instacart and other on-demand services p. 46
TM4 launches more motor options
Improving aerodynamic modeling
ChargePoint updates its fleet solution
p. 20
p. 28
p. 72
TESLA MODEL 3
What we know and what we don’t know p. 56
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THE TECH CONTENTS
20 | More motor options TM4 launches new powertrain products increasing torque and speed ranges
20
28 | Improving aerodynamic modeling New simulation techniques combine airflow dynamics with vehicle-handling and driver-response models
34 | Cyber-security or cyber-resilience?
28
Hackers move into the transportation arena
current events 10
34
Infineon and TDK partner to help developers design inverters quickly Geely electric sedan to use BorgWarner eGearDrive transmission
11 Researchers developing improved method for lithium recovery from brine 12 Chevrolet Bolt bares all in new powertrain pictures 14 Toshiba launches new opto-isolated IGBT gate pre-driver IC for inverters
PARC uses CoEx printing technology to fabricate battery electrodes
15 Sendyne IC monitors isolation, current, voltage and temperature 17 Finnish firm develops lightweight stainless steel battery pack for EVs 18 UQM Technologies collaborates on electric bus for South America
19
Pi Innovo and GaN Systems to design auxiliary electric systems
19 BASF licenses CAM-7 Li-ion cathode materials from CAMX Power
THE VEHICLES CONTENTS
46 | Electric miles
as a service
Evercar uses short-term rentals to accelerate the potential for electric ride-sharing and delivery services.
46
56 | Tesla Model 3
What we know and what we don’t know
86 | Diesel: Dead man walking? Will urban transit buses be the first auto segment to go totally electric?
56
current events 38 Indian Power Minister proposes a way to electrify the entire fleet by 2030
Vacuum maker Dyson appears to be developing an EV
39 Cummins wins DOE grant to develop Class 6 PHEV trucks 40 Up to $55 million in funding available for Low or No Emission transit
Airbus and Siemens collaborate on hybrid electric aircraft propulsion
41 Germany announces billion-euro EV and PHEV subsidy program 42 DOE: Global plug-in vehicle sales grew by 80% in 2015
86
Musk: Probability of accidents 50% lower with Autopilot
43 Wrightspeed to provide turbine-based PHEV powertrain to bus operator 45 Philadelphia transit authority orders 25 Proterra electric buses IDENTIFICATION STATEMENT CHARGED Electric Vehicles Magazine (USPS PP 46) May/June 2016, Issue # 25 is published bi-monthly by Electric Vehicles Magazine LLC, 4121 52nd Ave S, Saint Petersburg, FL 33711-4735. Application to Mail at Periodicals Postage Prices is Pending at Saint Petersburg, FL and additional mailing offices. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to CHARGED Electric Vehicles Magazine, Electric Vehicles Magazine LLC at 4121 52nd Ave S, Saint Petersburg, FL 33711-4735.
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72
72 | Fleet focused
ChargePoint launches updated hardware and management platform targeting fleet operators
76 | Solar synergies
Two companies make their marks in the expanding market for solar carports
76
65 Momentum Dynamics promises 200 kW wireless charging for buses
eMotorWerks’ new networked charging cord and 75-amp home charger
66 Canadian government budget includes $62.5 million for infrastructure Tesla to promote Chinese national charging standard
67 European electric bus manufacturers agree on open charging interface 69 Intelligent sensor links EV charging with other home electrical loads
69
AZRA to market Renault Twizy in Canada, install 2,000 charging stations
71 ClipperCreek’s new LCS-30 24-amp Level 2 charging station EVoReel cable management system allows safe and convenient charging
71
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Publisher’s Note Will we see more Tesla-like startup success?
It’s safe to say that, to date, Tesla Motors has been a huge success story. Against all odds, the company had built up such momentum that when it recently unveiled the Model 3, the media, the auto industry and the car-buying public responded with a resounding thumbs-up.
Christian Ruoff Publisher Laurel Zimmer Associate Publisher Charles Morris Senior Editor
Advance reservations for the Model 3 have already surpassed annual sales figures for some of the US’s top-selling cars, and are equal to three times the number of plug-ins sold in the US in 2015. Auto industry analysts are calling it “unprecedented,” and “a watershed moment.”
Markkus Rovito Associate Editor
Whatever happens next, Tesla has mightily advanced its goal of encouraging the auto industry to electrify.
Jeffrey Jenkins Technology Editor
However, it isn’t only the major automakers who are responding to the challenge. It seems that Tesla served as a role model for a number of tech companies that are angling for a piece of the trendy new EV market.
Erik Fries Contributing Editor
The latest company to reveal (unwittingly, it seems) its EV ambitions is the British firm Dyson, known for its handheld vacuum cleaners (and the small and light motors that power them). Two even bigger players, with even bigger pots of money to invest, are Apple and Google. There is also a horde of new EV startups - including Faraday Future, Atieva and NextEV - that are beginning to spend huge amounts of cash from Chinese tech investors like Foxconn, Tencent and Le Holdings. It seems that all you need is a few experienced auto engineering executives (preferably some Tesla veterans) and you can be well on your way to raising a billion dollars in venture funding to launch a new EV company. However, NextEV Founder William Li, who built Bitauto Holdings into China’s biggest provider of online car pricing data, recently told Bloomberg that most of the new entrants are underestimating how difficult the auto industry can be. “Tesla has broken a lot of new ground and inspired a raft of Internet companies to follow, but most have no idea what they’re facing,” said Li. While the atmosphere is a bit reminiscent of the mad rush of the early internet days, as a shifting mix of telecoms, hardware builders and software providers coalesced into a world-changing industry, cars are much more complex than consumer electronics. There are reasons that economics professors like to cite the auto industry as an example of “barriers to entry.” With all of Tesla’s remarkable achievements in recent years, it’s easy to forget that the company almost folded more than once. Elon Musk admitted to “informal discussions with Google” as recently as 2013 about a possible buyout as Tesla neared the edge of financial collapse. So, as we see more and more EV companies sprout up, it’s important to remember that even with Tesla’s near-perfect execution on product and public relations, it’s really, really difficult to build a new car company. 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. REPRINTING IN WHOLE OR PART IS FORBIDDEN EXPECT BY PERMISSION OF CHARGED ELECTRIC VEHICLES MAGAZINE.
Nick Sirotich Illustrator & Designer Tome Vrdoljak Graphic Designer Contributing Writers Sam Abuelsamid Michael Kent Charles Morris Markkus Rovito Christian Ruoff Contributing Photographers Steve Jurvetson Mark Mastropietro Charles Morris Aaron Parecki Eva Rinaldi McKay Savage DLR German Aerospace Center Dana60Cummins Cover Images Courtesy of Evercar Tesla Motors Special Thanks to Kelly Ruoff Sebastien Bourgeois For Letters to the Editor, Article Submissions, & Advertising Inquiries Contact Info@ChargedEVs.com
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Infineon Technologies has joined forces with TDK to develop an integrated solution for inverters to be used in e-mobility powertrains. The idea is to enable developers to test and implement drive concepts quickly and easily. To create an inverter that’s optimized for automotive applications, Infineon and TDK improved on Infineon’s existing HybridPACK, redeveloping the key components and matching them with each other. The new HybridPACK module uses the latest IGBT3 chip generation, with a dielectric strength of 705 V, and features six DC terminals instead of the previous two. The current capability of the HybridPACK module has been enhanced, and the power capability of applications based on the current HybridPACK1 with two DC terminals can be expanded easily with the HybridPACK1-DC6, because the new module has nearly the same dimensions as its predecessor. This provides scalability for various EV applications. TDK has also developed a space-saving EPCOS DC link capacitor and a series of twin-conductor high-voltage DC filters specially tailored to the demands of electric drives for vehicles.
ket, uses BorgWarner’s eGearDrive transmission. The Chinese automaker’s first mass-produced EV is powered by a 96 kW electric motor and features a top speed of 87 mph and a range of 157 miles. Specifically designed for the EV market, BorgWarner’s eGearDrive transmission is available in a wide range of ratios for a variety of motor sizes. It is designed to achieve high torque capacity in a compact package that minimizes size and weight demands. “Demand for BorgWarner’s innovative eGearDrive transmission is growing significantly in the Chinese market, where we expect to launch several programs with major automakers in the next few months,” said Dr. Stefan Demmerle, President and General Manager, BorgWarner PowerDrive Systems.
Image courtesy of Geely
Geely electric sedan Infineon and TDK partner to use BorgWarner transmission to help developers design eGearDrive The Geely EC7-EV, recently launched in inverters quickly the Chinese car mar-
Image courtesy of BorgWarner
CURRENTevents
THE TECH Researchers developing improved method for lithium recovery from brine Researchers in Finland are developing new methods to extract lithium from natural brine that promise more efficiency and greater purity. Most lithium is produced from salt lake deposits. Brine is pumped up and concentrated by evaporation in large pools, then the concentrated solution is purified and the lithium is separated. In “Removal of calcium and magnesium from lithium brine concentrate via continuous counter-current solvent extraction,” published in Hydrometallurgy, Sami Virolainen and colleagues at the Lappeenranta University of Technology explain how they have been using solvent extraction to purify the solution. Calcium and magnesium were separated from the concentrated lithium salt solution into an organic solution consisting mainly of kerosene. “We were typically able to purify 99-100 per cent of calcium and also over 90 per cent of magnesium. Lithium loss only amounted to 3-5 percent. In traditional
methods, the purification outcome is either weaker, the lithium loss is more substantial, or both,” explains Virolainen. “The extraction process we use is more expensive than regular precipitation, but separation is more efficient and easier. This simplifies the overall process, which also makes it an economically sensible alternative. Solvent extraction is also suitable for the separation of lithium and other metals from electronic waste, which could be a handy technology as demand grows and alternative sources for raw material are needed. The researchers demonstrated the new separation process on a pilot scale, with flow rates from one to five liters per hour. “On the industrial scale, we are talking about a cube or dozens of cubes per hour. However, the process has been constructed similarly as it would be in the industry, i.e. constant streams go in and come out, and the number of processing phases is the same as in an industrially conducted extraction.”
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CURRENTevents Chevrolet Bolt bares all in new powertrain pictures GM has always been pretty good about showing us the details of its technology. Now it’s showing off the upcoming Bolt’s electric powertrain in a series of detailed photos. The Bolt represents the pinnacle of GM’s electric technology, and it’s particularly interesting to see how that has been steadily improving. We get an up-close look at the Bolt’s battery pack, and a side-by-side shot of the new pack compared to those used in the Volt and the Spark EV. A cutaway shot of the power unit shows how the electric motor and transmission are integrated to save space and weight.
Chevrolet Bolt EV drive unit
Side view of Chevrolet Bolt EV battery pack
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Overhead view Chevrolet Bolt EV battery pack
Photos by Jeffrey Sauger for General Motors
Greg Smith, Engineering Group Manager, Electrification, left, Tim Grewe, General Director, Electrification, center, and Stephen Poulos, Global Chief Engineer, Electrification, right.
THE TECH
A Chevrolet Bolt EV battery pack, far right, is compared to battery packs from, left to right, a first generation Volt, a second generation Volt, and a Spark EV.
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CURRENTevents
PARC uses CoEx printing technology to fabricate high-energy, high-power battery electrodes
Toshiba’s new TB9150FNG, an opto-isolated Insulated Gate Bipolar Transistor (IGBT) gate pre-driver IC, features various enhanced protective functions for the inverters of electric and hybrid vehicles. As the control and drive functions of an inverter have different operating voltages, they must be isolated from each other. This is typically accomplished with a device such as a photocoupler, but this solution results in loud noise from the drive circuit. Another concern is that efficient IGBT driving requires small, versatile IGBT gate pre-driver ICs with built-in protective functions. The new TB9150FNG, which is based on AEC-Q100 standards, integrates a photocoupler that insures high-level isolation between control (the primary side) and drive (the secondary side). It incorporates a precise IGBT temperature detection function, a flyback transformer controller and a short circuit detection function (current sense and desaturation monitor). Sample shipments have begun, and mass production is scheduled to start in 2018.
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Image courtesy of Toshiba
Toshiba launches new opto-isolated IGBT gate pre-driver IC for inverters
PARC, a Xerox company, is collaborating with Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) and Ford in a DOE-funded project that will use PARC’s CoEx printing technology to fabricate higher-energy and higher-power electrodes for EV batteries. The goal of the project is to demonstrate pilot-scale pouch cells with a 20% improvement in gravimetric energy density and a 30% reduction in per-kWh costs. CoEx is a co-extrusion printing technique that allows dissimilar materials to be deposited side by side at high speed. When applied to thick battery electrodes, it adds a new design dimension that can be used to enhance energy and power performance. PARC will develop the inks and hardware required to fabricate high-energy and high-power cathodes. ORNL will assist PARC to develop matching anodes and to optimize electrochemical performance in automotive pouch cells. “CoEx has the potential to make higher-capacity EV batteries possible through the creation of two- and three-dimensional structures, which can enhance lithium-ion pathways in ultra-thick battery electrodes,” said PARC CoEx Technical Lead Dr. Corie Cobb. “Our goal is to fabricate EV pouch cells that are higher in energy and power than conventional cells.” “PARC and ORNL have a track record of working successfully together, and their collaboration on this project will transform the way lithium-ion electrode coatings are made and perform under high discharge rates,” said ORNL Project Lead David Wood.
THE TECH
Image courtesy of Sendyne
New Sendyne IC and module monitors ground fault, isolation, current, voltage and temperature Sensor and control specialist Sendyne has introduced a single IC and module that’s capable of performing ground fault detection/ isolation monitoring while simultaneously providing current, high voltage and temperature measurements. Reliable ground fault detection is a necessity for EVs and charging stations in order to prevent leakage currents from posing a shock hazard. According to Sendyne, conventional systems rely on sensing static voltages and employing asymmetrical bleed resistors, and are incapable of sensing some leakage sources. The company’s new SFPGFD uses controllable excitation voltage, and is able to detect all sources
of leakage, as well as resistive shorts between the chassis and battery. Sendyne’s SFPGFD IC and module continuously monitor the isolation resistance in order to notify the host system of possible dangerous levels of leakage current. Two dedicated channels measure voltage from battery to chassis and total battery potential; the latter is also available for utilization by the battery management system. The SFPGFD module also has four extra high-voltage channels that can be used for monitoring pre-charge status, state of fuses, contactors, and more. All six voltage channels can measure ±450 V continuous and ±650 V momentary overvoltage. These levels can be extended for systems operating at higher voltages. The SFPGFD communicates with a host via the LIN protocol. Other protocols are also available. It conforms to international standards for isolation monitoring, such as UN Reg. 100, FMVSS305 and ISO6469-1.
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THE TECH Finnish firm develops lightweight stainless steel battery pack for EVs
Image courtesy of Fraunhofer
Finland-based Outokumpu is working on lightweight stainless steel solutions for EVs, in cooperation with Germany’s Fraunhofer Institute. Their latest innovation is a new battery pack that combines several lightweight engineering technologies as well as new types of cooling and structural strategies.
Because EV batteries are mainly installed in the underfloor area, their casings have high requirements in terms of hardness and crash safety, but they must be as lightweight and compact as possible. Outokumpu says its Forta H1000 fully-austenitic stainless steel (a manganese-chromium alloy) enables structural lightweight engineering initiatives while providing a high level of safety, a combination that conventional materials such as aluminum and carbon steels cannot deliver. “A high capacity for energy absorption and increased stiffness with thinner wall thicknesses are crucial characteristics for the development of future lightweight designs in automotive engineering,” said Outokumpu Senior
Technical Manager Stefan Lindner. “The Forta H-series fulfills these requirements.” “With Forta H1000, we were able to engineer a safer casing despite its leaner structure and thus save a considerable amount of weight,” said Paul Heinen of the Fraunhofer Institute. “Using 1.2 mm thick sheets instead of 1.5 mm wall thickness allows a weight reduction of about 20 percent.”
CURRENTevents
Motor manufacturer UQM Technologies (NYSE MKT: UQM) has entered the South American market with a business relationship with EV integrator Creatti Labs SAS. The two companies plan to collaborate on an electric transit bus platform for bus operators in Colombia’s largest cities, Cali, Medellin and Bogota. UQM has shipped a PowerPhase HD250 motor/controller system integrated with a two-speed transmission to Colombia, and a prototype e-bus is to be built by the end of the year. This prototype, based on UQM’s electric propulsion technology, will be the first of its kind in South America. Jorge Andres Barrera, Managing Partner of Creatti Labs, said, “We researched electric bus technology around the world and selected UQM Technologies for their established propulsion transmission solution, as well as high performance and industry-leading efficiency. UQM is the ideal drivetrain supplier for zero-emission buses to serve metropolitan areas with the challenging topography that is found in Colombia.”
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Image courtesy of UQM
UQM Technologies collaborates on electric bus for South America
As start/stop, mild hybrid and multi-voltage systems continue to creep into “conventional” gas vehicles, controls engineering firm Pi Innovo and semiconductor manufacturer GaN Systems foresee steadily growing demand for their products. The two companies recently announced that they are collaborating to offer automakers a pathway to the electrification of vehicle auxiliary systems. Hybrids and EVs have substantial requirements for power conversion, and a typical silicon-based converter is no more than 95% efficient, according to Pi Innovo. Gallium nitride semiconductor-based converters can achieve 98 to 99% efficiency. They also offer other benefits compared to silicon-based devices, including high dielectric strength, high current density, high switching speeds, low on-resistance and the ability to withstand higher operating temperatures. Pi Innovo has designed custom motor control electronics to take advantage of the benefits of GaN semiconductors in applications with input voltages from 12 V to 300 V, well suited to the electrification of auxiliary systems in multi-voltage conventional, hybrid-electric and pure electric vehicles. Pi Innovo is now offering design and development services for customers looking to adopt this technology for electronics design applications in automotive and adjacent markets. “Pi Innovo’s engineers worked closely with the GaN Systems team to ensure the controller design maximizes the reduction in size, weight and power consumption benefits that gallium nitride semiconductors provide,” said Dr. Walter Lucking, CEO of Pi Innovo. “Having a partner like Pi Innovo that understands the intricacies of control electronics design for vehicle applications is invaluable in supporting the continued adoption of GaN in the electrification of vehicle systems,” said Jim Witham, GaN Systems’ CEO.
Image courtesy of Pi Innovo
Pi Innovo and GaN Systems to design auxiliary electric systems
THE TECH
Image courtesy of BASF SE
BASF licenses CAM-7 Li-ion cathode materials from CAMX Power Massachusetts-based battery technology developer CAMX Power has granted a license for its CAMX suite of CAM-7 cathode materials to chemical giant BASF. CAM-7 is a patented cathode material that features high-nickel compounds. According to the company, it features a discharge capacity over 200 mAh/g, and retains more than 80% of capacity at -20° C. It is stabilized through a doping strategy and is engineered to resolve thermal stability concerns regarding high-nickel cathode materials. “In BASF testing, the CAM-7 product platform has shown strong performance and is believed to have the potential to further increase energy density of lithium-ion batteries,” said Kenneth Lane, President of
BASF’s Catalysts division. “CAMX has established a strong global IP position and we will be collaborating with CAMX’s experienced technical staff to develop advanced processing techniques to bring these products to the marketplace.” “We believe that BASF is in an ideal position to rapidly scale up production to meet the upcoming spike in demand for high-energy cathodes, a critical lithium-ion battery component, accounting for as much as a third of the cost,” said Dr. Kenan Sahin, CEO of CAMX.
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TM4’s new powertrain products use variable reluctance technology to increase torque and speed ranges
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Images courtesy of TM4
THE TECH
MAY/JUN 2016
21
22
Images courtesy of TM4
T
M4 designs electric powertrains for the most demanding vehicle platforms and duty cycles on the road. Formed as a subsidiary of the public utility Hydro-Québec, the company sells its motor and control products to manufacturers of heavy-duty trucks and buses around the world. In June, TM4 will release an update to its SUMO product line that now powers thousands of electric buses and trucks. The current technology found inside TM4’s electric motors is based on surface-mounted permanent magnets and outer rotor topology. The updated systems will widen torque and speed operating ranges and decrease the use of rare-earth magnets by 25% using reluctance-assisted technology. Electric motor torque is produced by the interaction of a moving magnetic field (created electrically) and a fixed magnetic field (either from permanent magnets or an electromagnet). In a reluctance-assisted machine, some of the torque is also produced from the interaction between a magnetic field and a magnetic material (steel). Charged recently chatted with TM4’s Olivier Bernatchez to learn more about the company’s new motor technology, direct-drive powertrains, in-wheel motors and more.
Q Charged: How will these new powertrain options
fit into your existing product line?
A Olivier Bernatchez: Our highest power/torque
products are what we call the SUMO HD family, and they’re typically for the largest vehicles - buses that are about 12 meters long or longer (and trucks of a similar weight class). Below that, we have the SUMO MD family which is targeted for buses around 9 or 10 meters (or larger buses that only operate on flat roads or at lower top speeds).
THE TECH
Without changing the dimensions of the motor, the new rotor technology will increase performance (torque and speed) by about 40-45%. This new technology will be implemented into the SUMO MD family with three new motor options. So, without changing the dimensions of the motor, the new rotor technology will increase performance (torque and speed) by about 40-45%. With reluctance-assisted technology, we’ve managed to improve the performance of the MD family so we’re basically getting more out of the smaller package. Soon we’ll start to implement this technology in our other products as well.
A lot of motor designs are now being driven by the desire to limit the use of rare-earth magnets, due to their high price and volatility. We’ve been able to decrease the amount of rare-earths used in the fabrication of our motors by 25% while increasing torque and speed capabilities. And it’s also safer technology. Reluctance-assisted machines lead to easier field weakening and lower shortcircuit current. This means safer fault conditions, as any type of short-circuit generates a very low torque.
MAY/JUN 2016
23
Images courtesy of TM4
Q Charged: All of TM4’s traction motors use an
external rotor design, which is relatively uncommon for production vehicles. What drove the decision to go with that technology? A Bernatchez: We started with external rotor tech-
nology because in the 1980s, our initial research work was with in-wheel motors. External rotor motors generate the highest amount of torque with the smallest amount of material. Initially, we had smaller machines and we were targeting the passenger vehicle market. Over the years we switched our focus to fleet vehicles - buses and trucks - because we saw a huge opportunity in serving this market, especially with the strong incentives in China. Because high torque is in line with what commercial trucks and buses need, we kept the external rotor topology and scaled it up for buses and trucks. While we still have products for passenger cars, the area where we’ve seen the biggest growth is definitely in commercial vehicles. Having the external rotor helps us to maximize torque, because we can maximize the diameter of the air gap between the rotor and stator. Torque is proportional to the square of the air gap diameter. We think that direct drive to the differential is a great option for the bus and truck market because it’s
24
Over the years we switched our focus to fleet vehicles - buses and trucks - because we saw a huge opportunity in serving this market, especially with the strong incentives in China. the best compromise of packaging constraints, efficiency needs and low maintenance. Without a gearbox, you end up with a bigger motor, but you ultimately save on space, costs and driveline losses. Gearboxes can be expensive in the commercial market, and they have mechanical losses of about 5-10%. For an all-electric bus with 200 or 300 kWh battery packs, 10% in losses is a lot of money. So, the main rotor technology found inside TM4’s electric motors to date was based on surface-mounted outer rotor topology in which the magnets were installed directly to a rigid carbon steel rotor. Our new technology is still external rotor designs, but we’re moving away from fully surface-magnet-based and replacing some of the magnets with soft magnetic composites.
THE TECH
As more and more components were electrified, our customers needed more auxiliary power, and we started getting a lot of requests for power supplies. We’ve found that - especially in the bus market OEMs want to source as many components from us as possible, so this led us to also develop auxiliary power supply products. It was not initially part of our product line, because we were mostly focused on traction inverters, but from a technology point of view the hardware is very similar. So it’s just a matter of developing software that’s optimized for a different type of application. In the past, the demands from the electronic systems in the bus were much lower. As more and more components were electrified, our customers needed more auxiliary power, and we started getting a lot of requests for power supplies. So now we offer some quite powerful auxiliary inverters. Q Charged: It seems that the electric bus market has a
lot of momentum around the world as it moves from the demonstration-project phase to actually replacing diesel fleets. Do you agree? A Bernatchez: Absolutely. The electric and hybrid bus
Q Charged: TM4 also designs and builds its own line
of power electronics. Why not partner with an inverter company, as many other motor manufacturers do? A Bernatchez: We’ve been designing and producing
power electronics since the beginning. We think it’s a major advantage for our customers, because it’s always better if you can find both motor and controls from the same supplier for best performance, but also for support and warranty issues. Also, we think that to design and build great power electronics, it is important to really understand motors. When you design your own, it comes more naturally. So as we increase the offerings for the motors, we’re also in the process of optimizing and refining our inverters for cost-effectiveness.
market in Europe and North America is steadily growing, but is still small compared to China, where government policies are very encouraging of the technology. The regulations encourage OEMs and cities to go electric in volumes that are really high. So we see really big orders coming from China. We are based in Canada, but we now have a joint venture plant in China that we established in 2012. Currently, we are selling motors in the thousands per year. Q Charged: In the past few years, we’ve heard a lot
about the potential benefits of in-wheel motor technology, and TM4 continues to make announcements about new in-wheel research projects. However, the automotive market has yet to adopt them in production vehicles. What are the biggest challenges to adoption?
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Image courtesy of TM4
A Bernatchez: Cost is definitely a challenge. A lot of
the in-wheel motors have power electronics and motors inside the same enclosure. This makes for a convenient but technologically challenging package. I think the prices for that type of module will go down, but it’s very likely that two wheel motors will always cost more than one single drive motor used in a central location with a differential. This is because the motors need to be bigger in order to produce the torque that you need at the wheels, so they’re not going to get a lot smaller than the wheel itself, and if they do they’ll use some gears and it becomes even more complex, which also makes you lose some of the efficiency advantages that made in-wheel motors interesting in the first place. We also see that the OEMs have a lot of issues getting these vehicles validated and into production for many different reasons. You need to really redesign the vehicle based on the new weight balance. The unsprung weight is a challenge. There are a few companies that have proven that it can really be minimized, but everything that you use to minimize it is still quite expensive. For now, I’d say cost is the main challenge for the technology. It could change in the longer run.
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I think the prices for [in-wheel motors] will go down, but it’s very likely that two wheel motors will always cost more than one single drive motor used in a central location with a differential. There are some companies offering in-wheel motors for buses. From a maintenance point of view, especially for the wheel size of a bus, it’s very challenging because you have a wheel that now weighs hundreds of kilograms more than a traditional one. If you have a minor problem with your wheel, then basically your motor is not functional. That’s an expensive problem, even if the problem itself is minor. Think about a simple flat tire event and how complex it now becomes. I think there could be two different types of mar-
THE TECH kets that drive the adoption of in-wheel motors. There are smaller vehicles where packaging space is highly valued - in fact in-wheel motors are already in use in things like scooters and low-speed vehicles. Then there are very big industrial vehicles where packaging is also at a premium and where added weight at the wheel means better traction. We’ve seen some big mining trucks that are very heavy and need one motor per wheel, and if you don’t use an in-wheel motor, then you need gears, and you need to mount the motor in a way that takes some space under the vehicle. Again, it’s always a matter of tradeoffs between having the perfect packaging and price. For them in-wheel motors make sense, but of course they need to be very big and very expensive. It’s really a niche type of product. We continue to do development. As part of a recent grant we received, we developed a new type of in-wheel motor that we are testing with an OEM partner - just in the prototyping phase. Even if this work doesn’t end up in production, we still will bring some of the new optimization and technologies into our existing motor and power
We’ve seen some big mining trucks that are very heavy and need one motor per wheel, and if you don’t use an in-wheel motor, then you need gears, and you need to mount the motor in a way that takes some space under the vehicle. electronics lines. Just like it was for us when we started as a company, the research done on in-wheel motors helps innovate, because you need to work with very tight packaging constraints and you need to develop some technologies that make the motor more robust.
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Wake visualization in STAR-CCM+
Images courtesy of CD-adapco
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THE TECH
IMPROVING AERODYNAMIC MODELING By Christian Ruoff
New simulation techniques combine airflow dynamics with vehicle-handling and driver-response models to better represent the real world uning a vehicle’s aerodynamic features is nothing new. Engineers have been using wind tunnels for decades, and more recently they’ve also employed computational fluid dynamics (CFD) software to reduce drag, minimize noise and increase stability by preventing undesired lift forces. In the expanding world of EVs, car builders are doubling down on efforts to push drag coefficients to new lows. This is of particular importance to battery-powered vehicles, because every step towards drag reduction directly translates into longer driving ranges and lower requirements for pricey battery capacity. When cruising at highway speeds, the majority of energy a vehicle consumes is used to overcome aerodynamic drag and rolling resistance. And unlike the energy used to accelerate an EV, which can be partially recaptured through regenera-
T
Unlike the energy used to accelerate an EV, which can be partially recaptured through regenerative braking, the energy used to fight friction is lost to the atmosphere. tive braking, the energy used to fight friction is lost to the atmosphere. We see clear examples of the importance of drag reduction when automakers create all-electric models of existing vehicle lines, such as the Toyota RAV4 EV, VW e-Golf, Kia Soul EV, etc. For these EV versions,
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Photo courtesy of DLR German Aerospace Center (CC BY 2.0)
automotive engineers go to great lengths to improve the overall airflow performance of the standard vehicle. They redesign things like the car’s front fascia, headlight lenses, wheel arches, cooling area, tire and wheel combinations, spoilers and underbody.
Saving with simulations In the old days, all aerodynamic tuning was done in wind tunnels, which was expensive and time-consuming. Car companies would build dozens of physical prototypes to test, tweak the design, and then repeat. Today, CFD modeling software has replaced the early design stages. “CFD is now used upfront to do most of this vehicle design work,” Stephen Ferguson explained to Charged. Ferguson is Marketing Director at CD-adapco (recently acquired by Siemens), whose simulation tool STAR-CCM+ solves complicated problems involving flow of fluids or solids, heat transfer and stress. “For the automotive engineer, it’s very quick and easy to change a numerical simulation and shape of a CAD model and rerun the simulation,” said Ferguson. “It’s almost an automated process. So CFD is typically used to do all the design tuning. They’ll work out the best design by examining the results of simulations and improve any features of the airflow that are not idealized. In most cases, car companies still use wind tunnel testing to verify the simulations with physical tests. However, now they do it only at the end of the process, and can build one or two physical production prototypes instead of 20.”
Vehicle model in a wind tunnel
In the old days, all aerodynamic tuning was done in wind tunnels, which was expensive and timeconsuming.
simulation of airflow forces around the car with a simulation of how the car’s suspension system and driver inputs will react to those changing forces. They describe the new technique as a dynamic coupling because there is a looped relationship between the aerodynamics acting on the car and the way the car responds. Better models mean better cars In other words, the changing airflow forces will Because computer simulations allow engineers to experichange the car’s position, roll and pitch. Once the ment with significantly more designs at relatively low vehicle’s position is changed slightly, then the airflow cost, it allows them to optimize performance for given environment changes as well. It’s also important to take constraints in a way that would otherwise be impossible into account the predictable steering behavior, because to calculate. However, this is only true if the numerical a driver will tend to correct while driving and often models accurately represent the real world. So, every step a overshoot the response. company takes toward creating a more accurate represenTheir new approach was to create a dynamic coupling tation of vehicles on the road between the CFD simulation can have significant payback. in STAR-CCM+ with vehicle Recently, Professor Gary handling and driver models Every step a company takes Page and Research Student in the math-oriented proDavid Forbes of Loughlanguage MATtoward creating a more accurate gramming borough University took LAB, in order to represent representation of vehicles on real-world representations to the complete and realistic the next level by dynamically movement of the vehicle on the road can have significant coupling together two differits suspension system. payback. ent simulation tools. The research is also The idea is to combine the focused on taking into
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THE TECH Images courtesy of CD-adapco
Figure 1: Initial simulations use the full scale DrivAer model.
Once the vehicle’s position is changed slightly, then the airflow environment changes as well. account unsteady events such as crosswinds. As cars become lighter, they become more susceptible to crosswinds, which are extremely difficult to reproduce in a wind tunnel. While simulation software like STARCCM+ can offer valuable insight into aerodynamic phenomena that crosswinds can present, they don’t account for the vehicle and driver response. The new technique was developed as part of the Programme for Simulation Innovation - led by Jaguar Land Rover and the UK’s Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council.
Dynamic coupling A lot of research has been done on one-way coupling of STAR-CCM+ and MATLAB - in which the system is open-loop. These simpler methods use a CFD model to calculate aerodynamic forces, feed that data into the MATLAB vehicle handling model, and then call it a day. So, the responses from the handling model are not fed back into the CFD. The new approach is an attempt to step closer to reality by sending CFD aerodynamic data to the handling model, which then gives back positional data to the CFD at every time step - creating a closed-loop and fully coupled system. While closed-loop feedbacks are inherently more accurate, they also add complexity and costs. In this research, the direct coupling was achieved with the use of a Java macro to connect STAR-CCM+ to the MATLAB simulation. One considerable advantage of this type of coupling is the ability to run a CFD simulation on a large high-performance computing system while the handling model in
Figure 2: Dynamic overset meshing allows the motion of solid components within the fluid domain.
Images courtesy of CD-adapco
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MATLAB is run on a local machine. For the CFD simulation, the DrivAer generic car model CAD geometry was used (Figure 1). Developed at the Institute of Aerodynamics and Fluid Mechanics at the Technical University of Munich, the model is fullscale, includes rotating wheels, and has about 20 million hexahedral cells (Figure 2). The MATLAB handling model was designed at Loughborough University for the university’s 6-degrees-of-
freedom (DoF), Stewart-type platform driving simulator. It is a comprehensive and realistic dynamics model that includes the full suspension system and driver’s response.
Passing maneuvers The typical commute rarely consists of an open road with a straight-on headwind. In reality, cars on the highway experience a very complex system of aerodynamic forces, including those exerted by other cars. When you pass a big
Building blocks Forbes and Page describe how simulating an entire overtaking maneuver is built on the foundation of many preliminary tests. One of the first tests they performed was to simulate a very simplified geometry responding to aerodynamic excitation using the overset mesh with the built-in 6-DoF DFBI Figure 3: Vehicle aerodynamic response: Side force (left) and yawing moment (right)
Workflow diagram of the fully coupled 6-DoF simulation between CFD and vehicle handling-dynamics model
Wind Excitation
Images courtesy of CD-adapco
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Vehicle Position
Unsteady Aerodynamics
Aerodynamic Forces and Moments
model in STAR-CCM+. Then the overset mesh zero gap interface was investigated to allow modeling of a contact patch between the tire and the road for a true rotating wheel. Another step involved the coupling with MATLAB for the simulation of a crosswind. To start with, only the side force and yawing moment were included, but gradually a transition was made to a 6-DoF vehicle model that can roll and pitch on its suspension. Finally, a DES calculation with overset zero gap interface and direct coupling to MATLAB was performed, which needed four to five days of runtime. The results from the fully coupled simulation were compared to their steadystate equivalents (Figure 3). The comparison highlighted the fact that the steady-state aerodynamics are unable to predict the unsteady flow features that exist during such an event, most notably the Vehicle over- and undershoots of Vehicle Response Dynamics/ the yawing moment as the Handling vehicle enters and exits the crosswind.
THE TECH
In reality, cars on the highway experience a very complex system of aerodynamic forces, including those exerted by other cars. truck on the highway, for example, you can feel the influence on your vehicle’s steering, because the airflow around the car is interacting with the airflow around the truck. When subjected to a crosswind excitation, the vehicle’s resonant frequencies may cause the driver to respond and either alleviate or aggravate the vehicle’s response. One of the aims of this research is to identify the frequencies at which this happens, in order to improve a vehicle’s crosswind stability.
How does that interaction affect the overall drag coefficient? Is there a better way to design the suspension and controls to minimize any negative affects? Forbes’s and Page’s research was meant to demonstrate how a fully coupled comprehensive and realistic ground vehicle simulation could be achieved. Because the numerical model of how a vehicle’s suspension systems will respond is specific to each vehicle, it’s up to the automakers to build their own comprehensive simulations. “We recognize that difficult engineering problems are not a function of just aerodynamics or just structural dynamics,” explained Ferguson. “They tend to involve multiple physics. So that’s why we made it easy to interface to STAR-CCM+, so you can connect it to MATLAB and other tools. The MATLAB portion of this type of dynamic coupling will come from the car company, because it’s a proprietary model developed to describe their car. In principle, any car company could do this, but I don’t think many are. It’s groundbreaking research work with big implications.”
CYBERSECURITY OR CYBERRESILIENCE? By Sam Abuelsamid, Senior Research Analyst - Navigant Research
I
f you move, you will die. If you don’t move, you are already dead. There are countless variations on that theme but the gist is that life is full of risk and, sooner or later, it will get you. However, if you plan ahead and prepare, you can minimize risk and mitigate its impacts. When it comes to electronic systems, especially in the automotive environment, it’s time to drop cyber-security and start talking about cyber-resilience. If you want a car that’s absolutely secure against cyber-attacks, you’ll have to drive something built before about 1970. For the rest of us, living with ever-increas-
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ing digital control of our rides, we’re just going to have to take all reasonable measures to keep the bad actors at bay. Make no mistake, there are people actively trying to pick the locks on the transportation ecosystem. While cyber-attacks have become all too common in recent years, the good news (if there is any) is that an estimated 90 percent or more are committed for financial reasons. Hackers are tapping into systems to steal money or data that will eventually translate into money. The same scenario is likely to hold true as these attackers move into the transportation arena. While this sort of attack can be expensive and time-consuming to
THE TECH
Photo courtesy of Hyundai Motor America
PEVs currently offered include built-in telematics systems that enable owners to remotely manage charging and precondition the climate control.
rectify, it doesn’t typically end in death and destruction. This is why an attack against Target or Sony Pictures differs from an attack against OnStar or UConnect. In the past year, security researchers have publicly demonstrated the ability to remotely take over vehicles with telematics systems and manipulate acceleration, braking, steering, and other systems. If executed on a broad scale, such an attack could cause mass casualties. Unfortunately, that means anyone hoping to take advantage of electric propulsion faces some degree of risk. That’s because pretty much all of the plug-in electric vehicles (PEVs) currently offered include built-in telematics systems that enable owners to remotely manage charging and precondition the climate control. On the plus side,
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In addition to charging management in PEVs, full or semi-autonomous vehicles can be self-parked or summoned when they are connected.
reexamining the entire electronic architecture of new vehicles from cradle to grave. Current vehicles have from 50 to 75 discrete electronic control units managing every aspect of the vehicle, each with the potential for exploits. One approach being promoted by chipmaker Intel is to switch to an integrated controller using a single more powerful processor and the same sort of virtualization technology used on network servers. This approach is claimed to provide improved performance and security by sandboxing all of the different processes. Regardless of whether a vehicle has one or 100 electronic control units (ECUs), they all need software, and new tools and processes are being developed to test and validate the code. With as much as 100 million lines of source code in new vehicles, this is particularly important, especially in the wake of the Volkswagen diesel emissions scandal. The VW cheating system was executed entirely in software, which is extremely difficult to examine. No matter how rigorous the testing, it’s virtually impossible to guarantee completely bug-free software, especially in something as complex as an automobile. Thus, numerous companies have popped up in recent
Photo courtesy of Hyundai Motor America
PEVs are at no more inherent risk than any gas or diesel burner with a telematics system. Fortunately, there is no evidence at this point that such an attack has ever occurred in the wild, or even that it could be perpetrated on a mass scale. The researchers involved in both demonstrations acknowledge that determining how to remotely connect to the vehicles in question took many months of work, as well as physical access to the vehicle in advance. The transportation industry has finally woken up to the reality of the threat, and is moving aggressively to make systems more resilient at all levels. In the next decade, we’ll see a significant ramp-up in the adoption of both connected and automated vehicle systems on PEVs and fuel burners. Cars will get connected through WiFi-based vehicle-to-external communications and cellular-based telematics. OEM telematics systems such Hyundai’s BlueLink and GM’s OnStar will come from the factory, while aftermarket systems like Verizon’s Hum connect to the vehicle via the OBD-II port. The behavior monitoring modules provided by insurance companies in exchange for premium discounts also connect via the diagnostics port and provide a potential entry point for hackers. In the wake of the public demonstrations in 2015, many pundits called for air-gapping the communications systems in vehicles to prevent a remote takeover. While such an approach would make a system more resistant to attack, it wouldn’t guarantee safety. The physical proximity of systems in a vehicle means an attack that utilizes electromagnetic interference can’t be completely ruled out. Disconnecting the communications systems from vehicle control systems would also negate the many potential benefits of connected vehicles. In addition to charging management in PEVs, fully or semi-autonomous vehicles can be self-parked or summoned when they are connected. Rather than disconnecting, OEMs and suppliers are
THE TECH
Incumbent automakers are preparing to follow Tesla down the path of delivering over-the-air software updates for their vehicles.
years to develop intrusion detection systems that sit on the network to monitor data traffic for anything that looks nefarious. These include both dedicated hardware modules and software detectors that are embedded in one of the existing ECUs. Most of the major automakers have also come together to launch an information sharing and analysis center that will compile vulnerability information
from multiple sources and share that, along with mitigation recommendations, with member companies. Several automakers, including Tesla and GM, have also launched responsible disclosure programs through which security researchers can submit security vulnerabilities that they have discovered, so that they can be corrected by the automakers before being made public. Finally, incumbent automakers are preparing to follow Tesla down the path of delivering over-the-air software updates for their vehicles. Until Tesla launched Model S in 2012, software updates had to be installed by dealer service technicians. However, considering the reality that increasingly sophisticated electronic systems will require regular updates, that’s no longer a practical solution, especially for security vulnerabilities that need to be distributed and installed as quickly as possible. The transportation industry has recognized that absolute cyber-security really isn’t possible, but improved development, monitoring, and remediation can make the future mobility ecosystem much more cyber-resilient.
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The Indian government is working on a scheme that would offer EVs to consumers with no down payment, to be paid for out of the fuel savings. The aim is to electrify the country’s entire auto fleet by 2030. At a recent press event, Power Minister Piyush Goyal said that a working group including the country’s Road Minister, Oil Minister and Environment Minister has been created to develop the program. “India can become the first country of its size which will run 100 per cent electric vehicles,” said Goyal (via Gadgets 360). “We are trying to make this program self-financing. We don’t need one rupee support from the government. We don’t need one rupee investment from the people of India.” “Can we actually give electric cars for free, and people can pay for that out of the savings on petroleum products?” asked Goyal. “We are meeting in the first week of April to see if India can be 100 percent on electric vehicles by 2030.” Mr. Goyal cited the example of the country’s Domestic Efficient Lighting Programme, which began last year, and has already provided over 83 million LED bulbs to families at an installment price of 10 rupees (about 15 cents) per month per bulb.
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Image courtesy of McKay Savage (CC BY 2.0)
Indian Power Minister proposes a way to electrify the country’s entire auto fleet by 2030
When the British firm Dyson acquired innovative solid-state battery startup Sakti3 last October, we suspected it wasn’t about better batteries for handheld vacuum cleaners. Now a government document obtained by The Guardian appears to reveal that Dyson is developing an EV with public support. As The Guardian reports, the UK’s recently released National Infrastructure Delivery Plan includes the following statement: “The government is funding Dyson to develop a new battery electric vehicle at their headquarters in Malmesbury, Wiltshire. This will secure £174m of investment in the area, creating over 500 jobs, mostly in engineering.” A Dyson spokesman refused to comment about the recent revelation. However, last year, when asked if the company was working on an EV, Dyson CEO Max Conze said, “We are ruling nothing out. Like our friends in Cupertino [Apple] we are also unhealthily obsessive when it comes to taking apart our products to make them better.” The company has said it plans to invest £1 billion (about $1.4 billion) in battery technology over the next five years. Founder Sir James Dyson has a long history as an inventor and entrepreneur, having patented such handy items as the Rotork Sea Truck and Ballbarrow back in the 1970s. Dyson’s bagless vacuum cleaners, bladeless fans and the Airblade hand dryer that’s familiar to air travelers all use small, light and efficient electric motors, so the potential synergies with automobiles are plain.
Image courtesy of Eva Rinaldi (CC BY-SA 2.0)
Vacuum maker Dyson appears to be developing an EV
THE VEHICLES
Image courtesy of Dana60Cummins (CC BY-SA 3.0)
Cummins wins DOE grant to develop Class 6 PHEV trucks Heavy vehicle manufacturer Cummins (NYSE: CMI) has been awarded a $4.5-million grant from the DOE to develop a Class 6 commercial PHEV. Class 6 vehicles weigh between 19,000 and 26,000 pounds fully loaded - examples include school buses and single-axle work trucks. The goal of the project is to reduce fuel consumption by at least 50%. Cummins hopes to achieve this goal over a wide range of drive cycles, in order to meet the needs of a wide variety of commercial fleet operators. Cummins researchers plan to select an engine with the optimal architecture to use as a range extender to manage the charge level of the vehicle’s battery pack. “The close integration and control of the electrified powertrain with an appropriately selected engine is critically important to developing a plug-in hybrid electric
vehicle system,” said Cummins VP Wayne Eckerle. “We believe that through the team’s efforts we can soon make these innovations commercially available.”
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The Federal Transit Administration (FTA) has announced the availability of $55 million in funding (FTA-2016-003-TPM) under the Low or No Emission (Low-No) Program. The purpose of the Low-No Program is to encourage transit operators to convert their fleets to the most energy-efficient vehicles. It provides funding to state and local governmental authorities for the purchase or lease of zero-emission and low-emission transit buses, including acquisition, construction, and leasing of required supporting facilities. All buses proposed for deployment must complete the Federal Transit Administration’s bus testing program, and follow FTA Buy America regulations. Priority is given to tested zero-emission bus models with proven effectiveness (such as Proterra and BYD models already in service in several US cities). Previous rounds of Low-No funding have supported the purchase of battery-electric and hybrid buses and charging infrastructure in several states.
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Image courtesy of Proterra
Up to $55 million in funding available for Low or No Emission transit vehicles
Airbus Group and Siemens have launched a joint project to explore the electrification of aviation. The goal is to demonstrate the technical feasibility of various hybrid/electric aircraft propulsion systems by 2020. The two giant companies plan to develop prototypes for propulsion systems with power classes ranging from a few hundred kilowatts up to 10 or more megawatts, for small-to-medium-size airplanes, helicopters and unmanned drones. The companies have assigned a team of around 200 employees to the project. The two firms, together with Austria’s Diamond Aircraft, presented a hybrid aircraft in 2011. Since then, Siemens has been developing an electric aircraft motor that supplies five times as much power while retaining the same weight. Siemens experts were able to cut the weight of the motor’s end shield by more than half, and an innovative arrangement of magnets allowed less material to be used there as well. A new cooling concept that uses direct-cooled conductors delivered a further weight reduction. “Electric and electric-hybrid flight represent some of the biggest industrial challenges of our time, aiming at zero-emissions aviation. The progress we have achieved in this arena in only a few years is breathtaking, culminating in last year’s channel crossing of our all-electric E-Fan aircraft,” said Tom Enders, CEO of Airbus Group. “We believe that by 2030 passenger aircraft below 100 seats could be propelled by hybrid propulsion systems.”
Image courtesy of Airbus Group
Airbus and Siemens collaborate on hybrid electric propulsion systems for aircraft
THE VEHICLES Germany announces billion-euro EV and PHEV subsidy program
Merkel’s Christian Democrat party have criticized the scheme, as have environmental and taxpayers’ lobbies. “The government may have left carmakers with too much wiggle room on emissions and industry certainly pushed things to a limit there,” Bankhaus Metzler analyst Juergen Pieper told Reuters. “But the decision to kickstart demand for EVs is right. Other countries are doing this too for good reasons.”
Several European nations, notably Norway and the Netherlands, offer generous incentive programs to support e-mobility. Germany, the continent’s largest auto market, has been a conspicuous exception until now. In April, the German government announced a new incentive scheme worth about 1 billion euros ($1.13 billion). The costs are to be shared equally between the government and automakers, and the objective is to sell an additional 400,000 plug-in vehicles, according to Transport Minister Alexander Dobrindt. Under the new policy, car buyers will receive a discount of €4,000 for an EV, and €3,000 for a PHEV. Only cars with a sticker price under €60,000 are eligible for the discount. That leaves out Tesla’s Model S and Model X, as well as the BMW i8 and Mercedes’ PHEV models. The program also includes Control 300 million euros of investment in charging stations. The govThe TM4 NEURO™ 200 is ernment said that 200 million a fully programmable of those euros will go toward vehicle controller designed a network of around 5,000 DC to be used as the main fast charging stations, with the vehicle management unit. rest going for Level 2 chargers at destination locales. Up to 4 CAN / 4MB flash / 514KB Minister Dobrindt also said that €1 million will be devoted to increasing the number of plug-in vehicles in the federal government’s fleet. Automakers and trade unions are behind the plan, but some lawmakers in Chancellor Angela
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Musk: Probability of accidents 50% lower with Autopilot
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While US plug-in vehicle sales contracted slightly in 2015, in the global market they went wild, posting an increase of almost 80% over 2014. The latest to trumpet this fact is the US Department of Energy, which has released a breakdown of sales for the world’s main EV markets. According to the DOE, 565,668 EVs and PHEVs changed hands in the world’s five top markets in 2015, compared to 315,519 in 2014 (other sources offer slightly different figures – InsideEVs estimates the global numbers at 550,297 and 320,713, an increase of 72%). Although US plug-in light vehicle sales declined by 3% in 2015, sales in China more than tripled, to 214,283. China is now by far the world’s largest market for plug-in vehicles (and for vehicles in general). Western Europe was in second place with 184,500 plug-in vehicles sold, followed by the US (115,262), Japan (46,339) and Canada (5,284). Together, these five markets account for about 95% of global plug-in sales.
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It’s generally expected that autonomous vehicles will prove to be safer than those driven by fallible humans, but hard figures will be needed to convince regulators and a skeptical public. During a talk in Norway, Elon Musk said that Tesla is beginning to amass some statistics on the safety of its Autopilot-equipped vehicles. “The probability of having an accident is 50% lower if you have Autopilot on, even with our first version,” said the Disruptor of Detroit. “So we can see basically what’s the average number of kilometers to an accident - accident defined by airbag deployment. Even with this early version, it’s almost twice as good as a person.” Musk expects the second-generation Autopilot system, which will be capable of full autonomy, to be even safer, and is confident that usage data will convince regulators to give the system a green light. “I think it’s going to be important in term of satisfying regulators and the public to show statistically with a large amount of data - with billions of kilometers of driving - to say that the safety level is definitively better, by a meaningful margin, if it’s autonomous versus non-autonomous.” Tesla said earlier this month that Tesla owners have driven over 47 million miles on Autopilot since it became available last October, and the body of data is rapidly increasing as more Autopilot-equipped Teslas hit the road.
Image courtesy of Tesla Motors
DOE: Global plug-in vehicle sales grew by 80% in 2015
THE VEHICLES
Images courtesy of Wrightspeed
Wrightspeed to provide its turbine-based PHEV powertrain to New Zealand bus operator
Ian Wright was a co-founder of Tesla, but he soon left to start his own company, partly because he felt that large commercial vehicles represented a better target for electrification than passenger cars. Since then, Wrightspeed’s turbine-based powertrain has powered delivery trucks for FedEx and garbage trucks for the city of Santa Rosa, California. Now the company has announced a $30-million deal with NZ Bus, a New Zealand transit operator with a fleet of over 1,000 buses. This is Wrightspeed’s first venture into the public transit market, and its first major international sale. It also appears to be the first pilot of plug-in buses in New Zealand. Wrightspeed will be providing its Route 500 powertrains to NZ Bus, and plans to set up a New Zealand facility to install them. The first application will be to retrofit some trolleybuses, which are currently powered from overhead wires. Wrightspeed’s Route 500 powertrain features two electric motors and the company’s 80 kW, fuel-agnostic Fulcrum Turbine Generator, which charges a 40 kWh onboard battery pack. The buses can be charged at 19 kW, using a standard J1772 charging plug - a strong selling point versus all-electric buses, which require larger battery packs and/or expensive charging stations capable of much higher charging levels. The company’s patented Geared Traction Drive, which digitally drives each wheel of the vehicle, can handle grades of up to 40%. “Wrightspeed’s powertrains outperformed the com-
petition on nearly every metric and will provide us with the fuel source flexibility and economically compelling technology to future-proof our transit assets,” said Zane Fulljames, CEO of NZ Bus. “The technology enables us to reimagine our trolley buses, rather than decommissioning them.” New Zealand seems like a perfect fit for electrified buses - fossil fuel prices are among the highest in the world, and nearly 75 percent of the country’s electricity comes from renewable sources. “There’s support at the government level, at the company level, and a lot of support from the public as well,” Ian Wright told Charged. “They have hilly cities where you need performance from the powertrain, and it’s a good place to do business, so I think everyone’s happy.”
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THE VEHICLES Philadelphia transit authority orders 25 Proterra electric buses Philadelphia is set to become the first city in the Northeastern US to put battery-electric buses into service. The Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority (SEPTA) plans to purchase 25 40-foot Proterra Catalyst e-buses, which will be deployed on two bus routes in South Philadelphia. Two canopy-style charging stations will be installed along the routes, and operators and service personnel will receive training in the new technology. A $2.5-million grant from the Federal Transit Administration’s Low or No Emission (Low-No) Program will contribute to the $24-million total cost of the pilot project. The latest round of Low-No grants is also supporting zero-emission bus purchases in California, Ohio, Utah and Washington. Cities around the world, from London to New Zealand, are testing e-buses. Philly seems to be the trend-
setter in the densely populated Northeast. Boston is working on contracts to acquire five electric articulated buses from CTE and New Flyer, according to an MBTA spokesman. New York City is still buying diesel buses, and has no plans to buy electric buses, an MTA spokesman said. Electric bus prices have dropped by more than $500,000 in the last five years, according to Proterra CEO Ryan Popple (interviewed in the July 2015 issue of Charged). His company’s current models run between $650,000 and $750,000. “It’s quite possible that combustion vehicles [in transit applications] become entirely extinct within the next five to ten years because of the cost,” said Popple. “As procurements of diesel and natural gas slow down, it’s about asking transit managers: are [diesel buses] really a good idea long-term?”
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MERGING MEG Evercar uses short-term rentals to accelerate the potential for electric ride-sharing and delivery services. If it can clear regulatory hurdles, its electric-miles-as-a-service tools could change the growing industry.
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THE VEHICLES
ATRENDS
EVS AND THE ON-DEMAND ECONOMY Photo courtesy of Uber
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O
n paper, EVs seem like the perfect choice for the on-demand economy. In a world where vehicles are being pushed to spend more time on the road and less time in the parking lot, why wouldn’t you choose the option with the lowest overall cost per mile? The big obstacle is that buying a car based on its lifetime costs - and not sticker price - requires a level of financial foresight that is rarely exercised by the general public. That is also true in the commercial and transit arena, where electric drive proponents have found that it takes a considerable effort to convince fleet managers to get off gas and diesel - even when the numbers add up in the long term.
An evolving Vision to remove the friction Where some see an adoption problem, others identify opportunity. At the end of March, Vision Fleet, a company focused on helping fleets deploy plug-in vehicles, changed its name to Evercar, which was a branch of the company that had been operating in Los Angeles since 2015.
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Evercar covers the insurance, cleaning, maintenance costs and fuel for unlimited miles. Evercar rents EVs (Nissan LEAFs at present) for only $5 an hour to member drivers who use them to work with ride-sharing and delivery services like Uber, Lyft, Postmates, DoorDash, Instacart and more. This allows Evercar members to work for these transportation network companies (TNCs) without actually owning a car - or accruing wear and tear on their personal vehicles. Evercar covers the insurance, cleaning, maintenance costs and fuel for unlimited miles. So how does a company rent EVs and cover all the other costs for only $5 an hour without being some kind of Mafia front? That secret sauce simmered for a couple of years under Vision Fleet’s program to help deploy EVs to fleets
Images courtesy of Evercar
THE VEHICLES
Evercar rents EVs for
Hybrids and PHEVs rent for
an hour
an hour
$5
$7
Part of the beauty of Evercar’s model is that it works better with pure EVs than with PHEVs or hybrids. for customers including the cities of Indianapolis and Atlanta. Vision’s philosophy was selling electric travel miles as a service, which Evercar CEO Michael Brylawski says was inspired by the evolving solar energy industry. By refining the telematics, math and other data coming in from its Vision Fleet customers, the company figured out how to make short-term rentals to individual drivers viable, and launched Evercar last year in Los Angeles, with plans to expand to a second market sometime this summer. Part of the beauty of Evercar’s model is that it works better with pure EVs than with PHEVs or hybrids. Currently, Evercar also rents Toyota Prius hybrids for $7 an hour - 40% more than EVs, because they are less cost-effective. That’s music to an EV aficionado’s ears, because we are so used to hearing about the high upfront costs required to go electric.
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Brylawski, an MIT graduate, founded Vision Fleet about three years ago, after almost two decades of working toward clean and efficient mobility as a VP at the Rocky Mountain Institute and a co-founder of both Fiberforge and Bright Automotive. Around 2010-2011, he saw the Chevy Volt and Nissan LEAF come out - what he called “prime-time vehicles.” “They had a great value proposition in terms of functionality and economics,” Brylawski told Charged. “Fleets in particular were uniquely suited to get those benefits from the vehicles: the ability to have controlled routes, tax incentives, the opportunity to do great utilization, driver training and so on.” However, Brylawski said that, as of 2015, there were still only about four plug-in vehicles out of every thousand government and commercial fleet vehicles - or 0.2% plug-ins. Then, as successful entrepreneurs often do, he noticed a parallel with the solar industry, which was still stagnant in the 2000s, even as the cost per watt started to drop. When companies like SolarCity, Sungevity and Sunrun started to redefine the solar business model, they took away the barriers to entry for installing solar panels, and essentially sold solar energy services at a lower cost per kilowatt to the customer, rather than selling the panels themselves. Brylawski believed he could pioneer a similar “electric miles as a service” business model, and sell those miles to fleet operators. Vision Fleet would take on the responsibility for the vehicles, the infrastructure, the deployment, the training, the telematics to link the systems together, and even the risks in terms of maintenance. Then it could offer customers the simple value of reliably cheaper costs per mile. His company pioneered that business model with the city of Indianapolis in early 2014, when the former Marine and Republican Mayor Greg Ballard wanted to transition his fleet away from fossil fuels. “Since then we’ve grown that fleet to over 200 EVs,” Brylawski said, “the largest operator of plug-in vehicles of any municipal fleet, though there are a few cities that are aggressively going after that mark.” Vision Fleet is now known as Evercar for Fleet, and is in the schedule for the US government’s General Services Administration to work on federal fleets. However, Evercar for Fleet’s greatest legacy may be paving the way for Evercar’s short-term rental initiative for the growing on-demand economy. “We’ve taken all this technology and the platform to deliver to the fleet market into what we see as the fastestgrowing fleet, which is ride-sharing,” Brylawski said.
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Evercar CEO Michael Brylawski
We’ve taken all this technology and the platform to deliver to the fleet market into what we see as the fastest-growing fleet, which is ride-sharing. The CEO estimated that the total number of government sedans active today is 1.8 million, while the total number of vehicles in the fleets of the various TNCs is around 1.4 million and growing fast - compared to zero only 4-5 years ago.
Evercar in action Interested drivers apply to join Evercar, and also apply to work with Uber, Lyft, or the other companies that Evercar partners with. Evercar does a background check on the driver, and within 3-10 days on average, the person is approved to use the online system to reserve a car to drive. A text message gets them into the car at one of the company’s 10 metro LA locations, and the driver must return the car to the designated parking lot at the end of the shift. Drivers buy five Evercar hours up front, but after that, they aren’t billed for their other hours until they have received payment from the TNCs they’re working for. Brylawski said that using Evercar is 20-30% cheaper than driving your own car. “The drive cycle in ride-share, particularly in a big city, is a lot of stop-and-go driving. There’s a lot of wear and tear, and of course it’s a very inefficient drive cycle for a gasoline vehicle. A lot of people start driving, and they see the expenses for insurance, gasoline and wear and tear on their vehicle and gasoline, and we’re able to bundle that into these vehicles.” Charging by the hour rather than the day or week helps Evercar get the most out of its vehicles, and the company uses its accumulating data to operate the EVs more efficiently, as well as to help the drivers. “We optimize how these electric vehicles are operated, charged
THE VEHICLES Photo courtesy of Evercar
Drivers buy five Evercar hours up front, but after that, they aren’t billed for their other hours until they have received payment from Uber, Lyft, etc.
One of Evercar's 10 pick up locations in the metro LA area
Evercar estimates the TNC vehicle fleet is around
Growing quickly from approximately
million cars
vehicles 4-5 years ago
1.4
Lyft: an on-demand ride sharing app
0
DoorDash: an on-demand restaurant delivery service
Image courtesy of Lyft
Photos courtesy of DoorDash
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We get our utilizations to a point where we can make this very, very affordable and help the drivers make more money. and shared,” Brylawski said. “We get our utilizations to a point where we can make this very, very affordable and help the drivers make more money.” To that end, Evercar offers a certain amount of training for drivers, and is working on a service called Evercar Coach, which will advise drivers on what times of day are most profitable, which days of the week are best for different TNCs, and locations that could be the most promising. “Because we’re exclusively focused on putting these vehicles into ride-share platforms, we’ve got unique insights on where drivers can earn more revenue,” Brylawski said. “It’s an interesting way to uniquely apply the value of EVs.” He continued by noting that the $5 per hour cost for an Evercar LEAF is not much more than a driver would pay for gas at LA’s current prices. “We couldn’t drive the cost to that rate without EVs,” Brylawski said. “This is not something you could make work with gasoline vehicles, just because the maintenance cost alone would overwhelm that cost structure. This is the greatest showcase of EVs’ operational benefits.” As Evercar expands its pick-up locations, it matches parking opportunities with public fast-charging locations. Brylawski said there are 55 public Level 3 stations in LA that are convenient for drivers to get to, but the cars generally charge up with Level 2 overnight if they’re not being used. Cars are available 24/7. Brylawski cited one case in which a driver took a firstgen LEAF out for 25 hours, drove more than 400 miles total, did eight fast charges and earned $50-60 more than they would have using their own car. He finds that achievement especially impressive given the limited 84mile range of the first-gen LEAF. In the near future, Evercar plans on deploying thousands of extended-range EVs from Nissan and GM, including the 200-mile-range Bolt, and the Tesla Model 3 whenever it becomes available. In fact, part of the symbolism of the Evercar name refers to
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“electric vehicle” for the first two letters and “extended range” for the second two. Even with the LEAF’s limited range (relative to upcoming EVs), it’s been very rare that a driver has to reject a trip because the destination is outside of the available range - less than one out of every 100 trips, according to Brylawski. Most of the requested ride shares are in dense urban environments, and the average Evercar driver travels 16-17 miles in an hour. Regardless of the EV range, though, Evercar relies on its technology to make its business model work. While it started out as more of a financing company, that has changed greatly. “It does require a lot of work on the back end,” Brylawski noted. The two biggest departments of the 30-person-and-growing company work on its technology platform and its operations platform. “We actually have our own custom-developed telematics platform that really helps manage vehicles in this use case,” he said. “We track all the vehicles in our network operations center; we understand their state of charge; we text or call the drivers when they need to recharge; we guide them to the fast-charge stations and do a lot of customer support.” However, the financing is still important, which is why it’s critical for the company to get a foothold in
It’s an interesting way to uniquely apply the value of EVs.
Photo courtesy of Evercar
THE VEHICLES California. The company buys its vehicles - rather than leasing them - taking advantage of federal and state tax incentives, and also does the same with the EVSE that it purchases. Brylawski said manufacturers are very aggressive in their pricing and financing options in California, whereas they tend to be less so in other states. So when a fleet, or an individual ride-share driver, does not need to purchase the vehicle, insurance, fuel, etc, it comes down to a price per mile, and then it’s an applesto-apples comparison between EVs and ICE vehicles. “Then you can showcase the lifecycle advantages of EVs - even with today’s low fuel prices,” Brylawski said, “and find ways to deliver a lower cost per mile - sometimes significantly lower - because you’re also leveraging utilization and low maintenance costs. You can make these vehicles very cost-competitive.”
The regulator’s dilemma - it’s nothing personal It’s no secret that the “sharing economy,” or the “ondemand economy” has turned several industries on their heads, while engendering fairly equal parts of love and hate, depending on whom you ask. Airbnb has pissed off at least as many apartment dwellers as it has enriched, but travelers love it for the cost and amenities benefits. And that’s exactly why the hotel industry is scrambling for government regulations against it in many tourist cities. Of course, the colossus of the sharing economy is on everyone’s lips. In just seven years Uber has created its own cottage industry, and even a new acronym: TNC. Lyft, Instacart, Postmates, Wingz, Didi Chuxing (in China) and others are all TNCs. The label TNC itself originated in 2013 from a designation that the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) created for companies that connect customers paying for driving services from non-commercial vehicles. That paradox non-commercial vehicles serving commercial purposes - is like the flux capacitor causing a chain reaction that could unravel the fabric of the space/time continuum, and destroy the entire universe…of individual transportation as we know it. To people of a certain age or disposition, TNCs just make sense. If you have money and don’t want to drive yourself to a destination or go shopping, just pay someone else to do it for you. You get what you want, someone else gets paid, and everyone’s happy, right? Everyone but the industries that TNCs displace, such as taxi and limo companies, and to some extent couriers and other delivery services. Those industries unhappy with TNCs have a legacy
Photo courtesy of Aaron Parecki (CC BY 2.0)
Cab drivers in Portland protesting for more ride-sharing regulation
Those industries unhappy with TNCs have a legacy of government regulation behind them, and they now want TNCs to be subject to the same or a greater amount of regulation. of government regulation behind them, and they now want TNCs to be subject to the same or a greater amount of regulation. We could write a book on the grievances against TNCs (in fact, at least one person already has: Raw Deal, by Steven Hill): lack of worker background checks, independent contractor rights, insurance and taxation considerations, and on and on ad infinitum. Suffice it to say, this is where we reach an impasse, with a government wishing to support two industries that are seemingly at odds with one another. Traditionally, the CPUC has come down on the side of innovation, especially when that innovation would help to solve some of the problems that cars and traffic pose. However, the CPUC is currently considering several TNC-related measures: some that address safety concerns; some that update regulations in TNCs’ favor; and
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others that may subject TNCs to regulations similar to those that the taxi industry faces. In any case, some issues facing the CPUC at the time of writing could have sweeping implications for Evercar and any other business looking to provide on-demand vehicles for on-demand drivers. At the CPUC’s most recent Public Agenda vote on April 21, the commission voted to approve commercial carpooling, allowing services like UberPOOL and Lyft Line to operate legally. These services offer cheaper fares to ride-share users who don’t mind sitting next to strangers headed in the same general direction (the CPUC had previously chosen not to enforce the 50-year-old California law against commercial carpooling on those companies). Other TNC-related matters were addressed, but two items, one on driver background checks and another on leased vehicles, were tabled for a future vote. Currently, ride-hailing companies are required to use “personal vehicles,” and the CPUC agenda contained an item to define “personal vehicles” as ones that the drivers had possessed for four months or more. Such a definition would basically prohibit Evercar’s main focus in California, and put the kibosh on short-term rental services from Hyrecar and Enterprise in California. Luckily for Evercar, the influential Uber and Lyft have an interest in allowing as many people to drive for their companies as possible. Evercar also has other heavyweights on its side, such as Enterprise and GM, which had a representative present on April 21 to speak against the reclassification of “personal vehicles,” even though its Express Drive short-term rental partnership with Lyft doesn’t yet operate in California. The most recent CPUC voting meeting was held on May 9, but the matter of “personal vehicle” designation for TNCs was not on the agenda, so it would seem that Evercar can continue to operate unfettered for now. That’s positive news for the 400-500 drivers in the Los Angeles area who are applying to drive with Evercar each week, according the company’s Director of Marketing, Michelle Wright. “We’ve had several productive conversations with the commission…and feel our position has been duly noted (and was truly an unintended consequence). We’re optimistic that the CPUC is going to remedy the situation.”
EVs for the people The CPUC doesn’t just have a business regulation issue on its hands - it’s also a jobs question, with many lowincome drivers willing to work waiting for the answer.
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Evercar estimates that 15-25% of those interested in ride-sharing Jobs don’t have a qualifying vehicle
400 500 to
people apply to drive for Evercar each week
Image courtesy of Uber
Companies like Evercar and comparable services lower the barriers to entry for TNC gigs. Brylawski quoted an estimate that 15-25% of interested ride-sharing drivers don’t have a qualifying vehicle. “Those services have a max number of miles and condition of the vehicle, and a lot of people who want that job don’t have the vehicle or can’t get financing for one,” Brylawski said. “As we mature, we’re also finding
THE VEHICLES
once they’re in the EVs and using them, there’s very high satisfaction on both the fleet side and the Evercar rideshare side there’s people attracted to this because they don’t want to put wear and tear on their own car, or worry about the hassles of doing it with their own vehicle.” According to Brylawski, most Evercar applicants have never driven an EV, because they don’t typically match the demographic of an EV owner. Rather, it’s often students, retirees or, in LA, underemployed members of the creative economy, who want to work part-time with flexible hours. “Ultimately, it’s the technology platforms and the hands-on support that people value the most,” Brylawski said. “You really couldn’t do this without advances in telematics and cloud computing that have happened over the last couple years. EVs are just the tool to get things done. I’m personally into the technology. I’ve worked on it for 30 years. I love EVs for their own sake, but the realworld community of EV enthusiasts is pretty small. If we want this to scale to provide the benefits of EVs to a much larger audience, you’ve got to figure out how to reach those audiences. The cool thing is once they’re in the EVs and using them, there’s very high satisfaction on both the fleet side and the Evercar ride-share side.” If Evercar can prove its model in a string of cities, it could do much to spread positive impressions of EVs and possibly make them more visible as options for larger fleets. On Evercar’s ride-sharing side, each driver is a small business, and each car is a fleet of one. Success breeds more success, so it’s conceivable that the expansion of the ride-sharing Evercar, targeted for this summer, could feed the expansion of Evercar for Fleet. “We haven’t really spent a lot of time promoting it,” Brylawski said. “We wanted to make sure the system worked first. I see the world headed much more to this on-demand way of getting around. More people in cities are shifting away from owning their own car that sits parked for 22 hours and toward sharing assets.” Photo courtesy of Evercar
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TESLA
MODEL 3
What we know and what we don't know By Charles Morris
esla made automotive history on March 31, when it unveiled the culmination of its master plan to bring EVs to the masses. The company has committed to delivering a car with the parameters that pundits have identified as the tipping point for widespread EV sales: 200 miles of range and a price tag in the 30s. By immediately placing orders for more units than some of the world’s most popular vehicles sell in a year, consumers have signaled a huge pent-up demand for compelling EVs - at least ones that feature a T on the hood. It certainly feels as if something momentous has happened, but how the next act will play out is far from certain. Will Tesla be able to ramp up production fast enough to pull this off? Will it be able to
T
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Consumers have signaled a huge pent-up demand for compelling EVs - at least ones that feature a T on the hood. deliver the car reasonably close to the promised date? How will the major automakers respond? As you might expect, predictions are all over the map - some foresee a major disruptive wave that will bury the Dinosaurs of Detroit the way the internet buried the video rental stores and travel agents. At the other end
Photos courtesy of Tesla Motors
THE VEHICLES
of the spectrum, naysayers predict that Tesla has finally bitten off more than it can chew, and that it will choke to death, taking the dream of electromobility with it to the grave. For more sober observers such as this magazine, the most likely future seems to be somewhere in between these two extremes, and the best thing to do at this point is to identify the most important unanswered questions, and survey the thoughts of those most closely involved in the unfolding drama. But first let’s summarize what we do know about the historic new vehicle.
What we know
As is the norm in the auto industry, Model 3 will offer available options that can add large amounts to the base sticker price. Elon Musk has said that he expects most buyers to choose some of these options, and that the average sale price will be around $42k. However, to offer a stripped-down car without essential features at the promised $35k price point would have amounted to a disingenuous bait-and-switch, and some cynical observers were predicting that Tesla would do just that. To its credit (and to the immediate benefit of the TSLA stock price), the company promised that even the base Model 3 would include the features that make a Tesla a Tesla.
to its credit, the company promised that even the base Model 3 would include the features that make a Tesla a Tesla. Those features, which set Tesla’s vehicles apart from other EVs, are range, speed, safety, cargo space, Supercharging and Autopilot. At the unveiling ceremony, Musk ticked off those features one by one, assuring us that the Model 3 will not disappoint in any category. The figures Musk enumerated may not be up to the level of the moreexpensive Model S, but (unless other EV-makers significantly raise their games over the next couple of years), they should enable Model 3 to easily outclass any of its competitors. Range: The base model will have an EPA-certified range of at least 215 miles, and Tesla is hoping to push that number upward before the first deliveries. There will be an option to upgrade to a bigger battery. Speed: The base 3 will do 0-60 in less than 6 sec-
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Photo courtesy of Steve Jurvetson - Flickr (CC BY 2.0)
onds. “At Tesla, we don’t make slow cars. And there will be versions that go much faster.” In answer to questions from Tesla fans on Twitter, Elon Musk said that Model 3 will “of course” offer Ludicrous mode as an option. There’s no word yet on exactly how quick it will be, or how much it will cost (on the Model S and X, $10,000 buys you a 0-60 time of 2.8 seconds). Safety: With power comes responsibility. Musk promised that Model 3 will score 5-star safety ratings in every category. Optional features: Rear-wheel drive is standard, and there will be an option for dual-motor all-wheel drive, which Musk said will cost less than $5,000. Like Model S, there will be an optional air suspension feature that can dynamically adjust ride height. Other options will include a towing hitch and a vegan interior (no leather).
What we Don't know
What will Model 3’s cargo compartment be like?
Tesla says the Model 3 fits 5 adults “comfortably,” and some of the lucky souls who got a ride in one at the unveiling ceremony agreed that it does. However, some are concerned that Model 3’s design may have traded away cargo capacity in favor of passenger space. Tesla has said that Model 3 will have two trunks and more cargo space than any car of its size, and that the back seats will fold completely horizontal. Musk assures us that a 7-foot surf board, or a bike, will fit.
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Won’t be a hatchback, but we should be able to increase the opening width and height. However, the utility of cargo space isn’t just about cubic feet, but about accessibility - that’s why the auto world is divided between hatchbacks and sedans. Loading large and/or heavy objects is easy with a hatchback like the Model S (or the Toyota Prius or Honda Fit), but it can be almost impossible with a sedan-style trunk. At least from the few pictures we’ve seen so far, Model 3 appears to have a sort of hybrid between trunk and hatch. Musk explained the reason for the compromise: “Only way to get enough rear passenger headroom was to move the rear roof cross-car support beam thus no hatchback like S and X.” He also assures us that Tesla will address the issue: “Won’t be a hatchback, but we should be able to increase the opening width and height.” And later: “Aperture will be big enough for almost anything.” Cargo space is a sore point with other EVs, especially non-native models, many of which cannibalize trunk space for the battery. Tesla’s “skateboard”
Photos courtesy of Tesla Motors
THE VEHICLES
design makes it possible to maximize interior space, but there still may be a tradeoff between passenger and cargo space. Despite Musk’s assurances, we’ll have to include the cargo compartment in the Things We Don’t Know category for now. How much autonomy will Model 3 offer?
Tesla says that all threes will come standard with Autopilot hardware, and that all Autopilot “safety features” will be included even in the base model. It’s safe to assume that anything not considered a safety feature will be a software-enabled option. This would include the Summon feature, self-parking and other fun stuff. As with Model S, once the car has the necessary sensors and control hardware, adding other Autopilot features, including new ones yet to be developed, is just a matter of pushing out a software update, so the sky (or perhaps a buyer’s bank account) is the limit. The greatest benefits of vehicle autonomy (smoother traffic flow, fewer parking lots) will be realized when most or all vehicles are autonomous, so the new technology will surely trickle down to even the lowestpriced cars eventually. We’re sure that Tesla envisions a future in which every Model 3 can get around on its own.
all Autopilot “safety features” will be included even in the base model. Access to the Supercharger network
Tesla’s Supercharger network is one of the brand’s greatest assets - a valuable benefit for customers and a strong selling point against the (so far, mostly theoretical) competition. Will 3 buyers get the same free Supercharging privileges that S and X owners enjoy? “All Model 3 will have the capability for Supercharging,” said a Tesla spokesperson in response to spiraling speculation on the Tesla Motors Forum. “We haven’t specified (and aren’t right now) whether Supercharging will be free.” Tesla’s Communications
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Photos courtesy of Tesla Motors
THE VEHICLES
Above photo courtesy of Steve Jurvetson - Flickr (CC BY 2.0)
department has confirmed to Charged that this is the policy at the moment. Tesla fans have discussed this issue from every possible angle, and most of the more experienced EV drivers seem to agree that offering free-for-all charging would be a bad idea for all concerned. The downside for the company is obvious. Tesla eventually plans to sell millions of cars, and they’re designed to last. An open-ended commitment to free charging could be a financial albatross of Coleridgean proportions. Free unlimited access for all might be a bad deal for Tesla customers too. Some of the most popular Supercharger locations are already congested, and adding even a quarter million Model 3 drivers to the user base could turn a quick and hassle-free charging experience into a nightmare. We value what we pay for, and services that are free tend to get abused. Even a nominal charge would encourage drivers to use the Superchargers when they really need them, and possibly to take better care of them. Drivers who can afford a $35,000 new car aren’t likely to mind paying ten or fifteen bucks if they get convenient access to a fast charge when they need one.
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We haven’t specified (and aren’t right now) whether Supercharging will be free. So it seems likely that Model 3 owners will have to pay for their Supercharger usage, but what kind of pricing model will Tesla opt for? Unlimited charging for a one-time fee is one option, but it might not be the best one, for the reasons already discussed. Tesla has already run into problems with Model S owners using Superchargers for daily charging, instead of for occasional long trips, as the company intended. Other than sending schoolmasterly emails to offenders, Tesla has no real way to curb this tragedy of the commons.
Other possible pricing models include charging by the kWh, or charging a fixed fee per session. However, doing things this way encourages drivers to leave their cars plugged in as long as possible, an action which they derive little benefit from, because the rate at which charging stations deliver energy is highest early in a session, and tapers off towards the end. The main thing users want from a fast charging service is that it be readily available when needed, according to Rami Syväri of Norwegian network operator Fortum Charge & Drive, which has made an in-depth study of driver charging behavior. Fortum believes that charging per minute is best, because it incentivizes drivers to use chargers for the minimum amount of time needed, which increases the availability of each station. How will the tax credits shake out?
It’s safe to say that most buyers of Models S and X, with their price tags well north of 70 grand, are not much influenced one way or the other by the $7,500 federal tax credit for EV purchases. For Model 3 however, that credit represents over 20% of the base price, and it could be very important indeed for the “average” car buyers who make up the target market. The EV tax incentive was designed to give a boost to early adopters of a new product, and as such it is designed to
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If timed correctly, Tesla could theoretically have two quarters to deliver as many cars as possible, all qualifying for the full tax credit. “sunset” once a particular automaker reaches 200,000 in EV sales. By most estimates, Tesla has already sold around 50,000 vehicles in the US, and it plans to sell about that number again by the end of 2016. If it keeps ramping up production of Models S and X as planned, it could be very close to the 200,000 mark by the end of 2017, when deliveries of Model 3 are scheduled to begin. According to Internal Revenue Code 30D, when the 200,000-unit threshold is reached, the tax credit will automatically be phased out “beginning with the second calendar quarter after the calendar quarter in which at least 200,000 qualifying vehicles manufactured by that manufacturer have been sold.” Then, the credit will drop to $3,750 for six months, to $1,875 for another six months, and then it will be gone. Tesla has already logged over 400,000 orders globally for Model 3. Even if only a quarter of those translate into US deliveries, many of those buyers are going to get a reduced tax credit, or none at all. Obviously, those who placed orders earlier are more likely to get the whole cookie, but there are too many variables to know for sure which buyers will slip in before the cutoff point. Tesla tends to produce its vehicles in batches - all of one trim level first, then the next, and
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Photo courtesy of Tesla Motors
Above photo courtesy of Steve Jurvetson - Flickr (CC BY 2.0)
so on. It has said that it will deliver Model 3 to existing customers first, then to buyers on the West Coast, and expand from there, so geography may play a role in who gets the goodies. It will be ironic if all the tax credits get soaked up by the affluent buyers of the Roadster, S and X, leaving none for the theoretically more deserving middle-classers waiting patiently for the 3. “One could argue [that Tesla] sort of wasted their credits on the very wealthy, people who didn’t need it,” Kelley Blue Book’s Rebecca Lindland told Wired. (An interesting note: Germany recently approved an EV purchase incentive, but it excludes cars priced over €60,000, so Models S and X won’t be eligible, but Model 3 will.) The Tesla team is well aware of the issue. “Our production ramp plan should enable large numbers of non X/S customers to receive the credit,” tweeted Elon Musk. “We always try to maximize customer happiness even if that means a revenue shortfall in a quarter.” There is a way that Tesla could manipulate deliveries to maximize the number of customers that get the credit, based on the fact that, once a carmaker hits the 200,000-unit mark, the phase-out is based on calendar dates. If the company delivers its 199,999th car on the first day of a quarter, it would theoretically have two quarters to deliver as many cars as possible,
THE VEHICLES all qualifying for the full tax credit. It’s also worth mentioning that the fate of the EV credit could depend on the US presidential election in November. A Republican-led government could conceivably ax the credit (although it’s rare for Congress to eliminate existing programs), while a Democratdominated Washington might vote to extend it. How will the global auto industry respond?
“The Model 3’s huge reservation list should serve as a big wake-up call for the rest of the industry,” Kelley Blue Book Analyst Tony Lim told Automotive News. Will the big automakers respond to that wake-up call, or will they hit the snooze button, as they have so many times in the past? This is the big question, and the answer, to be revealed over the next few years, will be all-important for Tesla and (if you’ll forgive us a bit of melodrama) for the fate of mankind. Tesla’s mission has always been to get more people driving EVs, even if it’s not the one selling them. Elon Musk has said many times that he welcomes competition from the major automakers. Musk and his crusading carmakers have had some success in this regard. Former GM exec Bob Lutz has acknowledged that Tesla was a major inspiration for the Chevy Volt. More recently, Tesla has become a role model for the German luxury brands, all of which have been accelerating their plug-in plans (it has also inspired a crop of brash startups backed by Chinese tech investors). However, so far we’ve seen nothing that could really be called competition for Tesla, much less any sign that the majors envision a truly mass-market EV in the near future. Now that Model 3 has garnered more orders in a week than most legacy models sell in a year, is this about to change? Some Tesla skeptics believe that at some point, the majors will get serious about their own EV programs and, with their massive financial resources and economies of scale, will bury the Silicon Valley upstart. This is theoretically possible, and may conceivably happen, but many who comment on the EV scene fail to understand that there’s a fundamental difference between Tesla and other OEMs. Tesla exists only to sell EVs, and it wants to sell as many as it can. For the most part, the Big Three and others are building EVs only because governments are forcing them to. They have built some excellent plug-in automobiles, but have largely opted not to invest in any substantial
advertising for them, and they have failed to motivate their independent dealers to really push them. While there are surely pro-EV factions within all the major automakers, on the whole the companies would be happy to see emissions regulations in the US and Europe watered down (a result they have spent millions lobbying for), and to keep their EVs in a permanent test marketing program. This attitude is not (entirely) the result of any oilfunded conspiracy, or even of typical corporate shortsightedness. It’s simply a sound business decision. Automakers are currently enjoying their highest levels of sales and profits in history. To give one example, Ford recently announced that its net income for the first quarter of 2016 more than doubled, driven mostly by “insatiable demand” for trucks and SUVs. For the decade to come, automakers have their eyes on China, where - while the government is struggling to electrify its way out of choking air pollution - consumers want just what Americans want: the biggest and most powerful vehicles they can afford. All that said, it can’t be denied that several of the majors are moving steadily forward. The Chevy Bolt will give buyers a 200-mile, $35k electric option at least a year before the Model 3 shows up in anyone’s driveway. The Nissan LEAF has boosted its range to over 100 miles, and the Ford Focus EV will soon match that. BMW, VW, Kia and others have announced ambitious electrification plans for the medium term. Journalists have been asking auto industry execs how they plan to respond to the Tesla tidal wave. Most have responded with vague generalizations, saying that they’re pleased to see demand for EVs, and plan to be at the forefront of new technology. However, so far none have signaled any real change to their current strategies. Perhaps the most positive-sounding of the bunch is Nissan CEO Carlos Ghosn, who told Automotive News that the increased awareness of EVs would push Nissan to improve its own electrified vehicles, and said, “We welcome competition because it can expand the market. It’s going to stimulate demand.” Nissan also responded to the raft of reservations for Model 3 by running print ads in several national newspapers that took a gentle poke at Tesla, saying “No one should have any reservations about getting an electric car today. Why wait when you can drive an all-electric LEAF now?”
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THE INFRASTRUCTURE
Momentum Dynamics says it will deliver 200 kW wireless charging systems for the municipal bus market in 2016. According to CEO Andrew Daga, the company delivered 25 kW and 50 kW systems to partners in the automotive industry in 2015, and is planning to deliver two wireless systems to municipal agencies in Maryland and Washington this year. Utah-based competitor WAVE (profiled in the March/ April issue of Charged) has wireless systems up and running at 50 kW. By comparison, some Tesla Superchargers (wired) operate at 135 kW. Momentum Dynamics’ system includes a transmitter on the ground and a power receiver mounted to the underside of the vehicle. It can support an air gap of up to 12 inches. “These high power levels are causing a lot of excitement, especially with municipal bus transit agencies where high power is required to keep a municipal bus in operation all day,” said Daga. “Fast automatic charging will enable the EV market to grow faster. It is completely autonomous, carefree and safe.”
Image courtesy of Momentum Dynamics
Momentum Dynamics promises 200 kW wireless charging for electric buses
eMotorWerks specializes in intelligent smart-grid-enabled charging solutions. Its JuicePlug is a universal EVSE adapter that can convert an existing “dumb EVSE” into a smart one, with app- and web-based control. The latest additions to eMotorWerks’ product line are designed to allow portable EVSE to connect to the cloud, and to accommodate ever-higher charging levels. JuiceCord is a WiFi-connected lightweight EVSE travel cord that offers charging levels up to 20 amps and 5 kW, and comes with a free iOS or Android mobile app. Input adapters are available to connect JuiceCord to any 120 V or 240 V power source. The new JuiceBox Pro 75 is a 75-amp home charger, designed to be powerful enough to charge any EV on the market at its full Level 2 charging rate. It can charge at levels up to 18 kW. “JuiceCord is a special new product that brings the benefits of WiFi connectivity, portability, and power to our customers. We worked hard to keep it affordable while also having it work with our rewards program that pays drivers to charge,” says Valery Miftakhov, founder of eMotorWerks, “Our JuiceBox Pro 75 is unique, offering the highest Level 2 power available, future-proof ease of mind, and all the benefits of smart-grid charging.”
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Image courtesy of eMotorWerks
eMotorWerks’ new networked portable charging cord and 75amp home charger
CURRENTevents
Canadian government budget includes $62.5 million for alternative fuel infrastructure
Budget 2016 proposes to provide $62.5 million over two years, starting in 2016-17, to Natural Resources Canada to support the deployment of infrastructure for alternative transportation fuels, including charging infrastructure for electric vehicles and natural gas and hydrogen refueling stations. The Government will advance these objectives by working with provinces and territories, municipalities and the private sector. These resources will also support technology demonstration projects that advance electric vehicle charging technology. The government also confirmed tax incentives for businesses to install charging stations and energy storage systems, and announced plans to replace government limousines with EVs. Electrek speculated that new Prime Minister Justin Trudeau might soon be showing up at events in a Model S.
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Image courtesy of Nicolas Raymond (CC BY 2.0)
Canada’s newly elected Liberal party unveiled its first budget this week. It anticipates sizable deficits for the next two years, so there seems to be little cash to spare for promoting EVs. No federal tax credit or other purchase incentives were announced, but there is a respectable amount for investment in fueling infrastructure. From the official budget document:
China has ambitious electrification plans, but a lack of common charging standards has been a major roadblock. In September the State Council launched a major infrastructure initiative that called for deploying 4.5 million charging points. More recently, the country has developed a new charging standard that supports both DC fast charging and Level 2 charging. No one is happier than Tesla, which is eager to sell more cars in the Middle Kingdom. The California company has announced the Tesla Charging Partnership Program to promote the new national standard. Tesla’s Asia-Pacific Vice President, Ren Yuxiang, introduced the program at the new China Quality Certification Center (CQC). “Although the new national standard has been published, the implementation of standards still faces many challenges. Tesla actively supports the new national standard.” The new program will help partners to get certified with testing that will be performed at the CQC. “The Tesla Charging Partnership Program encourages partners to get the voluntary certification by CQC. Tesla will preferably go through CQC-certified enterprises and products, and further testing center [sic] in China to accelerate the newly established interconnection standard.” Tesla already operates dozens of charging stations in China, both Superchargers and Destination Chargers. The company is expected to adapt these stations to make them compatible with the new standard.
Image courtesy Tesla Motors
Tesla to promote Chinese national charging standard
THE INFRASTRUCTURE
European electric bus manufacturers agree on open charging interface As more European cities begin trials of battery-electric buses, a group of bus manufacturers and charging infrastructure providers has agreed to develop voluntary charging standards in advance of official regulations. The objective is to ensure reliability and compatibility across bus brands and charging systems. The European body CEN/CENELEC and the international standards organization ISO/IEC are currently working on charging standards. European standards are expected to take effect in 2019 and international standards in 2020. However, many cities are already deploying electric bus systems. In order to meet the needs of these cities, European bus manufacturers Irizar, Solaris, VDL and Volvo,
together with charging system suppliers ABB, Heliox and Siemens, have agreed to open up common, preferred interfaces for all market participants. The group is committed to contributing to European standardization activities and to sharing experiences with CEN/CENELEC and ISO/IEC to establish a common European standard. For opportunity charging, the system includes wireless communication, contacting plates and equipment that automatically contact vehicles with a pantograph. For overnight charging, the existing CCS fast charging standard for cars will be used as a basis for plugs and for communication.
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THE INFRASTRUCTURE
AZRA to market Renault Twizy in Canada, install 2,000 charging stations
Renault has partnered with charging network operator AZRA to market the Twizy, its low-speed 2-seater EV, in Canada. The Twizy will be available for lease at $99 Canadian ($78 US) per month, including the costs of registration and insurance. AZRA also plans to invest $40 million (Canadian) over the next 18 months to install 2,000 new EV charging stations. The aluminum stations will be equipped with chargers that can serve up to four users each, at 7 to 50 kW power levels, for a total of 8,000 charging points. They will be installed for free on private property through partnerships with office buildings and shopping centers. “At AZRA, we are change agents on a mission to reduce greenhouse gas emissions,” said CEO Jean-François Carrière. “We are proud to be investing in transport electrification because it is the way of the future to reduce our environmental footprint.” “The fact that Renault has chosen a Québec company to market its electric car in Canada speaks volumes about our leadership in this area,” said Jacques Daoust, Québec’s Minister of Transport, Sustainable Mobility and Transport Electrification.
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Image courtesy of Renault
Charger manufacturer Circontrol has launched eHome BeON, an intelligent sensor that can regulate a home EV charger to avoid overloading the circuit. According to the company, “uncontrolled and random consumption” of devices such as home appliances during EV charging could cause “a blackout that can only be fixed by turning off one of the appliances or by disconnecting your electric vehicle.” BeON is an electrical device that is added to a home’s circuit breaker panel, and works with Circontrol eHome charging equipment. BeON sends a control signal to the eHome charger that allows it to regulate the EV’s energy consumption if necessary.
Image courtesy of Circontrol
Intelligent sensor links EV charging with other home electrical loads
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THE INFRASTRUCTURE
ClipperCreek has added a new 24-amp Level 2 charging station to its product line. The LCS-30 provides up to 5.8 kW of power, and is available for both hardwired and plug-in installations. The American-made LCS-30 is aimed at the residential, workplace, fleet, and public amenity charging markets. It features a fully sealed NEMA 4 enclosure, 25 feet of charge cable, and a separate wall-mount connector holster, and comes with a 3-year warranty. The hardwired LCS-30 is $499; the four types of LCS30P plug-in versions are $515; an optional wall-mount Cable Cradle is available for $19. “Electric vehicle owners want faster charging, but don’t necessarily want to upgrade their electrical service panel. The LCS-30 provides the maximum charging power available through a standard 30-amp, 240-volt circuit,” said Will Barrett, ClipperCreek’s Director of Sales. “With 24 amps available to the vehicle, the LCS-30 can deliver approximately 20 miles of range per hour.” “Pairing the LCS-30 with our new, dual-mount-ready, affordable pedestal, the ProMountDuo, makes the LCS30 perfect for a parking lot installation,” said Barrett.
Image courtesy of ClipperCreek
ClipperCreek’s new LCS-30 24-amp Level 2 charging station
Auto dealers and service technicians need quick and easy access to EV charging cables. EVoCharge’s new EVoReel cable management system offers a 50-foot retractable cable for Level 2 charging stations that’s designed to keep cables off the ground and reduce tripping hazards. EVoReel can be installed overhead in the rafters of a service bay, similar to the hoses used for oil and compressed air. It can be installed on existing charging stations or purchased as an integrated, EVoReel/charging station combination. Technicians can extend the charging cable to a desired length, and it will automatically lock in place without tension on the cable. After use, a quick tug on the cable retracts it into its reel for safe, damage-free storage. “With dealers required to have 2 charging stations - one in the garage and one outside - electric vehicle charge cable management is a big concern. Cables stored improperly can be damaged and be a trip hazard,” said Josh Kiewic, EVoCharge co-founder and CEO. The EVoReel is recommended by charging station supplier Bosch, and has been approved by GM and Nissan for their dealer equipment programs. EVoCharge has announced an expanded partnership with cable management solution provider Conductix-Wampfler, which will be sourcing, manufacturing, and distributing EVoReel cable management products.
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Image courtesy of EVoCharge
EVoReel cable management system allows safe and convenient charging
FLEET FOCUSED ChargePoint launches updated hardware and management platform targeting fleet operators
arge corporate and government vehicle fleets are increasingly turning to plug-in vehicles to take advantage of dramatically lower fuel, operating and maintenance costs. For the fleet manager, however, the EV infrastructure world is a lot more complicated than it is for gas or CNG vehicles, which can use a single refueling depot. In spite of some adoption challenges, many expect the EV fleet market to grow quickly - particularly in the federal, state, and local government spheres. In March 2015, for example, President Obama signed an executive order directing the federal government to cut its
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greenhouse gas emissions by 40 percent from 2008 levels by 2025. As a part of this plan, zero-emission or plug-in hybrid vehicles are to make up 20 percent of government agencies’ fleets by 2020, and 50 percent by 2025. Agencies will also have to ensure that there is sufficient charging infrastructure. This presents a sizable opportunity for companies that can develop products that ease the transition for fleet managers. Recently ChargePoint announced upgrades to its Fleet Plan, including revamped hardware and an upgraded analytics platform. Charged chatted with Michael Jones, ChargePoint’s VP of Sales, to learn more about the updates.
THE INFRASTRUCTURE
With EVs, the refueling options are a lot more dynamic, so fleets will need tools to track all of the possible charging scenarios. Q Charged: How does ChargePoint’s fleet analytics
platform differ from other commercial applications, like workplace charging? A Jones: Our traditional analytics are focused on
either the station owner or the driver, but from a fleet operator’s perspective you need to see both sides. So there is a lot more information in this software that shows how a fleet is performing. With EVs, the refueling options are a lot more dynamic, so fleets will need tools to track all of the possible charging scenarios. A manager is going to have to deal with vehicles charging at a central depot, other offices, out in public, at employees’ homes, etc. We believe this is what will separate ChargePoint’s fleet solution from the other options - we have a comprehensive charging product line and can tie everything together with analytics. We also just announced the new Fleet Card. It’s basically an access card for public charging that can be paired with a vehicle and allow any driver to charge in public at the independently owned and operated ChargePoint stations. Then it delivers all the financial and energy information and control back to the fleet operator. We’re also focused on building a system that is scalable as fleets go from having a few plug-in vehicles to having hundreds. And a big part of the scalability is energy management. We think this product really shines in all the energy features like scheduled charging and panel sharing. One exciting new feature we launched that customers are excited about is called panel sharing. This will dynamically distribute the power output to all of the vehicles connected to the same electric service panel in a way that will not exceed any panel’s capacity. Say you have panel capacity for only 5 stations and Photo courtesy of ChargePoint
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you need to support 10 fleet cars plugged in simultaneously. You can easily over-subscribe the panel and put in 10 stations without a service upgrade. It can save you quite a bit of money in upstream electrical distribution upgrades. And it gives a lot of flexibility for deployments, which I think is going to be very important to fleet managers. That’s the magic of the software in the cloud, basically you say what the capacity of the panel is and it will figure out how to best distribute that load to the cars. The software allows you to shift charging to offpeak periods when electricity rates are lowest and avoid demand charges. If you think about a large fleet of vehicles, these features could literally save tens of thousands of dollars in a given year - which could pay for the infrastructure. The system also has a lot of other great features like access control and notifications. You can send messages to operational staff working at different times so they can optimize to have as many cars charging as possible. Q Charged: Can you tell us about the fleet-specific
hardware? The EVSE itself appears to be based on the ChargePoint Home, a Wi-Fi-enabled residential charger that you launched last year. Is that correct? A Jones: It shares the same platform design, or form
factor, but the internal electronics are slightly different in a few ways. For example, it has an RFID-accesscontrolled system, it’s a little more ruggedized, and it has more mounting options for the environments it’s going to be operating in. It’s designed for what we call behind-the-fence applications. Basically it’s a WiFi-enabled RFID-access-controlled system that has both single- and dual-station configurations, wall and pedestal mounts and optional cord management features. The WiFi is embedded in all the units to communicate locality, and then there is a WiFi -to-cellular gateway. It’s a small box that allows fleet charging in areas that don’t typically have WiFi coverage, like subterranean garages. We’ve seen wireless barriers in some locations, so this cellular gateway allows easy access to the cloud. Q Charged: Will the hardware be owned by the fleet
operators or by ChargePoint?
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[The panel sharing feature] will dynamically distribute the power output to all of the vehicles connected to the same electric service panel in a way that will not exceed any panel’s capacity. A Jones: We sell the hardware to the fleet operator,
similar to the way we work with most commercial charging installations where the site host owns the chargers and sets the pricing usage policies. Then our backend analytics platform is available on subscription plans. That can be prepaid for multiple years or paid for on an annual basis, whichever the operator prefers. We also have a program called Assure that is basically complete parts and labor services. This comes with guarantees for uptime, for active monitoring of response times to fix problems. It takes away the burden of supporting the infrastructure across multiple properties or hosts or regions, and allows owners a reliable guarantee that the service is going to be up and working. One of the things we’ve really been analyzing and building as a company is to make sure that a driver - no matter where they go - has the confidence that charging is going to be available to them. So they don’t have to think about it. And the same goes for fleet managers. They know that the infrastructure is going to be taken care of and it’s not going to cause new burdens on their operation. The ecosystem for EVs offers fleets some great opportunities, but also new burdens (which our Fleet Plan is aiming to eliminate). The obvious opportunities are the cost savings from using plug-in vehicles, but there is also the opportunity to track and manage energy usage at a level not possible with the traditional fueling model. With our comprehensive product line you can track charging at home, at the fleet depots, and in public - including DC fast charging. We allow them to tie that entire ecosystem together and manage the costs and, at the same time, we can remove the burden of managing that network.
Photo courtesy of ChargePoint
THE INFRASTRUCTURE
I think that’s going to be very important going forward, to have that kind of breadth and think about all the different ways that a fleet of vehicles is going to be used. Q Charged: It seems like a lot of the short-term
growth in EV fleets is driven by government initiatives. Do you see private fleets adopting them as well? A Jones: We’re still in the early stages for both public
and private, but it’s changing quickly. I think that the private fleets are going to move towards plug-ins a little slower. The majority of them tend to be that medium- and heavy-duty type of fleet. The large light-duty fleets on the private side are found for things like pharmaceutical sales, for example. Basically, employees get a credit to go and buy a car. So those programs will migrate to electric as more consumer-friendly cars come into the market. It’s going to mirror the consumer market because the employee gets a credit for a car and then chooses what they like from a wide selection.
The ecosystem for EVs offers fleets some great opportunities, but also new burdens (which our Fleet Plan is aiming to eliminate). Then we certainly see a fair amount of activity for medium- and heavy-duty private fleets like work trucks and shuttle buses. On the public side, states like California and New York are leading the way with ZEV mandates and fleet action plans. There we’re seeing a lot of early adoption, starting with the city, state and county fleets. Also at the federal level, with the White House directive to move toward EVs there is now a lot of activity. For example, the Navy in California is getting ready to acquire 500 EVs and put them on 18 bases. So it’s things like that where the scale is pretty dramatic. We’re still in the early stages but we’re seeing rapid growth.
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SOLAR SY Two companies make their marks in the expanding market for
A
solar carport is the perfect complement to an EV. Not only does it ensure that your pretty new automobile, and the electrons powering it, stay clean, but it keeps things cool, making for slightly more efficient charging, and it serves as a visible advertisement for the new energy future. Charged recently spoke with the leaders of two companies that are taking two different approaches to supplying the growing demand for solar-powered EV charging.
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Renewz Renewz Sustainable Solutions, which is based in Montreal, and recently opened an office in Florida, designs and sells solar carports with optional charging stations. Its customers include utilities, corporations, municipal governments and educational institutions. CEO Sass M. Peress, who has a background in both the automotive and solar energy fields, got into this emerging industry in 2009 when he joined a GM-supported
THE INFRASTRUCTURE
Images courtesy of Renewz
YNERGIES solar carports
They can be mounted in three hours, and dismounted in two.
By Charles Morris
company that was building solar carports as part of the launch of the Volt. After just a couple of years, sensing that GM was not going to be the only player in the emerging EV game, Peress left to start up his own company. “We looked worldwide for what was innovative in the marketplace, and we found an Italian partner, Giulio Barbieri, that had designed a very easy-to-deploy carport, made out of anodized aluminum,” Peress told Charged. “It was a ballasted design, so you really could just drop
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Photos courtesy of Renewz
and play. We got the rights to that in North America, and signed our first deal in 2012, with a Toronto-based mobile phone company called BHAA, who wanted to build a solar carport because they were facing a highway, which had a quarter million eyeballs a day, and they really wanted to drive sustainability across the country.” Several other projects for utility companies followed, but along the way, Peress discovered that he really didn’t want to be doing the installation projects. “We just wanted to supply our platform to technology providers and installers, partner with them, and go after all kinds of people that can deploy solar carports.” Renewz is still working on a couple of installations, but once those are complete, the company will shift its business model to supplying hardware and software solutions to lo-
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cal contractors, who will handle installation and customer service. “We’re no longer doing projects, we are simply going to use a new way of designing solar carports online, and enable people to present solar carports to their clients,” says Peress. The company’s web-based design tool allows customers to create their own custom carport configurations online, to choose optional features such as ad banners and rain gutters, and to visualize how an installation will look on a specific site. “We’re going to take that way further, and do the kinds of integration, 360-degree viewing and financial calculations that allow people to really understand what they can do with a carport installation,” says Peress. Renewz offers both ballasted designs and models that can be permanently affixed to concrete or asphalt. Its iSun
THE INFRASTRUCTURE
In the past month, we’ve had more requests for quotes than in the past four years. product line features a naming system like the one that a certain California car company wanted to use: Models S, E, X and Y. “The Model S is meant to be temporary,” explains Peress. “It’s on ballasts that are not pinned to the ground. They can be mounted in three hours, and dismounted in two. If you think of outdoor events, or any light commercial area where you may be using this for a period of time, but then moving it, the Model S is the one for you. The Models E, X and Y are pinned to the ground, using plates with ballasts that sit on top, so there is no foundation support. Now, in areas where that may not be practical or, for example, if the ballast - which is about 18 inches wide - restricts parking in any way, we have a non-ballasted solution, in which case people would just have to pour a small pier, and connect our carport to the ballast.” EV charging is an optional feature, but it has been included in every deployment Renewz has done to date. “It’s an equivalency story,” says Peress. “In other words,
the energy does not go directly to the EV charger. Solar fluctuates during the course of a day, and is nonexistent at night. So, what you’re doing is, you’re sending energy into the grid, and pulling power from the grid whenever you need to charge the car. On average, using average solar panels, each parking spot covered by solar can create equivalent power to run an EV for 12,000 miles a year.” Most customers also choose to have charging stations mounted on the carports. “They can either attach them to the beams of the carport, which are easy to attach brackets to, or, if that’s not convenient, they can put them on pedestals in front of the carport,” says Peress. Charging in a covered location offers several benefits, including some that may not be obvious at first.
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“Whether we want to believe it or not, at these early stages of electrification, people are still concerned about plugging an electric cable into their car when it’s raining. Plus, in southern areas where there’s a lot of hot sun, it gives shade, which protects the EV and the battery as well. The car’s going to run longer when it’s not been exposed to the islanding, which means heat coming off the pavement, as well as direct sun. It’s also going to need less cooling for the inhabitants of the car.” Business is booming. “In the past month, we’ve had more requests for quotes than in the past four years,” Peress tells us. “People are considering the fact that there are 800 million parking spots in North America that could be covered, and that could be generating power. Whereas our focus before was on ground-mount farms or rooftops, the discovery of the opportunity - now that solar has come down in cost, making it more feasible - has made solar carports take off. The electric vehicle angle adds to the whole clean energy mix.” As it makes the transition from a product installer to a supplier, Renewz is building a network of preferred contractors. “A regular contractor, an electrical contractor, a solar installer - it’s really a plethora of different installers who will be trained by us, and will be able to cover territories, and go out to their clients, and use our web tool to create great presentations for them.” Renewz has plans to partner with a leasing company, which will offer various financing options that customers will be able to evaluate using the online design tool. The retail cost of the units ranges from $16,000 and $30,000. “Contractors, of course, will be able to work with us to get some margin to allow them to afford to market the product,” says Peress. Renewz sets a good example - all company vehicles are electric, and its Montreal headquarters is powered by 100% renewable energy. “It’s a misnomer that solar doesn’t work in northern climates,” says Peress. “Because of the angle of the carport, snow will often melt off when the solar panels are heating themselves, when they’re exposed to light. And there’s a rain gutter that protects against drips. So, it’s not just limited to the sunny states - solar and EVs can work across all climates together, you just have to know how to engineer it. That’s one of the strengths of Renewz - having done the projects ourselves, we learned how to do that.”
Envision Solar Envision Solar, based in San Diego, manufactures and sells solar-powered charging stations under the EV
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Photo courtesy of Audi of America
Photos courtesy of Envision Solar
THE INFRASTRUCTURE
The EV ARC is completely autonomous. It’s not connected to the grid, and it’s not connected to the ground in any way. ARC and Solar Tree brand names. Optional features include solar tracking, energy storage and digital advertising packages. CEO Desmond Wheatley has founded four startup companies, and has experience in such diverse fields as cellular and broadband wireless, defense and renewable energy. Envision has seen rapid growth over the last year, signing contracts with major customers such as New York City and the state of California. The company recently signed two contracts in China, and will start to manufac-
ture and sell its products there later this year. The EV ARC is a portable solar-powered Level 2 charging station that fits in a standard parking space. It comes in two versions: The EV ARC 3 includes a 3.4 kW solar array and 22.5 kWh of on-board energy storage. The EV ARC 4 features two Level 2 chargers, a 4.1 kW array and 30 kWh of storage. For two-wheeled EVs, Envision also offers the EV ARC E-Bike and the EV ARC Moto. “The EV ARC is completely autonomous,” explains Wheatley. “It’s not connected to the grid, and it’s not connected to the ground in any way. We deliver it to the site and drop it off in about ten minutes, and it’s ready to charge cars immediately. There’s no building permit required, no foundations or trenching, no planning of any sort. Our customers send us an email, the units show up the next morning, and they have EV charging where they didn’t have it before.” The larger Solar Trees offer 50 kW DC fast charging, and come in both grid-connected and islanded versions. “We can put DC fast charging into remote locations, like rest areas or anywhere remote where it’s cost-prohibitive to deliver a sufficiently large circuit to support that kind of charging,” says Wheatley. “For example, a rest area may have enough circuits for hand dryers and lights, and maybe a vending machine or two, but they don’t have enough power to service EV charging of any sort -
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definitely not a great big fat DC fast charger.” A typical customer is an organization that has looked at EV charging but been scared off by the costs of trenching, foundations, circuit upgrades and possible utility demand charges. “In many cases, we’ve had customers for whom just the trenching alone would cost far more than the price of our units,” says Wheatley. “Other customers are leasing their property, and they don’t want to leave that infrastructure in the ground if they move.” Envision works with customers to get the full benefit of available federal and state tax incentives for solar power and energy storage, which can reduce net costs by as much as 40 percent. The company can also bring tax equity investors to the table to further reduce costs. According to Wheatley, in many scenarios Envision’s solutions can equal or beat the costs of traditional grid-tied charging stations, once tax incentives and deployment costs are taken into consideration. Of course, in many cases, a customer can deploy a typical grid-tied charger less expensively. “If you happen to have a 30-amp circuit somewhere where somebody wants to charge a car, and you plan on staying there, and you’re not worried about increasing energy costs, then our advice is, go ahead and install that EV charger, because you
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We can put DC fast charging into remote locations, like rest areas or anywhere remote where it’s [otherwise] cost-prohibitive can do that for a few thousand dollars,” says Wheatley. “But once you use up those low-hanging fruits, and you now need to get across your parking lot, and you’re going to have to dig a trench and you’re going to have to do a circuit upgrade - that’s when you call us back.” Envision has had customers who installed chargers in all their easily accessible locations, but still had demand for more charging spots, and were faced with digging up landscaping or other expensive, disruptive
Photos courtesy of Envision Solar
THE INFRASTRUCTURE
projects to install more. One example is the city of New York, which wanted to deploy EV charging at a location across the street from City Hall. “Because the buildings are older and the circuitry’s older, because you can’t just dig up some of the nicer parts of these historic buildings, we made EV charging possible where it would otherwise be impossible. And that unit’s used every day by the city of New York.”
Unlike a typical solar carport, which supplies energy to the grid when the sun shines, and draws energy from the grid when charging an EV, Envision’s products incorporate battery storage, which makes them independent of the grid. The batteries and electronics are integrated into the structural column of the Solar Tree. “We arrive with this thing pre-engineered and pre-fabricated, and it’s just bolted together on the site.” Obviously, for DC fast charging, the storage requirements are large - up to 200 kWh of battery capacity. “That 200 kWh of storage, combined with generation, allows us to deliver up to 700 electric miles per day to EVs,” says Wheatley. “If you need more than that, then you just put two Solar Trees into that location. Anyone that we’ve talked to in any Department of Transportation thinks that 700 e-miles is more than they will need, in the short run.” “If it turns out that the system starts to become really busy, they can just throw another one in without having to do any circuit planning or any upgrades,” explains Wheatley. “You can plan for that kind of a future using grid-tied charging stations, but you have to do your circuit planning now, and then you have all this extra infrastructure until it’s used, whereas, with us, you can just scale up as you need it. That’s important economically, and it’s important environmentally - I mean, none of us want to see people digging 50-mile trenches to the nearest substation in the desert, to enable DC fast charging, if we can charge from sunlight instead. We don’t dig any holes, there’s no environmental impact on our deployments.” Like Renewz, Envision has seen a sizable increase in customer interest over the past year, which is now starting to turn into orders. Envision has two different ways to deliver the EV ARC. ARC Mobility is a custom-built trailer with a hydraulic lift that can pick up the EV ARC, and can be towed behind a pickup truck. It can be operated by a single driver. There’s also a version of the EV ARC that can fit in a standard shipping container. “The EV ARC is bigger than a container, and so we have what we call Transformer ARC,” says Wheatley. “It bows down and falls in on itself, and it can fit inside a container unit, and we can now ship it anywhere in the world. There’s a side benefit from that: instead of just having a 110 mph wind rate, which is what a standard deployed EV ARC has, when it’s bowed down, it loses a lot of its windage, and as a result, will survive hurricane force winds, and will continue to generate and store energy, even in a hurricane.”
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By Charles Morris
Diesel DEAD MAN WALKING?
hose who still think of EVs as small city cars may be shocked to learn that the first segment of the transportation system to go totally electric is likely to be urban transit buses. As Charged readers know, e-buses have been making their debuts in cities all around the world. London is testing an electric version of its iconic double-deckers, as well as several other battery-electric and hydrogen fuel cell bus models. Los Angeles, Seattle, Nashville, Indianapolis, Miami, Paris, Berlin, Barcelona and Vienna are just a few of the other cities with e-buses in pilots and/or revenue service. Philadelphia just announced plans to buy 25 Proterra buses, and lots more projects are in the pipeline. And then there is China, where orders for e-buses are made not in single digits, but in thousands. As of 2015, there were over 100,000 battery-electric buses on China’s roads - over 20% of the total. If current trends continue, all the country’s buses will be electric by 2026. Unlike individual car buyers, local transit authorities can clearly see the benefits and costs of going electric. An e-bus can save half a million dollars on fuel and maintenance costs over its lifespan. 21st-century cities want pretty, walkable downtown areas, and the elimination of diesel smoke and noisy engines is a welcome benefit. Replacing electric trolleybuses and trams with battery-electric buses allows cities to eliminate overhead catenary wires, which are unsightly and expensive to maintain. City buses are in many ways an ideal application for EVs. They constantly stop and go, which means energy can be recaptured by regenerative braking, and they return to central depots at night, where they can be conveniently recharged. If longer ranges are needed, they can be topped up during brief stops at en route charging stations. Transit authorities have a range of electrification options these days. Proterra and Chinese giant BYD (which builds buses in California) were early movers, but venerable bus builders New Flyer and Gillig are now adding electric options to their lines. Complete Coach Works offers remanufactured e-buses at prices comparable to new diesel vehicles. Wrightspeed, which recently entered the transit market with a sale in New
Photo courtesy of Volvo
Photo courtesy of New Flyer
T
Zealand, offers a retrofit plug-in hybrid powertrain that can use almost any fuel (diesel, CNG, biogas) and recharges at 19 kW with a standard J1772 plug. When Charged recently asked Wrightspeed CEO (and Tesla co-founder) Ian Wright if the transit sector would electrify before passenger cars do, he said, “Definitely. The economics are compelling if you do it right. The fuel and maintenance you can save...you combine that with the quiet operation, and it’s just a slam-dunk. It’s a much harder problem for cars, because there isn’t an economic justification. Modern electric cars are very nice to drive...people who buy them just love them [but] people aren’t buying them to save money.” Proterra CEO Ryan Popple has compared fossil fuelpowered buses to “a dead man walking.” Obviously, he’s an interested party, but considering the economics, and the speed at which new e-bus orders are coming in, it may be prudent to start planning old man Diesel’s wake.
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