CHARGED Electric Vehicles Magazine - Issue 39 SEP/OCT 2018

ELECTRIC VEHICLES MAGAZINE

ISSUE 39 | SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2018 | CHARGEDEVS.COM

CUMMINS ACCELERATES TOWARDS

ELECTRIFICATION The diesel engine powerhouse has had a busy year expanding its EV systems development 52

REGEN BRAKING: METHODS AND LIMITS 24

TEMPEL STAMPS PRECISION PARTS FOR AUTOMOTIVEGRADE MOTORS 30

HUBJECT BRINGS INTEROPERABILITY EXPERTISE TO NORTH AMERICA 76

2018 HONDA CLARITY PHEV: A QUIET HIT 62

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THE TECH CONTENTS

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24 The methods and limits of regenerative braking 30 Stamping precision parts Tempel builds state-of-the-art factories to meet the precision and volume requirements of the automakers

30

36 Carbon-ion technology ZapGo is on a mission to combine the best parts of batteries and supercapacitors

current events 12

16

Hyundai invests in solid-state battery materials specialist Ionic Materials

14

Xalt launches expandable battery rack system, obtains approval for marine use Research shows NMC cathode voltage fade is reversible

16

Big River Steel to invest $1.2 billion in expansion, adding electrical steel production

BYD to complete 24 GWh capacity battery plant BorgWarner develops exhaust heat recovery system for hybrids and PHEVs

18 New Johnson Matthey plant will produce samples of eLNO battery material 19 Audi Hungaria begins mass production of electric motors for e-tron SUV launch 20 bdtronic develops motor impregnator with 45-second cycle time

20

WVU creates research facility for rare-earth metal extraction from mining waste

22 Penn State researchers develop cold-weather fast charging method

Sila Nano raises $70 million in funding for battery materials commercialization

THE VEHICLES CONTENTS

52 Cummins electrifies

The diesel engine powerhouse has had a busy year expanding its EV systems development

52

62 2018 Honda Clarity PHEV A quiet hit: Honda sneaks into third place in the PHEV race

90 Policies for an all-electric future current events 42

62

Experimental NASA airplane features 14 propellers driven by 14 motors Orange EV and Firefly partner to deploy electric yard goats

43 Harley-Davidson announces plan to produce new electric motorcycles 44 Kia Niro EV now on sale in Korea; North American sales to begin in Q1 2019

US DOT finalizes “quiet cars� rule

46 EDI introduces new electric drivetrain for Type A school buses

Port of San Diego demonstrates electric cargo vehicles

47 BYD to introduce electric Class 6 step van in US 48 Teardown specialist Munro: Tesla Model 3 should deliver 30% profit margin 50 Hamburg container terminal deploys autonomous electric transporter

42

UPS collaborates with Thor Trucks to develop electric Class 6 truck

51

Seattle to deploy two BYD Class 8 electric refuse trucks

IDENTIFICATION STATEMENT CHARGED Electric Vehicles Magazine (ISSN: 24742341) September/October 2018, Issue #39 is published bi-monthly by Electric Vehicles Magazine LLC, 2260 5th Ave S, STE 10, Saint Petersburg, FL 33712-1259. Periodicals Postage Paid at Saint Petersburg, FL and additional mailing offices. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to CHARGED Electric Vehicles Magazine, Electric Vehicles Magazine LLC at 2260 5th Ave S, STE 10, Saint Petersburg, FL 33712-1259.

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76 Network

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interoperability

Hubject connects over 70,000 chargers in 26 countries, and it’s bringing that expertise stateside

82 BP sees big opportunities for EVs

82

The oil and gas giant has recently been investing in EV-related companies

68 EVBox acquires French charger manufacturer EVTronic

New UK law supports public charging and autonomous vehicles

69 Honda and Panasonic experiment with battery swapping for motorcycles

70

Momentum Dynamics installs 200 kW wireless charging system for buses

70 Volkswagen forms Electrify Canada to install network of ultra-fast chargers

McKinsey report finds EVs unlikely to create a power-demand crisis

72 Tritium signs IONITY deal for 100 high-power charging sites across Europe

San Diego to deploy Envision’s grid-independent solar charging station

74 EV Connect closes $8-million financing round

New eoALM adds automatic load management to non-smart EV chargers

72

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It seems like all anyone wants to talk about these days is Elon Musk’s melodrama. While Tesla has a lot to celebrate as it pumps out Model 3s at record rates, Musk’s messy plan to privatize the company (which he has now abandoned), and his emotional and immoderate public comments have stolen the show.

Some critics, supporters and analysts have even suggested replacing Musk as CEO. These voices tend to fall into two categories: those who’ve invested in, worked for, or been the CEO of a successful startup; and those who haven’t. Steering a fast-scaling company from nothing to an industry-leading juggernaut is unlike any leadership role in business.

On the Fox Business Network, Henrik Fisker was asked if Musk should be replaced. “If Henry Ford would have been ousted and replaced...then we probably wouldn’t have Ford today, and we wouldn’t have had an automotive revolution.

To run a business of a startup company from beginning to a well-oiled machine is extremely complex, and there is no resume out there which can do that...It has to be the founder.”

Henrik notes that he learned invaluable lessons from his last go-round and will be at the helm of the newest incarnation of Fisker Inc. himself. “I have myself tried it before where I hired two CEOs...[but] it’s just not possible to find somebody to run a car company while it’s in the start-up phase.”

Cathie Wood, founder and CEO of ARK Invest, has been saying for months that Tesla stock could one day be worth up to $4,000 per share. She begged the board - via an open letter - not to take the company private. When CNBC asked her about Musk’s concerning tweets, she reminded us about the founder CEO of the world’s first trillion-dollar public company. “We think [Musk’s] doing an amazing job...If [Steve Jobs] had had Twitter...what we would have heard is that (and he did say this), ‘I’m going thermonuclear, I’m going to spend every penny of Apple’s $40 billion to destroy Android. Android is stolen software.’

That probably would have played the same way. These are visionaries, they’re passionate. They see how they’re going to change the world and make it a better place and they see how much shortsightedness there is in the market.”

That sort of insight into the quirky passion of founders may be rare among more institutional investors, but VCs and angel investors who regularly back CEOs in the early days tend to see it more clearly. Jason Lemkin is a two-time founder CEO success story, and now one of the most prolific angel investors.

In May, Lemkin tweeted, “One clear thing you can learn from Elon’s tweets: It never gets easier.” Lemkin regularly shares insights into the isolating world of a startup founder CEO. “One of the toughest parts about being a driven founder CEO is that employees need to be in an environment of a high degree of urgency, but not also a high degree of constant stress. Managing the balance is never easy.” He also shares priceless advice for people looking to hop on the rocket ship of a growing startup: “If the CEO isn’t at least a little bit quirky, maybe don’t join that one.”

There are countless well-funded EV startups popping up filled with experienced ex-auto and ex-Tesla execs. And they’re producing beautiful and capable EV prototypes. The big question is: Will any of them have a founder CEO with the vision and passion to go the distance and achieve what’s nearly impossible?

Christian Ruoff | Publisher

EVs are here. Try to keep up.

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Publisher Christian Ruoff Associate Publisher Laurel Zimmer Senior Editor Charles Morris Associate Editor Markkus Rovito Account Executive Jeremy Ewald Technology Editor Jeffrey Jenkins Graphic Designers Chris Cox Oktane Media

Contributing Writers Paul Beck Tom Ewing Jeffrey Jenkins Michael Kent Charles Morris Christian Ruoff

For Letters to the Editor, Article Submissions, & Advertising Inquiries Contact: Info@ChargedEVs.com

Contributing Photographers Charles Morris Nicolas Raymond Mariordo59 Cover Images Courtesy of Cummins Honda Special Thanks to Kelly Ruoff Sebastien Bourgeois

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.

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THE TECH

Hyundai invests in solidstate battery materials specialist Ionic Materials Big River Steel to invest $1.2 billion in expansion, increasing electrical steel production Steel production and recycling specialist Big River Steel will invest $1.2 billion in the expansion of its Arkansas Flex Mill facility, doubling its hot-rolled steel production capacity to 3.3 million tons per year. A key feature of this expansion will be the ability to produce higher grades of electrical steel, demand for which is expected to be driven by increasing hybrid and EV sales.

Construction will begin later this year and will last for 24 months. This is just one of Big River Steel’s planned expansions, and the company is exploring several possibilities, including grain-oriented steel production and a next-gen coating line.

“Announcing this investment less than 18 months after beginning operations is a testament to the hard work and great success of the men and women on our team,” says Big River Steel CEO Dave Stickler.

12

Hyundai’s venture capital division, Cradle, is investing in Massachusetts-based battery materials developer Ionic Materials.

Early this year, Renault-Nissan-Mitsubishi’s Alliance Ventures also announced it is one of the strategic investors in the company.

Ionic says its patented solid polymer material enables solid-state batteries that are inherently safe, high in energy density and operational at room temperature.

The special properties of Ionic’s polymer electrolyte also support lithium-ion cells with little to no cobalt in their cathodes.

Key features of Ionic’s polymer include: • Up to 1.3 mS per cm at room temperature • 0.7 lithium transference number • High voltage capability of 5 V • Cathode can handle high loadings • High elastic modulus • Low-cost precursors • Stable against lithium • Can conduct multiple ions “The investment by Hyundai represents another key company milestone and demonstrates our rapid momentum as we develop polymer-based materials for solid-state batteries,” said Ionic founder and CEO Mike Zimmerman. “With the ongoing help of our investment partners, we have expanded our facilities and are adding to our team to meet the ever-growing demand for this technology.”

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THE TECH

and Battery Management Systems (BMS) in modular, expandable racks. Both the XPAND Battery System and the rack have been granted DNV GL Type Approvals, making the XRS acceptable for installation on all vessels classed by DNV GL. In achieving DNV GL Type Approval, the XPAND Battery System flawlessly completed all required tests including the new 2018 forced thermal runaway passive propagation requirement, with no active safety systems required, making it compliant with Norwegian Maritime Authority (NMA) Propagation test 1.

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New research from the University of California San Diego has found one of the causes of voltage fade in XPAND battery packs. XRS lithium-rich layered oxides (LRLO). LRLO is a promalso includes Battery ising candidate as a cathode material, as it can provide Disconnect Units and local 50% more capacity than current alternatives. However, mode controllers necessary voltage fade reduces the energy capacity of this material for large, multi-string over time. UC San Diego’s research has shown that the systems. phenomenon in LRLO, NMC specifically, is reversible, and that there are several ways to mitigate its effects.

--- MORE --The researchers identified nanoscale defects or dislocations in lithium-rich NMC cathode materials as the batteries charged at a range of voltages up to 4.7 volts.

“The dislocations are extra atomic layers that don’t fit into the otherwise perfectly periodic crystal structure,” said study lead author Andrej Singer. “Discovering these Battery system specialist XALT Energy has unveiled its dislocations was a big surprise: if anything, we expected XRS XPAND Rack system, which combines the compathe extra atomic layers to occur in a completely different ny’s XPAND Battery System with its proprietary battery orientation.” By combining experimental evidence with management system (BMS). These products have retheory, the team concluded that the nucleation of this ceived DNV GL Type Approvals, which means that they specific type of dislocation results in voltage fade. can be installed in vessels classified by maritime registrar The data showed that these defects are more common DNV GL. The modular systems also show promise for in LRLO compared to standard layered oxides, with no transit bus and heavy-duty truck applications. new defects occurring above 4.2 V in non-lithium-rich The XPAND Rack operates at up to 1,000 V and can NMC materials. Researchers were able to peer inside provide up to 222 kWh of energy, depending on the choeach nanoparticle through the use of Argonne Nationsen configuration. Plumbing, ducting, and high-voltage al Lab’s Bragg coherent diffractive imaging technique. distribution components are paired with liquid coolBased on their observations, the team found that ing to increase product performance and lifespan. The heat-treating the cathode materials removed most desystems were required to pass a forced thermal runaway fects and restored their original voltages. passive propagation requirement with “no active safety “Our paper is mainly about unlocking the mystery of systems required.” This makes them compliant with the the dislocations that cause voltage fade in lithium-rich Norwegian Maritime Authority’s (NMA) Propagation NMCs. We don’t have a scalable solution yet to solving test 1. the voltage fade problem in lithium-rich NMCs, but we “The safety, durability, and flexibility of XALT’s are making progress,” says co-author Professor Shirley XPAND-based systems have been recognized by comMeng. mercial transit bus and heavy-duty truck customers Fellow author Minghao Zhang states,”Our work for worldwide,” says XALT’s Senior VP of Engineering Marthe first time clearly demonstrates that defect generation tin Klein. “Now XRS opens the door for deployment on and defect accumulation in the structure of lithium-rich very large marine vessels. Given the ability to populate NMC materials are the origins of voltage fade. Based on XRS with XALT’s high-energy or high-power XPAND this explanation, we designed a heat treatment regime packs, we are able to fulfill a wide range of marine misand then showed that the heat treatments removed the sions, including ferries, tugboats, and off-shore support defects in the bulk structure and restored the battery ships.” output voltage.” the performance and life of

Photo courtesy of Xalt

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Xalt launches expandable battery rack system, obtains approval for marine use

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BYD to complete 24 GWh capacity battery plant Battery specialist BYD has opened a 140 football field-size battery factory in China’s lithium-abundant Qinghai province.

The plant is BYD’s third Chinese battery factory, and is part of the company’s plan to increase total production capacity to 60 GWh by 2020.

Scheduled for completion in 2019, the plant will be heavily automated, using driverless guided vehicles, information integration, smart logistics, and BYD’s Manufacturing Execution System. “All our batteries come with a unique identification code,” said BYD Battery Division CEO He Long. “We can troubleshoot any problems simply by scanning the QR code on the battery, as this gives us the battery’s technical specifications and necessary manufacturing information.”

“Electrification is a done deal, as several countries have announced a deadline for the sale of internal combustion engine cars to end. Electric vehicles are on the cusp of another boom,” says BYD President Wang Chuanfu.

Indeed, BYD is already capitalizing on the global need for electric trucks and buses.

16

Photo courtesy of BorgWarner

Photos courtesy of BYD

THE TECH

BorgWarner develops exhaust heat recovery system for hybrids and PHEVs Auto tech specialist BorgWarner has developed an exhaust heat recovery system (EHRS) for hybrids and PHEVs that’s designed to reduce engine warm-up time.

Because the EHRS reduces the time an engine is running cold, it also reduces emissions and can increase fuel economy by up to 8.5%, according to BorgWarner.

Production will begin later this year.

The EHRS uses an exhaust gas recirculation system and a waste heat recovery system in order to vent exhaust gas through a heat exchanger and warm a vehicle’s fluids.

The system is dependent on a low-pressure valve that carefully controls combustion temperatures.

“Until a cold engine reaches its optimal operating temperature, it is much less fuel-efficient and generates higher emissions, which is one of the challenges to master for upcoming emissions regulations,” says BorgWarner President and GM Joe Fadool. “Our EHRS minimizes engine heat-up time, helping automakers around the globe meet new and more stringent regulations. With the EHRS, BorgWarner serves the growing demand for highly efficient solutions to reduce emissions, and strengthens its position as a leading supplier of clean technologies.”

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THE TECH

New Johnson Matthey plant will produce samples of eLNO battery material Johnson Matthey is currently building a demonstration plant with a capacity of 1,000 metric tons to showcase its proprietary eLNO lithium nickel oxide battery material.

The plant will be used for R&D and to produce material samples. The company intends to use the facility to build its market presence and commercialize its eLNOs, which claim a higher energy density than NMC(622), NMC(811) and NCA materials. Johnson Matthey is also designing its first full-scale commercial eLNO manufacturing plant. Production there is scheduled to begin in 2021 or 2022.

“We benchmarked [eLNO] against NMC 811, 622 and, of course, NCA. The key differentiator for eLNO is that we’re able to have higher energy density at lower cost. So, if you think of that important ratio of dollars per kilo-

watt hour, we have the lowest total cost [on a] dollars per kilowatt basis than any of the other materials. But more importantly, we’re able to do that without sacrificing any of the other attributes,” says Johnson Matthey executive Alan Nelson.

“We’re equal to or better than the performance across 622 or 811. That’s the key differentiator here, that we’re able to offer better performance at a lower cost while not sacrificing recharge, power [or] safety. We’re able to maintain performance across all of the key performance factors.”

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Audi Hungaria begins mass production of electric motors for e-tron SUV launch One of Audi’s key manufacturing plants, Audi Hungaria, has officially begun series production of electric motors.

Audi’s first all-electric vehicle, the e-tron, will rely heavily on the plant’s electric motor production capacity. The new dedicated 8,500-square-meter floor space uses a modular intelligent-assembly system in order to roll out 400 electric-axle motors per day.

Though this number may seem minuscule when compared to the plant’s 9,000-per-day conventional engine production, its capacity can be increased should the need arise. In fact, electric motor production is set to change from single-shift production to triple-shift. Audi has taken many measures to move fabrication forward, including the creation of a winding and inserting center. Also, instead of linking the robot bolting and measuring stations directly, Audi has allowed for a freer, more modular assembly method that uses intelligent IT-driven vehicles to move parts from station to station.

“Audi Hungaria has been involved in writing the growth story of the Four Rings for 25 years,” said Audi AG Board of Management member Peter Kössler. “Our Hungarian subsidiary is now entering a completely new field of expertise with the production of electric motors. This exclusive know‑how makes Győr into our main plant for electric motors and embodies our strategic transformation into a provider of sustainable mobility.

“Audi Hungaria is taking on a pioneering role in the production of electric motors. I am proud of our employees’ high levels of expertise and motivation. They have successfully started the production of our new electric motor with great commitment,” said Audi Hungaria Managing Director Achim Heinfling.

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THE TECH

Photo courtesy of bdtronic

Researchers at new facility aim to extract rare-earth metals from mining waste

bdtronic develops motor impregnator with 45-second cycle time bdtronic, a global manufacturer of dispensing machines and systems that process polyurethane, epoxy, silicone and liquid resins, has developed what it claims is the world’s largest and fastest automotive motor impregnation machine. The B8300 impregnator is designed to speed up the motor production process - its main function is to fill electric motor stators with a solid gel resin.

It has a cycle time of 45 seconds per stator and a 500,000part annual capacity. It’s no surprise that the company recently acquired impregnation component specialist and former supplier Reatina Costruzioni Mecchaniche (RCM).

The impregnation process begins when a robot grasps a rotor or stator and slowly rotates it as resin is trickled in. The process, known as gelling, creates a solid gel around the object. bdtronic’s goal is to provide low resin consumption, thorough fillings, and a carefully monitored resin distribution in motor windings.

“We have a lot of experience in dispensing and impregnation technology,” says bdtronic Managing Director Patrick Vandenrhijn. “This connection is unique in the market. This has enabled us to build a plant that ensures both high quality and high production volumes.”

20

West Virginia University (WVU) is currently building a research facility intended to develop rare-earth metal recovery processes for acid mine sludge. The $3.38 million-dollar project will test the technological scalability of these recovery processes and develop US supply chains from acid mine sources and treatment. WVU will partner with Rockwell Automation to build the facility.

Current methods of rare-earth metal production create large amounts of contaminated waste. The metals are mined from rock, crushed into dust, and then filtered after an intense chemical bath. This must be repeated several times, and then the materials must be further processed to separate heavy rare-earths from light. Due to relaxed environmental regulations, China currently dominates production using this traditional method.

However, rare-earth-enriched sludges are a byproduct of coal mining, and it’s estimated that America’s Appalachian mountains could produce up to 800 tons of rare-earths a year. In the new process, the sludge would be dissolved in acid, then mixed and settled into an emulsion. Finally, extractant chemicals would separate rare-earths from the water, and the remainder would be sent for further processing into rare-earth oxides. Any waste created would be returned to the acid mine drainage plant’s disposal system. The researchers believe that scandium produced by the facility will be worth $4,500 per kg and can be further refined into a form worth up to $15,000 per kg.

“Acid mine drainage from abandoned mines is the biggest industrial pollution source in Appalachian streams, and it turns out that these huge volumes of waste are essentially pre-processed and serve as good rare-earth feedstock. Coal contains all of the rare-earth elements, but it has a substantial amount of the heavy rare-earths that are particularly valuable,” says WV Water Research Institute Director Paul Ziemkiewicz. “This process uses an existing waste product that is abundant in our region.

It is also much easier to extract, requires much milder acids and has negligible waste materials when compared to conventional rare-earth recovery methods.”

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THE TECH

Penn State researchers develop cold-weather fast charging method for Li-ion batteries Fast charging cold Li-ion batteries comes with the risk of lithium plating. When metallic lithium is formed in a battery, it can severely reduce battery lifespan and increase instability. Researchers from Penn State have suggested a solution to that problem that can provide 15-minute fast charging and a 12-year battery lifespan in temperatures as low as -50° C. In order to do this, the team used a self-heating LiB structure with embedded nickel foils that rapidly heat cells before charging. The foils also function as an internal temperature sensor and add a mere 0.5% in weight and 0.04% in cost. The study used 9.5 Ah pouch cells with a graphite anode, an NMC622 cathode and a cell-level energy density of 170 Wh/kg. The cells handled 4,500 cycles of 3.5-C charging with less than 20% capacity loss, 90 times higher than standard cells.

“A plug-in hybrid EV cell that can withstand a 4-C charge without lithium plating at 25° C can only allow a 1.5-C charge at 10° C and C/1.5 at 0° C to prevent lithium plating, which explains the long recharge time of today’s EVs at low temperatures,” write author XiaoGuang Yang and colleagues.

“Improving one property without sacrificing another is always nontrivial. For instance, electrolyte with superior performance at low temperatures is quite often unstable at high temperatures. It is extremely difficult, if possible at all, to develop materials with a high rate [of] charging while preserving durability and safety over a wide range of temperatures. Here, we make an attempt to free battery science from trade-offs. Specifically, we present a cell structure that can be actively controlled to achieve lithium plating-free (LPF) fast charging in any ambient temperatures.”

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Sila Nano raises $70 million in Series D funding for battery materials commercialization Battery specialist Sila Nanotechnologies has received $70 million in Series D funding from Sutter Hill Ventures, Next47 (backed by Siemens), and Amperex. Sila Nano will use the funding for the development and commercialization of its silicon-dominant anodes. Overall, Sila has raised $125 million from investors including Bessemer Venture Partners, Chengwei Capital, Matrix Partners, Samsung, and In-Q-Tel (IQT). The company also partnered with the BMW group earlier this year.

“Changes in battery chemistry are generational, and Sila Nano is bringing the next one to market,” says Sutter Hill Ventures Managing Director Mike Speiser. “Sila has solved the hard scientific and engineering problems and is ready to rapidly scale up manufacturing to meet the enormous demand for better batteries. Dramatically better batteries will change the landscape of what’s possible for the phone in your pocket, the cars on the road, and the entire grid infrastructure.”

“Batteries are a key component in the future of mobility and electrification, but the current technology can’t keep up,” said Next47 Partner T.J. Rylander. “Future progress in everything from wearables and smart devices to industrial IoT and electric transportation depend on improvements in energy density and cycle life. Sila has demonstrated that it has the right technology and the right team to meet these demands.”

“We have spent the past seven years diligently developing critical new materials to improve battery storage capacity. With the chemistry proven we are now moving into a new phase of market application and manufacturing at industry scale,” said Sila Nano CEO Gene Berdichevsky. “We are incredibly gratified to be supported by a group of investors from finance and industry who recognize the opportunity, understand the science and share our vision.”

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A CLOSER LOOK AT THE METHODS AND LIMITS OF REGENERATIVE BRAKING

By Jeffrey Jenkins

A

ll motors are generators, the old saying goes, with the caveat that few types are equally good at both modes of operation, and some are downright awful as generators (a classic example being the single-phase shaded pole induction type, used in myriad small appliances the world over). Fortunately, both types of AC motor commonly used in EVs - the permanent magnet synchronous and the induction asynchronous - work perfectly fine in generator mode, although each has its own quirks and practical limits of operation.

All that is required to turn any motor into a generator is to spin its rotor faster than it would spin on its own while field excitation is present. The very easiest motors to use as a generator are those with a permanent magnet for their field excitation - whether AC or DC - as they will obviously have field excitation

24

present at all times; just spin the shaft and connect an appropriate load and you have a generator (note that the PM AC motor produces 3-phase AC with both voltage and frequency proportional to RPM).

Slightly more difficult to use as generators are motors with an externally-excited field - such as the woundfield synchronous AC or separately-excited DC - as they require a DC power source to supply their field windings (though often there will be enough residual magnetism in the field structure to bootstrap generator operation). This does allow for a degree of control over the magnitude of the generated voltage at a given shaft RPM, however. The asynchronous induction motor is a bit more difficult still to use as a generator, mainly because its field is excited indirectly, so it needs a source of 3-phase AC present before it can generate; this issue is easily overcome as long as an inverter

drives the motor, which is always the case in an EV. Then there are the motors that rarely get used as generators, either because they are too difficult, such as the series DC motor, or too inefficient, such as the hysteresis and shaded pole AC motors, or just not terribly widespread (yet) such as the switched reluctance motor.

To understand how regen braking works, and what its practical limits are, a brief recap of how motors function may be helpful. The part of the motor called the field projects a fixed-intensity magnetic field which interacts with a rotating/variable intensity magnetic field that is projected by the armature to produce rotary motion. In AC motors the field is usually the rotor while the armature is comprised of both the stator and the inverter. If the magnetic poles of the field are locked to those of the armature the motor is said to be synchronous; when some difference between the two is allowed (or even necessary, as in the induction motor), the motor is said to be asynchronous. From the perspective of the rotor, the magnetic fields from both the armature and the field appear frozen in space in the synchronous motor, with just a few degrees of offset

Photo courtesy of Audi

THE TECH

Audi e-tron prototype regenerative braking testing

Fortunately, both types of AC motor commonly used in EVs - the permanent magnet synchronous and the induction asynchronous work perfectly fine in generator mode.

2018 Chevrolet Volt traction motor Photo courtesy of GM

SEP/OCT 2018

25

The first EVs tried to simulate the behavior of an ICE vehicle as much as possible, so as soon as the driver let off the accelerator pedal, mild regen would kick in, which felt like the familiar engine braking of an ICE.

on either side of “lock-in” separating full generating torque from full motoring torque. These fields will appear to slowly rotate with respect to each other in the asynchronous (induction) motor, however, with full motoring torque occurring at a speed several percent below synchronous speed, and full generating torque at a speed several percent higher.

Torque in both motor types used in EVs is ultimately proportional to the strength of the magnetic field from either the armature or the field, whichever is weakest.

The strength of a magnetic field from a permanent magnet is fixed, of course, but it is proportional to current in an electromagnet, and since the armature is basically a collection of electromagnets arrayed in a circle about the rotor, torque can be varied by controlling the armature current. Current can’t be increased arbitrarily, of course, because as one of my EE profs was all too fond of saying, “at a high enough current, everything acts like a fuse,” but long before any wires start melting another limit will kick in: magnetic saturation, or the maximum field strength a ferromagnetic material can tolerate before it abruptly loses the ability to concentrate magnetic

26

lines of force. Saturation reduces the torque available from the motor as well as the inductance of its windings; the latter can result in current increasing too fast for overcurrent protection to kick in.

Fortunately, the magnetic circuit in most motors is designed to saturate in a progressive fashion, so the only consequence of overpowering the armature will be a case of diminishing returns for every incremental increase in current.

The last piece of the puzzle is the inverter itself. As mentioned before, voltage and frequency in an AC motor are proportional to RPM. When the motor is operating as a motor, the current flow through the inverter hardware is such that it can only act as a buck converter - that is, step down the battery voltage to a lower RMS-value AC voltage - but when the motor is operating as a generator, current flow reverses through the inverter and the same hardware must now act as a boost converter (and rectifier). In the case of the induction motor, the inverter needs to be present to supply the field with energy before it can act as a generator, so absent any field excitation it’s just a spinning lump of metal. The PM AC motor will always produce a voltage whenever its shaft is spinning, however, and if its shaft is spinning much faster than it could given the available battery pack voltage, then the inverter has to adjust the timing of its phase currents to partially suppress the PM field (aka fieldweakening). Field-weakening is used in both motoring and generating modes; in the former it allows the motor to spin faster at the cost of some torque (because a weaker field means less torque, all else being equal), while in the latter it prevents destruction of the inverter from too much current flowing back into the battery.

With the basics of motor/generator operation in hand, next up is how and when to apply regen in the EV. The first EVs tried to simulate the behavior of an ICE vehicle as much as possible, so as soon as the driver let off the accelerator pedal, mild regen would kick in, which felt like the familiar engine braking of an ICE. This didn’t return much energy to the battery, however, and in many such instances it would be more efficient overall to simply coast, saving regen for when stronger braking was required or when going

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THE TECH downhill. Another tweak employed by some OEMs is a separate knob or paddle for controlling regen intensity; this vastly improves the flexibility of deploying regen.

A more natural way to employ regen is to link its operation to the brake pedal. This can be as simple as activating regen alongside the brake lights, to a more sophisticated scheme in which regen intensity is controlled by the pressure in the mechanical braking system. Besides recapturing energy that would otherwise be wasted as heat, regen can also assist with traction control, especially in the ideal case of a separate motor at each wheel, as electric motors are capable of much finer torque control than any ICE or anti-lock braking system.

There are some limits to regen braking. For starters, it can only recapture the energy used to accelerate the vehicle or climb an incline, minus some inevitable losses. Speaking of which, the energy recaptured by regen has to go through the full conversion process - from chemical to electrical to mechanical to road twice. Typical efficiencies for each major step in this process are 99% for lithium chemistry batteries, 9698% for inverters, 80-95% for motors (though this can drop much lower, especially at either extreme of the power range), 95% for hypoid gear differentials (which tends to get overlooked) and, finally, 85-95% for tires.

Even taking the best-case values for each figure, that comes out to an overall efficiency from battery to road of 83%, and a round-trip efficiency of 69%; in other words, you can’t always regen brake your way to longer range.

Another, more obvious, limit to regen braking is tire adhesion. This is less of an issue in front-wheel drive EVs, but applying too much braking torque to the rear wheels in rear- or all-wheel drive EVs (especially motorcycles) can, shall we say, make for an exciting driving experience. This is due to the phenomenon called “load transfer,” in which the center of mass on any wheeled vehicle shifts due to acceleration or deceleration forces, and this shift is proportional to the height of the center of mass above ground and

The energy recaptured by regen has to go through the full conversion process - from chemical to electrical to mechanical to road - twice.

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Once speed drops below a certain point, regen will fail to return enough energy to be worth the bother even if the rate of deceleration is high. inversely proportional to the wheelbase (note that in a 4-wheel vehicle, load transfer can occur front to back, as during acceleration and braking, or side to side, as during turning). Load transfer can be exacerbated by weight transfer, which is the same effect except caused by suspension travel or actual shifting of liquids, cargo, etc, in the vehicle. Together these phenomena lower the weight over the rear wheels during braking, making them less effective at transferring force without skidding.

The maximum torque from regen is generally the same as during motoring, and while this torque can be impressive, it still isn’t anywhere close to what the mechanical brakes can achieve, thus regen cannot substitute for the mechanical brakes. The equation to calculate the effective power of the brakes to decelerate a given weight at a given g-force is no different from its more familiar use in acceleration:

P=m*a*v where P is in Watts, m is weight in kg, a is acceleration in m/s2, and v is velocity in m/s. For example, the 2019 Audi e-tron Quattro has an estimated weight of 2,400 kg, and should be easily capable of braking at 0.8 g of deceleration (1 g = 9.81 m/s2); if traveling at 100 kph (62 mph, 27.78 m/s), that works out to a brake power of 523 kW. Compare that to the estimated maximum power output of its electric drivetrain of 300 kW. There is a flip side to this as well: using regen to decelerate at too low of a rate might not produce enough power to overcome the losses in the electrical components of the drivetrain. As crazy as it might seem, this would lead to regen actually decreasing range compared to mechanical braking. This is because the electrical components incur little to no loss when the motor is not active (either motoring or generating) - there are no resistive losses in the battery or wiring, no switching and conduction losses in the inverter, no iron and copper losses in the motor - but once the motor is put into operation all of those losses come

into play. Nailing down exact numbers for these losses is notoriously difficult, but a reasonable range would be 5-20 kW for just the electrical components (higher for heavier/higher-power/lessefficient vehicles). Dropping the rate of deceleration in the above example to 0.01 g would result in ~6.5 kW of power from regen, but if the combined electrical losses are, say, 8 kW, then ~1.5 kW of extra drain on the battery will occur.

Similarly, once speed drops below a certain point, regen will fail to return enough energy to be worth the bother even if the rate of deceleration is high. The kinetic energy equation:

Ke = 0.5 * m * v2 where Ke is in joules (or watt-seconds), m is weight in kg, and v is velocity in m/s, shows that energy drops off dramatically with decreasing velocity. A 2,400 kg vehicle traveling at 100 kph has 926 kJ (0.26 kW-hr) of recoverable energy, but at 10 kph that drops to a paltry 0.0026 kW-hr, or 100 times less. Even with no losses to contend with that’s a mere 2.6 watt-hours of energy. Even if decelerating at a sufficient rate to produce more power than the electrical losses, that’s not exactly worth writing home about. Still, regen is a net positive most of the time, and something ICE vehicles can’t do at all.

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THE TECH

STAMPING PRECISION PARTS FOR AUTOMOTIVE-GRADE MOTOR MANUFACTURING Tempel builds state-of-the-art factories to meet the precision and volume requirements of the automakers

By Michael Kent

he demands of the automotive industry are unlike any other. Carmakers require that their suppliers deliver millions of parts with incredibly tight tolerances that will not fail after a decade of daily use. The companies that manufacture parts for ICEs have grown increasingly sophisticated and disciplined in the past 50 years.

EV technology suppliers have had some catching up to do. For example, there are large global companies that have been producing parts for electric motors and power electronics for a long time. However, they quickly learned that the automotive world is quite different than the industrial applications and consumer appliance markets they’ve been supplying for decades.

“When this e-mobility movement started, the first-generation motor designs were based on the best industrial motors,” Erik Hilinski told Charged. Hilinski is Senior Director of Steel Technology and Quality at Tempel, an independent manufacturer of precision magnetic steel laminations for motors, generators and transformers.

T

SEP/OCT 2018

31

THE TECH “Since then, the engineers in the auto industry realized they could do much better than A 0.50% improvement in motor building around an industrial motor,” said Hilinski. “So they redesigned the motors to efficiency is something that run with ideal working points and deliver the best torque and efficiency for any given car.” automakers will pay a premium for, At this point in the history of the EV indusbecause it directly translates into try, a lot of design decisions are still driven by range. A 0.50% improvement in motor effigetting more range without increasing ciency is something that automakers will pay a the size of the battery pack. premium for, because it directly translates into getting more range without increasing the size of the battery pack. Some automakers are now in their third-generation design phase, continually pushing performance of these systems to the next level of torque, speed and efficiency. To get there, engineers are incorporating new steel formulations and the latest and greatest motor designs and topologies.

Electrical steels are soft magnetic materials found at the heart of electric motors. They’re typically manufactured by steel mills in cold-rolled strips. Tempel’s job is to stamp steel into precisely-shaped thin laminations, which are then stacked together to form the stator and rotor of a motor. The company works with many different steel suppliers to help meet the demands of auto OEMs. Better factories for tighter tolerances In first-generation EV motor designs, Tempel explains that the gap between the stator teeth and the outer diameter of the rotor, which is the rotating portion, was in the 1 mm range. “The designs have become progressively tighter,” said Craig Woodard, Tempel’s Director of Global Manufacturing Engineering. “Because the closer you move the magnets to the outer diameter, you’re essentially creating more torque, you’re going to get better transfer of the flux or the electrical energy between the rotor and stator. So now you’re seeing designs with gaps as small as 0.4 mm.”

There is also a trend toward using thinner sheets of steel, because the thinner you make the electrical steel, the better the magnetic characteristics of the material are. Woodard said that most of the steel that Tempel stamps today for industrial applications is in the 0.50 to 0.72 mm range, whereas hybrid and EV designs are typically sized at 0.30, 0.27 and 0.25 mm.

These may seem like simple specification changes, but the tightening specs have presented significant engineering challenges in manufacturing.

32

“First of all, at 0.25 mm you’re nearing foil thickness,” said Zach Leveston, Tempel’s Senior Director for Global Engineering. “So, the technical complexity of stamping material that thin is much different than thicker steels used for traditional industrial motors.”

“As your laminations get thinner, it gets more difficult to make a nice clean cut, and the tooling tolerances have to be tighter and tighter,” added Hilinski.

“So as things get smaller, complexity builds upon itself.

It’s an additive effect.”

To meet the specs of performance EV designs, Tempel has developed unique capital equipment to support both the stamping and annealing processes. A 0.25 mm strip doesn’t have much rigidity, particularly when you’re trying to move it through a stamping die as fast as 250 strokes per minute. Special strip feeding equipment is required. And, as the lamination geometries become more complex, the stamping dies to produce the parts get longer. This necessitates stamping presses with longer press beds, more rigidity and better accu-

racy, which Tempel is specifying for all new production lines supporting hybrid and EV requirements.

“There is also a meaningful reduction in output as the laminations get thinner and thinner, which can add to the cost of the rotor and stator cores,” said Leveston. “If you think about a stamping line or a steel mill that goes from producing a 0.30 mm thickness to 0.27 mm, they lose 10% of their effective capacity. You will need 10% more laminations to build the same size stack.”

Tempel says it has developed a unique annealing process that can help motor designers meet efficiency specifications while using thicker steel sheets or alternatively improve torque and efficiency output at the same material thickness. Basically, it’s a heat-treating process, but instead of trying to induce better mechanical characteristics (which is common in the steel industry), the process is designed to induce better magnetic characteristics.

What we’re able to do with our annealing process, is take a 0.30 mm material and anneal it to have the magnetics of 0.27 mm material. Basically, it creates effective capacity for the steel mills.

“This is an area where Tempel has a very unique core competency,” said Leveston. “As the steel gets thinner, it makes the magnetics better, which makes the motors more efficient. What we’re able to do with our annealing process, for example, is take a 0.30 mm material and anneal it to have the magnetics of 0.27 mm material. Basically, it creates effective capacity for the steel mills without our customers having to sacrifice the magnetics for the thicker steels.”

To manufacture top-of-line motor laminations, Tempel created a new top-of-line factory design that’s intended to be easily replicated in different regions as the demand grows. The first new factory, built in China, is predominately focused on making rotor and stator cores for hybrids and EVs. “The factory has all new state-of-the-art capital equipment, and both temperature and humidity are tightly controlled,” said Leveston. “The tolerances for new traction motor designs are in some cases twice as tight as they were just five years ago. To ensure that Tempel is capable of meeting those requirements, we are controlling every variable in the production process, including environmental conditions, to minimize process variability. We also have a positive-pressure environment and an air filtration system cleaning the air 8 times an hour to meet emerging technical cleanliness demands for traction motor applications.”

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THE TECH

Oftentimes a customer will come to us with designs that spec a specific steel from a specific mill, and we can show them with our data that a different steel from a different mill may actually provide better performance or be more cost-competitive.

Selecting the right steel Electrical steel is a unique class of materials and a niche product. While there are industry specifications which define performance, such as ASTM standards in North America, IEC or Euronorm for Europe, and JIS for Japan and Asia, the specified magnetic properties provided in these specifications used for grading purposes are not comprehensive enough for motor design.

That kind of magnetic material performance data is not readily available in the public domain and must be requested from the steelmakers.

“Total steel production in 2017 was about 1.4 billion metric tons,” said Leveston. “Electrical steels was only about 20 million metric tons. If you think about what people care about with steel, generally, it’s mechanical properties. But in the electric motor application the mechanics are really secondary. What we really care about is magnetics.”

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So, Tempel set out to compile the data itself. The company has an ongoing project to characterize magnetics for all the different electrical steel grades it can get its hands on. That is the primary function of the team Hilinski leads at Tempel, and his group has now assembled a database of over 1,800 steel samples.

“We’ve evaluated the full magnetic characteristics of these steels,” said Hilinski. “This gives us the ability to sit down with a customer and say, ‘Let’s talk about the operating points of your motor. What’s more important to you? Do you want high torque? Do you want high efficiency?’ Based on that, we can send them data on three or four different steels which we think may be suitable. We actually send them the magnetic characterization of those steels, which they can just upload into their electromagnetic FEA simulation.”

Tempel estimates that there are about 25 steel mills in the world that are producing steels for hybrid and EV applications. Each of those mills may have many variations of electrical steel products that all require testing, and Tempel says it has magnetic performance data on nearly all of them.

Before joining Tempel, Hilinski was a Technical Manager at the US Steel Research and Technology Center - a leading supplier of flat-rolled steel - where he worked on developing different types of electrical steels.

“Tempel maintains strong commercial and technical relationships with all major electrical steel mills globally,” said Hilinski. “For our customers, we’ll open up our full catalog of test data to find whatever will work best. Oftentimes a customer will come to us with designs that spec a specific steel from a specific mill, and we can show them with our data that a different steel from a different mill may actually provide better performance or be more cost-competitive.”

These are very expensive steels - typically two to three times the price of a traditional coil of 1008 or 1010 material - because of how highly engineered they are and the R&D work that’s required to develop them.

Since the cost of the raw material is the dominant portion of the lamination’s cost structure, it’s critically important to choose raw material wisely. That’s why Tempel will continue to invest in evaluating new grades of electrical steels for hybrid and EV applications so it can provide the best application engineering support possible to its customers.

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CHARGE LIKE A SUPERCAP, STORE LIKE A BATTERY:

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By Paul Beck

I

magine an EV that could add 300 miles of range with a 5-minute charge - roughly the same amount of time it takes to refuel an ICE vehicle. Many companies are working on technologies to enable faster charging, which would be a huge win for EV adoption.

ZapGo, based in Oxford, UK and Charlotte, North Carolina, believes its energy storage technology is critical to unlocking that future. Since 2013, the company has been developing carbon-ion (C-ion) technology that it says looks past the limits of traditional Li-ion batteries and supercapacitors.

“I have a background in energy storage, and about five years ago I came across some intellectual property developed at the University of Oxford,” Stephen Voller, founder and CEO founder of ZapGo, told Charged.

“The principle behind it was to produce a new type of

36

battery that would have all the fast charge benefits of a supercapacitor, and could hold on to its energy like a battery. That’s what we’re now developing.”

Carbon-ion: combining the power density of supercapacitors and the energy density of batteries As ZapGo sees it, currently available technology leaves a lot of room for improvement. Li-ion batteries have evolved into very capable energy storage devices which accounts for their near-universal adoption. The Li-ion battery market is on track to be worth $140 billion by 2026. However, ZapGo thinks we’re approaching the limits of the technology based on the constraints of Li-ion, including relatively slow charging rates and finite lifespans.

On the other hand, electrical double-layer capacitors

THE TECH

(EDLCs) - aka supercapacitors - have a much longer life and can charge and discharge much more rapidly, but can only store a small amount of energy per charge compared to Li-ion cells.

ZapGo says that its new C-ion technology falls between these two commercially available products and transcends their limitations.

Structurally, C-ion cells are very similar to EDLCs. “With batteries you have electrochemistry that’s going on,” explained Voller. “When you charge and discharge there are chemical reactions inside that literally wear out over time. With a supercapacitor, you have an ion-electric reaction - it’s more like static electricity. So there’s no chemistry going on to wear out.”

“The key to the differentiation of our technology is that we use different materials than the conventional EDLCs and Li-ions. We use nanocarbons as opposed to activated carbons. And we use ionic electrolytes as opposed to organic electrolytes. We’re really a materials science company.”

ZapGo says that recent advances in producing and fabricating a range of nanostructured carbons and ionic liquid-based electrolytes have made C-ion cells feasible.

Different types of nanocarbons are now commer-

Photos courtesy of ZapGo

The principle behind it was to produce a new type of battery that would have all the fast charge benefits of a supercapacitor, and could hold on to its energy like a battery. cially available in the form of powders, microspheres, fibers, foils and monoliths. The physical and chemical properties of synthetic and nanostructured carbon materials such as graphene and single-walled and multiwalled carbon nanotubes are ideal for energy storage because they have large surface areas and unique nanostructures.

More specifically, some have suggested that the theoretical upper limit for the specific capacitance of a graphene-based electrode is as high as 550 farads per gram (F/g). In the lab, by matching the pore size of nanocarbon to the ion size and optimizing with the best ionic liquid electrolyte, scientists have been able to create supercapacitors that are able to store 160 F/g.

In the real world, this has led to the development of C-ion cells that are currently able to store five to six times as much energy per kilogram as commercially available supercapacitors.

These advances are due not only to the use of nanocarbons, but also to the incorporation of ionic liquid electrolytes, which are stable at higher operating voltages than organic electrolytes commonly used today.

Increasing the operating voltage of a cell directly increases its energy density, and ionic liquid electrolytes have been shown to be stable at voltages as high as 6 V,

SEP/OCT 2018

37

THE TECH

Producing today, innovating for tomorrow ZapGo is currently on the third generation of its carbon-ion technology, which will go into production this year, to be used in consumer appliances such as hand tools and electric lawn mowers. Those cells will offer a specific energy of 13.4 Wh/kg, 2.4 Wh of stored energy, fast charging rates and a lifetime of more than 100,000 cycles.

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Figure 1: Supercapacitor

Figure 2: Carbon-Ion

Figures courtesy of ZapGo

about double the limit of typical organic electrolytes.

However, they also come with design challenges.

Ionic liquids with a large electrochemical window tend to be several times more viscous than organics.

This leads to a lower ionic conductivity, higher internal resistance and compromised power characteristics.

During heavy power demand, the cell or a stack of cells will struggle to deliver huge power in a quick spurt.

However, ideally-designed electrodes help to overcome these challenges. Figure 1 shows a traditional supercapacitor design and the transport of ions in 2D geometry. An ion at one of the electrodes located close to the current collector has to migrate through the entire electrode and separator material to reach the other electrode while being charged or discharged.

Due to the thickness of the carbon electrode and the separator, it can be a long and winding path for the ion to move from one electrode to the other.

However, by using synthetic carbons and nanocarbons, it is possible to fabricate electrodes with controlled porosity lattices. Figure 2 illustrates the precisely designed pores of a C-ion cell, which allows for a more direct path for the ion transfer.

ZapGo says that in recent years, the combination of advances in nanostructured carbons as electrodes and non-flammable ionic liquids as electrolytes has significantly enhanced the performance of C-ion cells. These new carbon and electrolyte materials not only operate at higher voltages, enabling higher energy densities, they’re also much safer and easier to recycle.

ZapGo is focusing its current research efforts on developing gel and all-solid state C-ion cells. Specifically, the company is creating polymer-inorganic composite electrolytes in the form of membranes. These materials are tailored to contain interconnected nano-sized channels formed by the polymer network for easy ion migration. The polymer network weakly binds the ions to enable fast ion transport. The weak binding and fast ion transport is achieved by creating a network of vacant binding sites in the polymer.

Simultaneously, the company is also iterating a next generation of cells designed to store more energy, with an eye to the EV and grid storage markets. ZapGo says its fourth-generation cells will have a specific energy in the 32-56 Wh/kg range. As it moves into generation five and six C-ion technology with 5 V and 6 V cells, the company says it’s confident that the design of a battery pack using C-ion technology will be able to meet or exceed the typical pack-level density found in vehicles of 100 Wh/kg and above.

As with many other new battery technologies we’ve covered, one of the biggest challenges is translating great results in the lab into full-scale production. ZapGo says a major focus was to create a carbon-ion cell that can be manufactured on the same assembly lines, and with much of the same materials, as Li-ion cells.

The cells that will go into production this year will be

Relative Performance of Energy Storage Devices

As it moves into 5 V and 6 V cells, the company says it’s confident that the design of a battery pack using C-ion technology will be able to meet or exceed the typical packlevel density found in vehicles of 100 Wh/kg and above. produced in a factory that already makes Li-ion cells.

“The first thing was to make sure that we could manufacture this technology at scale,” Voller said. “There are literally billions of batteries made every year. And you can’t, as a new technology, just get into the field if you’ve got to reinvent the wheel. So the first thing we wanted to do was ensure that we could make [the cells] ourselves using the existing Li-ion manufacturing. The first generations of the technology are really about proving that as a concept.”

How much?

Perhaps the most important question for automotive energy storage is: what will it cost? As for the price of C-ion batteries, Voller expects the cost to be comparable to - if not better than - Li-ion because of the basic building blocks of the cells.

“A figure that’s often quoted for Li-ion is $100/kWh,” he explains.

“And that’s a figure that we expect to meet or exceed for our customers as we move into volume. We can be confident about that because we take away two of the most expensive elements currently in Li-ion cells, which are the lithium and the cobalt. We don’t use any of that, but we do use the existing manufacturing techniques and the rest of the supply chain.”

Road map ZapGo has ambitious plans for the future of C-ion. “We think there will be a two-step process,” Voller predicts. “The first step is that there would be a hybrid of the existing lithium batteries and our cells. Wil-

THE TECH

liams Advanced Engineering, part of the Williams Formula One team, are developing a control system to allow a vehicle to use C-ion and Li-ion side by side on the same vehicle. The second stage would be to replace the lithium completely, because it would be much safer and much cheaper.”

ZapGo says it’s hard at work on R&D to reach the second stage of the process. Specifically, the company is trying to increase the operational voltage of carbonion, which directly relates to its energy density.

“Our current third-generation cells operate at 3.4 V,” Voller explains. “To replace lithium-ion on a vehicle and get to the same sort of energy density, we need to get to 5 or 6 volts in the cells. And we have a roadmap to do that over the next few years. So we expect that we will produce cells that can meet or exceed the energy density of lithium-ion, and provide a safer and faster charging experience for the driver.”

Improving safety improves designs Without organic electrolytes and lithium, ZapGo says that C-ion cells are much more stable and safer, designed to comply with both current and future shipping regulations (today, transporting Li-ion cells is a regulatory nightmare). It also means that there is significant potential to greatly simplify the design of EV battery packs. Because of the stringent safety concerns, engineering EV battery packs is costly.

ZapGo is also quite enthusiastic about an interesting design possibility that the safety of C-ion could enable: embedding electrodes in structural components like the vehicle chassis.

“The BMW i3 has a carbon fiber chassis, so there’s no steel in the vehicle at all,” Voller says. “Imagine that chassis now becomes the energy storage. So instead of having individual cells, we make entire structures or panels that become part of the vehicle. And the benefit of doing that is to take orders of magnitude of cost out of the vehicle. We could do that because our technology is fundamentally carbon, and the technology that BMW and others use is carbon fiber or lightweight composite structures that can be incorporated into the electrodes of our cells.”

“It wouldn’t be a door panel, because obviously you need to provide electrical protection. But you could fabricate a chassis segment, for example, that might be a 10 kWh, 48 V panel that would have just two connections: the positive and the negative to the vehicle bus.”

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The first step is that there would be a hybrid of the existing lithium batteries and our cells.

The second stage would be to replace the lithium completely, because it would be much safer and much cheaper.

Exotic application possibilities aside, with C-ion cells, pack engineering could be greatly simplified, further increasing its competitiveness on a cost and energy density per pack basis.

Stationary systems The two biggest advantages of C-ions in EVs would be fast charging and long life. Although many of the next generation of vehicles are being designed with Li-ion cells to support charging rates as high as 350 kW, this is still a far cry from the power that would enable 300 miles in 5 minutes.

“Put simply, if you plugged an EV with Li-ion into a 1 MW charger, it would catch fire pretty spectacularly and quite quickly,” Voller said. “So you need a different technology on the vehicle to be able to accept that amount of energy that quickly. And that’s where we’re working with the automotive companies towards the next generation of vehicles that are capable of providing the driver with the same experience that they get today with gasoline.”

There are also enormous opportunities for C-ion cells to be used in the fueling stations of the future.

Next time you’re at a busy highway gas station, image that all those vehicles were recharging 300 miles of range in 5 minutes - one after another, all day and night. The amount of power and energy delivered would be eye-popping. In the future, those stations will need large-scale energy storage that can recharge during off-peak times and meet everyone’s needs during rush hour. This seems like a great fit for technologies with high peak power and extremely long cycle life.

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THE VEHICLES

Experimental NASA airplane features 14 propellers driven by 14 electric motors NASA is building an experimental airplane in order to demonstrate that electric propulsion can make planes quieter, more efficient and more environmentally friendly.

The X-57, nicknamed “Maxwell,” has 14 electric motors turning 14 propellers, integrated into a specially-designed wing.

NASA Aeronautics researchers hope to use Maxwell to validate the idea that distributing electric power across a number of motors will result in a fivefold reduction in the energy required for a private plane to cruise at 175 mph.

Typically, to get the best fuel efficiency, an airplane has to fly slower than it is able to. Electric propulsion essentially eliminates the penalty for cruising at higher speeds. NASA researchers estimate that the higher energy efficiency of X-57 technology could reduce operational costs for small aircraft by as much as 40 percent.

“With the return of piloted X-planes to NASA’s research capabilities, the general aviation-sized X-57 will take the first step in opening a new era of aviation,” said NASA Administrator Charles Bolden.

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Orange EV and Firefly Transportation Services have announced the deployment of Orange EV T-Series electric terminal trucks into yard management operations for a leading manufacturer of consumer goods. Providing yard management services at manufacturing and distribution facilities in Michigan and California, Firefly will reduce costs and add new reporting and tracking capabilities.

“To cut operating costs, improve operations, and reduce emissions all at the same time requires firms to do things differently,” said Mike Saxton, Orange EV’s Chief Commercial Officer. “Firefly’s team of respected logistics industry leaders has built a new model for transportation services free from the burdens of older diesel technologies.”

Orange EV’s fleet of Class 8 battery-electric trucks, commercially deployed since 2015, recently surpassed 575,000 miles and 161,000 “key on” hours. Fleets using Orange trucks have reported increased reliability and driver satisfaction as well as reduced maintenance and downtime. Orange says its terminal trucks offer annual cost savings of $20,000 to $60,000, making the total cost of ownership of an EV significantly less than that of a diesel.

“From a warehouse and logistics standpoint, we’ve done those jobs, been in those roles, and understand the challenges facing traditional diesel yard management where fleets are hard-pressed to find more savings or productivity. Legacy equipment and systems don’t meet the demands of today’s transportation environment,” said Mike Bohnstengel, Principal Partner at Firefly. “Firefly’s fresh approach delivers immediate cost savings with fuel costs reduced 80 percent or more. Through onboard telematics, key performance indicators, and real-time reporting and analysis, we help clients better understand and manage current yard operations, identify efficiencies, and improve bottom-line productivity.”

Photo courtesy of Orange EV

Photo courtesy of NASA

Orange EV and Firefly partner to deploy electric yard goats

Photo courtesy of Harley-Davidson

from

Concept to Reality

Harley-Davidson announces plan to produce new electric motorcycles

You might expect the Hawg to be the last vehicle in the world to go electric - and there will surely be large numbers of the Daytona crowd who cling to gasoline until the bitter end. However, there are at least two good reasons for Harley-Davidson (NYSE: HOG) to start introducing electric models.

First, electric bikes are faster’n hell. Electrons have been beating gasoline at racing events for a few years now. Second, Harley’s sales are shrinking like a graying biker’s bar tab - this year, the company reported its fourth straight year of declining sales. Harley hopes a revamped lineup, including electric models, will attract a younger and hipper clientele.

Harley tested the market with its LiveWire prototype in 2014. Earlier this year, it teamed up with electric motorcycle maker Alta Motors, and announced that it would bring its first electric motorcycle to market in 2019.

Now the iconic company has released a growth plan called More Roads to Harley-Davidson, which describes “the first in a broad, no-clutch ‘twist and go’ portfolio of electric two-wheelers designed to establish the company as the leader in the electrification of the sport.”

Harley also says it will introduce two smaller and more affordable electric motorcycles in 2021 and 2022, as well as a utility scooter, a sort of dirt bike and an electric bicycle. It has released pictures of the upcoming models, but no technical details. The company plans to spend between 150 and 180 million dollars on EV development through 2022.

“We’re going big in EV with a family of products that will range in size, power, as well as price,” said COO Michelle Kumbier. “When you look at EV you know this is a whole new customer base that we are bringing in.”

“The bold actions we are announcing today leverage Harley-Davidson’s vast capabilities and competitive firepower - our excellence in product development and manufacturing, the global appeal of the brand and of course, our great dealer network,” said CEO Matt Levatich. “Alongside our existing loyal riders, we will lead the next revolution of two-wheeled freedom to inspire future riders who have yet to even think about the thrill of riding.”

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THE VEHICLES

Kia Niro EV now on sale in Korea; North American sales to begin in Q1 2019 The EV version of the Kia Niro crossover has gone on sale in Korea, joining the Niro’s existing Hybrid and Plug-in Hybrid variants. The Korean carmaker says it has received more than 5,000 pre-orders for the new EV, which is to go on sale in Europe at the end of 2018, and in North America in the first quarter of 2019.

The Niro EV’s lithium-polymer battery pack is positioned low, beneath the trunk floor. It’s available in two sizes: 39.2 kWh, which delivers a range of 153 miles; and 64 kWh, with a range of around 239 miles. A 150 kW (204 ps) motor drives the front wheels, producing 395 N·m of torque and accelerating from 0-60 mph in 7.8 seconds.

The Niro EV offers a range of Kia’s Advanced Driver Assistance Systems, including Forward Collision Warning with Forward Collision-Avoidance Assist, Smart Cruise Control with Intelligent Stop & Go, and Lane Following Assist.

A 7-inch touchscreen controls the infotainment system and EV-specific features, and the instrument cluster resides in a second 7-inch color LCD. Cargo space is 16 cubic feet.

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US DOT finalizes “quiet cars” rule

The US DOT has finalized rules that will require “quiet cars” (electrified vehicles) to emit “alert sounds” to warn pedestrians of their approach.

The long-delayed rules, which were mandated by Congress in 2010, will require electrified vehicles to generate sounds when moving at speeds of up to 18.6 miles per hour. At higher speeds, according to regulators, tire and wind noise make artificial sounds unnecessary.

The new regulation requires automakers to add the sounds to 50 percent of vehicles by September 2019, and to all vehicles by September 2020. Regulators said they will consider a request from automakers to allow car owners to select from multiple sounds.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) says it expects about 530,000 model 2020 vehicles to be affected. NHTSA says the rules will cost the auto industry about $40 million per year, as automakers will need to add an external waterproof speaker to comply. However, the agency predicts the new rules will prevent 2,400 injuries annually, saving between 250 million and 320 million dollars.

NHTSA estimates that the odds of a hybrid vehicle being involved in a pedestrian crash are 19 percent higher than those of a legacy vehicle. About 125,000 pedestrians and cyclists are injured each year on US roads.

“This rule strikes the right balance for automakers and for the blind community,” said Gloria Bergquist, a spokeswoman for the Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers.

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Photo courtesy of EDI

THE VEHICLES

EDI introduces new electric drivetrain for Type A school buses

Port of San Diego demonstrates electric cargo vehicles, intelligent transportation systems

Efficient Drivetrains, Inc. (EDI), a company that Cummins recently announced it will acquire, has introduced its EDI PowerDrive 4000ev, suited for Type-A school buses. The Class 4 offering rounds out the company’s electric school bus solution portfolio for the North American market, which now includes Types C, D, and A. With a captive ridership of 26 million students, the number of vehicles in the nation’s school bus fleet includes almost half a million buses - more than commercial buses, trains, and air travel services combined.

Diesel vehicles expose students and the surrounding community to 15 times more mobile particulates than their electrified counterparts, every weekday morning and afternoon.

EDI works with OEMs to provide its EDI PowerDrive solution. The EDI PowerDrive electrification kit includes the EDI PowerDrive drivetrain and the EDI PowerSuite vehicle control and telematics software, together with training and support infrastructure.

“The school bus industry continues to make significant progress in providing zero-emissions options to school districts,” said CEO Joerg Ferchau. “Paired with available government incentive programs, fleet operators are now able to provide a strong business case for replacing older vehicles, and can demonstrate that in addition to electric buses providing clean air, they are less expensive to fuel and maintain, reducing the overall total cost of ownership.”

The Port of San Diego recently deployed two electric cargo vehicles as part of a project funded by the California Energy Commission (CEC) to accelerate the port’s transition to zero-emission transport.

The CEC awarded nearly $6 million to the San Diego Port Tenants Association to demonstrate 10 vehicles and other sustainable freight technologies in and around the port.

Five corporate tenants at the port will get hands-on experience with the two BYD electric cargo trucks.

Additional vehicles funded by the grant will be delivered later this year, including BYD electric yard tractors and forklifts and semi-trucks modified with battery-electric propulsion systems by Efficient Drivetrains and Transportation Power.

The grant also supports a demonstration of intelligent transportation systems now under construction by Peloton Technology. Platooning technology will enable freight trucks to sync their cruise controls, letting trucks follow each other closely enough to reduce air resistance.

Freight signal priority technology reduces emissions by giving freight trucks priority at specialized traffic signals, helping eliminate unnecessary stops.

“This project will offer multiple port tenants the opportunity to see how zero-emission technology can improve the efficiency of their operations while supporting the climate goals of the state and port, and improving air quality at the port and in the surrounding community,” said Energy Commissioner Janea A. Scott.

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Photo courtesy of BYD

BYD to introduce electric Class 6 step van in US BYD, so far the only Chinese EV manufacturer to establish a significant presence in the US market, has been selling quite a few electric buses, as well as some delivery trucks and refuse trucks, built at its plant in Lancaster, California. Now the company has announced plans to introduce an electric Class 6 step van in the US. The BYD 6D Step Van, which is expected to hit the streets by early 2019, is designed for neighborhood delivery of parcels, linens, food, office supplies and other consumer goods.

The 6D Step Van features a 250 kW motor that delivers 1800 N¡m of torque, as well as a 221 kWh battery pack.

BYD says it will have a range of 120 miles (fully loaded), a top speed of 70 mph, and a charging time of 4.5 hours (Level 2) or 1.5 hours (DC).

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High-Voltage

Teardown specialist Sandy Munro: Tesla Model 3 should deliver 30% profit margin Model 3 is rolling out of the factory and onto the roads. The company delivered 40,768 vehicles in the second quarter, of which 18,449 were Model 3s. In July, Model 3 set a raft of records, becoming the first EV in history to crack five figures in monthly sales, and the first to rank in the 20 top-selling automobiles in the US. It’s handily outselling gas-powered competitors from the likes of BMW, Mercedes and Audi. “In July 2018, Model 3…outsold all other mid-sized premium sedans combined, accounting for 52% of the segment overall,” says Tesla.

But can Tesla make a profit on its much-anticipated mass-market EV? The results of two recent teardowns suggest the answer is a resounding yes.

Earlier this year, a group commissioned by German automakers dismantled several Model 3s, and estimated that Tesla’s costs per vehicle should be about $28,000, leaving room for a healthy profit margin (Elon Musk seemed to concur, calling the report “the best analysis to date”).

Around the same time, teardown specialist Munro & Associates took apart a pair of Model 3s. While Sandy Munro offered some serious criticism of the new EV’s build quality, he raved about its electronics and battery technology. Now that Munro has had time to complete his analysis of Model 3, he estimates that Tesla should be able to earn at least a 30% margin on the Long Range RWD version.

“I didn’t think it was gonna happen this way, but the Model 3 is profitable,” Munro said, admitting that some crow was being eaten at his shop. “Over 30%. No electric car is getting 30% net, nobody.”

Munro credits Tesla’s in-house development of components, and the functionality provided by Model 3’s all-encompassing touchscreen, for the EV’s surprisingly low cost of production. “That’s the magic of using components that are already on the car. You make them work double or triple duty,” he said.

Hamburg container terminal deploys autonomous electric container transporter The first of many electric container transporters has been delivered to the Altenwerder Container Terminal (CTA).

Located just south of Hamburg, Germany, on the river Elbe, CTA is one of the most modern and automated container terminals in the world. At CTA, automated guided vehicles (AGVs) ferry containers from ship to yard to truck or train, with no need for a human driver.

The facility currently has a fleet of almost 100 AGVs, some powered by diesel, some by lead-acid batteries.

The new lithium-ion battery-powered AGV, which weighs 26.5 metric tons, represents the first step in a plan to replace all the legacy AGVs with lithium-ion models by the end of 2022.

A pilot project to test a lithium-ion AGV prototype coupled with an automatic electric charging station has been under way at CTA since 2016. The lithium-ion AGVs present several advantages over their lead-acid predecessors. They can be fully charged in an hour and a half, weigh a third of what the lead-acid units do, and need no maintenance.

Now the new lithium-ion AGVs are being delivered to Hamburg weekly from the Konecranes yard in Düsseldorf. They will initially replace the diesel-powered vehicles, then phase out the lead-acid battery-powered vehicles.

Using environmentally friendly transports also pays off economically: “Taking the ratio of energy consumed to actual power output into account, they are three times more efficient than their diesel-powered predecessors,” explains CTA Managing Director Ingo Witte.

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Photo courtesy of UPS

Photo courtesy of HHLA

THE VEHICLES

UPS collaborates with Thor Trucks to develop electric Class 6 delivery truck UPS has announced a collaboration with Los Angeles-based Thor Trucks to develop an electric Class 6 delivery truck. The truck is expected to be ready for testing later this year.

Thor’s truck will have a driving range of approximately 100 miles, and will be powered by a Thor-designed and built battery. UPS plans to test it for six months, including off-road evaluation to address durability, battery capacity, technical integration, engineering and any items found during on-road testing.

For years, UPS has been testing electrified vehicles from several manufacturers, including Arrival, Daimler and Workhorse. Big Brown’s fleet includes some 9,300 low-emission vehicles - not only EVs and hybrids, but vehicles powered by hydraulic systems, ethanol, compressed natural gas (CNG), liquefied natural gas (LNG) and propane.

“UPS believes in the future of commercial electric vehicles. We want to support the research needed to make advances and the companies developing those innovative products,” said Carlton Rose, President, Global Fleet Maintenance and Engineering. “Performance is critical in our fleet.”

“We’re excited about working with a forward-thinking company like UPS, particularly as our first collaboration,” said Dakota Semler, co-founder and CEO of Thor Trucks. “UPS is committed to sustainability and operates one of the most respected and complex fleets in the country. This is also an incredibly valuable opportunity to gain insight into what it will take to fulfill our mission of getting entire electric fleets on the road.”

Solid waste hauler Recology has ordered two electric refuse trucks from BYD, the first electric refuse trucks to operate in the city of Seattle. The two BYD 8R Class 8 trucks, fitted with New Way Viper Rear Loader refuse bodies, are scheduled to be delivered in early 2019.

“By combining the innovative design of our Viper Rear Loader body with BYD’s zero-emissions battery-electric technology, we can produce the most efficient and sustainable refuse truck available on the market today,” said Don Ross, New Way VP of Sales and Marketing.

“Together with our industry partners, BYD and New Way, we can be a catalyst to affect positive, sustainable

Photo courtesy of BYD

Seattle to deploy two BYD Class 8 electric refuse trucks

change, setting the stage for what a 21st-century refuse truck should look like,” said Recology VP Derek Ruckman.

CUMMINS ACCELERATES INTO ELECTRIFICATION The diesel engine powerhouse has had a busy year expanding its EV systems development

By Christian Ruoff

ummins is a huge presence in the diesel engine market around the globe. The company designs, manufactures and sells billions of dollars’ worth of diesel engines (and some engines powered by “alternative fuels” such as natural gas). Ranging from 2.8 to 95 liters, the company’s engines are found in nearly every type of vehicle and equipment on Earth, from pickup trucks to 18-wheelers, from berry pickers to 360-ton mining haul trucks, as well as a full line of recreational and commercial marine diesels.

The Indiana-based company is also a world leader in stationary power generation from 2.5 to 3,500 kW. These critical pieces of equipment turn liquid or gas fuels into electricity when power from the grid won’t cut it (or fails completely). For example, electric generator

C

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sets (gensets) are a must for hospitals or health centers that need sustained power during blackouts or storms.

Cummins generators are also commonly used in residences, data centers, telecom, manufacturing, mining, marine and defense to name a few industries.

Beyond its heavy equipment manufacturing, Cummins operates a bit like a tech company that seeks domain expertise in the basic science that drives its products. With more than $700 million invested annually in R&D since 2011, Cummins isn’t resting on its laurels.

Charged has been closely following this industry giant’s flurry of activity over the past year as it accelerates into electrification in a methodical and strategic way. Cummins began developing its electrification capabilities more than a decade ago, but it recently

THE VEHICLES

Photos courtesy of Cummins

Q Charged: In 2018, Cummins has been in the news

With its massive presence in both vehicle and stationary power markets, Cummins is in a unique position to execute on the batterypowered ecosystems that the EV industry has been discussing at conferences for years.

launched a new Electrified Power Segment (the newest segment of just five at the company) in an attempt to “increase the visibility of and accountability for the company’s investments and performance in this growing market.”

Cummins is also on a shopping spree - over the past year it has announced the acquisition of 3 key electrification companies: Brammo, Johnson Matthey Battery Systems and Efficient Drivetrains.

This is a company that’s clearly serious about electrification. And with its massive presence in both vehicle and stationary power markets, Cummins is in a unique position to execute on the battery-powered ecosystems that the EV industry has been discussing at conferences for years.

Charged recently chatted with Vinoo Thomas, Director of Business Development for Cummins’s Electrified Power business segment, to learn more about the Fortune 500 member’s plans. Thomas has been with the company for nearly 19 years, working on product strategy for several types of powertrains including diesel, natural gas and early hybrids.

a lot, with a wide range of electrification-related headlines - from acquisitions to partnerships and demo EVs. Could you help us understand what the core focus is at this point? Where do you see the best electric opportunities in the short term?

A Vinoo Thomas: Cummins is a global power leader,

and not just for vehicles or mobile power, but also for stationary power. We have a significant power generation business. So as we begin to electrify our portfolios, it’s not just for electric vehicles. On the mobile side, our first product developments are focused on two very critical sub-segments - material handling and urban buses.

Starting in 2019, we’ll be delivering battery-electric powertrains for the urban bus segment. Then in mid2020, we’ll be delivering plug-in hybrid powertrains for buses. We are not a vehicle manufacturer. We are a power provider - today that’s mainly engines, whether it’s diesel, natural gas, or other spark-ignited fuels. So the approach we’re taking is that, irrespective of the type of fuel that you use, we will be providing power to our traditional OEMs, which they can then sell to the end users.

In some cases our OEM partners will also have vertically integrated solutions. Currently, our top 10 customers globally are our top 10 competitors as well, and that could be the case with electric power. So we’re approaching the electrified business based on our conventional business.

The other segment we’re currently focused on is material handling, which you can think of as Class 1 through 3 forklifts. A lot of those applications, which are used inside warehouses and outdoors, have already been electrified with lead-acid batteries. We have

SEP/OCT 2018

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Photos courtesy of Cummins

In some cases our OEM partners will also have vertically integrated solutions. Currently, our top 10 customers globally are our top 10 competitors as well, and that could be the case with electric power.

products that we sell in those segments with lithiumion technology. We have a couple of big customers for those types of products today within the portfolio. We also have other customers in the similar size smaller vehicle range, Polaris for example. So that’s one section of the electric product development that is already in production.

There are also significant projects within the company across multiple other segments, in what we call mobile off-highway equipment, but we can’t go into too much detail at the moment.

So, these are the nearest product developments on the mobile side that are occurring right now. There are also significant stationary applications that are in the development cycle.

Q Charged: We write a lot about electric urban

buses, and our readers are well versed in the factors driving that market. Could you educate us a bit on forklifts? What’s driving the transition from leadacid to Li-ion packs?

A Vinoo Thomas: There is an aspect of the econom-

ics, of course, because you can get more out of your machine productivity-wise if you move from lead-acid to lithium-ion. You can simply pack more energy on the piece of equipment, so it can run longer.

Or you can choose to design it lighter and smaller, so you can actually get a better design of the equipment.

Think about warehouses, for example - they’re stacking things between narrow aisles. So a smaller mobile lift is an important aspect of the productivity of that warehouse. The more stuff you can stack in that warehouse, and the tighter you turn that piece of equipment between the aisles, the higher the economic metrics.

Moving to Li-ion increases that significantly.

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Cummins Inc. Founded in 1919 Headquartered in Columbus, Indiana Approximately 58,600 employees Customers in about 190 countries 500 company-owned and independent distributor locations Approximately 7,500 dealer locations 2017 sales of $20.4 billion

The other aspect is the safety and sociability aspect.

Lead-acid batteries produce fumes and gases while charging, so you need to do it in well ventilated rooms.

They also require manual monitoring and maintenance - like adding distilled water to the electrolyte. All that’s taken out with the movement toward lithium-ion.

There are multiple benefits which then show up as a total cost of ownership benefit to the end user.

In the US and Canada, there are around two to three hundred thousand units a year, and 60-70% are leadacid today. Lithium-ion is slowly penetrating pretty heavily in very specialized areas. If you look at some of the big franchises, the big companies, as they move toward more socially responsible products in their supply chain, they’re beginning to invest heavily in Li-ion.

Q Charged: We hear a lot of conversations about

how EVs and stationary battery packs are synergistic, and the markets will grow hand-in-hand. One thing that’s unique about Cummins’s electrification efforts is that you already have a big presence in both the mobile power and stationary power markets. How do you compare the two opportunities for electrification?

THE VEHICLES

If you’re working with packs designed by many different companies, you have to reverse-engineer everything and then integrate the packs after the first use.

This basically destroys the value of second-use, because it just builds up the cost of that refurbishment.

A Vinoo Thomas: We definitely think it is significant

that Cummins has a presence in both these sectors. For example, there is opportunity to create enough aggregation of scale from some of these mobile applications to develop these stationary applications. That is a significant portion of our product-planning exercises.

If you think about our engines as an example, we build one B-platform engine somewhere on this planet every 15 seconds. We’re able to do that because that base platform is used across a whole variety of applications. On- and off-road, mobile, stationary, etc.

Our approach with energy storage is very similar - we develop base platforms and modules which can then be applied across multiple form factors and applications around the globe. That’s going to be one of the key things that differentiates Cummins from another

competitor which is very focused in a particular subsegment.

With electrification, this also allows a huge opportunity with the concept of secondary-use batteries.

The idea is that after a battery ages to a certain point - let’s say 70% of its original capacity, for example it’s no longer useful in mobile applications. But there could still be value in stationary applications - mainly because volume and weight are not as important when it’s off a vehicle. So a pack could be reused in stationary after mobile.

However, there are major challenges if you don’t have a complete ecosystem. As you can imagine, the design of the pack and module is super-critical. There is no standardization, so if you’re working with packs designed by many different companies, you have to reverse-engineer everything and then integrate the packs after the first use. This basically destroys the value of second-use, because it just builds up the cost

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THE VEHICLES of that refurbishment. If you have to do a lot of work then you might as well just use a brand-new pack.

Cummins, on the other hand, has a closed-loop ecosystem. The battery modules coming out of mobile applications are designed by us. Naturally, they will have our interfaces and we’ll have a complete lifetime dataset. We also have a significant aftermarket business which exists today with the channels in which we can move the core back and forth between different applications. We’ll be leveraging all of that in the electrified power business unit as well - very important aspects as we look at stationary use.

Hopefully, over time there will be some industry protocols established to use second-use packs designed by other companies as well. But as of today, it doesn’t look very feasible.

We’re approaching it like Lego blocks of battery power that can be installed in various other applications - the modular design allows the system to be scaled.

Photos courtesy of Cummins

Q Charged: With that ecosystem, it seems like you

also could easily lease a battery pack to different commercial customers over its life, extracting the full useful value. Is that something you’re considering?

A Vinoo Thomas: Yes, in fact we have some experi-

ence with these models. For example, there are some mining applications where we provide full-service operation and maintenance contracts on sort of a costper-hour basis with productivity thresholds and metrics. We take care of everything so that the machine is active and productive.

As the world now changes to electrification, those types of leasing models become more attractive for the end user because then they can mitigate risk and defer that capital investment. If someone introduces a new battery technology six years from now that is significantly better than today, leasing can offload those risks away from customers. I think those types of models will become more and more interesting in this space.

Q Charged: In May, Cummins debuted a new battery

pack line-up for commercial vehicles. What can you tell us about those products?

A Vinoo Thomas: We call that the Energy Series

of our battery packs for commercial vehicles. The product range includes the lower-voltage (24 V, 36 V, etc.) modules designed to power material handling applications, up to the higher-voltage (650 V) 74 kWh packs designed for urban buses and trucks. These are

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Cummins Energy Series battery packs for commercial vehicles

Cummins-designed and -built Li-ion batteries using a proprietary control technology. We’re approaching it like Lego blocks of battery power that can be installed in various other applications - the modular design allows the system to be scaled.

These systems are meant for higher-energy drive cycles where you’re charging overnight and then utilizing the vehicle over the entire day. Typical applications for urban buses, for example, would probably have six of the larger packs that can get you about 200 miles of range depending on the drive cycle. This is more than sufficient for a lot of the drive cycles from an urban bus perspective globally. Other applications could be urban delivery trucks and a few off-road applications.

What we’re trying to do is create a very rationalized portfolio of platforms in energy storage that we can then quickly reconfigure, whether it’s by size or chemistry type, depending on what’s required for use in multiple types of mobile and stationary applications.

Module and pack level testing CAN, I2C SMBus capable Drive cycle simulation Import drive cycle from table of values Battery power is recycled to AC grid in discharge Utilizes Maccor’s standard battery test software suite No system power limit, up to 900 KW

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Q Charged: Last summer, you debuted a fully elec-

tric Class 7 demonstration Urban Hauler Tractor, dubbed AEOS. Cummins is not a vehicle builder, so why did you build a truck? What do you think about the current market for electric tractor-trailers?

A Vinoo Thomas: Our goal with AEOS is to show our

customers what is feasible. It’s an electric vehicle that has a 150- to 200-mile range depending on drive cycle.

It’s built to be comparable to a typical Class 7 and 8 truck, with a 12-liter diesel engine and transmission. It demonstrates what the state of the art is.

In terms of the market for class 7 and higher, there are very specific sub-segments where electrified power makes sense. In North America, drayage [the transport of goods over short distances, for example within port facilities] is an important application. Also regional haul, in very specific instances where you’re traveling less than 150 miles. However, I would say the long-haul [market] isn’t going to be truly economical until the price of batteries comes down significantly.

Q Charged: You mentioned that you’re developing

a PHEV system for urban buses that will launch in 2020. Do you think these heavy commercial applications will use PHEVs as a stepping stone to an all-electric future?

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There are markets that are completely switching - and it’s full EV or nothing.

Many urban bus and drayage markets are trending this way, I think because of economics and sociability concerns (the emissions in highly populated areas).

A Vinoo Thomas: It’s interesting, because that’s

based on segment, region and regulatory landscape.

There are markets that are completely switching - and it’s full EV or nothing. Many urban bus and drayage markets are trending this way, I think because of economics and sociability concerns (the emissions in highly populated areas).

PHEVs are also starting to look more interesting to some markets, especially hybrids that offer multiple drive modes such as parallel, series and combined modes which can be switched depending on the drive cycle. If you have a delivery vehicle without a predictable route, for example, all-electric could

THE VEHICLES Photos courtesy of Cummins and Brammo

end user. It’s ideal for cities and other areas which are starting to be regulated as diesel-free. It also then gives you the flexibility to not be that dependent on charging infrastructure.

Q Charged: Cummins recently announced the ac-

quisition of three EV technology companies: Brammo, Johnson Matthey Battery Systems and Efficient Drivetrains. Can you walk us through the decisions to acquire each of those companies?

A Vinoo Thomas: Our established strategy is that

Brammo’s history Brammo was founded in 2002 as a motorsports and performance vehicle company. The company went on to design and build EV systems for a range of products, including forklifts, a helicopter, and its own line of electric motorcycles. In 2015, Polaris Industries, one of the largest makers of off-road vehicles, acquired the electric motorcycle business. Polaris also acted as a lead investor in a recapitalization of Brammo that enabled the company to focus exclusively on the design and development of electric powertrains.

diminish the productivity of that asset significantly.

Most truck owners don’t want their asset to be inflexible, and only applied to a specific drive cycle.

The system we’re currently developing is optimized to trade off between the two energy types - the diesel fuel, in this case, and the electrical energy. You can seamlessly switch back and forth depending on the drive cycle and the requirements of that particular

energy storage is a critical capability, and we want to fully own the expertise in-house. We’re not just system integrators; we have to develop deep sustainable competencies in subsystems. Energy storage is an important subsystem. Once that was determined, we then went about looking at opportunities for us that were economical and also provided us good sources into some key anchor customers.

Brammo was first because of its technical capability and good IP, but also access to key markets. Material handling was an important early market that we wanted to enter, because we previously did not participate in Class 1 to 3 material handling. That was the reason for acquiring Brammo.

Cummins and Johnson Matthey had a long-standing relationship, so we understood the culture and the capabilities quite extensively. It was a natural fit to acquire the Johnson Matthey Battery Systems division, mainly because of their deep electrochemistry knowledge.

If you look at our after-treatment business - technology that reduces NOx and particulate matter in engine emissions - you’ll see a good parallel. We don’t just invest in actually building an assembly of the after-treatment, but also significant capabilities in the chemistry part of that business. It’s important to have deep R&D in coatings, after-treatment catalysts, etc.

We believe the same is true for energy storage. Having that capability fully owned in-house was an important aspect.

Also, the systems IP of Johnson Matthey was a good complement to Brammo. Brammo was very much focused on the smaller pieces of equipment, less than 60 V type of packs. Johnson Matthey was focused on 300 V and above. Together, both these acquisitions provided us with a full range, both from a mobile and stationary aspect for battery systems, along with the

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THE VEHICLES

The long-term strategy is to have a full portfolio which is then distributed and serviced by the same channel, the troubleshooting is done with the same tools, the updates are done with the same telematics solutions. Those things are very important from the perspective of running a business.

Efficient Drivetrains

and technical leads, Efficient Drivetrains is a really good acquisition for Cummins.

Photos courtesy of EDI

electrochemistry. It basically created a well-rounded battery division for us very quickly, within six months.

Then, as we look towards the future, particularly for commercial vehicles in the US, Europe and China, we see a significant regulatory trend. And we think heavyduty hybrid technologies will meet some of those emissions and fuel economy regulations in the future.

We think that Efficient Drivetrains offers significant IP that’s quite differentiated in the marketplace that can take our hybrid capabilities a step above the rest.

The company also offers us significant commercial inroads, because they already have established products in an important sub-segment for Cummins, which is the school bus market. With both these commercial

For commercial vehicles in the US, Europe and China, we see a significant regulatory trend. And we think heavyduty hybrid technologies will meet some of those emissions and fuel economy regulations in the future.

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Q Charged: It appears Cummins is making aggres-

sive moves to become an electrification leader. Internally, do you see EV tech as a potential disruptor to your core traditional businesses?

A Vinoo Thomas: It’s fair to say Cummins’s position

is that electrification is really important, and we’re embracing it not as a disruption, but as an opportunity.

At the end of the day as a power company, we’re agnostic to what type of fuel is used to create that power. It could be liquid fuel, whether it be compression ignition or spark ignition, all-electric, or a blend of two, like hybrids.

For us, it’s important to showcase that we are a portfolio provider. Not all fleets will quickly require all these technologies in all their different depots or locations. It’s not a light-switch event. It will take time.

The long-term strategy is to have a full portfolio which is then distributed and serviced by the same channel, the troubleshooting is done with the same tools, the updates are done with the same telematics solutions.

Those things are very important from the perspective of running a business.

The people using our products are experts at other things - like moving freight, for example. They’re not experts in powertrains, nor do they want to be. So, having a portfolio for them, irrespective of a regulatory and market landscape, is our primary goal. Hopefully, we can do that by having the portfolio ready when the technology and the market demand it.

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2018 HONDA CLARITY

PHEV Photos courtesy of Honda

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THE VEHICLES

t’s ironic that Honda, which has long been known for the fuel efficiency of its vehicles, has been a laggard on the long road to electrification. The Japanese automaker launched its Insight Hybrid in 1999, shortly after Toyota introduced the Prius, but sales have been modest outside of Japan. In the early 2010s, Honda responded to California ZEV regulations by producing a couple of compliance cars - the Fit EV and the Accord Plug-in Hybrid - which each sold a few hundred units and were discontinued in 2014 and 2015 respectively.

Now Honda is making up for lost time with a major push to get charged. The company says electrified vehicles will make up two thirds of its global auto sales by 2030, and the North American market is expected to play a big role in that.

Honda introduced a new version of the Accord Hybrid for the 2018 model year, and a third generation of the Insight hybrid for 2019. These two vehicles represent the third generation of Honda’s two-motor hybrid system.

With the brand-new Clarity, Honda is testing a new strategy, offering variants with three different types of electrified powertrain. There’s a fuel cell version that’s sold in California, the only state that currently has public hydrogen fueling infrastructure available. There’s also a Clarity EV, which is currently sold only in Oregon and California - Honda has made no announcement as to when and if it will be made available in other states.

The star of the show however, is the Clarity Plug-in Hybrid, which is available in all 50 states, and has quietly become quite a respectable seller since its launch in late 2017. Through July of this year, it sold 8,109 units in the US, making it the third best-selling PHEV on the market, after the Prius Prime and the Chevy Volt.

Charged chatted with Chris Hand, Senior Product Planner for the Clarity, to discuss this next phase of Honda’s electrification strategy.

I

A QUIET HIT: Honda sneaks into third place in the PHEV race

By Charles Morris

Plenty of plug-in miles When it comes to electric range, more is obviously better, but there’s a certain cut-off point at which a PHEV becomes more like a pure EV, rather than

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THE VEHICLES Photos courtesy of Honda

With the brand-new Clarity, Honda is testing a new strategy, offering variants with three different types of electrified powertrain - fuel cell, EV and PHEV. just a hybrid with better fuel economy. The Clarity has an electric range of 47 miles, which is enough for many drivers to make most of their trips on electrons, and seldom or never visit a gas station. (The Prius Prime’s electric range is 25 miles, and the Volt’s is 53.)

“We wanted to make sure we provided customers with a strong electric range in this plug-in because a lot of these buyers want to go electric, but there may be concern about range or there’s some anxiety there that they don’t want to be potentially left on the side of the road, and gas gives them that comfort zone that they’re looking for,” Chris Hand told us. “With 47 miles, for daily commutes, especially if you’re plugging in at work, you can pretty much be just fine only using electric.”

Chris sees most other plug-ins as potential competitors for the Clarity. The Chevy Volt is often mentioned, but Chris points out that the Honda has more space than the Chevy. “When you look at

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the Volt, which has got 53 miles [of electric range], we’re really competitive there, but with Clarity, we wanted to make sure that the vehicle was a little bit more premium, a little bit more upscale in terms of the overall size, the features and the comfort, the packaging and the space of a full midsize sedan.”

Are Clarity buyers comparing it to other PHEVs, or are they typical Honda customers looking for the most fuel-efficient Honda available? “I think there’s a bit of both,” says Hand. “Obviously, there are going to be Honda buyers who are looking for the next level in alternative fuels. A plug-in hybrid’s certainly pushing that boundary, and for a lot of people, that’d be a good stepping stone towards an all-electric or a fuel cell down the road. They want to make sure, maybe they’re not quite ready to completely leave a gas vehicle, so a

plug-in hybrid gives them that convenience and comfort that they’re looking for. They’re not quite ready to make that full leap.”

Honda’s previous Accord PHEV, which was on sale for about two years, had an electric range of only 18 miles. “We certainly took learnings from that project that went into this, but this vehicle takes that step massively further by delivering a much longer electric range,” says Hand. “The Clarity Plugin Hybrid utilizes the same two-motor hybrid system that we use in the Accord Hybrid and the Insight, although it’s the second generation, whereas Accord Hybrid and Insight are the third generation.”

In the mode “The Clarity plug-in offers four driving modes: Normal, Econ and Sport, which are self-explanatory. Then we also have HD mode, and there are two different ways to utilize this mode. With a short press,

THE VEHICLES

I do believe for a lot of dealers, this is one of the first plug-in hybrids for them to be selling, so it is a new product and a new powertrain for them to learn and speak to customers about.

it works at highway speeds to maintain the battery level, so whatever the state of charge is, it will maintain that and work as a hybrid vehicle. That way, you can maximize fuel efficiency in hybrid mode on a long freeway drive, and then still have electric charge for when you get off the freeway and go back to city driving where electric is the most efficient.”

Holding down the HD button longer puts the vehicle into HD Charge mode, in which the gas engine will recharge the battery up to 57%. “If you’re really low on battery, and you’re driving on the highway, but when you get off the freeway you want to be able to go back into all electric, then you can charge your battery back up so you can switch back to electric mode.”

Unlike most PHEVs, the Clarity doesn’t have a selectable “electric” or “EV” mode. “If you drive relatively lightly, it’ll stay in electric,” Hand explains.

“The car’s going to work towards the most efficient, so if you’re going at highway speeds, if you’re not using the throttle too much, it may stay in electric, but it’s going to try and find the most fuel-efficient mode. If you go into Econ mode, it will try to stay more towards electric, but Econ’s not necessarily an all-EV mode. If you really push [the pedal] all the way down, it’s going to use both to provide the most power.”

Dealing with dealers As regular Charged readers know, auto dealerships are a major bottleneck for EV adoption. Chris Hand understands how important it is for Honda to educate its dealers about the new electrified vehicles. “I do believe for a lot of dealers, this is one of the first plugin hybrids for them to be selling, so it is a new product

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and a new powertrain for them to learn and speak to customers about. It’s critical to make sure that those dealers do understand the product, that they understand how the powertrain operates, what are the benefits to the customer, where’s the value to the customer, so that they can clearly communicate that.”

“We have a lot of electrified training programs that we provide to the dealers and a lot of various media, videos as well as on-site training, that explain to them how this vehicle functions, how the system provides benefits, as well as feedback to the customer so as they’re driving it they can really get a good feel for allelectric driving versus a hybrid drive feel.”

“There’s a lot of people out there that have never driven a vehicle on electric. It may even scare them to some extent, and the more chances, and the more opportunity people have to sit in the vehicle and drive a vehicle in an electric mode, the benefits there really start to shine, and our dealers are critical as part of that communication process to help customers understand the benefits of electric. They have to communicate that, so we have to communicate and explain to them all of those benefits, so there’s a lot happening behind the scenes.”

Honda has also been running a substantial number of TV commercials for the Clarity, something that is still a rarity for EV-makers, most of whom advertise their plug-in vehicles only in specific markets if at all.

“We always run targeted campaigns to customers, but it’s a nationwide campaign,” says Hand. “Because we sell the plug-in in all 50 states, we want to make sure that we’re speaking to the entire nation, but we certainly have an emphasis on key markets for electric [such as] Los Angeles and New York.”

“This vehicle is just like a regular vehicle. It’s

Photos courtesy of Honda

important that we, as well as consumers, think of it and treat it that way, and we want to make sure that we’re reaching all the potential buyers that we believe will be interested in that product. That TV commercial [called Beyond the Battery] speaks to the idea that when you run out of battery, your trip doesn’t stop there, that you’re able to have the convenience, safety and comfort of having a gas engine to get you where you need to go.”

Do regional purchase incentives and HOV programs have a big effect on local sales? “It’s certainly part of the conversation,” says Hand. “I think HOV access plays a big role for a lot of people. I’m in California, and with the traffic that we have in some places, the HOV is a huge benefit, and I think that’s a good incentive to convince people, especially those who haven’t dipped their toe into an electric vehicle yet. And then once they’ve been able to drive a vehicle on electric and start to live with that type of vehicle, they may start to see the benefits of it.”

“It’s a stepping stone on that pathway towards all-electric vehicles,” says Hand. That pathway is one that Honda will be following along with its customers. “This is a big chapter of the beginning of our electrification strategy.”

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Photo courtesy of EVBox

THE INFRASTRUCTURE

EVBox acquires French charger manufacturer EVTronic European/American charging solution provider EVBox has acquired the French charging station manufacturer EVTronic.

EVTronic, founded in 2007, builds a range of DC fast charging stations, provides engineering services, and is active in R&D, with a special focus on vehicle-to-grid technologies.

EVBox will add EVTronic’s existing 700 fast charging stations to its European network. EVBox’s worldwide network now includes 60,000 Level 2 charging points and 700 DC fast chargers.

All current EVtronic employees will join EVBox. EVTronic founder and President Eric Stempin will become EVBox’s Chief Research Officer.

“By adding EVTronic’s fast and ultra-fast (DC) charging expertise to our own solutions, we can now offer our customers the full scope of electric vehicle charging,” said EVBox CEO Kristof Vereenooghe. “This means charging ranging from 3.7 kW up to 350 kW (both AC and DC), and offering charging solutions at home, at work, and in public.”

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New UK law supports public charging and autonomous vehicles Many federal and state governments around the world have taken measures to encourage EV adoption, but the UK has announced its intention to phase out fossil fuel vehicles by 2040, and recently unveiled a detailed 46-point plan to manage the transition.

Part of that effort is the Automated and Electric Vehicles Act, which recently passed through Parliament to become law. The AEV Act gives the government new powers to ensure that motorway service locations are upgraded with plenty of charging points, and allows mayors to request that fuel retailers in their areas install charging infrastructure.

The new law requires public charge points to be compatible with all vehicles, and standardizes payment schemes. The related Alternative Fuels and Infrastructure (AFI) regulation requires providers to allow public charging without the need for any subscription, membership card or special cable.

The AEV Act also addresses autonomous vehicles among other things, it requires insurance companies to cover motorists both when they are driving and when they have legitimately handed control to the vehicle.

The UK is becoming a world leader in the roll-out of low-emission transport. Today we have passed a significant milestone in that journey,” said Roads Minister Jesse Norman. “The increasing automation of our cars is transforming the way we drive, and the government is steadily updating our laws in order to prepare for the future.”

Photo courtesy of Momentum Dynamics Photo courtesy of Honda

Honda and Panasonic experiment with battery swapping for electric motorcycles Honda and Panasonic plan to conduct an experiment with battery swapping in Indonesia, using the Honda Mobile Power Pack with electric motorcycles. The project is to begin in December.

As the third-largest motorcycle market in the world, Indonesia is dealing with massive air pollution as traffic increases. To address this issue, the Indonesian government has announced a policy of encouraging EV adoption. The two Japanese companies hope Honda’s Mobile Power Pack can help solve the issues of range and charging time.

For this experiment, the two companies will install charging stations at several dozen locations, each of which will charge multiple units of the Mobile Power Pack. Users will be able to stop at the nearest charging station and exchange a depleted Mobile Power Pack for a fully-charged one and get back on the road.

Momentum Dynamics installs 200 kW wireless charging system for buses Momentum Dynamics has installed a 200-kilowatt wireless charging system to support electric transit buses in Chattanooga, Tennessee. The new charging system, which became operational in June, is inside the Chattanooga Area Regional Transportation Authority (CARTA) Shuttle Park and automatically charges electric buses as they load and unload passengers.

The system is the second one Momentum Dynamics has deployed in the US - in April, it installed a system in Wenatchee, Washington. The company will place several other wireless charging systems in service in the US this year, and has multiple installations planned for Europe in 2019.

The Momentum charging system is installed in the roadway, and allows buses to be recharged multiple times per day during their scheduled stops, enabling essentially unlimited driving range.

“Through the partnership with Momentum Dynamics and BYD, our new electric buses charge fast, efficiently and run emissions-free all day,” said Lisa Maragnano, Executive Director of CARTA. “Limited driving range is regarded as the key roadblock to the adoption of electric vehicles,” said Momentum’s CEO Andrew Daga. “To replace fossil-fuel buses with electric buses, an alternative to overnight plug-in charging must be used to allow for extended operations.

On-route wireless charging allows an electric bus to drive any route in any city with unlimited driving range.”

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THE INFRASTRUCTURE

Photo courtesy of Volkswagen

McKinsey report finds EVs unlikely to create a powerdemand crisis

Volkswagen forms Electrify Canada to install network of ultra-fast chargers Volkswagen Group Canada has formed a new company called Electrify Canada, with a similar mission to that of Electrify America, the US charging network that Volkswagen was required to establish as part of the settlement over its diesel emissions cheating scandal.

Electrify Canada will build an ultra-fast DC charging network in the Great White North, beginning with 32 charging sites near highways and in major metro areas in British Columbia, Alberta, Ontario and Quebec. VW expects the network to begin operations in the second quarter of 2019.

Each site will have an average of four chargers, and will offer both CCS and CHAdeMO charging. Power levels will range from 150 kW to 350 kW, and 50 kW charging will also be available to support today’s EVs. “The Canadian electric vehicle market is growing, creating a great need for charging that is fast, convenient and available in key locations,” said Volkswagen Group Canada CEO Daniel Weissland. “We are thrilled to be able to offer this service and to take a leadership position in providing this key EV adoption enabler to the Canadian market.”

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An analysis from McKinsey suggests that the projected growth in e-mobility will not drive substantial increases in power demand in the near to midterm. Using information from Germany as an example, McKinsey found that EV adoption is not likely to cause large increases in power demand through 2030. EVs are projected to add about 1 percent to the total demand, requiring about five extra gigawatts (GW) of generation capacity. That amount could grow to roughly 4 percent by 2050, requiring additional capacity of about 20 GW. Almost all this new capacity will likely involve renewables.

While the uptake in EV sales is unlikely to cause a significant increase in total power demand, it will likely reshape the electricity load curve. The most pronounced effect will be an increase in evening peak loads.

The changing load curve will lead to challenges at a local level, because the regional spread of EVs may vary significantly. The volatile and spiky load profiles of public fast charging stations will also require additional system balancing. Unmanaged, substation peak-load increases will eventually push local transformers beyond their capacity, requiring upgrades. McKinsey’s analysis predicts that capital-expenditure requirements as a function of national-level EV penetration will follow an S-curve shape. In other words, while investment needs will be modest at low EV penetrations, they jump rapidly as the number of EVs increases and eventually level off again at high penetration levels.

Energy providers can address this situation by implementing time-of-use electricity tariffs, a measure that could halve the increase in peak load. They can also deploy more local solutions, such as co-locating an energy-storage unit with a transformer that charges the unit during times of low demand. A more future-oriented solution involves vehicle-to-grid plans, which not only shift the power demand from EVs but also make it possible for EVs to feed energy back into the grid.

Pilot studies have shown a substantial willingness of EV owners to participate in coordinated smart charging. The total value created can be up to several hundred euros per EV each year, depending on local specifics.

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Photo courtesy of Audi

Photo courtesy of Tritium

THE INFRASTRUCTURE

Tritium signs deal with IONITY for 100 high-power charging sites across Europe

County of San Diego to deploy Envision’s grid-independent solar charging station

IONITY, a joint venture of several automakers that’s building a fast charging network in Europe, has chosen Brisbane-based Tritium as its technology partner for the construction of 100 high-power charging sites in Germany, France, UK, Norway and Sweden.

Each station will have up to six chargers, each capable of delivering 350 kW of power. Tritium’s chargers feature a proprietary liquid-cooled technology and are designed to be extremely compact - up to 75% smaller than competing units, according to the company.

“We already have a leading position in the European fast charging market and could see that demand was really taking off, which is one of the reasons we recently opened our new sales, testing and assembly facility in Amsterdam,” said Tritium founder and CEO David Finn.

“We chose to partner with Tritium because they have a world-leading technology and have shown they can develop and deliver their products quickly,” said IONITY CEO Michael Hajesch.

The latest customer for San Diego-based Envision Solar’s solar-powered, grid-independent charging stations is right in the company’s back yard. The County of San Diego plans to deploy an EV ARC charger at its Department of General Services to serve its electrified fleet vehicles.

The EV ARC fits inside a parking space without reducing available parking, and generates and stores enough solar electricity to power up to 225 miles of EV driving in a day. The EV ARC’s batteries enable charging day or night, and can also provide emergency power during grid failure. The EV ARC requires no trenching, foundations or installation work, so it can be deployed in minutes and moved to a new location at will.

Envision Solar is targeting the local government market in a big way. The company has already sold units to the counties of Marin and Fresno, as well as cities including New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Pittsburgh, Long Beach, Boulder and Sacramento.

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THE INFRASTRUCTURE

EV Connect closes $8 million financing round EV Connect, a provider of charging solutions including a cloud-based network management platform, has closed an $8-million financing round, led by Ecosystem Integrity Fund.

The company will use the new funds to accelerate the deployment of its EV Cloud management platform in the US, advance its integration with utility grid systems and expand into new global markets.

Current EV Connect customers include Electrify America, Hilton, Western Digital, ADP, Caltrans, Lockheed Martin, Los Angeles Metropolitan Transportation Authority, New York Power Authority, and numerous municipalities.

“EV Connect is uniquely positioned to address the massive growth and evolution which the EV charging market will experience over the next decade,” said Devin Whatley, Partner with Ecosystem Integrity Fund and new EV Connect Board Member. “EV Cloud is delivering unmatched innovation to any organization deploying EV charging networks, networks-within-networks and grid services.”

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New eoALM adds automatic load management to nonsmart EV chargers UK EVSE manufacturer EO Charging has launched a self-contained unit that adds automatic load management capabilities to the company’s “non-smart” chargers.

The eoALM module is aimed at multiple-EV households, apartment complexes and businesses with small plug-in fleets. When combined with one of EO’s eoMini or eoBasic chargers, the unit constantly monitors the energy profile of a building, and can prioritize charging of EVs, turn down the power going to EV chargers, or turn them off if the site is nearing its power usage limit.

The eoALM can connect up to six eoMini or eoBasic chargers. It is powered through the serial connection to the charging stations, and measures the current supply every second using a single current transformer clamp. It offers two modes of operation: Priority charging, which works on a first come first served basis; and Distribution mode, in which available current is evenly distributed to all connected vehicles.

There are two different model variants: The EA001 (High Power) offers current levels of 100, 80, 60 or 40 amps; and the EA002 (Low Power) offers 40, 32, 25 or 20 amps.

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EASIER EV CHARGING

INTEROPERABILITY EN ROUTE TO NORTH AMERICA Hubject connects over 70,000 chargers in 26 countries, and it’s bringing that expertise stateside

By Paul Beck

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THE INFRASTRUCTURE

W

hen your EV is running low on range, the last thing you want to do is waste time hunting down a spot to charge it. When driving an ICE vehicle, you can pull up to any gas station and fill your tank. With an EV, it’s not always so simple - you may not have the right app or membership card to find or use a certain charging station. This is the problem that Hubject was founded to address.

“The ultimate goal is to have seamless EV charging for everyone, everywhere,” said Paul Glenney, North American CEO of Hubject.

Hubject, the euro for EVs Hubject was founded in 2012 in Germany with the goal of making sure EV charging networks were interoperable. At that time, charging stations across Europe were as incompatible as European currency before the euro. Drivers crossing from Germany to the Czech Republic, for example, would find the charge ports in each country didn’t play well with their network accounts at home. Drivers would have to sign up for a separate membership with every different charging network they used.

Just as the European Union saw the need for a single currency, so too were these charging networks in need of greater compatibility with one another. Instead of having to carry a wallet full of French francs, Deutschmarks and Italian lire, European citizens can now carry euros, which are accepted across the EU. In the same vein, instead of having to carry cards (or apps) for all the different charging networks across Europe, EV drivers should have the same convenience of a single, unified platform.

Such is Hubject’s goal, and six years later, it has made huge strides in achieving it. The company has connected over 70,000 charging ports from more than 350 partners in 26 countries including several European nations, Japan, New Zealand and Israel.

Now, the company has its sights firmly set on North America.

CPOs and EMPs So, what exactly does Hubject do? It doesn’t sell services to EV drivers, and it certainly doesn’t operate its own charging hardware. Instead, Hubject offers a business-to-business interoperability platform. Put another way, the company brings e-mobility players together.

Photo courtesy of Hubject

Paul Glenney

North American CEO of Hubject

The ultimate goal is to have seamless EV charging for everyone, everywhere.

“We look at the market a little bit differently to allow for maximum flexibility,” explained Glenney.

“We work from two main perspectives; the charge port operators (CPOs), people who own and operate equipment; and e-mobility service providers (EMPs), those who work with drivers.”

This distinction can seem a bit muddy at first, but it helps to recognize that CPOs and EMPs are not mutually exclusive. Glenney gives the example of EVgo, which installs and operates charging hardware.

This makes EVgo a CPO. However, EVgo also connects users to its charge ports with an app and membership plans, making it an EMP. Other organizations, for example a city or utility offering charging, may be a CPO, whereas automotive OEMs looking to offer charging services to their customers may only be EMPs. In either case, Hubject serves as a unifying platform.

As its name suggests, Hubject is the hub of a hub-andspoke model of CPO and EMP partnerships.

Peer-to-peer vs hub-and-spoke To better understand how Hubject works, let’s imagine an alternative way that CPOs or EMPs might create interoperability arrangements: a direct, or peer-topeer, agreement.

For example, say an automaker wants to offer free fast charging services to all of its EV customers. Since the automaker does not operate its own charging hardware, it makes a peer-to-peer arrangement with a CPO that operates a charging network. Drivers can now use their automaker’s card or app to charge their

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THE INFRASTRUCTURE What we do is offer one standard contract to all of our partners, and with that one contract, they’re able to conduct business with other partners.

vehicles at that CPO’s stations. Now let’s say the automaker would like its drivers to also have access to another CPO’s chargers. For that to happen today, the automaker would need to make an entirely new peer-to-peer contract with the second CPO and then work with it to connect to a new API with back-and-forth communication so that drivers can find stations, activate them and receive data. Clearly, offering a program that’s valuable to drivers with multiple CPOs is a complex proposition, with negotiations and contracts as well as constant API maintenance.

In contrast, the hub-and-spoke model involves a single entity (the hub) through which all parties are connected. Instead of the automaker making contracts with the CPOs individually, it makes a single contract with Hubject. Now, all companies are connected via one contract and one API, greatly reducing complexity and costs.

“What we do is offer one standard contract to all of our partners, and with that one contract, they’re able to conduct business with other partners,” said Glenney. “Our business framework allows them to do business very easily with a single contract and a single IT interface, and we think this is unique, because it enables companies to work together without going through a lot of negotiations and a lot of IT integration.”

When interoperability between different charging stations is much easier to achieve, CPOs and EMPs will be that much more likely to work together. The upshot for EV drivers is that it becomes pain-free to find and use whatever charging station they come across, without worrying about who owns it.

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Coming to America Of course, the big caveat here is that in order for interoperability to be achieved, CPOs and EMPs actually have to sign on with Hubject. The more partners are on board, the more attractive it is to join, so the trickiest bit is simply getting the ball rolling.

While Hubject has proven that it can do this in Europe and other parts of the world, it’s starting with a clean sheet in North America.

“I would say most of them (CPOs and EMPs) are still hopeful that they will be working under peerto-peer, bilateral agreements,” said Glenney. “There were similar peer-to-peer aspirations in Europe and elsewhere, however, the complexity and need for constant maintenance has led to our growing list of partners.”

According to Hubject, its entry into the North American market couldn’t be more timely. With the rapid emergence of CPOs and EMPs such as KerbSpace, PowerFlex, AddÉnergie FLO and MOEV, along with the increase in EV services provided by utilities like the New York Power Authority and San Diego Gas & Electric, not to mention the entry of new service providers like BP, Enel and E.ON,

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the American charging market is becoming more fragmented than ever. Without a solution like Hubject, interoperability between all these different players would require a complex web of bilateral agreements, not to mention disappointed drivers and worst of all, delayed EV adoption.

“We look at ourselves as a neutral third-party platform, so what we really try to do is to democratize the market so that the small players can participate alongside the large players,” said Glenney. “We like to work with all of them and let them use our business framework to determine what deals they can make, without always setting up yet another API or contractual framework.”

Intercharge As far as EV drivers are concerned, Hubject is a platform running entirely in the background. After all, the drivers don’t need to know the details of how interoperability is implemented; they just want interoperability. There is, however, one mark of Hubject’s involvement that faces EV drivers: a sticker on charging equipment that reads “intercharge.”

“The brand that we use in Europe is actually intercharge,” explained Glenney. “That is the consumer brand. You’ll see little intercharge stickers on equipment. We expect that we will also launch that brand here in the US, as it’s very helpful for customers.

The nice part about this is that intercharge is launched in Japan, New Zealand, Israel, and across Europe, so it would make it very easy for an EV driver from the US or Canada to travel to Europe and be able to use their mobile app or RFID card or whatever method of access they’re using.”

Even if Hubject launches the intercharge brand in North America, it may not take the form of stickers on charging equipment. “The way it works in Europe is that the intercharge stickers are on equipment of all the different CPOs across all the different countries,” Glenney said. “We are still investigating how we would do the implementation. When you look at ChargePoint, which may have close to 30,000 publicly available charging ports, that’s a lot of stickers to be

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putting out there.”

At any rate, don’t expect a flashy brand presence from Hubject. End users will simply use whatever app or RFID card they’re already using to access all chargers on the Hubject platform. Hubject even offers its partners a white-label app that can be customized with their own branding, complete with a navigation system that shows the real-time status of available chargers near the driver.

“Hubject, again, is a B2B software platform. So, except for the intercharge logo, we really don’t have a brand presence,” Glenney said.

Building the North American network With its 70,000 chargers in 26 countries, Hubject has come a long way in addressing the issue of e-mobility interoperability. As the company continues to pave the way for its entry into North America, EV drivers have a lot to look forward to.

“Today, we’re working with both sides of the equation,” Glenney said. “We’re working with automotive OEMs, utilities and technology companies to see if we can help them out with solutions to become e-mobility service providers. We’re also working with the different CPOs to see if they would also like to be service providers as well as charge port operators on our network.”

In the meantime, Hubject offers its expertise as an e-mobility consultant. Apart from its experience connecting CPOs and EMPs, the company is helping lead the development of the ISO 15118 vehicle-to-grid communication standard.

“We have also been working on ISO 15118, the highly anticipated plug-and-charge specification and standard, expected to be integrated in new car models as early as next year,” said Glenney. “Hubject has already built the necessary IT structure and has completed a live demonstration of the system with Diamler. We are busy conducting workshops with different organizations and companies to help them become ISO compliant and ensure they’re ready for the cars.”

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BP SEES BIG OPPORTUNITIES FOR EVS The oil and gas giant has recently been investing in EV-related companies. The rationale is outlined in its new report, BP Technology Outlook.

By Tom Ewing

D

emand for travel is central to modern society. Currently, transport accounts for 20% of global primary energy use.

The global light-duty fleet of cars, vans, and light trucks is here to stay for the foreseeable future. In fact, it’s estimated that by 2050, planet Earth will have 2.6 billion vehicles zipping around on it. That’s quite an increase - up from 1.2 billion in 2015 Those are some opening thoughts and predictions contained in a fascinating report issued

by BP, called “BP Technology Outlook 2018.” A central thesis is the parallel advancement and interplay between energy and technology, largely

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Photo courtesy of BP

THE INFRASTRUCTURE

BP estimates that of the 2.6 billion cars in 2050 the number of EVs will range “between hundreds of millions to more than one billion.” a beneficial synergy with important implications across many global concerns and disciplines, from energy to wealth and economics to the environment and climate.

BP published its first Energy Outlook in 2015.

It’s noteworthy that the 2018 report includes a new Transport section, which is largely focused on transportation electrification, which is rather interesting for a report produced by one of the largest oil and gas companies in the world. BP estimates that of the 2.6 billion cars in 2050, the number of EVs will range “between hundreds of millions to more than one billion.”

This new focus on transport is highlighted in an introduction by BP CEO Bob Dudley, who writes that transportation is one energy topic “where progress has been even faster than expected three years ago.”

Dudley specifically refers to the “potential for growth among electric and self-driving vehicles” as well as the “increasing competitiveness of wind and solar power and the rapidly falling costs of batteries.” All critical factors for EV adoption and success.

BP projects cost parity between EVs and ICE vehicles by 2050, predicting that technology will “transform transport over the coming decades, as vehicles powered partly or fully by electricity become costcompetitive with those solely using internal combustion engines.” One major reason: more powerful and cost-effective batteries.

BP’s modeling indicates that battery costs per kilowatt hour (kWh) will fall from today’s $200/kWh to around $50 by 2050 for 60 kWh packs. Importantly, these optimistic projections assume a “step change” in battery performance, for example, if “lithium-ion

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BP estimates that within the UK, charging EVs could increase demand by “around 19 terawatt-hours (TWh) in 2030 and by around 70 TWh in 2050,” potentially 5-10% of total demand.

Photo courtesy of BP

chemistries are followed by solid-state or metal-air battery designs.”

Many of these battery developments are still theoretical, hardly close to production. However, there is clear momentum in R&D where smart people and resources are focused. Consider how significantly costs have come down for high energy density lithium-ion batteries since 2010. That kind of beneficial trend is inherent within energy and technology research.

BP writes that advances are needed on three types of batteries “that are developing rapidly,” with great potential for power storage, electric vehicles and other applications: • Metal-air batteries: Electricity is generated through a chemical reaction that oxidizes a metal such as lithium or zinc using oxygen from the air.

• Flow batteries: Two liquid electrolytes are stored in external tanks to hold charge. Energy is released by pumping the charged fluids through an electrochemical cell. Because of their simple structure, it can be relatively cheap to add storage capacity to flow batteries.

• Solid-state batteries: These replace liquid electrolytes with a solid material such as glass. This configuration allows for higher energy density than today’s lithium-ion chemistries. Solid-state cells do not contain flammable electrolytes, so they also offer safety advantages.

Naturally, if EV numbers expand as the Outlook projects, that presents significant issues for electricity generation and delivery. BP estimates that within the UK, charging EVs could increase demand by “around 19 terawatt-hours (TWh) in 2030 and by around 70 TWh in 2050,” potentially 5-10% of total demand.

Investments

In 2018, BP made three significant investments that

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reveal more about the company’s electrification strategy and the solutions it’s exploring in fast charging battery tech and infrastructure.

In May, BP Ventures announced a $20 million investment in StoreDot, which is developing a new battery technology that it hopes will enable ultra-fast EV charging rates, multiple times faster than what is possible with current Li-ion technology. The company is working on a “flash battery” for consumer electronics, which will hopefully ready for the market in 2019.

When fully developed, StoreDot says its technology could match the range-recharge time of refueling a gas tank.

If StoreDot, or other battery firms, are able to reach those ambitious goals, the next hurdle to clear is building out scalable infrastructure. To that end, in January BP announced that it was investing $5 million in FreeWire Technologies, a US-based manufacturer of mobile rapid charging systems. BP is testing FreeWire’s Mobi Charger units at selected retail sites in the UK and Europe.

FreeWire units are essentially battery packs and charging station hardware on wheels that allow EVs to fast charge without connecting to the electrical grid. “We’re deploying our Mobi Chargers at select BP gas stations (‘forecourts’ as they call them in the UK),” FreeWire CEO Arcady Sosinov told Charged.

“Fossil fuel giants are recognizing customer needs and looking ahead to the electric future of mobility by opening up to new EV charging solutions.

The whole value proposition to a company like BP is that we can eliminate the construction, the permitting, the trenching, the service upgrades and all the other civil works that happen to enable EV charging.

Civil works on a gas station are actually significantly harder and more expensive than in most other places.

So if you want to turn a gas station into an EV charging facility, you’re going to need to either put money into construction and civil works or buy technology solutions to try and mitigate that.”

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BP writes that “currently expected technology advances alone would not deliver the carbon reductions needed for a ‘two-degree world,’” i.e. keeping the rise in average temperatures to below two degrees Celsius compared with pre-industrial levels.

BP has a FreeWire pilot project underway now at its retail site in Hammersmith, a district of West London. A BP spokesperson said early users “have been impressed by FreeWire’s speed of charge.” BP wants to expand the project, and is looking for more EV drivers in the Hammersmith area. (To participate, you can send an email to FreewirePilot@bp.com to get started.)

Finally, in June, BP announced an agreement to purchase Chargemaster, which builds charging stations and operates a network of over 6,500 public charging points - the largest in the UK, according to the company. One of Chargemaster’s key priorities is expanding fast charging infrastructure, including 150 kW rapid chargers capable of delivering 100 miles of range in just 10 minutes.

Low-carbon economy

One section of the Outlook focuses on energy and technology changes and the transition to a low-carbon economy. Importantly, BP writes that “currently expected technology advances alone would not deliver the carbon reductions needed for a ‘two-degree world,’” i.e. keeping the rise in average temperatures to below two degrees Celsius compared with pre-industrial levels.

BP refers to carbon reductions just from technology and related efficiencies as an “unconstrained future.”

Carbon reductions are significant, but energy-related emissions would still rise by around 15% between 2015 and 2050. (Keep that increase in perspective, however, because it is significantly less than the 70% increase during the previous 35-year period [1980-2015].) Nevertheless, a two-degree world will require an additional 70% decrease in carbon emissions by 2050.

In other words, even with the newest and best technological advances, there remains a shortfall in carbon reductions. BP writes that “further action would be required, such as putting a price on carbon emissions, as well as consumers making lower-carbon choices.” As

Photo courtesy of BP

EVs become competitive with ICE vehicles, BP writes, “it may be that factors other than technology-related costs, particularly government policies, play a decisive role in determining the shape of the vehicle fleet of 2050. Indeed, tailpipe CO2 emissions targets are already encouraging vehicle manufacturers to sell more battery and plug-in electric vehicles, while action to improve urban air quality also favors electric vehicles.”

The Outlook contains an “external perspective” commentary by Kelly Sims Gallagher, Professor of Energy and Environmental Policy at Tufts University. Gallagher writes: “Although the costs of many cleaner energy technologies are falling rapidly, they do not compete on a level playing field. Conventional fossil fuels enjoy incumbency, which means that most of the existing rules and infrastructure were created to support them and not the cleaner alternatives. New government policies and business practices are necessary to change the rules of the game, and to foster a more cost-effective and productive transition to a low-carbon future. Government must enhance support for low-carbon energy research, development and demonstration, and then create a coherent and consistent policy approach to support the commercialization of clean energy technologies in a way that enhances equitable access to energy for all.”

Carbon pricing extends throughout all energy technologies - not just transportation, but heating, industrial uses, appliances and cooking. Vehicles would not take on that total cost.

Recall CEO Dudley’s comment that transportation is one energy technology topic “where progress has been even faster than expected three years ago.” Can or will that progress continue on its own, without some kind of market-based intervention directly linked to carbon emissions?

When those kinds of policy questions are settled - around the world - technical issues will come into much greater focus.

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Efacec ................................................. 51 electricmobility.efacec.com

Mersen ............................................... 73 ep.mersen.com

Seal Methods ...................................... 41 sealmethodsinc.com Stapla Ultrasonics ................................. 9 staplaultrasonics.com Starline Track Busway ........................ 71 starlinepower.com/automotive Synopsys ............................................. 79 synopsys.com/saber TDK ..................................................... 29 Product.tdk.com Tempel ................................................ 10 charged.tempel.com TM4 ..................................................... 57 tm4.com TTI ....................................................... 92 ttiinc.com UQM .................................................... 49 uqm.com Wacker ................................................ 17 wacker.com/emobility Wattzilla .............................................. 91 wattzilla.com Wildcat Discovery Technologies ......... 23 wildcatdiscovery.com

For more info about advertising visit: www.ChargedEVs.com/Advertise

Policies for

local governments to buy hybrid and electric trucks, buses and freight handling equipment. The Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach, major sources of air pollution, are a CARB priority. CARB projects aimed at disadvantaged communities

By Charles Morris include scrappage programs, funding for cleaner school buses iscussions of EVs in the popular press tend to focus and electric car-sharing projects. on passenger cars, but fossil fuels power many other Other state agencies involved in promoting EV adoption intypes of vehicles, and some of these produce much clude: the California Energy Commission, which invests up to more pollution. For example, in California, diesel trucks $100 million in transport-related projects each year through account for only 2% of all vehicles, but they emit the majorits Alternative and Renewable Fuel and Vehicle Technolity of smog-forming pollution, and two-thirds of diesel soot. ogy Program (ARFVTP); and the California Public Utilities Furthermore, many commercial vehicles have duty cycles that Commission, which works with utilities to provide rebates, make them excellent candidates for electrification, driving EV-friendly rate plans, charging infrastructure and vehicleregular routes and returning to central depots. grid integration technologies. Of course, any comprehensive Any government that foresees an all-electric future obviousplan for vehicle electrification must take account of renewable ly needs to consider the electrification of all types of vehicles. energy and the smart grid, and California regulatory agencies However, while countries, regions and cities around the world are heavily involved in these areas as well. have introduced measures to encourage EV adoption, most of Meanwhile, across the pond in Merrie Olde England, the these are aimed at the passenger car market (although a growUK government announced in 2017 that new petrol and diesel ing number of cities are testing or deploying electric buses). vehicles would be banned after 2040. This might have been Of course, the big dragon in the room is China, where cities seen as an empty gesture by politicians who’ll be on the golf are ordering electric buses and taxis by the thousand. The course long before the target date, except that in July of this nation is determined to go allyear, the country’s Department electric as soon as possible, and it for Transport (DfT) unveiled a seems to be experimenting with detailed 46-point plan to manage many different EV incentives and the transition. The Road to Zero The UK unveiled a detailed policies to find what works best. includes a wide-ranging series of 46-point plan that includes a So far however (at least here in initiatives to tackle air polluwide-ranging series of initiatives the West), we haven’t seen a truly tion, not only by encouraging to tackle air pollution, not only comprehensive plan for the vast EV adoption, but also by curbing by encouraging EV adoption, but country’s future transport system. the emissions of existing ICE Too often, policymakers take vehicles. It includes measures also by curbing the emissions of random shots in the dark - a to electrify commercial vehicles existing ICE vehicles. purchase incentive for consumers (heavy goods vehicles, or HGVs) here, a pot of funding for EVSE and £400 million for initiatives to there - with little discussion about expand charging infrastructure. whether these are the most cost-effective measures to take to The Brits are keen to ensure that UK companies get a slice of reduce emissions, much less about what a plan to electrify the the growing e-mobility market - the plan includes £246 milentire transport system of a state or a nation would look like. lion in research funding for battery technology.

However, in at least two jurisdictions, California and the In both California and Britain, many local governments UK, decision-makers are taking a comprehensive approach, are busy with their own pro-EV projects, often with the aid with detailed plans that consider almost every nook and of central government funding. Several California cities have cranny of the fuel-burning ecosystem. Those who have the pledged to convert their bus fleets to all-electric. The City of pedantic patience to peruse the pertinent documents will find, London has implemented a number of measures to improve buried in the thousands of pages of legalese and the alphabet air quality - the latest is emissions-based parking fees. soup of acronyms, purchase incentives and pilot-project fundLibertarian types will probably never approve of grand ing for public transport buses, school buses, freight trucks, government-led projects of this kind, which (like all human garbage trucks, airport and port vehicles, public and private endeavors) are bound to have their share of problems. Wellfleet vehicles, motorcycles and even boats and airplanes. There designed programs need to involve the private sector in ways are also various measures to enable lower-income consumers that create opportunities for local small businesses, they need to go electric. to demonstrate substantial returns on up-front investments, In the Golden State, the California Air Resources Board and they need to be policed to keep sharpies from raking off (CARB or ARB) has been promoting electrification from both taxpayer money without delivering environmental benefits. the top and the bottom for several years. The state’s zero-emisBut whether it’s government or industry taking the lead on sion vehicle (ZEV) mandate incentivizes (or coerces) automakelectrification (as global automakers have largely failed to do), ers to produce electrified vehicles, and the California Vehicle there’s a strong case to be made that a comprehensive strategy Rebate Project (CVRP) provides cash incentives for consumers will end up being better and cheaper than piecemeal meato buy them. CARB also offers vouchers to companies and sures.

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