DEARBORN, MI – Longer-range batteries, improved electronics, lightweight materials and just about any technology with the potential to shift the paradigm on electric-vehicle functionality and affordability are candidates for U.S. Department of Energy backing, officials here say.
Speaking at an industry workshop on the “EV Everywhere Challenge,” kicked off by President Obama during a visit to a Daimler truck factory in North Carolina in March, DOE Secretary Steven Chu details a laundry list of research either envisioned or already under way that has the potential to make EVs cost-competitive with conventional cars.
But while DOE funding and departmental backing will continue to be available to EV and systems developers, Chu says the agency will be careful about selecting projects to support.
The Obama Admin. has been criticized for funding some clean-energy initiatives at startups that later failed and for providing money to companies for projects that likely would have gone forward even without government help.
“If we think the company’s going to do it anyway, that’s not an ideal use of taxpayer money,” Chu tells reporters following his keynote address. “So what I was up there talking about is, let’s get these guys thinking about radical, new ideas. Can we introduce a new, disruptive technology that can really rake (buyers) in?
“Some companies may be reluctant to (spend money on such research) if it looks like a stretch. That’s a very appropriate project to fund.”
The EV Everywhere Challenge, which Chu compares to President Kennedy’s call to land a man on the moon, seeks to put a 5-passenger plug-in EV on U.S. roads by 2022 that will pay back the initial added cost in fuel savings within five years, based on $3.50-per-gallon gasoline and 10,000 miles (16,000 km) of annual driving.
The payback period on a battery-powered Nissan Leaf is about seven years today, the DOE says, citing an estimate by Edmunds.
The program is built around three specific types of vehicles, all required to be equipped for fast charging and envisioned as driving mostly on electrical power: a plug-in hybrid with a 40-mile (64-km) range; an intra-city EV with a 100-mile (161-km) range; and an intercity EV that can travel 300 miles (483 km) between charges.
“We just want more electric miles,” Chu sums up.
DOE officials admit the target is a stretch, but say they have achieved remarkable cost-cutting and performance gains under a similar program to improve solar-power technology that initially also had its skeptics.
The agency believes it can repeat that experience in EVs if it can succeed in organizing the auto industry around common goals, draw interest from non-automotive companies that may have relevant experience and technology and inspire young researchers to enter the field.
“We need to take a fresh look at the challenges,” says David Danielson, assistant secretary of the DOE’s Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy department. “The challenges are different now than what they were 10 years ago” when the first hybrid-electric vehicles were hitting U.S. roads for the first time.
Chu’s technology wish list includes longer-range, lower-cost batteries, which he says will appear near-term first with improved lithium-ion cells and ultimately come utilizing other chemistries, such as zinc-air or lithium-sulfur.
Two-thirds of the cost of an EV today is in the battery system, he says. “But soon that will be less than half, maybe even less than one-third.”
Chu believes range will increase, with 150 miles (241 km) possible between charges with an average-priced vehicle by 2020 and 300 miles a potential for an EV in the $35,000-$40,000 price range.
The DOE official is interested in promoting projects to develop sensors and electronics that can monitor individual cells within a battery pack. That would allow auto makers to maximize charge capacity and speed, as well as detect defects early on so that individual cells can be replaced if needed to keep a vehicle running optimally, he says.
By 2020, OEMS will be building prototypes and testing such battery systems, Chu predicts.
Electric motors using less or no rare-earth materials are of interest, as well. Development of infrared-reflection technology for automotive glass that would keep interiors cooler could contribute to EV range, as could lighter-weight metals or composites, if cost and manufacturing problems can be solved, the agency official adds.
The DOE hasn’t lost interest in fuel cells either, Chu says, noting even amid an infrastructure laden with fast-charging or battery-swapping stations, batteries will never compete with liquids on refueling time.
“Even if we get the battery chemistry right and the sensors, there’s going to be limits on (refueling speed). A chemical will always be faster than electrical.”
Chu says the EV Everywhere Challenge program should continue regardless of who wins this fall’s presidential election.
“This is something about industrial competitiveness,” he says. “This is something where we have the innovation skills to be the major player in this field. I don’t see anything other than (whoever wins the election) saying, ‘Let’s recognize this and take advantage of it.’”
