Enabling electric vehicles
Unleashing a world of possibilities
Plug-in electric vehicles unleash a world of possibilities, reducing our fuel costs, lowering our dependence on foreign oil, and cutting green house gas emissions.
What Are Electric Vehicles?
A pure electric vehicle is a car that relies entirely on electricity stored in its battery for its power. While this type of car has the smallest environmental impact in terms of petroleum usage, it currently is not the most feasible option due to its limited range. Recently, another solution has emerged, plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs).
Plug-in hybrids run primarily on battery power but also have a tank of gasoline for long trips. These vehicles differ from the typical hybrids currently available in that they have more battery energy, and these batteries are charged through a typical wall outlet.
Eventually, plug-in hybrids will be able travel from 40 to 60 miles on a full charge using battery power alone. The engine will only turn on once the battery charge has been depleted.
Reduced Petroleum Usage and Operating Costs
The battery storage within these electric vehicles can be charged from a typical electrical outlet, reducing the need for petroleum. In fact, switching to plug-in vehicles could reduce U.S. oil importation by 52%. If we use less oil, we can decrease carbon emissions, promote energy independence, and save money.
Also, plug-in vehicles can reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 27% when comparing emissions of gasoline-powered vehicles to plug-in vehicles charged by electricity from the current generation mix—coal, natural gas, nuclear, and renewable power.
The good news for consumers? While the costs of maintenance for these vehicles will remain about the same (suspension, tires, wipers, etc.), electric vehicles and plug-in hybrids are estimated to run at a third of the cost of typical gas-powered cars, and there are substantial tax incentives to make the initial investment worthwhile.
What Are The Challenges?
Our current grid is not equipped to handle these vehicles on a large scale. If everyone plugged in at the same time, the current grid could not provide electricity to charge all the electric vehicles on the grid, and power reliability would be compromised. Also, if owners plugged their vehicles into public outlets, utilities would not know how to bill the correct consumers without advanced technology.
However, with smart grid technologies, these plug-in electric vehicles will not only be possible, but preferable. With real-time pricing and increased knowledge, consumers can make better decisions about when to use energy, especially when charging plug-in vehicles. In fact, they will be motivated to charge up their vehicles when electricity prices are cheaper, during off-peak hours. Smart grid technologies could help automatically take care of the recharge process once the consumer preferences have been set, much like a computer automatically runs back-ups and retrieves your e-mail messages
With the right infrastructure in place, smart-grid technologies will help ensure that the right vehicle account is billed for vehicle charging, much like cell phone users are appropriately billed even while roaming out of their own service network.