Getz conversion proves UWA’s electric potential A 2008 Getz...

Getz conversion proves UWA’s electric potential

A 2008 Getz running on 45 3.2-volt batteries with an 80km range has gone the distance as the University of WA’s first electric car.

Converted 12 years ago as part of UWA’s Renewable Energy Vehicle Project (REV) that hopes to “revolutionise personal transport” by building zero-emission vehicles powered by electricity from renewable sources, it is currently being upgraded with a complete rewire of the low-voltage system.

“The upgrade won’t change the range in our Getz, so we’re still looking at 80km on a full charge, which takes six hours if you plug it into an AC outlet,” REV director Professor Thomas Braunl said.

“The upgrade will give us another 10 years on the road because electric cars have a longer life expectancy compared to petrol or diesel.

“There are fewer parts, so that means the servicing intervals are also longer.

“VW has just announced the service interval for its first EV — and it’s two years.”

The Getz’s 1.4-litre, four-cylinder 70kW engine was removed in the conversion, along with the fuel tank, radiator and exhaust system, including the catalytic converter.

New fittings included an electric motor for 28kW of power and 136Nm of torque, an electric vacuum pump for brake assist, an electric power steering pump and an electric motor for the air-conditioning unit.

The original brakes and manual transmission were left in place.

The biggest outlay was the batteries, which made the car heavier and meant the suspension had to be upgraded to handle the shift in weight distribution.

All up, the conversion has cost $20,000, which is about the same a motorist driving 36km a day — the Perth average — would have spent on fuel over 12 years.

Professor Braunl, a former senior researcher for BMW in Germany and its Mountain View facility in California, said electric cars had made huge advances over the past 10 years, with batteries doubling in capacity using the same size cells.

“You can buy a Tesla these days with a 600km range,” he said.

“The next step is to make electric cars cheaper and increase availability of charging stations, especially in WA where distances between towns can be significant — and this needs to be funded by government.”

The Getz is one of a series of vehicles leading the project, which has included a 2002 Lotus Elise with an estimated top speed of 200km/h and 100km range, plus a one-seater self-driving Formula SAE race car with an array of laser-guided LiDARs (light detection and ranging) and computer vision system.

Currently in the works, an electric hydrofoil jet ski — the world’s first — in partnership with Perth-based start-up Electro.Aero and funding sponsor Galaxy Resources, an ASX-listed lithium producer.

Called WaveFlyer, it rises above the water during operation using an actively stabilised hydrofoil propulsion system and is quieter and more energy efficient, with no emissions, compared with petrol-powered alternatives.

Professor Braunl said it was loaded with two kilowatt-hours of energy in lithium-ion batteries, which meant it could operate for more than 30 minutes while carrying two riders, and would build on the team’s previous work in developing Australia’s first electric personal watercraft in 2015.

REV established Australia’s first Level-2 charging network with one DC and 23 fast-AC outlets for people to use around Perth as part of an Australian Research Council project funded by government and industry. Usage data is collected and analysed for research purposes.

WA to get self-driving bus

University of WA robotics researchers are about to design and implement an autonomous drive system for an electric shuttle bus that’s just arrived from Singapore and will travel a predetermined route on campus.

REV director Professor Thomas Braunl said that unlike other shuttle bus projects in Perth, the autonomous bus would not showcase foreign technology but, instead, allow students to develop their own hardware and software to drive it.

“We want to implement a flexible system that can drive to different places on demand without having to ask the manufacturer to plan every new route, which is what other systems require,” he said.

Car batteries powering homes

EV batteries can be used to store solar power in homes.

UWA Professor Thomas Braunl said after a car had been taken off the road, the batteries were still good for domestic use.

“After 10 years, they would generally still have 85 per cent capacity,” he said.

“But you need enough cars to repurpose these batteries as solar storage for domestic use, where they’re referred to as ‘second life batteries’. At the BMW research centre in California, we took the batteries out of four i3s to assist in powering the building and EV chargers in combination with the large solar PV array.”

Everything old is new again

Electric vehicles are not new. The first cars circa 1900 were electric but, conspiracy theories aside, they lost traction because of the lack of battery capacity for suitable driving range.

However, even 100 years ago the lower cost of electricity compared with fuel was a selling point for Detroit Electric, the best known and longest-lived American electric car company which pitched itself as “indisputably the car of the hour for people who appreciate power, speed, comfort and economy in motoring”.

https://thewest.com.au/lifestyle/mo...proves-uwas-electric-potential-ng-b881453949z


Volkswagen wants to go head to head with energy providers on EV batteries

German carmaker Volkswagen wants to tap a projected 350 gigawatt hours of storage capacity in electric car batteries to go head to head with energy companies.

Chief strategist Michael Jost told media at an event on Thursday in Berlin that Volkswagen, which is planning for 25% of its sales to be electric by 2025, was aiming to go from 350 gigawatt hours of battery storage by 2025 to 1 terawatt by 2030.

“By 2025 we will have 350 gigawatt hours worth of energy storage at our disposal through our electric car fleet. Between 2025 and 2030 this will grow to 1 terawatt hours worth of storage,” Jost was quoted as saying by Reuters on Friday.

“That’s more energy than is currently generated by all the hydroelectric power stations in the world. We can guarantee that energy will be used and stored and this will be a new area of business.”

It’s an ambitious plan, but while Swiss investment bank UBS on Monday said it expects Volkswagen will be the first global carmaker to make a profit from EVs starting from 2022, its prediction on sales is only 15.6% according to Forbes.

Volkswagen has even admitted that it is behind Tesla by 10 years, although it expects to close that gap.

But Thomas Ulbrich, the Volkswagen brand’s head of electromobility said on Thursday according to Reuters that Tesla’s head start is motivating for the German carmaker.

“Tesla is an impressive manufacturer,” Ulbrich said. “It is a motivator for us. Tesla has 10 years more experience. But we are very quick in catching up.”

Volkswagen has already made headway on providing electricity to customers through its brand Elli (“electric life”, offering a combination of “intelligent tariffs”, at-home “wallbox” chargers, and charging stations.

“We will be creating a seamless, sustainable ecosystem that addresses the main applications and provides answers to all the energy questions raised by electric car users and fleet operators,” said Thorsten Nicklaß, designated CEO of Elli in a statement when that plan was first unveiled.

In order for Volkswagen to be able to tap electric car batteries as a power source, however, it must first produce an electric vehicle with vehicle-to-grid (V2G or bidirectional charging) capabilities.

VW said in its release regarding the launch of Elli that it would develop a 22kW bidirectional charger, and although there has been no official word as yet on bidirectional charging for the ID3, expect to see this on the menu in the near future.

But the release of the carmaker’s ID3 electric hatchback, which was unveiled in 2019 as its flagship new electric vehicle series to “take on Tesla,” has been delayed due to software problems.

Volkswagen has said that the software issues would not delay its planned European summer launch, preferring to focus instead on savings to be had by its customers.

“The time schedule will be met,” Ulbrich said in a statement focused instead on the ID3’s affordability on Thursday. ”The ID.3 will be introduced to the market in the summer, as announced.”

https://thedriven.io/2020/03/13/vol...o-head-with-energy-providers-on-ev-batteries/

Volkswagen plans to tap electric car batteries to compete with power firms

BERLIN (Reuters) - Volkswagen’s expansion in electric cars will open up new business opportunities in storing and managing energy, encroaching on business currently dominated by utilities and energy firms, chief strategist Michael Jost said on Thursday.

Electric car batteries could be used to stabilize the energy grid by charging the battery in times of excess supply and selling electricity back to the grid at times when supplies of electricity from wind and solar power are low, Jost said.

“By 2025 we will have 350 gigawatt hours worth of energy storage at our disposal through our electric car fleet. Between 2025 and 2030 this will grow to 1 terawatt hours worth of storage,” Jost told journalists in Berlin.

“That’s more energy than is currently generated by all the hydroelectric power stations in the world. We can guarantee that energy will be used and stored and this will be a new area of business.”

The German carmaker is not alone in looking into this field. German utility E.ON has been working with Japanese carmaker Nissan to develop so-called vehicle-to-grid (V2G) services.

Volkswagen is launching the ID:3 electric car this year. A basic version will cost less than 24,000 euros ($27,000) in Germany, once green car tax breaks and incentives are deducted, putting electric cars on par with combustion engined variants.

www.reuters.com/article/us-volkswagen-electric-energy/volkswagen-plans-to-tap-electric-car-batteries-to-compete-with-power-firms-idUSKBN20Z2D5

Commercial electric planes set to take off in Norway by 2030


Source: Boeing

Electric short haul planes could be flying Norwegian skies as soon as 2030, a new report released by state-owned airline Avinor and the Norwegian Civil Aviation Authority suggests.

The report was commissioned by the two organisations to address the reduction of flight-related carbon emissions in order to reach the Scandinavian nation’s Paris agreement objectives.

“The world is facing a climate crisis, and it is in the transport sector that we will take the biggest emission reductions,” says transport minister Knut Arild Hareide in a statement.

“We have to deliver on this, and electric aircraft can be part of the solution.”

Handing over the report to the minister at an event last Thursday (Europe time), Avinor CEO Dag Falk-Petersen said that the conclusions of the report were very clear.

​

“Our recommendation is that Norway should be one of the main arenas in the world for electrification of aviation,” he said according to a release from Avinor (translated from Norwegian).

Norway depends on flight as a major form of transport, and its electrification is not only a key step to achieving this goal but would also create jobs and also lower operating costs compared to fossil-fuelled aircraft.

“In order to ensure a continued good transport service in Norway, it is in Norway’s self-interest – both on a climate, district and transport policy basis – that zero and low-emission aircraft are developed that can initially traffic the unique Norwegian short-haul network and are adapted to Norwegian weather conditions,” said aviation director at the Norwegian Civil Aviation Authority, Lars Kobberstad.

There are a number of established aerospace companies developing electric flight technology, including Airbus, Rolls-Royce and Boeing as well as startups such as Brazil’s Embraer and even Australia’s own Magnix, which has developed an electric propulsion system being tested by Canada’s Harbour Air.

Currently a typical battery energy density of 250Wh/kg means that such aircraft are limited to short-haul flights of 350-400 effective range, the report says.

But that could change, with solid state battery technology expected to increase energy density to more than 650Wh/kg in time, doubling or even tripling flight range.

Nevertheless, even with today’s capacity, Avinor expects that commercial flights in Norway – which has a number of closely located airports particularly in its northern reaches – carrying almost 20 passengers at a time could be reality within the decade.

“It seems clear that there are no insurmountable technical obstacles to developing electrified flight,” the report says (translated from Norwegian).

“Based on existing technology knowledge and expected developments should be technically possible to develop, certify and put in regular civilian scheduled flight with up to 19 passengers from 2025 to 2030, and larger aircraft after it.”

To put the report into action, Falk-Petersen says government policy is needed so that Norway – which is already the world’s leader in electric cars by market share – can capitalise on its unique position to spearhead electric flight.

“Norway’s dependence on aviation, ample access to renewable electricity, a unique short-haul network, active and interested players and the political will to electrify the transport sector, means that Norway is well-suited and recognized as a very interesting test area and first market for electrification of aviation.

“Therefore, it is important that Norway adopts a policy package as quickly as possible,” said Falk-Petersen.

https://thedriven.io/2020/03/13/commercial-electric-planes-set-to-take-off-in-norway-by-2030/