Is there a future for electric cars and their batteries?

Picture a time in the near future where there are no cars, no boats, no planes, no anything. A barren wasteland with no means of transportation, other than horse, and what little fossil fuels are left, is fought over by road gangs and a road warrior. With no trucks, shipping food and other essential goods is nearly impossible. The survival rate for everyone drops to zero. This could be the world of tomorrow if America can not find an alternative for fossil fuels. Electric vehicles have helped the problem but with a low life battery, they will be short lived. Is there a future for batteries in electric vehicles?

            One major way to create a meaningful future for electric cars, and their batteries, is to make them available to the mass public. The problem with today’s electric cars is that the batteries that are used are very expensive because they are not widely made and most batteries are made outside the states. Kevin explains, in his article titled “Building Batteries for Electric Cars”, “Just a few years ago American businesses could only make 2 percent of the world’s advanced batteries for hybrids and electric vehicles—just 2 percent” (80).  This shows that if there was an increase of battery production in the United States then the electric car can become popular.

The negative popularly can be supported through my observation. The observation took place on Wednesday March 21on the East side of Tucson, Arizona from 4pm to 6pm in three large parking lots; Wal-Mart, Target, and K-mart. The results show that Wal-Mart, on 7150 East Speedway Boulevard, had 78 cars in the parking lot with only two cars being electric and 76 being normal gasoline powered cars. Target, on 9615 East Old Spanish Trail, Tucson, AZ 85748, had no electric cars and 56 normal cars. The third and final parking lot, K-mart at 7055 E Broadway Blvd, only had one electric car and 44 normal cars.

            Another idea that had been thrown around is the idea of a Li-ion battery.  Today’s electric cars have lithium ion batteries, rechargeable battery using lithium ions as power (The Professor). Li ion batteries are basically lithium ion batteries that are a “chemical reactions in which lithium ions are swapped between two ends of a battery (known as the anode and the cathode)” (Dllow). The li ion batteries are prefect for electric cars because they could hold ten times the charge of current, lithium ion, batteries and can charge ten times faster. (The Professor). The major problem with lithium ion batteries is that they are wasting energy that could be used to add more voltage to the battery. Because of the lithium ion battery design, the lithium ion creates a bottleneck effect around the edges of the shell and slows the charge rate greatly (Dllow).  The li ion batteries aim to fix that problem and many more that are found with the standard lithium ion battery. For more research about the li ion battery go to http://www.popsci.com/science/article/2011-11/new-li-ion-battery-design-boosts-energy-capacity-and-charge-rate-10-fold

            The last possible idea to save the batteries of electric cars is to make recharging stations available to the public. With electric vehicles, once the batteries are dead they need to be recharged to work again; that causes a problem if there is no charging stations or home outlets. “You can't take a gas can and walk down the highway to pick up five bucks worth of electricity” (Hewitt). These batteries take many hours to fully charge. Using a house outlet, “the Nissan Leaf takes approximately eight hours to recharge” (Tuite). But with a Fast Charge station, the time to recharge the Leaf to 80% capacity would be about 30 minutes. If there were more advancement with the available of types of charging stations, like home units, then the future of electric cars would be saved.

            The Tesla Roadster, selling for $92000, usage an outlet for recharging and it can run up to 250 miles before needing a recharge. It is also a sports car and rockets from 0 to 60 mph in about 4 seconds (Tuite). That's a huge advance over earlier modes of electric cars because it has newer li ion batteries and can be charged from home. This is the future for electric cars and their batteries. If this does not work then the hope for a positive future with cars will be thrown into the dark ages.

Works Cited

Bullis, Kevin. "Building Batteries For Electric Cars." Technology Review 114.2 (2011): 80. MasterFILE Premier. Web. 22 Feb. 2012.

Dllow, Clay. "New Li-ion Battery Design Boosts Energy Capacity and Charge Rate 10-Fold." Popular Science. Popular Science. Web. 02 Apr. 2012.

Hewitt, Ben. "THE 110-VOLT SOLUTION. (Cover Story)." Popular Mechanics 184.5 (2007): 64-144. Academic Search Premier. Web. 4 Apr. 2012.

The Professor. Personal interview. 20 March 2012.

Tuite, Don. "Racing Against Time To Charge The Family Car." Electronic Design 59.8 (2011): 52. MasterFILE Premier. Web. 22 Feb. 2012.

Interview Transcript
What are the type of batteries that are used today?
            Lithium-ion batteries
Is there any development in electric cars today?
            Lots, the most promising from what I can find are the li-ion batteries
What is the battery life of today’s battery?

around ten years; if the owner use long low voltage charging and it can be different if they use higher voltage

What do future batteries hope to have for a life span?
            research has shown that if taken care of could be up to 50 years
How long does it take to charge today’s batteries for electric cars?

Every electric car is different, but on a normal 120 voltage (household outlet) it can take around 10-15 hours, if the voltage goes up the time goes down

Why do you feel that electric cars are returning?

They died during the late 80’s because of big name oil, but because of the energy crisis they are returning because we need to stop using gas.

What do future batteries hope to have for a recharge rate?

Like I said before li-ion batteries are the way to go, it’s said they could recharge up to ten times faster

What is the cost for the batteries for electric cars?

Once again it depends on the car and its manufacturer; some, from what i have seen, can go from 6,000 to 10,000 dollars.

Is there a future for electric cars?

For right now, yes because biofuels are nice but the mpg you would get for it would not outweigh the cost, or until research finds something more its only way we can go

Observation

The observation took place on wednesday March 21 from 4pm to 6pm in three large parking lots; walmart, target, and kmart. The results show that walmart had 78 cars in the parking lot with only two cars being electric and 76 being normal gasoline powered cars. Target had no electric cars and 56 normal cars. The third and final parking lot, kmart, only had one electric cars and 44 normal cars.