Battery Conundrum Impeding Acceptance of Electric Vehicles

Think of a metropolitan area without the infernal cacophony of traffic or the suffocating stench of exhaust fumes. In theory, electric vehicles could make this utopia a reality—helping the environment, reducing air pollution, and lowering greenhouse gas emissions on a global scale.

With so much to offer, why have electric vehicles for the most part languished in obscurity? Drivers remain wary of EVs, and battery-powered cars have yet to take hold on a broad scale. Electric vehicles have a number of problems, but battery technology is arguably the most vexing.

Portable electronic devices like digital cameras, laptops, and cell phones have always been held back by battery limitations. Indeed, while the capabilities of electronic devices have improved by 10,000 percent in the last 35 years, battery technology has fallen behind with an improvement of only six-fold in 100 years.

This disparity in advances has important applications for electric vehicles. Most drivers will not consider replacing their gas-powered vehicles with an electric version until the gaps in performance and price diminish dramatically.

Longer Ranges, More Potential

Batteries must go much farther, literally, before they will be able to keep pace with the internal combustion engine, and their shortcomings are forcing automakers to design and build electric vehicles with the same distance ranges as cars manufactured in 1910.

For example, a Ford Focus or VW Golf can go over 370 miles while staying at a speed of 70 mph in mixed road conditions, even at full-load capacity. For an electric vehicle to accomplish the same feat, the lithium-ion batteries that powered it would have to weigh more than 1.5 tons and would be as big as the vehicle itself, costing around $150,000. And unlike a tank of gas, that colossal battery does not become lighter with every mile traveled.

While expenses will surely drop over the next decade, electric vehicles will undoubtedly stay expensive, heavy, and with a limited range of about 100 miles in the near future. To succeed, EVs will have to overcome three main problems: overly optimistic range calculations, lengthy charging times, and dependence on non-renewable electricity sources.

First, automakers’ range calculations should be based on a battery charge of 20-80 percent for the most accurate figures. Second, charging times, which average about 13 hours currently, must be drastically reduced. Carmakers have explored “rapid” charging methods, but it remains unclear what effect these experimental technologies will have on the life of the battery. Finally, the bulk of the electricity used to power EVs comes from nonrenewable energy sources, which means electric cars could potentially contribute more carbon dioxide to the environment than many of today’s diesel vehicles. The source of electricity must be as clean as the vehicle itself or the effort is futile.