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When electric cars first came out, at the start of the 20th century, they were difficult to charge because they required dc electricity, and while Edison wanted to distribute dc to homes, Westinghouse won that battle, and ac, alternating current, not direct current, became standard, due to the lower cost of transmission lines, by using transformers to raise the voltage and lower the current.
At the end of the 20th century, when electric cars were re-introduced, with the EV1 and the RAV4, and others, charging systems were not standardized, but now, at the beginning of the 21st century, as electric cars are being re-introduced, and as we are transitioning to electric cars, charging systems have been standardized, just like the diagnostic ports on cars have been standardized. However, what happens if you want to drive to Florida? Electric cars typically have a range of from 100 to 300 miles. The shorter the range, the cheaper the battery, and the cheaper the car. If your average daily commute round trip is less than 20 miles, you could meet that with a range of only 40 miles, like the Chevrolet Volt, and if you want to go from Concord to Boston you could do that with the Tesla, which has a range of 200 miles. To go to Florida, though, would take a week or more if you had to stop and charge the battery every 100 or 200 miles. The solution is to also standardize the battery packs and use the quick change solution in the video below, which shows that you can change the battery in an automated battery swap station in less than 2 minutes - about the time that it takes now to fill your tank with gasoline.

The charging station will need to recognize the size battery you have and replace it with the same size, whether it is a 40 mile battery, a 100 mile, 200 mile, or 300 mile battery, or you could rent the battery, and choose which size to have installed, for cars that could accommodate more than one size.
A similar quick change system was used for the fleet of battery powered buses used at the Beijing Olympics in 2008.

One of the reasons you have been hearing about hydrogen for cars is that oil companies are panicked to think that no one will need to stop at gas stations because they will always charge their car at home. A hydrogen car is simply an electric car that uses a horribly inefficient battery that you have to fill up at a filling station - you lose half of the electricity when you make the hydrogen, and half when you convert the hydrogen back into electricity, never mind that the fuel cell to do that uses platinum and the car costs $1,000,000. So, setting aside the cost of the car, the efficiency of the charging system is 1/2 x 1/2 = 25%, vs. the 90 to 95% efficiency of just using a battery, so hydrogen cars are just not a practical solution.
 


Comments

Don Green
06/19/2011 14:08

Very interesting. Two years ago,I sent President Obama and two Oregon congressmen letters proposing that our government start this exact type of quick-switch battery powered car system. I also proposed that the battery distributor own the batteries, and that he be paid rent and usage fees through an automated credit card system in which the charges would be determined by a cheap computer chip system built into the battery. This business model has the advantage that the car owner does not have to purchase an expensive battery, making the initial cost of the car much lower. Also, the expensive inventory of batteries would be in almost constant use, rather than sitting idle in garages. The computer chip could also monitor a battery's condition so it could be retired and recycled when it reaches its end of life.

Recently, I proposed this idea by letter to Jay Inslee, Washington State congressmen.

I have not had any replies, or seen any action from any of the people to whom I've written. This will almost certainly have to be a government-run program - - it's too large for any single private company since it will involve four major sectors of industry: automotive manufacturers, electrical power distribution, alternative power generation equipment manufacturers, and service station companies.

Sincerely,
Don Green, Retired Engineering Physicist

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Don Green
06/19/2011 14:40

In my previous reply, I forgot to mention a fifth major sector of industry, battery manufacture and distribution, that would be involved in the quick switch battery powered car business model.

The point in my previous reply was that the government would have to be in charge of such a huge effort because of the expense and high degree of coordination between the development in these sectors of industry. In addition, a policy of requiring all involved goods and services purchased with government money be procured from US suppliers, would develop suppliers and produce hundreds of thousands of jobs in these sectors in the US. The money required to get these systems in place would be huge, perhaps equal to the $4 billion dollars we give to Pakistan each year.

Sincerely, Don Green,
Retired Engineering Physicist

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Mike Petersen
12/30/2011 05:50

Don,
I agree with you but this system is way over engineered. No one would want to pull in and wait for this process. Simply have multiple batteries that are small enough to switch out on your own. I bet a smart engineer could develope a car that could run on 6 0r 8 of these. Only switch out the depleted batteries as needed. Stations could be at shopping malls, grocery stores and rest stops. Keep it simple!!

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