Path: bloom-picayune.mit.edu!snorkelwacker.mit.edu!americast.com!americast.com!americast-post Newsgroups: americast.ibd From: americast-post@AmeriCast.Com Organization: American Cybercasting Approved: americast-post@AmeriCast.com Subject: Executive Update Date: Mon, 26 Oct 92 13:29:30 EST Message-ID: <3.1992Oct26.132931@AmeriCast.com> TITLE Executive Update Can Detroit Make A Salable Electric Car - In Time? Automakers Are Stepping Up Efforts To Meet Expected California Deadline Paul A. Eisenstein In Dearborn, Mich. Designing an electric car is easy. The trick is getting consumers to buy it. The age of the electric car will begin in 1997, cour- tesy of California. Desperate to clear their smog-filled air, Golden State regulators plan to require that electrics make up a small percentage of each automaker's fleet. Otherwise, the manufacturer won't be allowed to sell any vehicles in the state. Product Development While auto industry officials continue to grumble and protest, they're grudgingly going along and have been stepping up research and development. "Our spending is going up real fast," said Dennis Wilkie, director of electric vehicle programs for Ford Mo- tor Co. "It's getting to the $100 million range real fast." More than a dozen electric car prototypes were on display last week#m#cq#m# at the Convergence '92 conference in suburban De- troit. They ranged from silly to sophisticated. While some manufacturers are clearly behind in developing cars that would meet the 1997 deadline, several of the electric cars shown could be put into production today. "The technology has made a lot of progress," said Ken Baker, director of General Motors Corp.'s ag- gressive electric car development program. GM's battery- powered Impact was one of the sleekest of the vehicles on display. With its 875 pounds of lead-acid batteries, the teardrop-shaped two- seater will deliver over 100 miles per charge. That's double the range of some of the other vehicles at the Convergence confer- ence, such as Fiat SpA's tiny Cinquecentro Elettra. But even then, the Impact can't compete with conventional gasoline-powered vehicles, which can roam for 300 miles or more on a single tank, then fill up again in minutes. Recharging an electric car typi- cally takes five to eight hours. Nissan Motor Co. boasts it can quick-charge its FEV prototype in about 15 minutes, but that re- quires a special charger nearly as big as the vehicle itself. Premium Prices Making matters worse, consumers likely will have to pay a hefty premium for the inconvenience. In December, Chrysler Corp. will begin limited production of its TEVan, a battery-powered version of its popular minivans. The TEVan will carry a sticker price of $125,000. GM hopes to market the Impact for somewhere under $30,000 once it goes into production in the mid-1990s, but company insiders say it will be difficult to meet that target. "I do not believe the consumer will make a lot of compromises just to get an electric," cautioned Bud Marx, vice president of Ford's automotive component group. "We'll be able to produce a lot of electrics, but nobody will want to buy them." Electric cars pose a variety of problems that manufacturers have never faced before. They must come up with high-efficiency elec- tric motors and the complicated electronics needed to control them. To maximize range, engineers need to develop lightweight components, body panels and low- friction tires. But the biggest problem is the battery. GM's Impact relies on the tried-and-true lead-acid battery, which has been around for more than a century. But while the technology is well-understood, it doesn't store much power. The Impact's battery pack contains the energy equivalent of 1.5 gallons of gasoline. "We don't feel, in the long- run, that electric vehicles will be credible with lead-acid batteries," said Ford's Wilkie. Newer batteries are moving from the lab into the prototype stage, such as the sodium sulfur cells Ford will use in its Ecostar van. The Ecostar, which will go into fleet testing next year, boasts a range of 100 miles, and that would jump to over 200 miles in a lighter vehicle, notes Wilkie. The problem is that the sodium sulfur compound must be heated to over 400 degrees to generate power. Even more promising is the dual battery system in use on an electric version of the Saturn coupe. Blending both nickel-cadmium and recently developed zinc- air batteries, the Demi/APS Saturn can charge from zero to 60 miles an hour in barely six seconds. Said Wilkie: "The name of the game (in batteries) is range, how much do they cost, how fast can you get energy in and out of them and are they rechargeable." Jointly funded by the U.S. government and the Big Three, the U.S. Automotive Battery Consortium has begun funding research for the development of promising battery technologies. The first, for $18.5 million, was awarded earlier this year to a suburban De- troit firm, Ovonic Battery Co. The Ovonic, or nickel metal hy- dride battery, is similar to a nickel-cadmium battery but stores at least twice as much energy. It also can be recharged more quickly, provides high-energy peaks -say, for fast takeoffs at a stoplight -and it doesn't have a "memory" to limit the number of times it can be recharged. It takes four to five years to develop a conventional gasoline-powered automobile. With so many unknowns, it's taking even longer for electrics. Compromises Expected The carmakers know they are running out of time to meet the Cali- fornia deadline. The first electric vehicles are certain to make unsatisfactory compromises - and are all but certain to fall short of customer expectations. While there will be a market among "green-minded" consumers, in- dustry experts predict the initial demand will come mainly from utilities and other fleet buyers. This article is copyright 1992 Investors Business Daily. Redis- tribution to other sites is not permitted except by arrangement with American Cybercasting Corporation. For more information, send-email to usa@AmeriCast.COM