Daily Archives: November 26, 2014

FIA: What is Formula-e and why should we care?

November 26, 2014Electric Cars, Formula E, News, Reviews and Comment, OpinionTrevor Larkum

With only three days until Round-2 of the inaugural FIA Formula-E Championship is upon us, I thought it was time to take a deeper look into this interesting racing series.

The debut of Formula-e racing was held in the streets of Beijing on 13^th September 2014. You can read my review of that here. There was great racing from quality drivers with interesting incidents. That’s what you would expect from any racing series so what makes Forumla-e different?

Firstly, the obvious part is the “e” – this is the first fully electric single-seater racing series. The car is the Spark-Renault SRT_01E which uses a Dallara chassis, a McLaren engineered electric motor, a Rechargeable Energy Storage System (RESS) part of which has been engineered by Williams and it rides on Michelin tyres. This being a racing series that champions sustainability and cost saving, the tyre is essentially a road tyre, capable of running in both wet and dry conditions. One set of tyres should last a whole race weekend.

The “electric” part presents a number of issues for ensuring entertaining racing. The sound is an immediate problem, especially in the aftermath of the controversy over Formula 1 went through when the engines were downgraded for eight to six cylinders. The new sound of F1 is more tame than it ever has been and this has led to criticism from pundits and the race going public. So much so that some different artificial sound enhancing tricks have been tried to no avail. This however has meant that the problem of very little sound coming from an electrical power unit being much less of an issue. In practice, the Formula-e car sounds just as aggressive as the current Formula 1 engine, just a little less loud.

Another big problem with an electric car is refuelling. Currently there is very little in the way of technology that allows a car to be recharged in the time it takes for a pit stop to happen. How do Formula-e get around this? Simple, have two cars. Instead of pulling in to change tyres or recharge the battery, the driver simple hops out of one car and into another. Now this works at the moment but it isn’t exactly the most economical way of running proceedings. It means that each team, of which there are ten, has to have four cars as a minimum, two for each driver. Not ideal, however this can only be positive for the future of electric cars. With Formula-e investing time and money improving the image of the sport and electric cars in general, they will surely have to look at a way of improving this set up. Maybe a 3.5-second way of changing the batteries or a 10-second way of charging. All potential exciting developments for the future of road cars.

So, there are some issues but all of them so far, have been easy to account for. Here comes one part of Formula-e that I just can’t get past, “Fan Boost”. Three drivers out of the twenty in the field, are given a 5-second “Fan Boost”. This is measured purely on popularity via social media. This will force drivers to work harder in the media, gain more “Followers” and ask them to vote for them. I am not sure that measuring how popular you are to the public, should have any bearing on anything in your life, let alone the outcome of an otherwise very equal race. This boost, though it seems relatively ineffective, with a 5-second boost equivalent to 40 BHP for the drivers to use twice in the race (once in each car) feels like a poor gimmick taken from 1980’s Saturday morning kids television that Formula-e would do well to be rid of.

Another problem for me is the length of time between races. I understand that the logistics of getting a city ready to host a race are extremely complicated. Unfortunately, Formula-e whet the appetite for this series with an incident packed race-one in mid-September but race-two will not take place until the end of November, easily enough time for the public to forget it. Thankfully the rest of the races will be closer together but still 3 weeks to a month apart, the schedule is below.

Problems aside, the first race was gripping and I am genuinely excited about the close fought racing that is likely to await us in this year’s Formula E championship. I am also eager to see how this innovative series can improve both itself and race cars of the future. It also forces the likes of Formula 1 to ensure they are genuinely at the forefront of fuel-efficient racing and encourages new efficiencies through both series’, into our road cars.

The next race will be broadcast live on ITV4 at 6am on Saturday 22nd November.

Race Schedule

Round 1 – 13 Sept 2014 – Beijing, China

Round 2 – 22 Nov 2014 – Putrajaya, Malaysia

Round 3 – 13 Dec 2014 – Punta del Este, Uruguay

Round 4 – 10 Jan 2015 – Buenos Aires, Argentina

Round 5 – 14 Feb 2015 – TBA*

Round 6 – 14 Mar 2015 – Miami, USA

Round 7 – 4 Apr 2015 – Long Beach, USA

Round 8 – 9 May 2015 – Monte Carlo, Monaco

Round 9 – 30 May 2015 – Berlin, Germany

Round 10 – 27 Jun 2015 – London, United Kingdom

* Rio de Janeiro was originally scheduled to host a race in November but the calendar has since changed and though the date has been selected for Round 5, no venue has been announced.

Kia Soul EV review

November 26, 2014Electric Cars, Kia, News, Reviews and Comment, Soul EVTrevor Larkum

Driving the Kia Soul EV round central London made petrol and diesel power seem so yesterday. You actually feel sympathy for people driving around in Bentleys. Kia says it has been working on electric vehicles for 30 years, but only now thinks the time is right to make one available to the public. Kia, which now sells nearly three million cars a year, is starting in a typically small way with intended annual sales expected to be around a couple of hundred.

If you need a compact electric SUV crossover hatchback, the Kia Soul is it. As with all Kias, the Soul EV has a seven year warranty which should give confidence about the life of the battery pack.

Performance

With acceleration to 60 mph taking 10.8 seconds the Kia Soul EV has adequate performance for a town car especially with town planners’ mania for traffic lights. Performance is smooth and serene and in mode B the regenerative braking is strong. Drive and Brake modes can also be operated in Eco mode to help maximise the car’s range. Maximum speed is claimed to be 90 mph but there was no opportunity to verify this.

The permanent magnet synchronous AC electric motor produces 109 bhp from 2,730 rpm to 8,000 rpm, while maximum torque of 211 lbs ft arrives instantly and continues until 2,730 rpm. Claimed class-leading energy density of 200 Wh/kg gives the car a projected range approaching 132 miles.

Handling

The rack and pinion power steering is quick and light and the car’s shape (and reversing camera) makes it easy to manoeuvre into parking spaces. A button push makes the steering even lighter for parking. The 275 kg battery pack has actually improved the handling of the Soul. Not only has it lowered its centre of gravity but the weight distribution of the Soul EV has been altered slightly too.

It is several percentage points less front heavy though you don’t really notice a difference on a slow speed town drive. The suspension settings felt stiffer which helped cornering precision. Braking, with large discs front and rear, was predictable and progressive.

IEA Says Oil Supplies May Not Keep Up With Demand

November 26, 2014Energy and Climate Change, News, Reviews and Comment, OpinionTrevor Larkum

Despite what appears to be a saturated oil market in 2014, oil producers around the world will struggle to meet rising demand over the next few decades.

In its latest annual World Energy Outlook, the International Energy Agency (IEA) warned that the current period of oil abundance may be fleeting, and in fact, without heroic levels of production increases, oil markets will grow dangerously tight in the coming years.

Global oil demand is expected to increase by 37 percent by 2040, with a dominant proportion of that coming from developing countries – i.e. China and India. In fact, the IEA says that for every barrel of oil the industrialized world expects to eliminate from demand through efficiency or other ways of reducing demand, developing countries will burn through two additional barrels.

The IEA predicts that the world will need to extract an additional 14 million barrels of oil per day (bpd) by 2040, which comes on top of today’s production levels of about 90 million bpd. While there is a lot of triumphalism in the United States about shale oil production and how places like the Bakken and the Eagle Ford have ushered in an era of abundance, the IEA says that tight oil production in the U.S. – along with Canadian oil sands – will only last until the mid-2020’s.

After that point, when the shale revolution peters out, oil markets revert to their old ways – that is, looking to the Middle East once again to meet global demand. And that should raise some alarm. Saudi Arabia will remain one of the largest and most important oil producers in the world, but it probably won’t be able to ramp up production much beyond its current levels. There is some slack production in Iran, due to western sanctions, but even when it returns to the fold it likely will only make a small contribution to oil production growth in the long-term.

Instead, much of the world’s hopes are pinned disproportionately on Iraq. A year ago, after the IEA released its 2013 WEO, I wrote about how the IEA was placing a surprising amount of faith in the ability of Iraq to scale up its oil production. For several years, the IEA predicted that Iraq would be able to triple its output from 3 million bpd to around 8.3 million bpd by 2035. Under that assumption, oil prices would rise only a modest amount over that timeframe.

That would have been a monumental task even before the country began unraveling in June 2014. Since then, Iraq has been plunged back into a state of war. The prospect that it can be put back together, and the requisite levels of capital investment can be put into its oil sector in order to add 5-6 million bpd over the next 20-30 years, appears fanciful to say the least.

An estimated $900 billion will need to be deployed each year beginning in the 2030s to bring enough oil online to meet global demand. But the IEA also cautions that replicating the tight oil boom in the United States will be very difficult. Different geological conditions could pose some problems, but the long lead times and opposition to drilling will also slow development in much of the world.

Unlike last year, this time around the IEA appears to be more concerned. The IEA Chief Economist Fatih Birol, said in a press release:

“A well-supplied oil market in the short-term should not disguise the challenges that lie ahead, as the world is set to rely more heavily on a relatively small number of producing countries.”

And in its WEO Fact sheet, the IEA declares:

“the task of bringing production above 100 mb/d rests on a fairly limited number of shoulders.”

Source: Oil Price

Five reasons why electric vehicles will go mass-market

November 26, 2014Electric Cars, OpinionTrevor Larkum

Over the last 100 years there have been a number of attempts from electric vehicle enthusiasts to push them into the mass market. Unfortunately the vast majority of these attempts have failed for a variety of reasons, often out of the control of the market itself, but today we stand in a very different place and electric vehicles will eventually go mass-market. We hereby list five reasons why electric vehicles are here to stay in the longer term: –

1. Technology

There have been enormous leaps in electric vehicle technology over the last 10 years which not only offer greater efficiency but also give the driving public greater confidence. This technology continues to advance at breathtaking speed not only in the area of electric vehicles themselves but also battery technology. In many ways the development of new technologies is putting gasoline vehicles in the shadows and grabbing the headlines.

2. Industry and government expenditure

While the electric vehicle market has made numerous attempts to crack the mass market, the majority of which failed, today is very different. The industry itself and governments around the world have literally invested billions upon billions of dollars and gone beyond the point of no return. In previous attempts there was a definite lack of incentives from governments around the world and indeed many governments paid lip service to the industry without cold hard cash. The simple fact is that too much money has been spent for the EV industry to fail this time round!

Quote from ElectricForum.com: “While the electric vehicle market seems to be dominated by the likes of Tesla, General Motors, Nissan, etc, there is a rather unknown entity sneaking up on the sidelines in the shape of Chinese electric car manufacturer BYD.”

3. Battery technology

One of the major problems of the last decade has been the relatively slow development of battery technology in relation to electric vehicles. This was in many ways overlooked by the industry as more focus and more investment was placed upon actual car technology as opposed to battery technology. It was only when the general public began to have major concerns about battery power and efficiency that both governments and the industry switched part of their investment towards battery technology.

4. Journey capacity

In tandem with new electric vehicle technology and battery technology we now have a greater emphasis upon extended journey capacity. The introduction of various electric vehicle recharging networks across the world has also added to this more positive picture with journey capacity in excess of 100 miles now commonplace among some of the more popular vehicles. There is still some way to go, more investment is required but there is no doubt that journey capacity concerns are certainly reducing.

5. Electric vehicles have lost that stigma!

In the early years the electric vehicles we saw on the roads were, how can we put it, very different in look and style and often embarrassing. This created something of a stigma which hovered over the electric vehicle industry for many years although thankfully this stigma has now gone. In many cases it is difficult to tell at a distance whether a vehicle is powered by traditional gasoline/diesel or whether indeed it is powered by electric. This in itself is probably the most compelling reason why electric vehicles will eventually crack the mass market, the fact they fit the hopes and aspirations of the motoring public and there is no embarrassment in driving one today!

Source: Electric Forum

Double GreenFleet win for all-electric Nissan e-NV200 van

November 26, 2014e-NV200, Electric Vans, News, Reviews and Comment, NissanTrevor Larkum

NISSAN, the global market leader in electric vehicles, is celebrating a memorable double win after picking up two of the top honours at the prestigious GreenFleet Awards 2014 in Warwickshire.

The first success came as the trailblazing e-NV200 100 per cent electric van – a vehicle capable of helping fleet van operators slash both carbon emissions and whole-life costs – was named Industry Innovation of the Year.

The evening soon got even better as the brand also received the Outstanding Achievement award, in partnership with British Gas and Hitachi Capital Commercial Vehicle Solutions, for its hugely successful tri-party pilot of the e-NV200 on the British Gas fleet.

Presenting the award for Industry Innovation, the GreenFleet judges noted the ‘rarely-seen levels of anticipation’ that had surrounded the launch of the e-NV200 and said the model would lead a revolution in UK fleets.

Colin Boyton, Sales and Marketing Manager at GreenFleet Events, said:

“The e-NV200 is a fantastic vehicle and I truly believe it will shape the eCV market from here on.”

The potential to inspire industry-wide change was also the deciding factor in the judges’ decision in the Outstanding Achievement award.

The three-way partnership project saw British Gas pilot 28 Nissan e-NV200 vans throughout the winter to determine the future viability of 100% electric vehicle technology as part of its 13,000 home service vans fleet. The project was a huge success and led to British Gas placing an order for 100 vehicles.

Colin said:

“This project stands out from the crowd and is exactly what the fleet sector needed, in terms of proving EV viability. We hope that in awarding the project this accolade others will sit up and take notice, and if they achieve a fraction of what has been achieved here, it will be all the more worthwhile.”

Collecting Nissan’s honours from awards host Quentin Willson, Nissan Motor GB Corporate Sales Director Barry Beeston said:

“We are absolutely delighted to see the e-NV200 being honoured in this way.

“The e-NV200 is a model with the potential to transform fleets, with running costs of just two pence per mile contributing to significantly reduced whole-life costs, not to mention the environmental benefits.”

Source: Nissan Insider