Electric car conversions are booming
Car conversions to electric power are on upswing, www.boston.com reported on November 30, 2008.
The article says Wayne Alexander, who’s been converting cars to electric for more than 30 years in his south-central Kansas garage, has his hands full keeping up with demand for his cars while big automakers trying to stay afloat in a cantankerous economy.
The article says Alexander converts about four cars a month, up from about one or two cars a month last year. Alexander charges about $12,500 to convert any car or pickup truck to electric. His cars can normally reach speeds up to 70 miles per hour and can go about 35 miles at that speed on a single charge. They plug into a 110-volt outlet and are recharged in about five hours.
The article also reports a company that sells electric vehicle components has its business grown by about a third since summer.
Of the 240 million vehicles on US roads, about 70,000 are electric, up from about 56,000 in 2005, according to the Electric Drive Transportation Association. The article says.
Big automakers like General Motors will manufacture electric cars in 2010 and the price is about $40,000.
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EV Charging Facilities - EV Charging Technology (3)
Editor’s Note: These series are selected from manual Electric Vehicle Community Market Launch Manual: A Guide to Prepare Your Community for Electric Vehicles which was prepared by the Electric Transportation Coalition (ETC) and the Electric Vehicle Association of the Americas (EVAA) in cooperation with the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) and the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT).
EV Charging System Design Standards
Expecting the market for on- and off-board EV chargers to grow with the introduction of EVs, many businesses are planning to manufacture and market EV chargers to meet the increasing demand. Like similar equipment, chargers need to be built to some minimum recognized standards. The following is a list of industry-recognized standards that implementors should take into consideration when acquiring EV chargers:
SAE J551
Performance Levels and Methods of Measurement of Electromagnetic Radiation from Vehicles and Devices (30 Hz to 1,000 MHZ).
SAE J1211
Recommended Environmental Practices for Electronic Equipment Design, Nov. 1978.
SAE J1742
Connections for High Voltage On-Board Road Vehicle Electrical Wiring Harness.
SAE J1772
Electric Vehicle Conductive Coupling Recommended Practice.
SAE J1773
Electric Vehicle Inductive Charge Coupling Recommended Practice.
SAE J1850*
Class B Data Communication Network Interface, July, 1990.
SAE J2178*
Class B Data Communication Network Messages.
SAE J2293
Power Transfer Control for Electric Vehicles.
FCC
Code of Federal Regulations, Title 47 (parts 15A, B, and 18), Document # 869-019-00180-8.
UL 943
Ground-Fault Circuit Interrupters, Underwriters Laboratories Inc., Sept. 11, 1985.
UL 1012
Power Units Other Than Class 2, Underwriters Laboratories Inc., Aug. 21, 1992.
UL 1283
Electromagnetic Interference Filters, Underwriters Laboratories Inc., Mar. 26, 1984.
UL 2202
Outline of Investigation for Electric Vehicle (EV) Charging System Equipment, Nov. 1994.
NEMA 250
Enclosures for Electrical Equipment (1000 Volts Max.), National Electrical Manufacturers Assoc., 1991.
ANSI/IEEE
Guide for Surge Voltages in Low-Voltage AC Power Circuits, C62.41-1980, American National Standards Institute and Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, 1980.
ANSI/IEEE
Guide on Surge Testing for Equipment Connected to Low-Voltage AC Power Circuits, C62.45-1987, American National Standards Institute and Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers, 1987.
NFPA
National Electric Code, NFPA 70-1996, Article 625.
(*These standards are being updated to include information on communications for EVs.)
Charger power quality is another important issue. Use of low-performance equipment can create a number of effects of concern to the utility industry, including harmonics, voltage flicker, poor power factor, voltage drop, transients, electromagnetic interference and radio frequency interference. When hundreds of thousands of chargers are charging EVs, low charger power quality could cause real problems. Utilities, automakers, and charger manufacturers must anticipate and correct any power quality problems before electric vehicles and chargers are used by customers. The Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers (IEEE) is creating an equipment power-quality standard to address this important issue.
When planning for and installing EV charging facilities in public locations, implementors should consider the possibility of vandalism. The charging facilities should be designed to withstand rugged treatment and to protect the public from electrical shock associated with vandalism. The following case study describes how one utility is preparing for vandalism at a public charging facility:
New York Power Authority (NYPA) NYPA, in cooperation with the MTA Metro-North Railroad and the White Plains Parking Authority, has initiated an EV station car program that allows EV users to carpool from a suburban train station north of New York City to their worksites in Westchester County. The EVs will be charged overnight and on weekends at the train station. NYPA’s contractor, Diversified technologies, Inc., has designed, fabricated, and installed 12 vandal-proof conductive charging stations that offer the user 110 or 208 volt charging .Each charging station enclosure will hold the plug and cord sets behind a locked panel when not in use. Furthermore, the charging stations are equipped with high efficiency lighting controlled by a motion detector. Volume III of this Manual contains a drawing of these charging stations.
By working to establish connector and charging standards, automakers and electric utilities are helping to lay the foundation for successful EV introduction. These standards will allow utilities to provide the appropriate electrical service, manufacturers to develop compatible charging systems, and automakers to design and build compatible vehicles at the lowest possible cost.
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EV Charging Facilities - EV Charging Technology (2)
Editor’s Note: These series are selected from manual Electric Vehicle Community Market Launch Manual: A Guide to Prepare Your Community for Electric Vehicles which was prepared by the Electric Transportation Coalition (ETC) and the Electric Vehicle Association of the Americas (EVAA) in cooperation with the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) and the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT).
Conductive Systems
Conductive charging systems shown to date use a plug and cord system that can vary by the type of connector used and the level of voltage and current. The charger can be located either on-board (built into the vehicle) or off-board (separate from the vehicle) depending on the design of the conductive system. For all onboard chargers, some type of off-board control and/or interconnection device will be required.
Led by EPRI, representatives of 20 companies, many of which are represented on the IWC, are working to complete the physical and electrical specifications for a single standardized conductive coupling system. This system would include the vehicle inlet, the cord and plug, and the EV supply equipment. While focusing on level 2 charging, the project is planning for power requirements anticipated for level 3 charging. Once the specification for the conductive design is completed and tested, the design will be submitted to the Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE) for consideration as a recommended practice. Schedules call for delivery of prototype charging equipment in late 1995 for testing, and availability of production equipment in mid-1996.
Inductive Systems
Inductive charging systems, such as the Delco Electronics MAGNE CHARGE—Underwriter Laboratory (UL) and FCC approved—use a cord and paddle-shaped inductive coupler that transfers energy from the power source to the vehicle by means of magnetic induction. The charger for the Delco inductive charging system is located off-board the vehicle. The inductive paddle is the same size for all three charging levels, which could allow a single interface to charge the vehicle.
Recently, SAE adopted a recommended practice (see Volume III of this Manual) for the inductive charging interface design (SAEJ1773).
Both the conductive and inductive systems will need electronics off-board the vehicle to provide the communication and diagnostic capabilities required by the recommended practices being developed. The only exception to this may be level 1 charging. Both the conductive and inductive charging systems have been successfully tested in fleet and/or consumer applications.
Communications Requirements
In the future, the serving electric utility will need to manage an increasingly large and wide spread EV load. The IWC’s Load Management, Distribution, and Power Quality Committee is establishing and defining a method the utility can use, with customer concurrence, to remotely control the charging process. This method will require development of communications architecture and interface between the EV supply equipment and the vehicle. The ability to communicate will also help ensure safe and cost-effective EV charging, interoperability of supply equipment and vehicles from different manufacturers, and future expandability and compatibility of equipment. The IWC’s Data Interface Committee has completed a preliminary definition of minimum operational and communication requirements, selected an established SAE digital communications protocol for use between the supply equipment and the vehicle, and has proposed changes to SAE to define data and communications requirements for EVs. This work should be completed before 1998.
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Electric Car Conversion Manual
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