Re: "Well to wheel" electric car efficiency

> Since that paper assumes in the second paragraph that you
> already have electricity as the "well", using its figures to compare
> battery electric to fossil-fueled cars is pretty goofy.

No, the paper is merely comparing different vehicles that use the
same fuel from the power plant at some point -- battery electric
vehicle (BEV) vs. fuel-cell vehicle (FCV). Indeed the 76% figure is
actually plant-to-wheel efficiency (or something like that), the
efficiency to use a given fuel that has been produced and ready to use
in a power plant.

The paper did not mention well-to-plant efficiency, the efficiency
to convert a raw source of fuel to the production point of a power
plant where the fuel is ready to use. There are several ways to produce
gasoline, and several ways to produce electricity. I think the
well-to-plant efficiency for electricity is much higher than a typical
fossil fuel. For solar power plant, the efficiency between electricity
(output) and light energy (input) should be higher than 60%.

The well-to-wheel efficiency is well-to-plant efficiency times
plant-to-wheel efficiency. It is not very meaningful to compare the
well-to-wheel figures between different categories of fuel. For
example, the fossil fuels have limited supply but the supply of
electricity is unlimited. Secondly, the energy densities are different.
So normally we compare the cost per mile. The figures in various
discussion are $.10-.15/mile for gasoline and $.6-.8/mile for
electricity at this point. For people who have their own solar power
system or windmill the number could be even lower.

> It might be worthwhile noting that the 76% figure is for a Li-ion
> battery, and not the less efficient, less expensive and more commonly
> used lead-acid or Ni-MH battery chemistries.

The Li-ion battery will probably be the choice of battery for the
future. Toshiba is developing a fast-charging, long life lithium-ion
battery that will lose only 1% of its capacity after 1,000 cycles of
discharging and recharging. So the battery pack may not need to be
replaced every 2 - 3 years. (Search "Toshiba's Fast-Charging, Long Life
Li-Ion Battery" in
http://www.greencarcongress.com/batteries/index.html)

.

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