Electric cars can fly into space but not charge in the city

The Car of the Year designation bestowed by automotive magazines feels just as anachronistic as beauty queens or the Man of the Year title that the Time awarded before they discovered that women are people, too. But this year and last year the car of the year has been electric, a fact that urban planners need to pay attention to, no matter that the car in general has long been pushed from its pedestal as the sole driver of development supremely shaping everything in its path. Cities need to prepare better for electric cars.

Car of the Year 2017: An all electric Tesla 3 (Photo: Automobile)

The magazine Automobile gave the crown of Car of the Year to the Tesla model 3, a nod to hipsters and tycoons alike and a nod to a hyped brand whose stock value is higher than that of General Motors. The Tesla legend has reached new heights since February 6 when a Tesla Roadster began navigating through space atop SpaceX's Falcon Heavy rocket. A feat that is derided as the ultimate obscene stunt by jaded moralists and as an incredible achievement by optimistic technophiles. The electric car certainly has reached new frontiers, but in its standard habitat it is strangely hobbled.

A Tesla Roadster in space

And that is not because the cars themselves don't measure up.
Just read what Automobile journalist Robert Cumberford writes about his Car of the Year choice:

For several years now I’ve said the Tesla Model S is the best sedan I’ve ever driven. That’s no longer true. It’s not that I found recent Mercedes-Benz S-Class or Rolls-Royce sedans superior. Rather, I’ve done a few miles in the Model 3, which now holds the title of best four-door I’ve ever driven. Whatever the price point, heritage, styling, reputation, or prestige of its rivals, the Model 3 is quieter and quicker, and it rides better than anything else we might have considered for our Design of the Year award. And as a plus, it’s a much handier size than the Model S, far more practical for daily use in cities and suburbs.(Automobile)

Already in 2017 MotorTrend named the all electric Bolt its Car of the Year. So, have electric cars finally "arrived" after they have been the object of  ridicule and seen as nothing more than glorified golf carts? Sticking electric charging stations into car parks and hotel parking lots has become a seal of progressiveness and greenness and inventors and investors around the world tinker with battery and charging speed innovations.

Increased sales of electric cars: Hovering at 1%

But  the electric future isn't quite obstacle free. The magazine for technophiles, Wired, recently warned that all electric cars are still cars and that their environmentally friendly propulsion isn’t so friendly if one considers how electricity is made, or worse, what goes into Lithium Ion batteries and where those precious materials come from and how they are mined. What would happen to the electric grid if millions of Americans would hook their car to domestic outlets overnight drawing about 1kwh of electric energy (comparable to a small space heater) over anywhere from 5-9 hours of time, depending on the size of the battery? Most predict that neither the grid nor the power supply is prepared for that, especially if those charges would occur not in a slow way overnight when overall electric demand is generally low, but in superfast charging stations with an electric draw as high as 15 residential AC units, potentially charging during peak demand.

 16,000 electric charging stations in the nation

Then there is the economic aspect: Auto companies, including Tesla, find it difficult to make money with electric cars. This is probably a key reason why overall sales of electric cars still hover in the 1.1% range with just under 200,000 units sold in 2017, including plug-in hybrids, compared to 17.1 million car sales total. Since many companies lose money on each of the models they offer them mostly for prestige, to keep up with the Joneses and to comply with federal requirements. But other than Tesla, they don't advertise them much.

Still, the come-back of electric cars (they were around

at the cradle of the automobile a hundred years ago but consequently pushed off the cliff by the petroleum industry) presents a cultural shift, and certainly progress away from the high polluting Diesel engines common in Europe or the gas guzzling muscle cars and SUVs still cherished here. Particle, NOx and CO2 pollution in cities is still a problem, as the VW Diesel scandal shows. Filtering technologies have reached a plateau while driving has increased again resulting in increasing pollution. In extreme cold temperatures, catalytic converters don't work at all.

Cities definitely need a reprieve from emission spewing cars, trucks and buses and the electric vehicle seems the best currently available option. But cities and car companies are surprisingly unprepared to deal with the EV.

Just take charging. A new report from University of Michigan researchers using data from the Department of Energy suggest that there are now  about 16,000 public electric vehicle charging stations with approximately 43,000 connectors in the US. (There are 112,000 gas stations in the US with frequently up to 10 pumps).

Global electric power demand projections for electric cars (WIRED)

• A city apartment or rowhouse dweller with a parking spot in the street or an alley can't string extension cords to the e-vehicle to prepare it for the next day. Many cities don't even have charging stations in their own municipal garages, let alone in the street. They also usually don't have a provision in the code requiring charging stations in private garages. 

Particular attention needs to be focused on the development of the PEV recharging infrastructure for the urban and multifamily environments. According to the Federal Highway Administration almost 80% of the U.S. population resides in an urban area. (Electric Vehicle Transportation Center in a 2015 research paper)

• Where the stations are installed, they are often nearly impossible to find. Usually there are at most 2, and if two e-vehicle owners got into the spaces early enough, they are likely to hog them all day while they work somewhere nearby locking anyone else out. Charging stations that release the plug when one car is full so they can be moved along a larger section of spaces to additional vehicles to be served have not been invented yet. 
• Unlocking the plug from a charging station requires a card or code, competing private companies running the stations don't always recognize each other and some cars even need different plugs (Tesla) 

In short, cities, where e-cars are the most needed, are not yet suitable places for e-car owners to live.

The problem grows exponentially if one considers electrification of fleets of delivery vans, buses, taxis and car share services. All those are easily refueled at a conventional gas station, but they can't be recharged conveniently. It isn't likely that charging will ever occur at facilities like gas stations since the process will  take some extra time for the foreseeable future. That time is best taken while a vehicle would be parking or waiting for the next dispatch.

Electric buses are experimenting with overhead charging pads that either need contact or work with induction. Wireless streetcars are experimenting with induction pads and capacitors that replace batteries but last only for a short time before they need another quick-charge. Experiments with recharging moving vehicles through induction are in their infancy.

International comparison EV sales: China is top

Just as in the beginning of the automobile, the question of the electric car isn't as much  matter of technology as a matter of policy and influence.

Cities should ensure that the electric car has a future this time around. They should declare certain highly polluted districts off limits for any vehicle with a tailpipe spewing out toxic fumes as Paris Mayor Hidalgo is already considering for the French capital.

"In order to achieve the goal of an end to the thermal engines in 2030, the City has decided to invest in the development of alternatives and in the reinforcement of financial aids that allow individuals and professionals to buy clean vehicles." Christophe Nadjovski, Paris deputy mayor in charge of transport and public space

Cities should assign parking spaces equipped with e-chargers not only in garages but also at curbside parking and incentivize use of e-vehicles by making these spaces cheaper. The current fixed charging pylons need to be made flexible or parking times would need to be limited to the actual charging duration. (A level two charger still needs about 4 hours time to fully recharge a Chevy Volt).

Most importantly, cities should decide if they give electric fleet vehicles the nod over individually owned fleet vehicles that continue to park 97% of their life, just as conventional cars. Such extended parking times may be an advantage for electric charging in its current technology, it can't be the way to solve mobility in the future.

Concept car: All electric VW bus

Even the Tesla rushing through space for as long as we can think is essentially only parked on top of the second stage rocket.

Klaus Philipsen, FAIA

the article has been updated and slightly reformatted  on 2/19/18


PORSCHE’S TESLA-FIGHTING ELECTRIC SPORTS CAR GETS ITS OWN SUPERCHARGER NETWORK, WIRED

Electric Vehicle
Charging Technology Analysis And Standards
Doug Kettles
Florida Solar Energy Center, February 2015
Sponsored by:
U.S. Department of Transportation’s
University Transportation Centers Program
Contract Number: DTRT13-G-UTC51
Incentives and Programs can be reviewed on a state and community level at this website of the Department of Energy.

The complicated system of standards that are like cogs in the system needed to run EVs