When people talk about electric cars, someone usually argues that their "range" must be improved before they are "really practical." Well, that's just not true.
Of course, the range of these vehicles is improving all the time. While today's batteries will power an electric car for 60 to 80 miles without recharging, batteries with a range of 120 miles are beinf tested commercially. And in May, a Geo Metro converted to electricity, complete more than 214 miles without stopping for a recharge.
Good though this progress is, focusing on it can obscure other dimensions of the practicality of electric vehicles. One such dimension is not their possible range, but their necessary range.
Today's electric vehicles can go far enough to get millions of people in small and medium sized communities to work and back. And in just 11 of the nation's urban areas, more that 250,000 parking spaces are available for commuters using "station cars" that travel less than 60 miles daily to get to mass transit.
For example, the Metro North Commuter Railroad, which transports about 100,000 people to and from Manhattan each weekday, provides 27,000 parking spaces. And the long Island Rail Road, which brings 103,000 riders into and out of Manhatten daily, has about 25,000 spaces at it's stations. For many passengers who use spots, the range of today's batteries is more than adequate.
And they are not alone. Many delivery and service vans operate comfortably within short ranges. Think of all the postal vehicles, package delivery vans, florist trucks and the like that fill our streets. Utilities also own thousands of vehicles that are used in short-range applications, and, in California and Tennesee, battery powered buses are already operating commercially as a clean and quiet alternative to disel fueled vehicles. These are just the top of the potential market.
Moreover, the range question can be answered from another direction: recharge time of four to six hours at 220 volts A.C. But fast-recharge technology - usually based on rapid pulses of high energy to the battery- is being perfected. One technology being tested can recharge a battery in 10 to 15 minutes. A converted pickup truck recently ran 831 miles in 24 hours by using a fast recharger.
Soon, a recharge will take no longer than the time to "fill'er'up." And when that happens, range will be irrelevant. Who asks about the range of a gasoline-powered vehicle?
To "fill'er'up" requires a place to do so, of course, and in this regard electric vehicles are in a much better position than were gasoline vehicles at a similar stage. When Henry ford started mass producing his cars, fillinf stations had to be built and a whole gasoline transportation industry created. But electric power is already everywhere.
In this task, electric utilites can lead the way. When I headed a utility in Sacramento, Calif., for example, we refueled our fleet of electric vehicles in the parking lot, pluggin them into a "filling station" powered by a solar photvoltaic cell. Indeed drivers can recharge their batteries at home or whereever they park. They can do so at night, too, when there is surplus capacity.
Like faster recharge, ease of recharge offers another answer to the range question.
Finally come flywheels. A flywheel battery can supplement a conventional battery by providing surges of power during start-up and acceleration. American Flywheel Systems and Honeywell have made progress in flywheel research and United Technologies has already delivered such devices to the German auto maker BMW and the American Government for testing. Because power surges can take alot out of conventional batteries, flywheels may extend battery ranges to 200 miles to 300 miles in a few years. Fuel cells, which produce lectricity be combining hydrogen with oxygen from the air offer still greater potential for increasing range.
The range of electric cars will only get better - especially as research progresses and as many states impose minimum-sale requirements for these vehicles on auto companies. But electric cars are "really practical" already, and progrss in areas other than range will only make them more so. As work proceeds on all these fronts, we will benefit from the cleaner air, quieter streets, and reduced dependance on foreign oil that electric vehicles bring.
S. David Freeman is president and chief executive of the New York Power Authority
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