Mmm, I can see we could go further with this. How about V2G (see above) while at traffic lights, that way those annoying folk who always turn up late for work will be providing the energy to start up the office air-conditioner and coffee jug! Serves ‘em right.

Seriously though, once you replace the dinosaur juice in our vehicles with electrons the possibilities are only limited by your imagination.

I’m not sure that the Prius would carry any more lead than other vehicles. Besides, lead is very recyclable as long it remains in a solid form, in actual fact lead batteries are THE great recycling success story. But the Prius batteries are not lead they are Nickel Metal Hydride. I have no idea about the mercury content of a Prius.

Google is your friend, if you have the time.

I found the following standards mentioned on a US powerpoint presentation:
EV Standards Developed by IWC
ν1996 National Electric Code Article 625 –
Electric Vehicle Charging System
νSAE J1772 Electric Vehicle Conductive
Charge Coupler
νSAE J1773 Electric Vehicle Inductively
Coupled Charging
νSAE J2293 Energy Transfer System for
Electric Vehicles
EV Standards
ν1996 NEC Article 625.25 – Loss of
Primary Source
• Prohibited backfeed into grid
νSAE J2293 Energy Transfer System for
Electric Vehicles
• Transfer electrical energy from the Utility
Power System (Utility) to the EV Storage
Battery and other vehicle loads

I don’t know if they are enforcable, or what regions of the globe they apply in. I hope the answers are: yes and most, but I doubt it.

I also received an email from a German man named Clas-Henrik Gustafsson.. He had this to say…

Hello Carlos!

You’re not the only one who has thought about this. The many incompatible connectors was one of many factors that killed the electric car in the 1920′s. (And some users too, who tried improvised adapters)

Last year, I devised a simple but effective “connection system” for electric vehicles that will work world-wide. (If you look at my website, you’ll notice that I have an unusual interest in electrical systems round the world.)

Happily, I went about to get a European patent for it, but the patent expert who helped me soon found that it wasn’t going to make it: Ford already had a patent which was too close. Still the solution was sufficently original to circumvent any existing patents, including Ford’s.

Along the road, I’ve found several previous attempts at this: The IEC/ISO even has a standard for this. Yes! That’s right, there is a world-wide standard, released in 2002.

Problem is, the standard is a monster with a dozen pins. Laugh as you may, but this was the favoured connector in the 90′s: It was marketed as the AVCON in the United States and as VECMA in Europe. Both made by the French company Marechal.

I’ve spoken to Marechal. The low power version of the connector comes in different versions for Europe and the USA, with Australia somewhere in between. USD $200 just for the plug. The high power plug costs (sit down when you read this) over $2 000. The shortcomings are obvious and some companies have suggested improvements to this design, including AC Propulsion in the US. Tesla (the guys with the Roadster) choose an entirely different connector design instead.

A reasonably good and inexpensive street charging, home charging and V2G that works in all common electrical systems of the world can be designed, but it will take some work by several people to bring it to the market. Interested?

Best regards
Clas-Henrik Gustafsson

I confess I didn’t get it. Or maybe I did. I replied “I thought that a patent was the very opposite of a standard. We want many suppliers, not a monopoly.” I have not heard back. But I take his point regarding cost. A standard that costs a bomb is not good, but still better than no standard. Everything is cheap when made en-masse. (A whole bike is $90 at K-mart)

Cheers,
Carl

Induction charging will be the way it’s done eventually.

This is where there is a coil wire somewhere on your vehicle (connected to your battery charger), like as you suggested underneath and another coil of wire underground in the parking bay (connected to the mains supply). If the two coils are close enough together then the electricity will be induced from one to the other. This is a commonly used phenomena of electricity. It would require some tight cross industry standards but it can be very safe and fantastically practical.

I’m impressed with your passion for V2G, it shows a good understanding of the energy issues, being such a visionary can be very frustrating though, things never happen quickly enough! I can say that because I’m older and thus wiser than you. (44!)

Good luck with the V2G blog.

PS Wasn’t her name Dianne? At least you didn’t ask what colours do the power cords come in.

At 43 years old, I still remember the original “Inventors” on the ABC. There was this woman who sat on the middle of the three person panel. She wasn’t very technical and asked some inane questions like “could kiddes get their fingers caught?”. But simple questions still need to be asked. Since I’m the least techo person here, I’ll ask the simple questions.

Can the cord be a tripping hazard? Seems to me that the moment you plug in, you lose the ability to walk around the car. Not a biggie, but we are trying to build a better world. Two possible solutions come to mind, one cheap, one elaborate and expensive but ultimately better and certain to have a market among the people who now buy BMWs.

1) Hang the cord from the carport or garage roof, with a bit of light weight shock cord to pull it up out of the way when not plugged.

2) Invent some sort of auto locating connector that operates from under the car. It would need to be able to move in three, possibly four directions; forward-back; left-right; up-down and maybe rotate. Activate it when the remote locking is activated. Whir, hum, click, green LED, Bobs your uncle.
My carport slopes, it should not be assumed that the surface is flat. No, I don’t drive a BMW. It’s an aging V6 LPG Commodore, but I’m hoping commercial EVs will arrive before I buy a much needed second car (two kids).

Funnily enough, my carport has a power point. Either the guy we bought the house from was visionary, or he vacuumed his car.

I’ve started a new blog where I’ll post stuff relating to V2G. The more I learn, the more convinced I am that V2G is the answer.
http://www.blognow.com.au/v2g

Cheers,
Carl

Thanks for comments, worth more than 2 cents.

My past experiences with the AEVA have been most unfulfilling. They don’t even come close to expectations, ’nuff said about that.

Personally I’m not too preoccupied with battery fast recharge times as we don’t have the infrastructure to handle the large power requirements at the moment.

Also it’s not well understood just how beautifully simple it is to plug your car into a standard power point and leave it charge for a few hours. It still blows me away how I can do that, TODAY!

For me, if I could get 100km range out of a battery pack then I would sell my petrol car and hire one on the rare occasions when I needed to travel more than a few hundred kilometres in one day.

The optimal efficiency rpm for the 1litre 3 cylinder eflex motor running in serial with the motor etc seems great. this would help the spread of ethanol industries in Oz. I just hope they make full use of the enhanced octane rating of e85 by letting more boost thru the little turbo when higher amounts of ethanol are detected. and using knock sensors as a backup. this would yield more power and range. i’d love to see the tuning hacks and homebrew ethanol scene kickoff.

I actually think with an electric vehicle future, there will be many more smaller vehicle body manufacturers around possibly using electric motors of varying configurations. I can see the small ( under 1litre) motor industry really kicking off competing for efficiency and power. Not only have electronics micronised but now motors too. The market will become more accessible to smaller lower capital companies who are able to produce vehicles of a calibre up there with the big 3. I think this scares them a lot. Badge/Brand loyalty will wane over the years. Big oil and the big 3 know their time is over and they are just trying to delay it as much as possible. The Chevy Volt uses technology that is available now, so why wait till 2010. Im certain they have battery technology beyond what they are saying locked up in their coffers there. Bob Lutz even said they had an electric hybrid in the 60s and they had been developing it since then. I feel that perhaps they are staggering what they know and are stalling to squeeze out the potential sales from their current line. To announce this complete vehicle and give a potential date etc it is as if they are trying to scare of the smaller capital investors into companies that had a similar plan in mind.

This is nonsense. Of course it will backfire. All the EV fanboys who have a sense of mechanics and electronics will be reverse engineering inroads into even more enhanced hybrid electric vehicles.

I think series hybrids are the way of the future. hub motors and a diverse range of energy modules. from currently available to future potential.

thats my 2cents

The optimal efficiency rpm for the 1litre 3 cylinder eflex motor running in serial with the motor etc seems great. this would help the spread of ethanol industries in Oz. I just hope they make full use of the enhanced octane rating of e85 by letting more boost thru the little turbo when higher amounts of ethanol are detected. and using knock sensors as a backup. this would yield more power and range. i’d love to see the tuning hacks and homebrew ethanol scene kickoff.

I actually think with an electric vehicle future, there will be many more smaller vehicle body manufacturers around possibly using electric motors of varying configurations. I can see the small (