Thursday, April 19, 2012

Another closely guarded secret about electric cars spills-batteries are 1/3 cost of the car, Ford's is $12-15,000

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6/10/11, "Electric cars may not be so green after all, says British study," The Australian, Ben Webster
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4/17/12, "Ford CEO: Battery Is Third of Electric Car Cost," WSJ.com, by Mike Ramsey

"One of the auto industry's most closely guarded secrets—the enormous cost of batteries for electric cars—has spilled out.

Speaking at a forum on green technology on Monday, Ford Motor Co. F -1.01% Chief Executive Alan Mulally indicated battery packs for the company's Focus electric car costs between $12,000 and $15,000 apiece.

"When you move into an all-electric vehicle, the battery size moves up to around 23 kilowatt hours, [and] it weighs around 600 to 700 pounds," Mr. Mulally said at Fortune magazine's Brainstorm Green conference in California.

"They're around $12,000 to $15,000 [a battery]" for a type of car that normally sells for about $22,000, he continued, referring to the price of a gasoline-powered Focus. "So, you can see why the economics are what they are."

Ford is currently promoting its $39,200 Focus EV at events around the country. It has a 23 kilowatt-hour battery pack. A Ford spokeswoman said Mr. Mulally's comments were designed to provide a indication of the car's battery costs.

Based on the price range that Mr. Mulally indicated, Dearborn, Mich.-based Ford appears to pay between $522 and $650 a kilowatt-hour for its electric-vehicle batteries. In the past, auto makers and battery makers have been reluctant to disclose the cost per kilowatt hour. Analysts have made projections that battery costs are between $500 and $1,000 per kilowatt-hour.

The U.S. Department of Energy, as part of its efforts to help promote plug-in hybrid- and fully-electric vehicles, has set a goal of lowering the cost of batteries to $300 a kilowatt-hour by next year. The DOE has helped to fund battery plants in the U.S. to install the capacity, and ideally lower the cost of batteries.

Ford hasn't provided projections for anticipated sales of its EV, but has made the point that it doesn't need to achieve high volumes because it is building the Focus EV on the same line as the gasoline-powered version. It sold just 10 to fleet customers late last year and now is building more of the vehicles at its plant in Wayne, Mich.

The Focus EV is a direct competitor to Nissan Motor Co.'s 7201.TO +0.12% Leaf, which sold about 9,700 in 2011 in the U.S. The Leaf starts at $35,200 and has a stated range of 73 miles on a full charge. Ford says its Focus can go up to 76 miles on a full charge and can be recharged in 3 ½ hours using a 240-volt wall charger, or about twice as fast as the Leaf.

Other auto makers including General Motors Co. GM +0.46% and Fisker Automotive Inc. have struggled with high prices and slow initial sales of their battery-powered vehicles, but have committed to building new models.

GM is planning to introduce its all-electric Spark subcompact later this year. Its about $40,000 Volt car has a small gasoline engine that kicks in when the battery runs low." via Tom Nelson

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Ed. note: 'Tired' right wing spin: Electric car batteries require rare earths in their manufacture which are very polluting to mine. The US chooses not to mine its own rare earths and relies on Communist China for what it needs.

The DOE may be 'funding' battery plants in the US, but they still need rare earths. After factoring in CO2 emitted in manufacture and disposal of "electric car" batteries, electric cars are less 'green' than petrol powered cars:

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6/10/11, "Electric cars may not be so green after all, says British study," The Australian, Ben Webster

"Emissions from manufacturing electric cars are at least 50 per cent higher because batteries are made from materials such as lithium, copper and refined silicon, which

  • require much energy to be processed.
Many electric cars are expected to need a replacement battery after a few years. Once the emissions from producing the second battery are added in, the total CO2 from producing an electric car rises to 12.6 tonnes, compared with 5.6 tonnes for a petrol car. Disposal also produces double the emissions because of the energy consumed in recovering and recycling metals in the battery." (originally published in UK Times).
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6/5/11, "RARE EARTHS: USA CONCERNS, US CONGRESS ETC…," simonthongwh.com

"Rare earths and other critical minerals are essential to the manufacture of green technologies including wind turbine generators, advanced solar panels and electric car batteries."...

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"Rare Earth Metals," UCLA Institute of Environment and Sustainability

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3/15/12, "Rare earth case reveals US hypocrisy," China Daily, Chen Weihua

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Some question EPA 'electric car' mileage claims:

4/16/12, "Update on the EPA’s Electric Vehicle Mileage Fraud," Coyote blog, Warren Meyer (bio)

"I have written several articles (here and here) outlining why the EPA’s method of giving electric cars an equivalent or eMPG is outright fraudulent. I calculated for the average driver, for example, that the Nissan Leaf’s 99 eMPG was actually closer to 36. Why? Well, in the EPA’s methodology, the science-based Obama administration

  • pretends the 2nd law of thermodynamics does not exist.
Specifically, they assume perfect conversion of the chemical potential energy in fossil fuels to electricity. They also assume zero transmission losses. To rework the calculation, I actually used a Clinton-era Department of Energy methodology
  • called well to wheels."...

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