Interview: Dr Colin Herron, Manufacturing & Productivity Manager, One North East
By: Dan Connell, Wednesday, March 31, 2010, AutomotiveWorld.com
The next five to ten years will undoubtedly prove to be crucial for the electric car market as OEMs launch new models and as governments start to construct infrastructures. However, many questions remain unresolved. How big is the business opportunity? How robust and reliable will the technology be in the hands of ordinary motorists? Can the supply chain sustain the growth envisaged? How is the roll-out process of cars and recharging networks going to be managed? Will some places become electric car hotspots while others get left behind?
Several industry experts discussed these issues at the recent AutomotiveWorld.com webinar, 'Bringing EVs to market: technical challenges and business opportunities'. As a follow on to this online seminar, AutomotiveWorld.com asked the members of the panel to expand on their respective presentations in a series of interviews featuring the questions asked by attendees of the webinar. The first in this series is panelist Dr Colin Herron, Manufacturing & Productivity Manager, One North East.
One North East is the Regional Development Agency (RDA) covering North East England. One of nine RDAs in England, One North East's ambition is to establish North East England as one of the world's leading regions for research, skills and manufacture of low carbon technologies. This initiative involves the installation of a comprehensive electronic vehicle (EV) charging network (currently in its first phase), and the simultaneous development of a supporting infrastructure.
AutomotiveWorld.com: In your presentation, when talking about developing a supporting infrastructure you mentioned the building of a training centre. What training will be available to ensure the safety of the workers in the assembly plants?
Dr Colin Herron: If we use Nissan as an example - a training package is being developed to ensure all staff are trained in the safety aspects of working with high electric potential. It is important to remember that a lot of the vehicle is standard technology. The battery plant is different as it involves new technology. Operators will be certified for different levels of work similar to the handling and fitment of airbags. I know Honda and Toyota are doing similar training for hybrids. It is also a fact that the standards have to be developed now in preparation for the battery and vehicle introduction. In my region, we are building a €9m training college for this reason.
AW: Is Nissan the only automotive producer who is going to build EVs within the UK?
CH: To date yes.
AW: Who will be building and repairing the higher voltage cars and trucks?
CH: There are already commercial van manufacturers in our region. For example, we have Smith Electric Vehicles, who will also be using the college.
AW: How will the repair shops be trained?
CH: We anticipate that all people who will work on EVs will have to pass a training course. Again, we will provide the training. However this is a question for all areas of the world where EVs are to be introduced. It is possible that the car dealers will be trained, but provision must be made for independent repairers.
AW: Has any thought been given to the (back yard) mechanic working on their hybrids at their home, when we know voltage will do nothing but go up?
CH: Yes. It has to be recognized that the biggest danger - as is the case with the ICE - comes from people who think they are mechanics and do their own repairs at home.
AW: During the presentation, you mentioned 'Intelligent charging'. Is that like a smart grid but on a smaller basis?
CH: No, intelligent charging refers to the software within the charging pole to transmit information. The information can be used as part of the operation of a smart grid. Some charging posts are simply a plug in with no data transfer.
AW: The passenger car industry has made a big transition from almost no EVs to a reasonable potential market size within a span of about ten years. What is your estimate for commercial vehicles?
CH: My opinion is that in the next ten years diesel will still power large trucks. Inner city delivery vans will go EV - I am sure of that. In 20 years I see hydrogen taking a reasonable market size.
AW: When designing locations for charging EVs, what consideration is being given to electric delivery trucks that may not be able to complete their route without supplementing their initial charge?
CH: Fleet controllers of delivery trucks know to the km each route. Also the operational mode of a delivery truck is to be at a location for single minutes of time, which does not allow for charging of any meaningful quantity. Most delivery trucks are retrofits of ICE vehicles and as such cannot accept rapid charges of say 50KW. Our region has many such trucks on the road with no problems.
AW: Is there no industry body trying to standardize batteries to allow for easy battery exchange in the future, via so-called 'filling stations' for example? How else will long distance journeys be made possible?
CH: It has taken years to standardize a charger for mobile phones in order to stop the waste generated by lack of interchangability. As we move forward in the 21st century we will have to change not just our technology, but the way we think and behave. For example, even though I have two cars and live in Newcastle, I would never think of driving five hours to London when the train takes three hours. Yes, we can complain about rail and public transport, but long distance travel by road has to be questioned even for ICE because oil is a finite resource.
Another point is that once EV batteries can do 150 miles on a charge and the average speed for anybody over a long journey is 50mph - try it - we are into a three hour drive followed by a rapid charge of 20 minutes, which is a service station stop and a coffee.
My concerns about battery charge are as follows. I cannot see a business model for the operator considering the capital investment charge and the price people will pay for 20KWH of electricity at £0.10 per KWh. If there is no commonality the stock of batteries - each the same size as a dining room table top and weighing 250kg - will take a huge space. Will anybody be comfortable with a battery being attached without inspecting it for damage? Remember these are slung under the car! There is potential for captive fleets such as black Taxi cabs.
AW: Access to the petrol/diesel refuelling infrastructure is unrestricted, but there are concerns that access to the recharging infrastructure will require RFID and/or contracts with the owner of the recharging pole. Could this prove problematic for customers?
CH: This is a very big subject with no correct answer. Different scenarios may exist such as the charging pole may be owned by local authorities as a public service and electricity charges paid to an electric company or a supermarket. In the north east of England we are priming the system by providing charging posts free or 50% subsidized. The electricity is free simply because there is no billing system developed.
To extend your question, we have to be sure that if a person moves between regions there will be no restrictions to use. This is a major part of the 'Plugged in Places' project my fellow panelist Will Cutler from the Department for Transport (OLEV) talked about. I think the best comparison/answer will be the ATM/cashpoint machine operation. At first a customer would have to find an ATM operated by their own bank, but now they can use any ATM and withdraw money in almost any country with the same card.
AW: How are countries approaching preferential parking and the problem of charging a vehicle without the use of a garage?
CH: Please consider the following logic; the penetration for EVs is targeted at 10% of the vehicles in a participating country. Different types of people will purchase EVs for different reasons. This might sound harsh but demand will probably be greater than initial supply so some people who, for example, live in a flat with no fixed parking should not purchase an EV.
However, if you have a dedicated charging post at work, why not make your work your garage? Not everybody will be the correct profile and to be honest 90% of people can be the wrong profile for the companies to hit their targets. We see preferential parking as a big incentive for city centre visits.
AW: EDF Energy Electric Vehicle Team Manager, Kate Armitage's presentation covered off-peak charging, but your own presentation was about rapid charging in daytime/peak loading. Does this not indicate problems with respect to demand and supply timing?
CH: This is part of our trials within the north east region of the UK. The theory is that people will charge off peak because it is cheaper. This will help level the load on the grid. This levelling is particularly welcome in countries such as France, which has a high dependency on nuclear power. The problem is that currently the charge cost of an EV is so much less than petrol or diesel that the difference between peak and off peak is not significant.
The worst case scenario would be that all EVs arrive home and commence charging at 5pm or 6pm. This is why trials that are currently underway are critical to the successful change to EVs.
We have also got to consider local networks which are more of a concern than the national grid. The average house uses 1.5 KW. What we do not know is what will happen in a street which has ten EV owners which all charge at 6pm and those same houses have an electric cooker which switches on at the same time and a person takes a power electric shower at the same time and so on.
AW: When do you believe EVs will be widely available in Asia, particularly in India where all major European player have plans for the next decade?
CH: EVs will only come to countries with cheap electricity from a reliable grid. I notice that launch plans for EVs seem to be missing in regions such as Africa, India, South America and Russia. This might only be a supply problem. Nissan will start production in Japan first. This production has to initially satisfy Japan, US and Europe, which means cars will be thin on the ground.
I know Tata is working on an electric car which will be ideal for major cities, but India is so big it will be a very long time before city to city travel will take place. This assumes a reliable electricity supply network.
AW: Do you think a global battery standardization is necessary if batteries are leased and replaced for charging?
CH: It would make life easier but unless a body such as the EU makes a legal standard then it will never happen.
AW: In terms of the ethics of fuel source, have you recognized any drawbacks from a social perspective, say compared with ethanol?
CH: There are two arguments which fall on social acceptability of using crops for ethanol and coal fired power stations to make electricity. I think the green lobby will argue both are not acceptable and a lot of people will make a choice on what is a priority for them.
Dr Colin Herron began his engineering career as an apprentice tool maker in 1973, starting a 37 year association with the automotive industry. In 1987 he commenced a 17 year employment with Nissan in Sunderland, culminating in a two-year secondment to One North East the Regional Development Agency (RDA) for the North East of England. Nissan's policy of transferring staff between departments allowed for training and extensive travel in Europe and Japan. His last period with Nissan was in the Supplier Development Team (SDT), with the role of transferring the manufacturing techniques into their supplier base.
Published on Wednesday, March 31, 2010
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