Driving the Opel/Vauxhall Ampera, it is hard not to be impressed by the level of integration on this forthcoming car – particularly in terms of the powertrain. GM describes the Ampera as an E-REV, or extended-range electric vehicle, and as a technical solution to the problem of achieving low-carbon automobility, it has much to recommend it.
The difficulty with the elegance and logic of the technical solution, however, lies in explaining it to consumers and, just as importantly, the custodians of inner city air quality who sit in judgement over whether a car qualifies or not as a zero-emissions vehicle.
The Ampera, once charged from the grid, has a pure-electric range of around 40-80km depending upon conditions and driving style. Typically, this range is sufficient for 80% of trips undertaken. Provided that the car is recharged from an external electricity source (the on-board engine acts as a power generator, but does not recharge the battery), the car can run in pure electric mode day in and day out within this range. Only when the car is used for extended trips is the on-board internal combustion engine used.
Herein lies the problem for Ampera, and for the regulators trying to assess the car’s performance. Quite simply, it cannot be guaranteed that the car is being used in pure electric mode when within zero emissions zones.
It makes sense for consumers to recharge the batteries from the grid wherever possible, because it will be much cheaper per mile compared with continuously using the car in range-extended internal combustion engine mode to drive the car via the electric motor. There is, however, no absolute need to do so. Indeed, a key point in the selling proposition for the Ampera is that consumers do not have to worry about range anxiety in the same way that they would with a pure battery electric car. Herein lies the problem for Ampera, and for the regulators trying to assess the car’s performance. Quite simply, it cannot be guaranteed that the car is being used in pure electric mode when within zero emissions zones (ZEZs).
The relatively crude nature of current regulation of ZEZs, and the certification for type approval of cars, therefore tends to force consumers into a pure battery electric choice. While this is fine should all the driving be within an urban area, in most cases it is only a partial solution, with the consequence that many consumers may feel compelled to purchase two cars or more, and add even more congestion to already-crowded city streets.
“The driver does not have to drive in zero emissions mode in the city… is why the authorities say that we cannot grant the same exemptions here” – Christian Kuntsmann, Assistant Vehicle Chief Engineer, Opel Ampera
There needs to be a way of knowing whether a vehicle is running in pure electric mode. According to Christian Kuntsmann, Assistant Vehicle Chief Engineer for Opel on the Ampera, “this raises a fundamental issue for how the car is certified, because nobody has found a good solution to this problem. The driver does not have to drive in zero emissions mode in the city…he can overrule it or do something that spoils it, which is why the authorities say that we cannot grant the same exemptions here.”
In Japan, all commercial vehicles run with three lights above the cab, which come on progressively as the vehicle speed increases (the third comes on at 60kph), thus providing anybody with an external visual indicator of the vehicle condition – in this case speed. It would not be so difficult, surely, for number plate recognition cameras to also recognise an adjacent indicator showing whether a car was driving in pure electric mode. A more advanced solution would be to integrate data on vehicle mode via GPS to an infrastructure monitoring system, or even to have the infrastructure switch the mode of operation of a vehicle.
In any event, this is an issue that is unlikely to go away, and which is in need of a solution because otherwise we may be forced into inappropriate technology choices.
The opinions expressed here are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the positions of Automotive World Ltd.
Dr Peter Wells is a Reader at Cardiff Business School, where he is a Co-Director of the Centre for Automotive Industry Research and leads the automotive industry research programme within BRASS, also in Cardiff University. Dr Wells is also a director of AutomotiveWorld.com’s sister website AWPresenter.com. He can be contacted on wellspe@cardiff.ac.uk.
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