Electric Vehicles

A Brief Overview
Comment: in response to several questions, I've added Notes 6 and 7, and made several minor additions.

Electric vehicles have arrived, and I do mean that literally! It's been reported that we have a visitor to our association, who drives an electric automobile and recharges it while here. Some vehicles are reputed to use little electricity. However, most of the full size vehicles with Li-ion batteries have stringent requirements for 120VAC  power with dedicated electrical outlets, and 240V charging stations.

Our association garages are not wired for this purpose, and the use of such electricity would be a donation by the association to the owner of the electric car; using association power to charge electric vehicles is the equivalent of providing free gasoline to certain residents or visitors. So, such use is restricted. (Note 1).   Attempting to charge an electric vehicle may also exceed the electrical capacity of the outlet in the garage; we have a single 15 amp service for the garage door openers, lighting and the outlets.

Some older electric cars, or electric conversions, use lead acid batteries, and require diminished charging rates, which means lower peak current but longer charge times.

So how much power are we talking about for the current generation of electric cars? Let's look at two vehicles, the Chevrolet Volt and the Nissan Leaf.

The Chevrolet Volt, according to the manufacturer, will require “12 or 14 gauge wiring via a grounded, dedicated, minimum 15 ampere 120VAC 3-prong outlet with GFCI protection.” It will use up to 15 amperes when charging. That’s a maximum of 1,800 watts of power, the equivalent of a good sized toaster oven, which may be running all night, or longer! According to GM, it is possible to charge the vehicle in “the reduced level mode….Reduced level mode allows a non-dedicated circuit to be used but increases the charging time.”

The second vehicle is the Nissan Leaf. According to the manufacturer, this vehicle has a 120V charging cycle, which will require 20 hours to completely charge the batteries of the vehicle. Nissan states “It will charge on a regular 110/120V 20-Amp dedicated outlet. This is considered a "trickle charge," which means it would charge at a slower rate.” The Nissan vehicle, to get the charging time to a reasonable “7 hours” will require a 220/240 volt 40 amp circuit for it’s “Charging Station.” That’s a lot of power; about 9,000 watts! Nissan has stated that the average cost of the installation of such a station will be $2,000.  Nissan states that charging of the vehicle can be controlled via cellphone!

Of course, any electricity used in charging the electric vehicle, is at a cost over and above the installation of any "charging station" or separately protected GFCI equipped outlet.

Currently, our garages do not include the necessary wiring. Of course, it could be possible for an owner to install the necessary wiring from their power panel to the garage, and install the necessary "charging stations", all at the cost of the owner. The issues, if any, for the association are currently under review.

What types of vehicles are we talking about?

Electric bicycles and scooters have been around for a few years. There are conversion kits for motorcycles and bicycles.  I investigated the options in 2005. Electric cars and plug-in hybrids are not only in development, they are here. GM, Nissan and Toyota are taking orders. Smaller vehicles, with top speeds of 25MPH such as the GEM are also available.

In the bicycle department, the top end is probably the M55 Beast, an electric bicycle that can go 75 miles at a maximum 40 MPH. It is to be unveiled at the "Top Marques Luxury Fair" in Monaco on April 14th to 17th, 2011. If the Beast is a bit expensive for you at about $35,000, there is always the Daemon, a relatively inexpensive $13,000.

Here's a brief summary of some of the electric cars that you will be able to purchase. This is not a complete list, and is in alphabetical order.

Chevrolet Volt
The Chevrolet Volt is a 4 door hatchback which is capable of a 400 mile range from a single charge because of it's backup gasoline engine. It is capable of a maximum speed of 100 MPH. GM has plans to produce up to 10,000 in 2011 with a cost of about $40,000.

Ford Focus Electric
Ford has announced an electric version of the Focus model, to be available in 2013.

Ford Transit Connect EV (Electric)
The Ford Transit Connect is an electric version of the Ford Transit van. It uses the Azure Force Drive electric powertrain with lithium-ion battery. It can achieve a range of 50-80 miles with a top speed of 75 MPH.

Lightning GT
The Lightning GT is a hand built electric car. It is very fast, with 0-60 MPH in less than 4 seconds, with a top speed of 130 MPH.

Mitsubishi iMiEV
The Mitsubishi iMiEV has a 100 mile range and top speed of 80 MPH. Mitsubishi expects to produce 5,000 units this year. This will be an expensive vehicle at about $50,000.

Nissan Leaf
The Nissan Leaf is a 4 door hatchback with a 100 mile range on a single charge. A full charge at 240V will take less than 8 hours. It can achieve a top speed of 90 MPH using an 80kW electric motor and an Li-ion battery pack. Prices start at about $28,000 and limited numbers are on sale now.

Peugeot iON
This is based on the iMiEV from Mitsubishi. It has range of 80 miles but offers a very fast recharge time.

Tesla Roadster
The Tesla Roadster is a two door sports car. It has a range of 220 miles and a top speed of 125 MPH. Acceleration is 0-60 MPH in under 4 seconds. The Tesla is on sale with base price of $109,000.

Toyota Prius PHV PlugIn
The Prius Plug-in (Prius PHV) is currently available in a demonstration program, with sales commencing 2012. It is a combination electric and hybrid, gasoline powered vehicle. It can go 13 miles in electric-only mode on a single charge. Longer distances are achieved with the hybrid electric-gasoline drive.

Are Electric Cars Really "Zero Pollution Vehicles?"
This is a somewhat delicate area of discussion. Electric vehicles do not emit the carbon dioxide or water vapor and other by-products of combustion, unless they include a secondary gasoline engine. However, all electric vehicles require energy, and the source of that energy is the electricity used to recharge the vehicle batteries. What is the source of electricity? It is a fact that about 66% of all of the electrical power generated in the U.S. east of the Mississippi river, is produced by coal burning electrical power plants.

The only way an electric vehicle could be truly a "zero pollution vehicle" under current definitions, is if the electrical power were generated by so called "green" or clean methods, such as "wind power" or "solar power."

However, it is important to keep in mind that electric vehicles, just as is true with any other "vehicle," requires a significant manufacturing infrastructure, and that includes mining, metallurgy and chemical facilities. It takes some serious manufacturing to produce the batteries used in electric vehicles. The most popular of these, at present, seem to be the Li-Ion batteries, which provide the necessary capacity to get the range of the vehicle to acceptable limits. GM has done considerable research on this, as have other automobile manufacturers.

Many types of batteries include toxic metals such as cadmium. The metals in lithium ion batteries are reputed to include cobalt, copper, nickel and iron. These are currently considered as safe for disposal via landfills or incinerators. I understand the lithium ion batteries contain an ionic form of lithium but no lithium metal. Europeans have a more stringent view of the disposal of these different types of batteries because there is always the potential for contamination to water and these batteries do contain metals.

Comments, Corrections, Omissions, References

Note 1.  Our association included this statement in the January Newsletter:

"Restrictions to Electricity in Garages - For safety, any use should ONLY be with a proper GFCI (ground fault protector) equipped extension cord. All electricity used in the garages is paid for by the association and is metered separately. The cost is shared by owners and is paid by your monthly fees. A single 15 Amp circuit powers many garages. For these reasons and because of the limitations to the available power and wiring, use is restricted. Any owner contemplating the purchase or use of an electric vehicle, of any type, must contact Management for guidance, and must not use the outlets in the garages for charging that vehicle. Proper guidelines will be developed as more is known about the different vehicular and government requirements."

Note 2. This is a summary. If you want specifics, I suggest you visit a dealer. 

Note 3.  This includes some information originally researched and presented to our board on December 22, 2010.

Note 4. I won't get involved in the debate about the merits, or failings of electric vehicles. I would hope that anyone considering a vehicle such as an electric car, does a lot of research, including electrical power charging requirements, actual operating costs, warranty and disposal issues. 

Note 5. If you are curious how I calculated the wattage required in the above, here's several formulas. For our electric car example, use single phase power:

For single phase power (hot, neutral and ground) the formula is:
Volts x Amperes = Watts.

For two phase power,  the formula is:
Volts x Amperes x Power Factor x 2 = Watts.

For three phase power, the formula is:
Volts x Amperes x Power Factor x 1.732 = Watts.

Note 6. This note added February 8, in response to question posed by a reader. "How much will it cost me to recharge an electric car, such as the Nissan Leaf?" Answer: To answer that question, will require some additional information, such as the cost per kilowatt hour (KWH) for electricity. It also requires making some other assumptions, including how much electricity is actually used during the entire charging cycle. I don't know that, so I will use a constant energy use of 9,000 watts; this may not be true. For the cost of electricity, I'll use the EIA figures for Illinois, which is a cost of 11.57 cents per KWH.

Here's the formula used to calculate the recharge cost:

watts x hours used ÷ 1000 x price per KWH = cost of electricity

If we use Nissan's numbers, which is 7 hours for a complete recharge, and if we assume a constant 9000 watts during the recharge period, or cycle, we arrive at this estimate:

9000 x 7 ÷ 1000 x 11.57 cents = $7.29 for a complete recharge.

The above is only an estimate. For more accurate information, consult a dealer. 

Note 7: Here is some additional information on calculating electrical energy costs. How much would it cost to leave 100 watt light bulb "on" for an entire year? Here's the answer, in three steps:


100 Watts x 24 hours per day x 365 days per year = 876,000 Watt-hours (Wh).


876,000 Wh ÷ 1000 = 876 Kilowatt-hours (kWh).


876 kWh x 11.57 cents = $101.35 to leave that light on for an entire year.