Barack Obama, the Science President, is staking the future of America, and especially that of our government car company GM, on the Volt electric car, which uses lithium ion batteries, that can be recharged by a small electric motor if the battery gets low.
A commenter on a news story pointed out that the lithium battery pack will have a life of only 1,000 duty cycles before it must be replaced, which the person believes will cost about $15,000. If you use your Volt to go to work and back every day and nothing else (2 cycles/day x 5 days/week X 50 weeks), at the end of 2 years, your batteries will be useless. They will start to lose range long before they die completely, which means the 40 mpg gasoline engine kicks in, defeating the entire purpose of the electric car.
But 1000 is probably way too optimistic.
http://batteryuniversity.com/parttwo-34.htm
But lets say that is accurate. Instead of your 40 mile commute costing $1 in electricity, the cost of using up the batteries adds another $15.00, or in the ballpark of comparison to gasoline an additional $10 per gallon.
GM claims to have “magic” proprietary computer software that will allow the batteries to last 10 years:
http://gm-volt.com/2009/01/23/gm-qa-with-bob-kruse-on-the-chevy-volts-batteries/
(How did they determine that in less than 10 years?)
President Obama makes a big deal that he’s the “Smart” president. Answer that one, smart guy.
If you get past that issue, Lithium ion batteries are dependent on lithium that is only commercially viable in one mine in the world, lose their ability to deliver current if they get too hot, and are a significant fire and explosion hazard. There is also currently no technology to recycle lithium ion batteries.
Ahhh…Clark Howard’s favorite subject, except that he says the average cost per mile is in the neighborhood of $17.00 over the life of the car. Better living through technology?
Well, I was trying hard not to overstate the case. I didn’t include the cost of having an electrician put a high amperage circuit into your garage (what do people without a garage do?), or challenge the assumptions about off-peak kwh costs – increased demand will change when “off peak” is, and that will change electricity costs – not just for those driving plugin electric cars.
Last I heard, Clark was riding a “scooter” to work. His extreme frugality is probably not a solution for that many people – but it does make his show entertaining.
Has anyone considered the environmental impact that thousands of spent lithium Ion batteries are going to have on the environment?