The Price of Electric Car Charging

As automakers were seeking to commercialize electric cars and meet California's Zero Emission Vehicle mandate in the mid-1990s, it was apparent that developing harmonious charging standards was going to be a challenge. General Motors' system, an elegant but costly magnetic induction charger developed at its GM Hughes Electronics facility, was heavily championed by the company as the de-facto standard for EV charging. Ford was no less adamant that its conductive charger design should be adopted industry wide. It became increasingly clear that this could become another VHS/BETA type standards war. To lend perspective, we are reprinting this report verbatim from Green Car's March 1996 issue.

AT WHAT COST ELECTRIC CAR CHARGING?
ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED MARCH 1996 Over the past five years there has been plenty of talk about how electric cars will run cheaper, and with less maintenance, than conventional vehicles. There is substantial reason to believe this. But as this field begins to move from development to market the need to examine both direct and related costs of electric vehicle (EV) ownership takes on a new importance.

Perhaps no emerging EV issue is destined to be more controversial, at least in the short-term, than recharging. But it's not electricity rates, load leveling, powerplant emissions, or the effect of recharging on battery life where real controversy will first bristle. It's the medium in which energy makes its way from electrical grid to onboard batteries.

In the electric vehicle arena, battle lines are being drawn between inductive charging, where energy is transferred between charger and vehicle via a magnetic field, and conductive charging, where the transfer is made through a more familiar metal-to-metal connection.

If it weren't for price, current maneuvering in the EV charging realm would simply be deemed by many a brewing format war along the lines of the historic battle between VHS and Beta videocassettes. But price, although it is being downplayed, is a real issue.

Cost of the Magne-Charge system marketed by General Motors' Delco Propulsion Systems and destined for use by GM's soon-to-come electric EV1 and S-Series pickups has not been released. But speculation, and reports circulating in the trade press, put its debut price tag at around $6,500.

The cost of this system will certainly fall as sales of the units increase in tandem with the sale of EVs using this charging format. In the interim, GM electric vehicles are being built with a chargeport designed to work only with the Magne-Charge's smart, unplug-like but very user-friendly paddle design.

A price for the conductive system being developed by Huntsville, Alabama-based SCI Systems for Ford's upcoming electric Ranger pickup and Chrysler's NS-Electric minivan is also in flux but is expected to debut in the $1,000 range, "with an ultimate target of $500," shares a Ford insider. A conductive charger being developed at Transportation Design & Manufacturing (TDM), the Detroit, Michigan-based upfitter contracted to initially bring electric Rangers to Ford showroom, has already been announced at $599. GM says its Magne-Charge target price is also in the same range, but it remains to be seen how far, and how quickly, it can drop from a lofty $6,500.

"Convenience charge" hookups that allow plugging electric vehicles into any standard household outlet will be provided on EVs as a matter of course. However, it's important to note that while these do offer a universal connection that can be used virtually anywhere, they are not intended for daily use. Charging at 110-volts with this setup increases a battery pack's required recharging time by a factor of two to five, in some cases requiring a charge time of as long as 15 to 20 hours, placing it far from the definition of "convenience" in most folks' book.

Thus, the 220-volt charging systems designed to be used with a particular electric vehicle are crucial to an EV's daily operation. If a specific brand charger can be used only with a specific model car, then cost and compatibility -- not just convenience -- become critical issues that the automakers must address.

These issues must be resolved soon, hopefully well before the new genre of electric vehicles makes its imminent debut at the automakers' showrooms. The alternative is less a replay of the VHS/Beta debacle than an epic and groundbreaking standards war, fought by powerful interests on a much grander scale, setting a new benchmark of confusion in the marketplace. Unfortunately, the neophyte electric vehicle field can hardly afford the distraction as these all-new vehicles are driven to market.