The Bahamian Electric Vehicle

by Larry Smith

In a recent article I recalled the Silver Volt - an electric car project from almost 30 years ago that had a brief Bahamian dimension.

In 1980 a Michigan company called Electric Auto set up an assembly plant in Freeport to produce the Silver Volt on a modified GM chassis. It had a top speed of 70 mph, a range of up to 100 miles and could recharge its batteries in just 90 minutes - advanced for the time.

Reports claimed that the cars would sell for $15,000. About 300 prototypes were to be built in Freeport for road-testing in Florida, though only 12 were produced before the company pulled out and disappeared from view. But recently we received this email from Dr Barry Iseard, who worked on the project:

"It was good to see that you remembered the Silver Volt in your column of February 6.

"I was one of the researchers on the electric car and have stayed in Grand Bahama ever since, subsequently carrying out golf cart assembly and presently in the environmental and construction business with Island Projects. However, I am still associated with the Silver Volt project!

"In 1985, the Silver Volt project relocated to Fort Lauderdale. One of the reasons was because the recycling of lead from spent batteries was an essential part of Silver Volt battery production. Unfortunately the Bahamian government had signed on to an international treaty not to import any hazardous materials, and spent batteries containing lead were classified as hazardous waste.

"The other main reason was that we needed to develop an improved range extender power source, to make the car into a hybrid. The company is now called Apollo Energy Systems (http://www.electricauto.com). In Austria we have developed an alkaline fuel cell using ammonia as the hydrogen carrier, as explained on the web site.

"Funding is presently almost in place for manufacturing of the improved battery-alkaline fuel cell hybrid Silver Volt, and due to the high cost of oil, the timing is now right.

"Incidentally, the fuel cell battery combo would also find application as a power source in the Bahamas. The fuel is ammonia, which goes through a cracker to make the hydrogen, the final products being water and electricity. Surplus electricity is stored in the batteries which supply a greater output for a shorter time."

The Silver Volt emerged from the work of Robert Aronsson, an American who invented the lead-cobalt battery in 1966 and went on to produce the Mars electric car (when the US space programme had a lot more profile). Lead-cobalt batteries perform better than earlier lead-acid batteries and are cheaper than newer nickel-metal hydride or lithium-ion alternatives.

In 1978 the Silver Volt was designed to showcase Aronsson's advanced battery technology, and two years later a subsidiary called Electric Auto Corporation (Bahamas) Ltd assembled a dozen of these cars in Freeport before moving the operation to Florida. There were ongoing road tests and demonstration projects in the ensuing years, but the electric auto industry never took off. In 1994 Apollo Energy Systems became the exclusive worldwide licensee of Aronsson's technology.

Apollo has designed a new Silver Volt that combines its patented lead-cobalt battery with a hydrogen fuel cell. The hydrogen is produced from ammonia by an on-board chemical cracker and the car is said to have a range of 400 miles with a top speed of 100 mph and 5-minute re-fueling. The Electric Propulsion System (as it is known) consists of a battery, fuel cell, solar cell, electric motor and electronic motor controller. The same technology combo is also being packaged as a mini power plant.

By comparison, GM's prototype Chevrolet Volt has a 161 hp electric motor that gives a top speed of 100 mph and is powered by a lithium-ion battery pack that offers a range of up to 40 miles in standard driving conditions. The batteries recharge in about 6 hours. The Chevy Volt also has a small gasoline engine to charge the battery pack, which extends the driving range to 700 miles. This car was announced last year and may be available in small quantities by 2010 at a price of under $40,000.

Most people view electric vehicles as the wave of the future, but they actually date back to the Victorian era. A Scot named Robert Anderson produced the first electric carriage, presumably to save money on hay. But by the early 20th century more roads, Henry Ford's mass production and abundant cheap oil made gasoline-engine vehicles the preferred choice.

Interest in electric vehicles revived in the 1960s and 70s as a way to cut air pollution and dependence on Arab oil. They were often just souped-up golf carts, but both GM and Ford produced electric vehicles in the 1990s. GMs EV1 made it to market for the 1997 model year, and was one of the fastest, most efficient production cars ever built. They were leased, not sold, but the 1100 that were built to meet California's strict emission laws ended up being literally crushed out of existence by the manufacturer.

In fact, the EV1 was the subject of a well-publicised documentary film two years ago that alleged a conspiracy by the automotive and petroleum industries to suppress advances in electric propulsion. After spending a billion dollars, GM closed the EV1 programme in 2003 saying there was no customer demand (despite huge waiting lists and much positive feedback from lessees).

There are a bunch of electric vehicle options out there today. They range from the $100,000 Tesla Roadster, to low-speed electric cars such as those produced by Zenn Motors in Canada, to the Indian-made Reva hatchback that sells for $18,000 in England, to a variety of electric scooters and bicycles. There are also companies that will convert existing vehicles to electric power. And dramatic improvements are being made in both driving range and battery recharging time.

But apart from golf carts, no electric vehicles are available in the Bahamas, and there are no incentives to promote them- despite all the traffic congestion, air pollution and sky high price of gasoline. Even in tiny out island communities where golf carts make perfect sense, we still drive around in gas-guzzling SUVs.

Comments

[Gordon McCallum]

An interesting piece, despite the dig at the Scots. Perhaps you share this trait too? It did make me chuckle!
Yours Aye,

[Bob Knaus]

I hate to be the permanent rainmaker on the cleantech parade. After all, I'm a guy who lives on a sailboat and who gets most of his electricity from a wind generator and a solar panel.

But... unless the source of electricity is non-carbon-emitting and non-polluting... electric vehicles do not gain anything environmentally. It's a math thing, not an ideology thing. Losses through the wires and batteries, you know?

Until the marginal kilowatt of electricity in the Bahamas is generated by wind, solar, OTEC, or the n-word, electric vehicles will be merely a feel-good technology. Not a real technology to address real environmental issues.

[larry smith]

Are they any better than a normal gasoline car? This is from evworld.com:

"In terms of carbon dioxide emissions, they generate a fraction of that expelled by a normal gasoline engine car.

For every gallon of gasoline burned, approximately 22 pounds of CO2 are created, as well as other pollutants. By comparison, an electric car may travel the same distance consuming 5 kilowatt hours (kWh) of electric power at a rate of 200 watt hours/mile.

Assuming the local grid is 100% coal-fired, roughly 5 lbs of coal would be consumed to create that 5kWh. Depending on the grade and carbon content of the coal, one kilowatt hour creates approximately 1.4 pounds of CO2. That's 7 pounds of CO2 vs. 22 pounds to travel the same 25 miles."

[Jason Hayman]

You are spot on Larry. We did a study at Cambridge; comparing a small gasoline powered car (Smart car) and a small electric car (G-Wiz) during a weekly commuter cycle in London. The carbon emissions from the electric vehicle were about a quarter of that created by the gasoline powered car.

[larry smith]

This is from Slate:

An electric car isn't a zero-emissions vehicle. Driving one still has an environmental cost. But if you break down the numbers, EVs still come out ahead of cars featuring internal combustion engines, especially in terms of carbon dioxide emissions.

Lower carbon dioxide emissions aren't the only advantage to going electric with your wheels. EVs such as the Roadster don't even have tailpipes, so there's not a constant plume of acrid smoke wafting into the air. As a result, EVs produce less methane, nitrous oxide, and assorted other greenhouse gases than their gas-powered counterparts.

Let's say the skeptics are right to some extent, though, and that EVs provide only marginal environmental benefits. Upgrades in power-plant technology, along with the creation of more alternative energy sources, would still make every EV cleaner. As green-car enthusiasts are so fond of saying, it's a lot easier to control emissions at a few power plants than at millions of tailpipes.

[Bob Knaus]

Something's wrong with the CO2 math, Larry. A gallon of gasoline weighs about 7 pounds, so each pound of gasoline emits 3 pounds of CO2. Each pound of coal emits 1.4 pounds of CO2.

But, coal contains more carbon per pound than gasoline! That's why it's so black :)

I do agree that an electric car driver will emit less CO2 than a gas hogging SUV driver. That's because the electric car weighs less, goes slower, and doesn't have amenities like air conditioning. If we were all forced to drive electric cars, there would be fewer cars on the road and we'd use less energy.

But I think a lot of people would be unhappy with that.

[troof]

Bob Knaus:
f**k the environment. Nobody cares. It's all about the money!

If buying an electric car saves me lot of gas money then that's all that matters. That's all that matters to me and 90% of the rest of the people in The Bahamas.

If 90% of the cars in The Bahamas were electric, would that have a positive effect on the environment??? ... Who cares!!! We saving money nickah!

But let's say 10 years from now 75% of the cars here were electric...don't you think eventually a large number of people would finally start thinking..."If all dese lectric cars round here id get dey power from da sun and the ammonia I is mop my floor with an ting like dat and it only cost one lil two or tree dollas den why da FRIG my BEC bill still so EFFIN high." Then when people start thinking like that they will have a combined voice loud enough to force the change. Or even better, the people thinking that though might happen to already be working for BEC by then.

[Bob Knaus]

um, ignoring the Uncle Remus dialect... the Bahamas has a population of 320,000. Maybe 400,000 if you count the Haitians, which governments from neither the FNM nor the PLP seem inclined to do.

How much effect will Bahamian actions have on global environmental problems? Slightly more than zero, vanishingly greater than none. There are 5 billion humans and counting on this planet. Bahamians are cruelly subject to "externalities" as economists would say, with little recourse to address them.

As a Bahamian, you can choose actions which make you feel good about the global environment. You cannot choose actions which make a measurable difference about the global environment.

So, it's best for Bahamians to concentrate on their local environment and stop worrying about the global one.

Sorry to be the bearer of sobering news.