1 00:00:00,012 --> 00:00:05,920 Hello, we're in Energy 101 and we've been talking about oil and oil independence. 2 00:00:05,920 --> 00:00:10,407 And energy independence that centers around oil imports. 3 00:00:10,407 --> 00:00:16,147 And I thought it would be a good time to talk about something we hear a lot about, 4 00:00:16,147 --> 00:00:20,690 with the new technology being commercialized and coming on the 5 00:00:20,690 --> 00:00:23,562 forefront. And that's electric cars. 6 00:00:23,562 --> 00:00:28,816 So let's, let's look at electric cars, and what the, what they mean. 7 00:00:28,816 --> 00:00:33,085 It turns out there's a lot of confusion over electric cars. 8 00:00:33,085 --> 00:00:36,687 They're electric cars and they're electric cars. 9 00:00:36,687 --> 00:00:40,738 All electric cars are not created equal is all I can say. 10 00:00:40,738 --> 00:00:46,017 some of em been out for a while and others are new, so let's just try to 11 00:00:46,017 --> 00:00:50,018 orient those. And again, the reason that electric cars 12 00:00:50,018 --> 00:00:54,824 are important is their impact on oil because 70% of our oil is used for 13 00:00:54,824 --> 00:00:58,407 transportation. So, if we're going to do anything about 14 00:00:58,407 --> 00:01:03,221 oil independence and oil imports we need to do something about transportation. 15 00:01:03,221 --> 00:01:08,944 And there's several things we can do. electric cars is one of them, but not 16 00:01:08,944 --> 00:01:15,392 just any electric car but electric cars can save oil. They replace oil with 17 00:01:15,392 --> 00:01:22,832 electric, electricity energy, electric energy of course so that's good because 18 00:01:22,832 --> 00:01:28,095 we get electricity in the US. Not all countries but in this country, we 19 00:01:28,095 --> 00:01:33,982 get all of our electricity from coal, natural gas, hydro, wind, solar and some 20 00:01:33,982 --> 00:01:40,757 biomass that I don't have listed there. and, so that's good because due to the 21 00:01:40,757 --> 00:01:45,542 fact that natural gas price is about 5 times per unit of energy. 22 00:01:45,542 --> 00:01:51,412 That of natural gas and coal we just, it, that's makes no economic sense for 23 00:01:51,412 --> 00:01:57,431 anybody to be burning oil in a electric power plant to generate electricity, when 24 00:01:57,431 --> 00:02:03,683 they can burn natural gas and coal. so what are electric cars, those that run 25 00:02:03,683 --> 00:02:09,202 on all, all electricity accomplish is they don't burn any oil because you don't 26 00:02:09,202 --> 00:02:14,302 fill up at the filling station with gasoline, and they run off electricity, 27 00:02:14,302 --> 00:02:19,492 all of the energy of which comes from these natural resources that we listed 28 00:02:19,492 --> 00:02:25,696 That does not include oil, which is good from an energy independence viewpoint. 29 00:02:25,696 --> 00:02:31,776 So what are some examples of the cars. There are 3 categories of electric cars. 30 00:02:31,776 --> 00:02:37,015 The Prius hybrid car was the first that got the got, got the the name of an 31 00:02:37,015 --> 00:02:44,231 electric car but that's really a little bit of a, or quite a bit of a misnomer. 32 00:02:44,231 --> 00:02:51,982 Prius came out in 1997 in Japan, so it's, that technology has been around for what, 33 00:02:51,982 --> 00:02:58,655 15 years? And is a good example of how long it takes technology in the 34 00:02:58,655 --> 00:03:05,025 automobile industry, such as this, that's revolutionary to penetrate the market. 35 00:03:05,025 --> 00:03:10,696 And, there's still much less than 1% of the cars on the road that are hybrid 36 00:03:10,696 --> 00:03:14,719 cars. they went worldwide, the Toyota, with the 37 00:03:14,719 --> 00:03:21,078 Prius went worldwide in their market in 2001, and they've been available in the 38 00:03:21,078 --> 00:03:28,412 US since then and just in 2012 and 2013, they've come out with, some additional 39 00:03:28,412 --> 00:03:34,202 models, so they got larger Prius, Priuses, and smaller Priuses. 40 00:03:34,202 --> 00:03:41,772 But, the, the Prius particularly shines in urban traffic, and let's look at why. 41 00:03:41,772 --> 00:03:48,105 first, the first key point is, is the hybrid car, like the Prius only uses 42 00:03:48,105 --> 00:03:52,032 gasoline. It never plugs in to the electrical 43 00:03:52,032 --> 00:03:57,515 outlet to recharge a battery. It doesn't have that capability, it runs 44 00:03:57,515 --> 00:04:01,979 only on gasoline. So the, the oil that it saves is only due 45 00:04:01,979 --> 00:04:08,295 to the increased miles per gallon that it gets over a conventional car that's not a 46 00:04:08,295 --> 00:04:12,202 hybrid. all, it does have electricity on board 47 00:04:12,202 --> 00:04:17,869 though, but it generates its own. It generates its own electricity from the 48 00:04:17,869 --> 00:04:23,838 engine and times when the engine is not needed for other things, to power the car 49 00:04:23,838 --> 00:04:29,253 and stores that electricity in small battery pack, a small battery pack. 50 00:04:29,253 --> 00:04:34,466 Now why does it increase mile per gallon? Well because it has a breaking 51 00:04:34,466 --> 00:04:40,492 regeneration system on it which is one of the key things that causes the Prius to, 52 00:04:40,492 --> 00:04:45,712 and the hybrid cars in general. Most manufacturers have several hybrid 53 00:04:45,712 --> 00:04:50,112 models now but it allows it to regenerate breaking energy. 54 00:04:50,112 --> 00:04:54,966 Just think about it when you are. Driving around town, which is when the 55 00:04:54,966 --> 00:04:59,587 hybrid really comes into its own. you you're driving down the street you 56 00:04:59,587 --> 00:05:02,910 get a stop light or a stop sign so you put the breaks on. 57 00:05:02,910 --> 00:05:08,171 You you dissipate that kinetic energy that you had from the car moving into 58 00:05:08,171 --> 00:05:13,187 heat that heats your breaks up and that, that energy is gone. 59 00:05:13,187 --> 00:05:19,527 And then the stop light turns green and you accelarate and now you got to add all 60 00:05:19,527 --> 00:05:25,107 of that kinetic energy to get the car accelerated back up to 25 miles per hour, 61 00:05:25,107 --> 00:05:29,686 say to accelerate it again. And then, at the next stop light, you 62 00:05:29,686 --> 00:05:35,013 dissipate all that energy with brakes. Well, what the hybrid does is it, it uses 63 00:05:35,013 --> 00:05:38,211 a generator. When you stop on the brake, it doesn't 64 00:05:38,211 --> 00:05:40,876 use friction on the brakes to slow it down. 65 00:05:40,876 --> 00:05:45,303 It cranks up a generator that loads the car down and slows it down, so it 66 00:05:45,303 --> 00:05:50,320 generates electricity from the kinetic energy that is recouped from when the car 67 00:05:50,320 --> 00:05:54,048 is slowed down. So it regenerates the kinetic energy of 68 00:05:54,048 --> 00:05:57,249 the car, in stop and go traffic in particular. 69 00:05:57,249 --> 00:06:02,527 The battery pack is used to store the electricity and then generally when you 70 00:06:02,527 --> 00:06:07,782 accelerate then from the light, electricity is, that electricity that was 71 00:06:07,782 --> 00:06:13,282 generated from stopping, it put back, put into an electric motor that helps drive 72 00:06:13,282 --> 00:06:17,882 the wheels and accelerate back through 20 or 25 miles per hour. 73 00:06:17,882 --> 00:06:22,242 So, that's a big factor. Another thing that it does it always cuts 74 00:06:22,242 --> 00:06:27,037 the engine off, if you stop at a, when the car is stopped, and you have to pay 75 00:06:27,037 --> 00:06:31,877 attention to even notice that. But it, the, the car, the engine cuts off 76 00:06:31,877 --> 00:06:36,572 so it doesn't burn fuel when it idles, and that's a significant item also. 77 00:06:36,572 --> 00:06:42,256 So, but it has a very small battery pack. if you just didn't have the engine and 78 00:06:42,256 --> 00:06:47,249 you locked it out, you, you can travel less than a mile on the batteries. 79 00:06:47,249 --> 00:06:51,680 If they're fully charged. So this has a very small battery pack. 80 00:06:51,680 --> 00:06:55,982 So, the cost penalty of the expensive battery is not a big one. 81 00:06:55,982 --> 00:07:01,712 The range is the same as a conventional car, with similar miles per galloon and 82 00:07:01,712 --> 00:07:06,211 As I mentioned, it was introduced in 2001 worldwide. 83 00:07:06,211 --> 00:07:12,901 The, the range is an issue because, in the all-electric car that we'll get to in 84 00:07:12,901 --> 00:07:19,303 just a minute, but in here it's just a matter of how much gasoline you have in 85 00:07:19,303 --> 00:07:24,038 the tank. Now the miles per gallon is typically, in 86 00:07:24,038 --> 00:07:31,094 real life, in the high 30s or low 40s. other conventional vehicle miles per 87 00:07:31,094 --> 00:07:37,892 gallon numbers have come to compete with the Prius and hybrids in general. 88 00:07:37,892 --> 00:07:44,402 So you can buy cars that will get high 30's in typical kind of driving. 89 00:07:44,402 --> 00:07:51,192 similar to a hybrid so then that's the whole point of this hybrid technology. 90 00:07:51,192 --> 00:07:58,392 So, the particularly if you're in Europe when I, I, I've spent several years a 91 00:07:58,392 --> 00:08:04,912 semester at a time lecturing over in Europe and they always give me a 92 00:08:04,912 --> 00:08:09,985 a European diesel car turbo diesel and you wouldn't know it was is diesel until, 93 00:08:09,985 --> 00:08:14,740 unless you looked under the hood. and it performed like a conventional car 94 00:08:14,740 --> 00:08:17,938 cranks on cold weather just like a conventional car. 95 00:08:17,938 --> 00:08:21,733 And always get over 40 miles a gallon in that car. 96 00:08:21,733 --> 00:08:26,263 driving around town and driving on the Autobahn to high speed. 97 00:08:26,263 --> 00:08:31,148 So there are other ways to get high efficiency in automobiles other than 98 00:08:31,148 --> 00:08:34,058 hybrids, but hybrids are one of the first. 99 00:08:34,058 --> 00:08:37,642 the next run in the category is the Chevy Volt. 100 00:08:37,642 --> 00:08:44,164 Now Chevy Volt is really the hybrid, but we won't use that name because that's the 101 00:08:44,164 --> 00:08:50,281 name given to the Prius type cars but it's a called a plug-in hybrid. 102 00:08:50,281 --> 00:08:55,984 It's a plug-in hybrid, they just came out 2000 late 2011 I guess it was. 103 00:08:55,984 --> 00:09:01,262 but, in this case it'll run as an electric car for 40 miles. 104 00:09:01,262 --> 00:09:06,502 And then it converts to a regular hybrid operation like Prius. 105 00:09:06,502 --> 00:09:12,867 And then you get home, when you get home you plug it into your wall socket or a 106 00:09:12,867 --> 00:09:19,422 special recharging station that you buy if you want a faster charge, and once it 107 00:09:19,422 --> 00:09:23,317 recharges overnight. Then it'll go about 40 miles, just as an 108 00:09:23,317 --> 00:09:26,227 all electric car. The engine never cranks up. 109 00:09:26,227 --> 00:09:31,087 The engine never cranks up over that 40 miles, unless you do some, if you want 110 00:09:31,087 --> 00:09:34,462 some serious acceleration, or do something unusual. 111 00:09:34,462 --> 00:09:39,177 And then, when the batteries get low, it switches to a conventional hybrid 112 00:09:39,177 --> 00:09:42,692 operation, just like the Prius, burning old gasoline. 113 00:09:42,692 --> 00:09:47,333 And the mileage is a, a hybrid kind of mileage gasoline mileage. 114 00:09:47,333 --> 00:09:53,552 it has a medium sized battery pack. That has a lot to do with cost because 115 00:09:53,552 --> 00:09:57,255 these batteries in these cars are very expensive. 116 00:09:57,255 --> 00:10:02,845 the batteries in this, in the hybrid, this excuse me, the plug-in hybrid, the 117 00:10:02,845 --> 00:10:07,105 Chevy Volt, is probably 10, $12,000 somewhere in that category. 118 00:10:07,105 --> 00:10:12,311 the range, because it'll flip over to gasoline when the batteries run out is 119 00:10:12,311 --> 00:10:16,642 the same as a conventional car, it just depends on how big a gasoline tank you 120 00:10:16,642 --> 00:10:19,434 have, and this has a conventional gasoline tank. 121 00:10:19,434 --> 00:10:22,437 So that's the Chevy Volt which is the plug-in hybrid. 122 00:10:22,437 --> 00:10:27,078 The third type, is what you hear so much about lately, and that's the all-electric 123 00:10:27,078 --> 00:10:29,978 car, which a the Nissan Leaf was the 1st 1. 124 00:10:29,978 --> 00:10:35,213 I'm giving you examples here of the 1st one's on the market, there are other car 125 00:10:35,213 --> 00:10:40,028 now, again of manufacturers that have models such as these, like the all 126 00:10:40,028 --> 00:10:43,559 electric car. It gets all of its energy from charging 127 00:10:43,559 --> 00:10:47,453 batteries from the grid. It uses no electricity whatsoever. 128 00:10:47,453 --> 00:10:52,245 You never go the filling station. And by the way the plug in hybrid doesn't 129 00:10:52,245 --> 00:10:57,134 go to the filling station either if you never drive more than 40 miles a day, 130 00:10:57,134 --> 00:11:00,982 [COUGH] and can come back and recharge your batteries. 131 00:11:00,982 --> 00:11:04,250 But it get, this one doesn't have the options for 132 00:11:04,250 --> 00:11:08,590 filling up the gasoline. And so all of this electricity and energy 133 00:11:08,590 --> 00:11:12,323 comes from coal, natural gas, hydro, wind, solar, etc. 134 00:11:12,323 --> 00:11:17,395 It uses no electricity so this is the best winner for reducing our oil 135 00:11:17,395 --> 00:11:20,882 consumption. However, the big downside is it's got a 136 00:11:20,882 --> 00:11:24,469 range issue. Range fright we call it and where you're 137 00:11:24,469 --> 00:11:29,310 talking about ranges of 50 to 100 miles and when you run out of battery charge, 138 00:11:29,310 --> 00:11:34,176 you're stuck on the side of the highway and you've got to get a tow truck to come 139 00:11:34,176 --> 00:11:39,180 get you for 75 or $100 and tow you to the nearest charging station, which might be 140 00:11:39,180 --> 00:11:42,874 home. so, and then there right now fairly, 141 00:11:42,874 --> 00:11:49,326 usually, always the compact cars, unless you get something like the Tesla, which 142 00:11:49,326 --> 00:11:54,240 is a $100,000, $150,000 car, which is a whole other ball game. 143 00:11:54,240 --> 00:11:58,652 that but I won't go into because they're specially kind, type of cars. 144 00:11:58,652 --> 00:12:03,185 The technologies can do it, but they're very expensive to get longer range. 145 00:12:03,185 --> 00:12:08,016 So, this, that's the all electric car, which on the oil conservation and oil 146 00:12:08,016 --> 00:12:13,214 savings is the best, but it's got kept issues with, with the big battery pack 147 00:12:13,214 --> 00:12:18,749 that has a high price, they're probably $15,000, somewhere in that category for 148 00:12:18,749 --> 00:12:24,067 an all electric car and and by the way, if you want air conditioning or heat in 149 00:12:24,067 --> 00:12:28,279 the summer or heat in the winter That's going to cut your miles. 150 00:12:28,279 --> 00:12:33,193 That's the reason the mile, the range can drop to 50 miles or so from 70 to100 151 00:12:33,193 --> 00:12:36,010 without any, any air conditioning or heat. 152 00:12:36,010 --> 00:12:40,946 But you turn the air conditioner on, it gets the energy to run the compressor 153 00:12:40,946 --> 00:12:46,195 from the batteries and if you want heat it gets the, elect, uses electricity with 154 00:12:46,195 --> 00:12:48,940 the resistance heating to heat up the car. 155 00:12:48,940 --> 00:12:51,776 So This is, th-, there's some trade-offs 156 00:12:51,776 --> 00:12:56,640 with all electric cars, but they're great cars for commuting around the city and 157 00:12:56,640 --> 00:13:00,591 never go out of the city, So by switching to all electric cars 158 00:13:00,591 --> 00:13:05,404 saves oil, no oil is used, for electricity, oil, oil cars Burn electric, 159 00:13:05,404 --> 00:13:10,673 all electric cars burn no oil. They the plug in hybrids saves some oil. 160 00:13:10,673 --> 00:13:16,208 Electricity from the grid places the oil, that it uses and its pure electric 161 00:13:16,208 --> 00:13:19,331 operation though for the first forty miles. 162 00:13:19,331 --> 00:13:24,733 Okay, I hope that clears up what the electric car confusion, which is kind of 163 00:13:24,733 --> 00:13:28,437 a muddy Muddy situation with all the models coming out. 164 00:13:28,437 --> 00:13:29,043 Thank you.