"Think Small" is a New Rallying Cry From Some EV Battery Makers
Although it's generally assumed that battery packs will compete in a kind of horsepower race, a totally different scenario is beginning to unfold: Battery makers are starting to look at smaller sizes as a way to make EVs more affordable. It makes sense, especially when Coda's use of a big 34-kilowatt-hour pack resulted in a $44,900 price tag for its sedan. It's no accident that Toyota's forthcoming EV will have both shorter range and, presumably, a smaller price tag.
Things like this are becoming clearer as EVs actually roll out and customers start to talk about their preferences. And one company those early adopters are talking to is Valence Technology, which makes lithium-ion magnesium phosphate batteries. It's one of the very first companies to get its packs into vehicles.
Valence got a $13 million order from Smith Electric Vehicles in August, and the first of those commercial delivery trucks are hitting the road now. Smith signed a deal to deliver 176 electric trucks to Frito-Lay, creating one of the largest battery fleets in the world. Up next is a 20-vehicle order from Even in Iceland, which is trying to have the world's first all-EV transportation fleet.
The Frito trucks have big 80-kilowatt-hour packs and can travel 100 miles on a charge, but President and CEO Robert Kanode told me that some companies, including FedEx, are interested in much smaller packs. And so Valence plans on offering three separate sizes. The smallest for Smith trucks is 42 kilowatt-hours.
"FedEx doesn't need a lot of range," Kanode said. "One reason to avoid a really big pack is that the chargers get very expensive. Companies need to figure out how much downtime they can afford. If they can handle having their trucks recharge for eight hours, they can get by with a smaller pack." For the largest size packs, avoiding really long recharge times (beyond six to eight hours) will mean a $20,000 charger, Valence said.
Kanode also said that car buyers would be looking to "right size." Valence's packs are modular, and easy to scale up or down. "I can see different sizes to suit different commuting needs," he said. Valence is talking to three European carmakers about supplying battery packs, but no names are floated yet. But one of the companies is French, and there are only two major French carmakers (Renault/Nissan and Citroën/Peugeot).
The thinking is similar at Toyota, which is planning an electric car, the FT-EV II, for 2012. According to Stephen Stacey of Toyota Motor Europe, company field tests show that most people commute relatively short distances, and the 55 miles the FT-EV II will offer is fine for most city dwellers. Like the forthcoming BMW megacity vehicle, Toyota's electric car is conceived as an urban car, and highways aren't part of the mix.
"Think small" might become a rallying cry for battery makers, as consumers and commercial customers alike try to keep costs down.
Related:
Photo: Valence