About to hit the road: According to the results of the functional tests released by the P.P.P. (Pollution Proof Products) Company, which is promoting electric cars, the highest speed possible for a minibus is 60 kilometers an hour. At a constant speed of 4O kilometers an hour the vehicle can keep going for 120 kilometers on each recharge. The top speed for a subcompact "beetle" type car is 150 km/hr, and it can run for 135 kilometers at a speed of 70 km/hr. The peak speed for the urban use battery-powered car is 55 km/hr, with a range of 60 kilometers at a speed of 40 km/hr. Their capabilities exceed the vast majority of electric vehicles now existing in the United States, Japan, or Europe. This marks a new milestone in the development of electrical cars in Taiwan.
Giant T.H. Yang, the top man at P.P.P. who also happens to personally hold more than 200 patents for special technologies, says that traditional electric cars were limited by suspicions of inadequacies of their battery capacity, their range per recharge (the amount of power for a continuous trip), their torque, and their climbing ability. Also, the time required for recharging the batteries was too extended, requiring seven hours per "refill." But even then the car could only run two hours. These were all bottlenecks in the development of electric cars.
Yet on this occasion Yang was able to put out five such vehicles. The key is that he improved the existing circuits and the design of the battery capacity meter, thus raising the effectiveness of the cars. These changes included raising the efficiency of electricity use from 27.5% to 45%; lowering the recharging time to two hours; and making it possible to precisely measure the battery capacity. These innovations have greatly increased the practicality of the electric vehicle.
The great air pollution killer--the motor vehicle: "Development of an electric car is an inevitable global trend," contends Yang. Whether it be from the point of view of efficient use of resources or from that of environmental protection, the electric vehicle is one of the most effective ways to resolve current pollution problems. As early as 1880, an electric-powered car was produced in France. However, it was surpassed not long thereafter by the rapid development of the internal combustion engine, leading to few people wanting to devote their time to figuring out how to discover improvements for the former. Because the combustion engine is capable of producing a lot of power, it was quickly put to use in vehicles, leading to the vast expansion of the automobile industry and having an important guiding role in determining lifestyles.
However, though the power of the gasoline-burning motorcar may be high, it is very inefficient. On average only about 10% or so of the energy is converted into power for driving the shaft, while the remaining 90% becomes waste air or waste heat. This means it is not only a profligate user of energy, it is a killer through pollution of the environment.
Studies have been done in the U.S., Japan, and England comparing the pollution caused in cities by automobile emissions as opposed to other types of pollutants. It was discovered that virtually 100% of carbon monoxide is produced by motor vehicle emissions; such emissions are also the source of 60% of the nitrous oxide and CH compounds, 50% of the dust and particulates, and 10% of the sulfur dioxide.
The little hero of environmental protection: The fouling of the air has already reached an intolerable level, and people are taking a fresh look at the "outdated technology" of the electric car. This type of battery powered vehicle, which produces no air pollution or heat pollution -- and in-deed almost no noise pollution--is incomparably far advanced of the traditional gasoline car in terms of conservation.
"The power for electric cars is produced by centralized electric generating plants under unified management. Although in theory they also produce pollution, the scope and extent of that pollution is far below that of gasoline," points out T.H. Yang.
But, functionally speaking, the transport capabilities of the electric vehicle simply can't compete with the power produced by burning fuel. Thus the electrical version can't be widely applied. In fact, it can only be considered for use in special circumstances, as passenger transports for airports, as material transporters in enclosed compounds, or as golf carts, which do not involve long distances or high speeds.
In fact, as early as the first oil crisis in the 1970s, when all nations felt the frightening effects of a shortfall of energy, they consequently rushed to find alternative energy sources. And high efficiency electricity was naturally given pride of place. Germany, the U.S., Japan, and Italy all threw themselves into researching and developing an electric car. Tsing Hua University in Hsinchu also began R&D on such a machine in 1973, so it can be considered one of the first places to have begun research on the voltaic vehicle.
Assault on batteries: At that time the development of the electric car was helped from behind the scenes by the highly efficient electronic parts and technologies discovered in the American Apollo program to reach the moon, so there were major accomplishments. But there seemed no way to break through the obstacle of battery capacity imposed by nature.
"The key is still the battery," says Professor Sung Chen-kuo of the Graduate School of Power Mechanical Engineering at Tsing Hua. After having been involved in R&D in this area for many years, he still comes back to the old problem of the batteries.
The power of an electric car depends entirely on its batteries, but these are limited in capacity. If you want to increase the speed of the car, one must necessarily sacrifice range, and vice versa. If you want to increase the number of batteries, this increases the weight of the vehicle. For example, the Kang Yang electric vehicle, which is already commercially available, weighs 95 kilograms, of which batteries constitute 43 kilos. In the minibus produced by P.P.P., batteries account for more than 2,000 kg of its total weight of 6,000-plus kg. So the burden is quite heavy.
"Of course, abroad people are working on a battery-powered car with basically the same functions as a gasoline-powered vehicle, but the cost of manufacturing one of the batteries they use exceeds NT$1 million," notes T.H. Yang. For example, both Germany and Japan have produced cadmium battery powered vehicles, which only take 15 minutes to recharge, but the cost of manufacturing is impracticably high.
Little room to maneuver: Although the electric car is less than perfect, the times are pressing, and people may have few cards left to play in the debate over whether or not to go faradaic. The question is, rather, how many electric cars should be used? Starting in the 1980s, as the global environment has continually deteriorated, environmental protection has become a major focus of effort for all governments. The famous "California law" in the U.S. sets increasingly strict emissions standards, to go into effect in stages beginning in 1994, until in the year 2003 10% of all the new cars in the state must be completely pollution-free vehicles.
Although the law does not specify that "pollution-free" cars must be electric ones, under the cur rent energy-usage conditions, only electric cars appear to fit the bill. Following closely on the California law, Japan and European nations are all mulling the creation of such a law in order to halt the continued deterioration of the environment.
Given current trends, in the foreseeable future electric cars will definitely have their day at the top. But in getting a hold of this new tide, where does Taiwan stand?
Tomorrow's industrial star? "This could be a major new opportunity for the development of industry in Taiwan," believes Yang. Taiwan presently has a high degree of understanding of electric car technologies, and is taken seriously by other nations. Further, related domestic industries, like motors or batteries, have the manufacturing technology needed to accommodate electric cars. If a full effort is devoted to the development of such carriers, then it is possible there will be an opportunity to serve as the global flagship.
Paul C.K. Chung, director of the First Division of the Industrial Development Bureau, is also quite optimistic about the future of domestically produced electric vehicles. "Taiwan has a very sound foundation to develop electric cars," he states, adding that Taiwan has considerable experience and talent already in this area.
"Also, the scale of production for electric cars fits right in with the industrial scale in our country," points out Chung. Since in the immediate future cordless cars could not completely replace combustion engine types, the scale of production would not be too large, perhaps 10,000-15,000 units per year, which--it turns out--just happens to be precisely the scale at which Taiwan is most competitive. For the major manufacturing nations, small and medium production methods are not beneficial to the traditional mass production. For other small nations, they lack Taiwan's comprehensive network of support industries, like motors, electronics parts, and controls. Thus conditions are favorable.
Is the future really so bright? Some are not so impressed.
Work still needed on technology: "Certainly there are some things we do quite well, but before we really set off down this road, no one dares to say that these electric cars are all that they're cracked up to be," states Sung Chen-kuo. In the early days an electric car was driven smoothly around the Tsing Hua University testing facility, but as soon as it was turned over to the post office for use, it quickly came to a dead end. Because the users employed the same methods they had used to drive gasoline-powered vehicles, which were not appropriate, some of the precision electronics could not take the pounding and were ruined. Add to this that the drivers all complained that the vehicles were too slow, and all 100-plus such vehicles used by the post office were out of service in just a few years.
Because this experience is still fresh in people's minds, major domestic car manufacturers, despite their interest in battery-powered vehicles, are unwilling to rush into investing in R&D and production. Yuan Chu-ping, a director at Prince Motors, points out that, "Electric cars are a possibility for the distant future, but while it is still impossible to develop them to a largely mature state, automobile companies will not lightly invest in them." While the larger companies are unwilling to invest, it has been the experimental car of a small company--P.P.P.--which has taken the world by storm. Moreover, the battery-powered motorbike of another small firm, Kang Yang Motorcycles, formally went on the market in September. Right now monthly production volume is about 600 units. The main target market is for office workers who make only short trips to work, and housewives.
"Don't bother to compare the battery-powered vehicle with the conventional engine," warns Wu Shu-meng, general manager of Kang Yang. The top speed of his company's battery-powered motorbike is only 30-plus km/hr, and it takes six or seven hours to recharge the batteries for a range of only 70 kilometers. Although the price tag of NT$32,000 is about the same as that of most 50 cc scooters, the functions lag behind the traditional bikes, so they have little competitiveness. But the appeal of the voltaic vehicle is by no means in its functions.
"Besides the considerations of superiority in energy use, environmental protection, and noise reduction, we help consumers save a great deal of money," explains Wu Shu-meng. It only costs on average about NT$7 to recharge a battery-powered motorbike one time for 70 kilometers on the road. Compared to a gas-powered competitor, covering the same distances one could have saved NT$19,000 in "fill-ups" over the past four years.
He emphasizes that electric motorcycles are not for trips out of the city, but are a substitute for short trips in the city. "If office workers use them to go to work, and housewives take them to the market, then we could reduce noise and air pollution for everyone," he concludes.
Peripherals also await strengthening: But it isn't workable just to have the vehicles. If the main presumption is to develop battery-powered cars for use on the road, besides continually improving the technology, a number of peripheral policies also need to be coordinated.
First you have to make a place for these galvanic carriages. Chung Tzu-chiang argues that it would be most appropriate to assign them to short urban routes. "For instance, if buses, taxis, and intracity delivery trucks could all be converted to electric vehicles, this could have a considerable impact on environmental protection," he suggests.
And in order to promote the spread of the use of such conveyances, besides existing measures to reduce taxes on electric vehicle products, appropriate legislation would also be helpful. For example, a "California law" could compel some transporters to shift over to using non-polluting vehicles. If one out of every five delivery trucks at the supermarket were battery-powered, this could reduce the problem of delivery truck pollution by 20%. Further, it is necessary to provide a user-friendly environment. For example, electricity stations should be set up to provide recharging, parking lots exclusively for electric cars could be created, and methods designed for recycling of car batteries (as well as widely setting up battery exchange stations).
Giving the electric-powered car a little help: Although the conditions for use of electrical vehicles can be developed though active promotion and coordinating measures, while their capabilities are still not up to snuff, some people have offered ideas to "give electric cars a little help." This is a balancing program for a transitional period.
The so-called "little help" means that a car has both an electric-powered motor drive and a gasoline engine at the same time. These could be used independently or cooperatively depending upon the situation. "The most opportunistic method would be to use the combustion engine outside the city and switch over to the electric motor inside city limits," assesses Ho Chien-huei, an engineer at P.P.P.. Overall, this type of design could still reduce environmental pollution. At the moment the U.K. and Sweden are cooperating to design such a "combination" car; it can reach 200 km/hr at top speeds, with almost no difference in capability from a gasoline powered competitor.
Indeed such a combination car may be just the thing for our lifestyles. "Taiwan is small and crowded, with few parking spaces. Besides using the car to go to work, people want to head out of the city on holidays, so everybody wants to have a fully capable automobile that can be used in the city and still do those long hauls," says Sung Chen-kuo. If a combination car can be successfully developed, this would be more acceptable to people in Taiwan.
But the structure of a combination vehicle is still more complex than that of a purely battery-powered one, and it will be some time before it will be able to reach the market. Besides P.P.P. having already begun work, some scholarly institutions have also proposed research programs and begun R&D.
How much will you give up for the environment? Perhaps the capabilities of pure electric vehicles or of combination cars are not yet at a satisfactory level, but they have within them the seeds of the future, and point out a direction. There is only one planet earth, so for our children to be able to enjoy a cleaner environment yet still get the rush of travelling at high speeds, what are we willing to pay now?
[Picture Caption]
Clean and quiet electric vehicles are ideal for touring garden parks. The photo is from the Taipei Municipal Zoo.
What's the difference between the battery-powered car and the gasoline-powered one? The electric motorcycle, at right, has no exhaust pipe.
Taiwan already has a company producing electric motorcycles.
The subcompact in the photo is battery-powered. Though still experimental, it will soon be on the road.
Though electric cars do not pack much punch, they show off the admirable social conscience of the riders.
Clean and quiet electric vehicles are ideal for touring garden parks. The photo is from the Taipei Municipal Zoo.
What's the difference between the battery-powered car and the gasoline-powered one? The electric motorcycle, at right, has no exhaust pipe.
Taiwan already has a company producing electric motorcycles.
The subcompact in the photo is battery-powered. Though still experimental, it will soon be on the road.
Though electric cars do not pack much punch, they show off the admirable social conscience of the riders.
