Electric vehicles (EV) are supposed to play a big part in saving the planet. Virtually every auto manufacturer is planning to be primarily electric by 2035. But there are some serious challenges to conquer for the EVs to be acceptable and practical for wide spread use. For example, the power that charges the battery comes from the grid which is currently over 80% fossil fuels. It will take years to transition the grid to primarily renewable energy sources.
The battery that powers these vehicles contain highly toxic materials that pose an environmental risk when manufactured and then destroyed at the end. In addition, the battery contains rare earth materials which primarily come from China and other foreign nations. In other words, we do not have control of the supply or costs of the rare earth materials.
Then there is the dilemma associated with charging them. This article focuses on a new concept that reduces the risk of waiting in long lines for charging the battery.
The Problem
Currently there are sufficient charging stations for local travel and even cross-country travel if you plan well to reach a charging station before your EV stops running. But there are a small percentage of drivers that have EVs today which is good because your wait in line is less. Once a majority of drivers have an EV, then the wait can become hours. Let me explain.
A friend of mine leases a Tesla. If he only uses the Tesla super charging stations, it takes him 20 minutes to charge the battery 80% and about 1 hour to charge it to 100%. Now envision many EVs entering a charging station to recharge their battery similar to a gas station today to fill the gas tank which takes maybe 10 minutes. Assume you want to charge your EV 100%. It will take about an hour to do so. As you enter the charging station you see lines of EVs either waiting for an open charging station or in the process of charging the battery. By the time you reach the charging station you may already have waited an hour or more not to say you still have an hour to finish charging your vehicle. That is a huge problem and a very real as more and more EVs are sold.
New Charging Concept
The new charging concept is to eliminate the charging station and establish new battery pack replacement centers. Envision you drive into the battery pack replacement center and a lift truck emerges with a new fully charged battery pack. Your depleted battery pack is removed and the freshly charged pack is installed in your vehicle. This may take 15 minutes before you are on your way. This approach will greatly mitigate the waiting time risk to recharge the battery. If you breakdown on the road because of the battery, a repair truck could be summoned to replace the battery with a new fully charged battery pack.
Implementation of The New Battery Charging Concept
The existing gas station infrastructure across our nation can become EV battery pack replacement centers as well as gas stations for internal combustion engines and hybrids. The government could subsidize the cost of establishing a battery pack charging station for those gas stations that would want to participate. This approach will provide gas stations another source of revenue.
The government would have to establish standards for the battery pack to ensure there is compatible interchangeability from one battery pack replacement to another similar to the car batteries today which allows you to replace your battery with another one and have confidence it will fit and interface to the car battery structure. The battery pack standards have to include the size, configuration, weight as well as the electrical and mechanical interface requirements each battery pack manufacture must adhere to. The standard also must also include similar standards for the EV manufactures to ensure battery packs from different providers will fit and work in their EV. It is necessary to include plug and play requirements in the standard to ensure each battery pack replacement center can quickly remove and replace a fully charged battery pack in your EV.
The millions of EVs now on the road, in production at the EV manufacturer, or have been designed and tooled up to produce them have to reconfigured. How this is done must be a consideration for the government battery pack standard. Today, auto manufactures recall hundreds of thousand vehicles to be reworked and updated free of charge to fix problems. This approach can also work for EVs that have been sold.
Summary
There are many difficult challenges that need to conquered for EVs to be purchased and used by millions of people globally. The problem highlighted in this article only address the charging station time wait. It presents a concept that piggy backs on established businesses and practices today that can be modified and applied to the battery pack concept. As an example, the various rental car companies allow you to pick up the car in Boston and turn it in in Detroit. A similar setup can be accomplished for EVs and battery pack replacement centers.
The hope is this article will open up a dialog as to a better EV battery charging process. This article presents using existing gas station infrastructure, battery and auto standards to ensure battery pack interchangeability regards of battery or EV manufacturer to reduce dramatically the risk of waiting in a long EV charging line. I think a short battery recharge will attract a lot more EV buyers than the existing system will.
Currently John Ayers is an author, writer, and consultant. He authored a book entitled Project Risk Management. It went on sale on Amazon in August 2019. He authored a second book entitled How to Get a Project Management Job: Future of Work. It is on sale on Amazon. The first is a text book that includes all of the technical information you will need to become a Project Manager (PM). The second book shows you how to get a PM job. Between the two, you have the secret sauce to succeed. There are links to both books on his website. https://projectriskmanagement.info/He has presented numerous Webinars on project risk management to PMI. He writes columns on project risk management for CERM (certified enterprise risk management). John also writes blogs for Association for Project Management (APM) in the UK. He has conducted a podcast on project risk management. John has published numerous papers on project risk management and project management on LinkedIn. John also hosts the Project Manager Coach club on clubhouse.com.
John earned a BS in Mechanical Engineering and MS in Engineering Management from Northeastern University. He has extensive experience with commercial and U.S. DOD companies. He is a member of the Project Management Institute (PMI. John has managed numerous large high technical development programs worth in excessive of $100M. He has extensive subcontract management experience domestically and foreign. John has held a number of positions over his career including: Director of Programs; Director of Operations; Program Manager; Project Engineer; Engineering Manager; and Design Engineer. He has experience with: design; manufacturing; test; integration; subcontract management; contracts; project management; risk management; and quality control. John is a certified six sigma specialist, and certified to level 2 Earned Value Management (EVM).
Go to his website above to find links to his books on Amazon and dozens of articles he has written on project and project risk management.