When you get into an electric vehicle (EV), forget everything you have learned about being a parsimonious driver. The familiar rules to save fuel will not help you gain much on the range indicator. In fact, it may just devour all those kilometres before recharging faster than you can imagine.

Driving an EV is counterintuitive to driving a petrol or diesel car, says Nissan International product planning and zero emissions VP Pierre Loing on a visit to South Africa.

“Stop and go is good for an electric vehicle.”

In other words, slogging it out in heavy city traffic, as well as travelling short distances to pick up the kids and buy groceries, all serve to maximise an EV’s range – forget the N1; take Grayston drive.

The concept of range in an electric vehicle is similar to that of fuel consumption in internal combustion engines. Drive badly – speed, or sit in heavy traffic – and the fuel consumption spikes, limiting the kilometres that can be travelled on that expensive tank of fuel.

For electric vehicles, few things can rein in those kilometres remaining before recharging faster than highways and little traffic.

“Driving badly in a normal car makes a 20% difference to fuel consumption,” says Loing. “In an electric vehicle, driving ‘badly’ can make a 50% difference.”

Take Nissan’s Leaf EV, for example. It has a 175 km range, carrying two people. However, this is the best-case scenario – similar to the optimal fuel consumption that vehicle manufacturers say is possible should a light-footed lad in a Nissan Micra travel on the highway to visit his mother-in-law. However, put that same young man in a Leaf and the 175 km range drops significantly.

Loing’s own commuting life illustrates this point. He lives 45 km from his office. His drive to work includes mostly highway driving. He’ll take the Leaf to work, recharge it there, and then drive back.

“I have never driven it there and back without recharging. It’s too risky.”

This fear of running out of go-juice even has a name –range anxiety. However, says Loing, this has made less of an appearance Nissan thought it would when it first launched the Leaf.

“The car gives so much feedback on range, it is impossible not to know what is going on.”

One other way to counter range anxiety is to allow for ever-faster charging rather than the overnight process required to reach a full battery state. This would allow near-full charging when parking the car at a shopping centre, for example.

Currently, quick chargers enable 80% charging in 30 minutes, but they are expensive, says Loing.

“We have developed one that is four times cheaper and we are negotiating its spread over Europe.”

Loing says people tend to think the range of EVs will grow similar to the continuously expanding chip capacity in computers, but warns that this is not true.

“We are talking chemistry, not IT. Making the range longer needs a breakthrough in chemistry.”

Range is only one “blocker” for EVs to take off, admits Loing. Other barriers include temperature and support incentives, both questions South Africa still needs to answer.

The Department of Trade and Industry is currently mulling a draft report on support for EVs, which must then be approved by Cabinet.

This policy will determine if the country can offer some form of incentive, such as tax breaks, to EV buyers.

EV manufacturers say these incentives are necessary to even out costs compared with less expensive internal combustion engine vehicles, and to stimulate demand for this new zero-emission technology.

Temperature also serves as a barrier, as the roughly 250 kg lithium-ion battery does not really work all that well below 20 ºC and above 40 ºC, says Loing.

“It can be very hot and very cold in South Africa, which can reduce the range of an EV. You can then add devices to cool or heat the battery, but that adds costs and takes energy from the battery.”

Temperature has been a challenge in the Middle Eastern country of Israel, notes Loing.

Owing to the political turmoil between the oil-rich Islamic region and the oil-poor Jewish country, it has adapted a strategy to support EVs by cutting the 72% import duty on normal cars to 10% for EVs.

Earthquake Hampered Leaf Sales

Nissan has become the first vehicle manufacturer to launch a full-scale global assault on the EV market as it introduced the Leaf in its home market of Japan at the end of 2010.

While other manufacturers were still brooding over EV introduction, Nissan jumped into the market as it had “a competitive advantage with its battery”, says Loing.

The passenger car was launched in a handful of European countries earlier this year, and also in the US.

There are around 15 000 Leafs on the road currently, says Loing, with roughly 8 000 in the US, 6 000 in Japan and 1 000 in Europe.

“We hoped to sell 5 000 in Europe by the end of 2011, but now think we will get there by the end of March 2012.”

Loing notes that the earthquake and tsunami which hit Japan in March “completely disrupted the roll-out” of the Leaf as it caused havoc among Japanese vehicle and component producers alike.

Nissan is also happy to let Renault, its French alliance partner, carry the bigger torch for electric vehicles in Europe, with Nissan then cashing in on Renault’s promotional work.

Nissan’s staggered approach to introducing the Leaf in Europe will see it follow up with countries such as the UK and Switzerland, with Germany, Italy and Finland included later this year.

The first markets targeted for introduction were those which offered monetary support for the Leaf, says Loing.

On average, the European countries where the Leaf has already been launched provide a €5 000 support mechanism, be it through rebates or tax breaks.

“The support is also to provide public education and charging infrastructure,” says Loing.

Apart from the price tag of the EV, consumers may also face the cost of a wall box that matches the electricity requirements of the Leaf with the feed from a home network. These wall boxes can cost anywhere between €700 and €1 200.

The power utility in Ireland, which is a mono- poly, has promised to provide the first 2 000 wall boxes in that country free of charge.

Nissan recommends the use of wall boxes to prevent home fires.

Around 90% of all charging currently happens at home.

When it comes to running costs, comparisons between EVs and normal vehicles are more favourable than when talking about showroom prices.

In the UK, running a Leaf for 100 km costs €2 for “fuel” alone, with a diesel car priced at €8 and a petrol vehicle at €10.

This means a Leaf costs €300 to refuel each year (or to run 15 000 km), a diesel car €12 000, and a petrol vehicle €15 000.

“We expect maintenance to be around 15% cheaper than conventional servicing,” adds Loing.

The problematic sum that remains after doing the arithmetic on subsidies and operat- ing costs is one of residual value.

“The values we have are far too low today. This fear is linked to battery degradation,” notes Loing.

As EVs retain only 80% of their battery capa- city after five years, or 70% after ten years, consumers are scared they will not secure a decent price for their second-hand Leafs.

One way to counter this would be to replace the battery after ten years, with the old battery then finding value in a secondary market, such as the power market.

“We are working on the second life of the battery. In Japan, we have signed an agreement to sell batteries to store the energy captured by solar panels in houses,” explains Loing.

The Future Is Not 100% Electric

Until 2020 and beyond, much can still be done to improve the internal combustion engine, admits Loing. Turbocharged engines have already seen small-capacity power trains produce the same torque as their much larger predecessors five years ago, while fuel improvements of “between 15% and 20% remain for diesel engines”.

However, Nissan expects that 10% of the world’s new car market could be electric by 2020 – that is, around seven-million cars a year.

“Or you can say that nine out of ten vehicles will still be [conventional] cars,” says Loing.

The Nissan/Renault alliance is banking on a growing EV market, as it plans to spend €4-billion on the technology up to 2020.

Closer to 2020, the world will see volume increases, technology improvements and production of the Leaf migrating closer to the markets, and no longer only in Japan, says Loing.

By 2013, three plants will produce the Leaf, namely one each in the US, the UK and Japan. By 2013, there will also be five battery plants, adding Portugal and France to the mix.

Nissan plans to launch a light commercial EV in the next two to two-and-a-half years, with its Infiniti brand also to introduce a dedi- cated EV.

“Our approach has been that the Leaf has to at least make enough money to generate funds for the development of the next range of EVs,” says Loing.