by John Laumer, Philadelphia
Image credit:ETV Motors animation video excerpt.
Mpg and Kilometers per liter are so ‘Model-A .’ The world needs efficiency metrics that make sense for all EV types, in all nations. At this moment in the history of surface transportation, a unilateralist metric is called for. Coincidentally, a widely applicable standard could be proposed in about a year, as the US Environmental Protection Agency and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), a DOT subsidiary, have jointly announced a proposed rule-making for revised methods of measuring and reporting greenhouse gas and corporate average fuel economy standards (CAFE). NHTSA’s statutory role is explained here. They are tackling the electric and PHEV vehicle efficiency conundrum together.
Oddly, the decision to include the EV efficiency metric issue in the rulemaking seems to have been provoked by a request made directly to USEPA by Israel’s ETV Motors.
New York Times covered the full story.
The E.P.A.’s letter was in response to a Sept. 10 proposal from Israel’s ETV Motors, which is working on battery technology as well as a hybrid concept that uses a micro-turbine to replenish an E.V.’s batteries. In an interview, ETV’s chief operating officer, Arnold Roth, said the company wrote to the United States agency because “the world needs the E.P.A. to take the lead. What the E.P.A. does will have a ripple effect into all markets.” The United States, said Dror Ben-David, ETV’s chief executive, “is a leader in rule-making.”
Per the Times, “ETV proposed that consumers be given three pieces of information:”
- the EV’s all-electric range;
- the EV’s its energy efficiency in electric mode (expressed in miles a 10 kilowatt-hours);
- for plug-in hybrids, fuel efficiency when the internal-combustion engine kicks in.
More posts on measuring efficiency of electric and hybrid vehicles.
230 MPG? Stop the Madness! Here’s How the EPA Should Rate Range-Extended Electric Cars
Ford Fusion Hybrid Gets 81.5 MPG in Hypermiling Challenge
[...] “Generation Y,” according to J.D. Power, isn’t nearly as smitten with the automobile as their predecessors. Not surprising when so many cars need artificial engine sounds. What such cars lack in noise, however, they clearly make up for in efficiency (even if that efficiency can sometimes be difficult to accurately quantify). [...]
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