Tag Archives: BEV

Boulder Electric Vehicle

An Electric Car Club for Camelford?

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We think the answer to the question posed in our title for today is YES! Here’s one reason:

Nissan recently announced the new 2018 edition of their popular LEAF saloon, with increased range over the previous model thanks to a 40 kWh battery pack. Over the weekend a “leak” revealed that a 40 kWh version of Nissan’s e-NV200 van is on the way. That will provide a big increase in range over the e-NV200’s current 24 kWh battery pack, and make the “van” a much more realistic choice for a wide variety of small businesses. Note also that there is an MPV/taxi version of the e-NV200 known as the “Combi”, which I have taken a ride in over the North Sea in the Netherlands:

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That means we’re really talking about an electric vehicle club, not a mere “car” club. That’s one way of implementing the concept known as “Mobility as a Service” (or MaaS for short).

Here’s another very good reason to try and put more electric vehicles on the streets of Camelford:

Earlier this year Camelford was declared an Air Quality Management Area (AQMA for short). According to the Town Council web site:

Cllr Claire Hewlett… said “I’m very pleased that Camelford has now been declared an air quality management area, as it means that Cornwall Council and Defra have offically acknowledged we have an air quality problem. The Clean Air Group have been working closely with Cornwall Council’s environmental protection team to get this far. Talking to people in town today, everyone is excited that something might actually happen.”

As part of the consultation, the council asked for residents and businesses to convey their ideas for improving air quality, and some of these will be investigated as part of a range of options before the final plan is published.

Now electric vehicles improve air quality in town and city centres by reducing nitrogen oxide emissions and particulates from exhaust pipes and brake dust, so here’s our idea.

Apart from improving air quality an electric vehicle club in Camelford would also reduce the number of cars sitting unused in garages and car parks for much of the time. One car club vehicle can result in 10-20 private cars being taken off the road. If you don’t possess a car you’re more likely to indulge in healthier alternatives such as walking or cycling for short journeys. In rural areas with poor public transport car clubs allow people who could never afford a car of their own to make occasional longer trips they would otherwise be unable to, except perhaps by taxi. For more on the benefits of car clubs see:

Obviously a few extra EVs in and around Camelford won’t initially result in a vast improvement in air quality if lots of diesel engines keep running whilst queueing along the A39, but you have to start somewhere! The same principle applies to charging infrastructure. Camelford has the advantage of already possessing a rapid charging point in the Churchfields car park, but additional lower power EV charging points would need to be installed. If that could be achieved then a 100% electric car club would allow people to experiment with driving an electric vehicle at very little cost, and thereby discover the many benefits of EVs for themselves. Assuming that hurdle can be overcome we’d like to perform a consultation of our own.

Please take our short survey and let us know your opinion about which sort of vehicle should be the first one to be made available to Camelford residents:

[yop_poll id=”1″]

 

Here are those options in more detail:

smart fortwo:

Smart-e42

Renault ZOE:

Nissan LEAF:

BMW i3:

Mitsubishi Outlander PHEV 4×4:

Nissan e-NV200 Van:

Nissan e-NV200 Combi:

Please also feel free to elaborate on the reason for your selection in the space provided for that purpose below.

Nissan Electric Vehicles Prove Popular at UK Universities

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In a news release today Nissan UK point out that:

The all-electric Nissan e-NV200 van has graduated with flying colours to become one of the most popular new vehicle choices for university fleets in the UK.

The multi award-winning van, which costs from just two pence per mile to run and offers zero emissions mobility whilst driving, is now in service on the fleets at more than 20 of the nation’s leading academic institutions.

University of Birmingham was the first fleet operator in the country to take delivery of the model when it added two to its fleet in 2014.

Since then, the University has added four more and the e-NV200 has moved to the top of the of the list for universities and colleges the length and breadth of the UK.

e-NV200s are now in service at universities including Bath, Brighton, Coventry, Dundee, Edinburgh, Exeter, Leicester, Leeds, Manchester, Manchester Metropolitan, Newcastle, Oxford, Sheffield, St Andrews, Swansea, the University of Central Lancashire and the University of Wales.

In addition, a number of other universities across the UK are currently trialling the e-NV200 as they explore the environmental and financial benefits it could have for their fleets.

Many moons ago I lived in Mayals and I’ve studied at Swansea University:

Nissan point out that in Swansea:

The e-NV200 Combi has been introduced as part of a broader commitment to sustainability and is operated as a pool vehicle, available on a booking system, by the information services and systems team.

As part of a seven-strong EV fleet, which also includes four Nissan LEAFs, the e-NV200 has proved a popular choice thanks to its size, flexibility and car-like driving dynamics.

Nigel Morris from the information services and systems team at Swansea University said:
 “Our EV fleet has already been a big success, cutting our carbon emissions by 4.5 metric tons and saving around several thousand pounds in fuel so far.

“The e-NV200 has made a terrific contribution to those figures as it’s proved so popular with staff. It’s a big vehicle that’s got lots of space for cargo or people but it’s very easy to drive.”

This news is all very encouraging of course, but I cannot help but wonder about something Nissan didn’t reveal to us this morning. Which of their long list of UK universities might actively be researching the application of vehicle-to-building or even fully fledged vehicle-to grid technology?

Perhaps the answer is “none of them”, but I am able to reveal that a UK University not mentioned by Nissan is in fact already so doing. Here’s an exterior view of the European Bioenergy Research Institute (EBRI for short) at Aston University:

and here’s what EBRI’s press release from a month or more ago has to say about the bright green box attached to the 24 kWh battery equipped 2014 model year Nissan LEAF pictured above:

Aston University has successfully commissioned the UK’s first permanent electric vehicle to grid (V2G) charging system.

This next generation of electric vehicle charging infrastructure allows power to flow both in the traditional way (grid to vehicle) and in reverse (vehicle to grid). The technology, developed in Japan to improve electricity supply reliability in the wake of the Fukushima disaster, is being investigated in collaboration with our leading industry partners, as a new method for energy storage and grid balancing services in Europe.

Please do read the press release in it’s entirety, and when you’ve done that also take a good look at the user interface of EBRI’s “load matching system”:

Exciting times for V2G enthusiasts here in the United Kingdom! Now that this pilot project is up and running there’s a few more urgent things to be ticked off on the to do list. How about OCPP 2.0 or even fully fledged British and international standards for “smart charging”, V2B and ultimately pukka V2G protocols for starters?

Here’s how the Open Charge Alliance explain the need for “Open Standards”:

The specification for version 2.0 of the Open Charge Point Protocol still seems to be absent from their web site however!

A Nissan LEAF Goes Surfing

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Our apologies for the delay in publishing this article, but at this juncture it appears as though British Telecom have pushed out a firmware upgrade which has broken some (or all?) of their “business hubs” in the UK:

Whilst we wait for them to sort out the problem, which hit us 2 days ago, we’ve reverted to an ancient “2Wire” WiFi router that was gathering dust on one of our shelves. Having intended to head for North Cornwall at 9:30 on Saturday at the latest we eventually hit the road shortly after 11:00. Here’s our set of charging cables:

The blue one is a 10 meter 13 amp extension cable, just in case none of our planned rapid charging stations en route proved to be fully functional! When packing our bodyboarding gear Kasia’s 36″ board fitted in the boot easily:

whereas my 42″ bat tail was just too long and had to sit on the back seat:

The LEAF also has a split rear seat so if there had been three of us on the trip we could have used that to fit everyone and everything in. Finally we were ready to leave!

The Nissan sat nav planned a route past Whitehouse Services near Okehampton which suited us perfectly, and the open road beckoned:

This is the sight that greeted us when we arrived at Whitehouse Services:

Just in case you’re wondering, the vehicle on the left does not incorporate an electric drive train!

To be continued….

30 kWh Nissan LEAF Extended Test Drive

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We have mentioned the new “go further” Nissan LEAF previously on the V2G blog, and now thanks to JFE Nissan in Exeter we have the chance to test the new 30 kWh battery pack equipped 2016 LEAF for ourselves. According to the Nissan UK web site:

Every full charge will give you a range of up to 155 miles.

I don’t know about you, but we’d like to check that claim for ourselves! At the very start of our test the odometer on the bright white LEAF we were borrowing read 6 miles as we collected it earlier today, and had advanced to 11 miles by the time we got back to base:

We had intended returning from Exeter to the wilds of the Haldon Hills via a main road. However before we left the Marsh Barton trading estate we consulted the LEAF’s handy traffic news feed, which revealed this:

According to Radio Devon “a caravan’s been abandoned in the inside lane on Telegraph Hill”! Hence we took the scenic route through some narrow Devon country lanes, and ended up with 20 miles worth of range left in the traction battery pack, according to the LEAF’s dashboard at least:

Having previously had some trouble using the rapid charger at Exeter Services, and having to avoid the motorway for other reasons on this occasion, we were in the perfect position to test the LEAF’s 13 amp “Electric Vehicle Supply Equipment” charging lead. We plugged it in at 18:30, and by 22:30 tonight the dashboard told us this:

More from us tomorrow on our Spring 2016 LEAF test, but for now we leave you with the inimitable Robert Llewellyn’s take on the new LEAF:

À bientôt, as I believe they say in France.

Renault ZOE – An Offer You Can’t Refuse? Day 1!

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A few days ago I received an unsolicited telephone call asking me if I would like to test drive any Renault car. I said yes, as long as it was possible to test the Renault ZOE in and around Exeter. I was told “Certainly sir, which free gift would you like?”. I gather this offer is by invitation only, but you can nonetheless read all about it here, where it explains that one can:

Test drive and experience any model from the Renault range before 30 September 2015 and you can choose one of three complimentary gifts. Choose from a night away for two in a choice of hotels, afternoon tea for two or a spa treatment.

That definitely seemed like too good an offer to refuse, so I didn’t! The first thing I do at times like this is to take a look at Robert Llewellyn’s always entertaining reviews of electric vehicles on his Fully Charged show. Here’s the one for the Renault ZOE, recorded in 2013:

and here are a few of Robert’s bullet points concerning the ZOE:

  • It’s a small car. It has a really big boot, which is a surprise.
  • It’s got enough oomph to “get you out of trouble”.
  • A range of between 80 and 120 miles.
  • It’s much lighter than the Nissan LEAF.
  • It’s got a really clever heating system, that uses a heat exchanger, and it can also do the other way round. It’s 3 times more energy efficient than conventional heaters and air conditioning systems.
  • It has a 22 kWh battery.
  • It really holds the road well.
  • It’s got very good visibility.
  • When you buy this car it’s much, much cheaper than any other electric car that’s been on the market.
  • When you buy this car you don’t buy the batteries. The batteries belong to Renault, and they rent you the batteries.
  • It is a really nice car to drive. It’s a really simple car to drive.
  • It comes with a special car rental deal. If you buy this car and then you want to “Go to Scotland” or “Go to the South of France”, then you ring up and you book a car and it gets delivered to your house and you’ve got a rental internal combustion engine (ICE) car and you go on holiday [in that instead].

So far so good then, and a couple of days later we had a short drive around the Marsh Barton trading estate in Exeter. We both took our turn at driving the ZOE, and Kasia liked it a lot. Daniel Mann, the Renault Sales Manager at Bristol Street Motors in Exeter, explained that their most attractive offer at the moment is a two year PCP deal for £79 down and then £79/month, which doesn’t include the battery. The small print explains that “Battery hire is £55 per month for 750 miles per quarter“. That also sounds very much like an offer one cannot refuse, but it was at that point that I had to explain our particular circumstances to Dan. The ZOE seems to us like an excellent way of driving a few tens of miles to work and back, but V2G’s home, office and laboratory are all in the same building. We don’t do a daily commute, but we do occasionally drive to Bristol Airport, we do occasionally go on business trips to the far side of London, and we do from time to time go surfing on the north coast of both Devon and Cornwall. Our short test drive hadn’t given us much of a feel for how the ZOE would be able to cope in those situations. As Robert explains in the video above we could always hire a more conventional car as and when required, but then we’d hardly ever use the ZOE!

We had a chat to Marc Seabridge, Bristol Street Motors EV specialist (pictured below), and explained that I’d be dropping Kasia off at Bristol Airport the following weekend and then returning to Exeter. I wondered whether we could borrow the ZOE to do that trip, in an endeavour to discover if it was fit for our particular purposes. Marc said yes! When we picked the car up at 11:00 on Friday he lent us a couple of RFID cards so that we could charge the ZOE en route, one for ChargeMaster’s Polar network and one for Ecotricity’s Electric Highway:

The ZOE’s lithium ion battery was about 70% full when we picked it up, so we thought we’d get the hang of charging an EV at a public fast charger by heading straight to Exeter Services, just off the M5 motorway. That’s where our troubles began!

Try as we might, and even with lots of telephone assistance from James Cocks, the Service Manager at Bristol Street Motors, we couldn’t persuade the ZOE to successfully connect to the Electric Highway type 2 fast charger. Here’s what the problem looked like:

Whatever we tried, there was no way we could persuade a little green tick to show itself. Chastened, we headed back to Marsh Barton to top up the ZOE at one of BSM’s own charging points:

Whilst we waited I telephoned the Electric Highway helpline and explained what we’d discovered. I was told that Ecotricity were already aware of the problem, but they couldn’t tell me when it might be fixed. It seems they have quite a few non functional chargers, and not many engineers available to repair those that cannot be restored to full health via a remote connection from Ecotricity’s offices. Here’s a graphical demonstration of the problem:

To be continued……..

Fort Carson Microgrid Adds Bidirectional Chargers

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Burns & McDonnell say they are “a full-service engineering, architecture, construction, environmental and consulting solutions firm” and they have announced that:

A team of Burns & McDonnell engineers, along with subcontractor Coritech Services, has developed a system of bidirectional, fast-charging stations for a fleet of plug-in electric vehicles at Fort Carson, Colorado. This first-of-its-kind system will push power back to the base microgrid when needed to meet installation demand or improve overall power quality.

On Aug. 29, the team successfully commissioned five bidirectional chargers and the aggregating control system as part of the Smart Power Infrastructure Demonstration for Energy Reliability and Security (SPIDERS) microgrid project at Fort Carson. Commissioning was performed using both Boulder Electric Vehicle and Smith Electric trucks, which are being provided for use on SPIDERS under separate agreements with the U.S. Army’s Construction Engineering Research Laboratory (CERL) and Tank Automotive Research, Development and Engineering Center (TARDEC).

Commissioning of the vehicle charging stations represents an important milestone of the Fort Carson SPIDERS project, which is nearing completion. The project is managed by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE), Omaha District, and includes technical guidance from CERL and TARDEC.

The bidirectional charging units are capable of providing up to 300 kilowatts (kW) of power to plug-in electric vehicles and also can discharge a like amount of stored energy from the vehicle batteries to the grid or microgrid via Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE) standard J1772-compliant bidirectional charging cables. The vehicle-to-grid (V2G) charging includes power factor correction, which is a growing concern at locations such as Fort Carson that are experiencing a growth in on-site solar power generation, resulting in utility rate penalties.

Here’s what a Smith Electric Vehicle looks like, both inside and out: