Electric car: is it still the vehicle of the future

Technical Report · Sat Aug 01 04:00:00 EDT 1981

OSTI ID:5609996

Graves, R L; West, C D; Fox, E C

An analysis of electric and internal combustion engine (ICE) cars of equivalent performance shows that, even with advanced batteries, the electric vehicle would be much more costly to run (23 cents/mile vs 16 cents/mile) than the ICE car. The electric vehicle, of course, would not use gasoline, thus reducing the nation's dependence on imported oil; however, the cost of oil saved in this way would be about $190/bbl, and the same result could be achieved at about one-quarter the cost by manufacturing synfuels from domestic coal or oil shale. A similar analysis of some proposed hybrid electric vehicles indicates that they are also more costly to operate than an equivalent conventional vehicle, although by a smaller margin (25 cents/mile vs 21 cents/mile). The cost of oil saved by the use of hybrid vehicles is also lower ($95/bbl), although it is still much more than the projected cost of synthetic fuels. The key to improving the economics of the electric vehicle is to increase battery life or lower battery costs.

• Research Organization: Oak Ridge National Lab., TN (USA)
• DOE Contract Number: W-7405-ENG-26
• OSTI ID: 5609996
• Report Number(s): ORNL/TM-7904; ON: DE81030437
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

33 ADVANCED PROPULSION SYSTEMS
330300* -- Advanced Propulsion Systems-- Electric-Powered Systems
330400 -- Advanced Propulsion Systems-- Hybrid Systems
CAPITALIZED COST
COMPARATIVE EVALUATIONS
COST
ECONOMIC ANALYSIS
ECONOMICS
EFFICIENCY
ELECTRIC BATTERIES
ELECTRIC-POWERED VEHICLES
ELECTROCHEMICAL CELLS
ENERGY EFFICIENCY
ENGINES
HEAT ENGINES
HYBRID ELECTRIC-POWERED VEHICLES
INTERNAL COMBUSTION ENGINES
MAINTENANCE
OPERATING COST
PERFORMANCE
SERVICE LIFE
VEHICLES