Go Electric-5

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THE SYNERGY OF IT ALL...
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The dictionary defines 'synergy' as a 'combination that is greater than the sum of its parts'. Truly a car is the epitome of synergy.

How many parts go into the average car engine of today? I haven't counted. Maybe some of us should mail our favourite auto maker and request such statistics for our edification. Thousands probably, if you count all the nuts and bolts and the wires and what not. How many more thousands of precision-engineered parts go into the transmission, the steering and brake assemblies, the lighting and air-conditioning systems, not to speak of the entertainment and other electronic systems. A schoolboy (or, girl, for that matter!) will tell you that the average run-about on our streets today has at least a couple of powerful computers, if not more! Unbelievable...

Synergy is good; in fact, synergy is great! But you get to enjoy the fruits of all that synergy only when the thousands of precision parts engage in a complexly-choreographed, intricate 'dance'. One small sensor misbehaving, one small nut loosening, a minute 'timing' difference, or more recently, a small 'software glitch', can bring you down from the clouds to terra firma in an instant, the unwilling victim of the classic 'breakdown'. And today getting out of the situation would need specialist knowledge and tools and equipment on the part of the auto trouble-shooter. The car IS a complex system with many complex sub-systems, period.

The march of technology has overtaken the 'old tech', and today, increasingly, most things are taken care of by the omni-present microcontroller. One good thing though--almost any failure could be attributed to a 'software glitch' by the PR guys! No, you dont talk of software malfunctioning; it is ONLY a glitch. Glitch or failure, it all means the same thing to the user/driver. You are right royally stuck on the road, in the middle of nowhere. The most (in)famous software glitch in recent times was the one that 'bugged' the Toyota Prius model in the US. Toyota had to recall more than 150,000 cars to fix a software bug that made the cars accelerate on its own/not respond to the gas pedal. Easily an instance of software 'crashes' being more lethal than the usual ones on our highways that occur mostly as a result of driver error. Thank the stars (and automakers!) that like the modern child who blamed his calculator batteries for the low grades he got in math, the average driver could always attempt to extricate himself with the non-committal, “Ah, it was my engine micro...what could I do!”.

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COMPLEX  versus  SIMPLE  TECH
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It would be interesting at this stage to take a look at a typical electric car and make a direct comparison with its 'gas' cousin.

[ Note:  'Gas' is used as a 'stand-in' for either petrol or diesel. ]

# The 'gas' car power-train : Engine--> clutch--> gearbox--> wheels

# The electric power-train : motor--> wheels


That would "translate", in the case of the 'gas' car, as:

@ xxxx engine parts + xxx clutch parts + xxxx gearbox parts,
before power is delivered to the wheels.


While in the case of the electric, it would mean:

@ just 1 motor
delivering power directly to the wheels!

And what about driving?

Driving the typical 'gas' car would need a fine co-ordination of the clutch, the gearshift and the accelerator, not to ignore the brake pedal! Again, the driver has to make instantaneous decisions about shifting gears and implement that correctly if the car has to be driven with some amount of efficiency and smoothness, and minimum pollution. This, as we all know, calls for a longer period of training and practice, and in spite of all that, we end up with having a lot of 'below par' drivers on our roads.

Driving the typical electric couldn't be simpler. As they say, it is as easy as "falling off a log". Push the accelerator pedal and the car moves forward in direct proportion to the position of the pedal. Take your foot off the pedal, and regenerative braking (that is, recharging the batteries by using the drive motor as a generator) slows down the vehicle drastically. Only if you need to 'stop in hurry', you have to hit the brake pedal. Reverse? Just throw a switch and press the controller pedal. Sounds simple and easy? The description of it all takes more time than actually doing it!

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REALITY SUCKS !
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We all have come to believe that the "proof of the pudding is in the eating". Sure, any car would be only as good as it can be on the road in real-life conditions, irrespective of how it would have been 'hyped' in advertisements.

In the Indian context almost every customer has his or her favourite story of the wide gulf between 'reality on the ground' and 'wishful thinking' in the clouds. The car (or, for that matter the bike or scooter) with 'smooth-as-silk acceleration' and 'power-to-spare' and a 'certified mileage' of xx km/litre of fuel, turns out to be just average on the road. (No miracle engine has been invented yet that could perform like a 3-litre V-8 engine with just 800 cc capacity!)  And when the occasion comes for you to drive into the fuel pump (all too soon!), you realize that the stated mileage is for an 'ideal' world! This repetitive shock is enough to curtail for ever your initial enthusiasm to 'floor the pedal' and enjoy the 'silky-smooth' drive/ride.

And in India we all take for granted another 'factor' in the mileage equation: xx km/litre needs a re-statement --if you are a schoolboy doing sums! The 'litre' is more often anywhere between 850 mL and 950 mL. It would also take a 'super-skilled' analyst to figure out the mileage loss/engine damage/pollution brought on by the 'additive' of kerosene! It is a laugh--if you are NOT the one paying the money!

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THE "IDLE" REALITY
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While looking at fuel consumption and pollution critically, one has to be careful not to miss certain obvious factors.

A typical 'gas' engine achieves its performance and efficiency and its pollution factors at an 'optimum' speed. This ideal is never realized in practice. Though the role of the gearbox is to match the engine running at its 'optimum' to meet the requirements of load and speed, this is never achieved, except theoretically when the gearbox has infinite ratios. The engine is at its polluting, uneconomical WORST when it is starting up and accelerating and while it is negotiating climbs. Even on smooth and level highways, we keep hearing the advise to 'be light on the pedal' if you are to reap any economy. Anybody who has stood near a gradient in the road or near a traffic light knows that the engines, irrespective of whether they are from a 'classy stable' or are the products of more mundane parentage, are uniformly 'heavy' in their exhausts.

Another often ignored reality is the 'idling', the interminable wait at the lights, or in our country, in 'jams' and roadblocks, with the engine running. In typical urban traffic, the "stop-start-crawl-stop-wait" drill takes a toll on all the mechanical systems, not to speak of the nerves of the drivers and others. Any small to medium Indian city or town is a living example of the ill effects of the 'clouds' of pollution emitted by hundreds of vehicles going through this drill the whole day and for quite some time in the night too.

Engineers have estimated that three to four times fuel than normally needed is burned up in negotiating a short urban distance than on the open highways. This eats into the economy, while simultaneously upping pollution to unbearable levels.

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THE  ELECTRIC  REALITY
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Let us push the electric car into the above 'hellfire and brimstone' scenario and see what happens.
The "stop-start-crawl-stop-wait" drill appears to be 'tailor-made' for the electric. No frantic 'interplay' of pedals and the handbrake, and no sweat too. Push to go, take off the foot to stop. And the 'idle'? ZERO energy idling for as long as you please, and no 'starting up' before you can go; just another push of the pedal, and off you go.

Engineers will tell you electric motors have a 'characteristic'. At starting, their 'torque' is the highest. As speed mounts, torque comes down. An ideal characteristic for starting and driving a vehicle. This is what makes the electrics do without any complex 'gearing' or gear-shifting. Come to think of it, the giant locomotives that pull nearly a hundred or more loaded wagons are driven by electric motors working on the same principle, no less. What is good for the 'brawny' rail giants cannot be bad for their  'flea-power' road-going cousins.

And what about a couple of hundred electrics 'idling' to their hearts' content? Silent as the grave--because nothing is running! In the days of the super-silent Rolls-Royce, the clock ticked and made a noise; but these days the digital clocks would keep running silently! The only 'pollution' will be caused by the carbon dioxide exhalations of the occupants of the cars! Really ?!!

Just that one factor of a ZERO ENERGY, ZERO EMISSION idling is what should recommend the electric as THE vehicle of choice for the busy urban landscapes.

Are our Town planners and the Civic Fathers listening? They better listen...because today 'the man in the street' knows better.
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(more to follow)