| May 10, 2022 |
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| Hello all, I’m Stuart Layt, welcome to Examine. |
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| This week, we’ll look at what is happening with the latest COVID-19 variants and review some of our best science coverage from the past week. But first, let’s buckle up and take a look at how to make electric vehicles into a genuine replacement for current petrol cars. |
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| With the price of oil soaring worldwide and battery technology rapidly advancing, electric vehicles are starting to shift from lofty ideal to viable reality. But researchers are warning that we need to focus on the whole car, not just the battery, if we want EVs to be a genuine replacement for petrol vehicles. |
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| Getting the battery right for EVs has been the major focus of most manufacturers and researchers, from Tesla to Toyota. But David Klink, an electric vehicle researcher at Monash University, says focusing on batteries is missing the point. |
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| Klink points out that cars with a combustion engine have more than 100 years of refinements in their engineering to get them to the standard they are today, where they are a robust and reliable form of transport. By comparison, electric vehicles are still in the very early stages of refinement, and finding those same efficiencies will ensure EVs can carry us on the next stage of the journey. |
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| “The battery is really important, but all of the energy that it uses has to go through a motor and a drive train,” Klink says. “The size, weight and efficiency of all that is really important, it has huge implications for the usage of EVs.” |
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| Klink is leading a new lab within Monash’s Power Engineering Advanced Research Laboratory (PEARL) to investigate new ways to wring more efficiency out of electric vehicles, which will expand their battery life and therefore their effectiveness. |
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| Creating even a one per cent increase in efficiency in the overall EV system translates to a one per cent increase in the battery’s total power, meaning efficiency gains can have a significant impact on the range of the vehicle. |
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| Lighter, smaller and more efficient motors and controllers within the power train reduce cooling requirements, internal losses in power and overall vehicle mass, all of which increase a vehicle’s range. |
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| And unlike an internal combustion system, expended energy in an EV can often be reclaimed and put back into the battery. Current generation electric vehicles already feature these sorts of innovations. |
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| In many types of electric buses in use around Australia, the motor effectively cuts out when the bus is travelling downhill to save battery charge, and the energy generated by the brakes is harnessed and used to partially recharge the battery. |
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| Klink and his colleagues are working to develop further efficiencies. |
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| “We’re working on producing a more efficient power train,” he says. “We’re working on more efficient disc motors rather than cylinder motors, wrapping carbon fibre around motors to spin them faster, which means they give the same power with less weight.” |
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| He is also looking into 3D-printing of coils, which allows for the direct integration of features such as heat sinks. This, he says, means more current can be run through them as they can deal with extra heat. |
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| Even before the sudden jump in oil prices around the world due to the war in Ukraine, take-up of electric vehicles has been growing rapidly. There were over 20,000 electric vehicles sold in Australia in 2021, compared to just 6900 in 2020. |
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| Both the Coalition and Labor have made marquee announcements on electric vehicle support and infrastructure in the current federal election campaign. |
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| The Coalition has pledged up to $250 million, $178 million of which is new money, to build 50,000 charging stations in Australian homes, as part of its Future Fuels and Vehicles Strategy plan. |
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| Labor, meanwhile, is promising to introduce an electric car subsidy to make EVs more affordable, and has pledged to support network infrastructure through such initiatives as installing 400 “community batteries” in suburbs and towns, in a package worth $250 million over three years. |
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| The federal commitments follow several state-based initiatives to support EVs, including Queensland’s “electric highway” of charging stations along the east coast, which in theory would allow an EV to drive from the Gold Coast to Cairns. |
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| Just this week NSW announced a $20 million grant program to install 3000 electric vehicle chargers across the state to increase and support the takeup of EVs. |
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| But EVs are still only part of the future transport picture. Klink says EVs will form part of range of transport options, utilising a range of fuel sources. |
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| Hydrogen, in particular, is seen as a possible alternative to electric vehicles, with a number of Australian states setting up hydrogen production pipelines. |
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| Hydrogen as a fuel source is generated by either cracking more complex gases like methane, or by splitting water into its component hydrogen and oxygen atoms using electrolysis. |
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| Klink says it is likely hydrogen will be used in larger vehicles such as trucks and buses, as it is not very efficient fuel for small passenger vehicles. |
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| He believes there is a need to develop systems to support electric vehicles of varying sizes, while also supporting hydrogen for more robust uses. “A rough comparison is the current split between diesel and petrol fuels,” he says. “Most personal vehicles and many larger vehicles use petrol, but then you have vehicles that use diesel for more robust uses. |
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| “I think a similar split between electric and hydrogen fuel could end up becoming the norm.” |
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| Either way, Klink says Australia now needs to look seriously at alternatives to petrol cars, or risk being left behind by the rest of the world. |
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| “Less demand for petrol in the long term will only make prices go up, and Australia is only a small player on the global stage,” he says. “We are dependent on the rest of the world. |
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| “If Australia stayed 100 per cent with petrol cars, and the US, Europe and China decide EVs are the new normal, then where will the fuel come from? |
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| “We need to make these plans now.” |
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| Examine is a two-way street: I love bringing the latest science news to you, but I also love to hear from you. If you have questions or comments about this week’s newsletter, don’t hesitate to get in contact by email or message me on Twitter. |
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