Batteries not included.
Some assembly required.
by Scott Rollans

It's hard not to be seduced by the imagery of internal combustion. Gasoline explodes in the cylinders. The pistons pump up and down, up and down. Your car hurtles down the open road, eager to take you anywhere you tell it to go. Freedom is yours.

On the other hand, "electric car" evokes its own imagery. Remote control toys at Radio Shack. Bumper cars at the fairground. Golf carts driven by guys in dorky shorts.

It figures. My first automotive assignment as a freelance journalist, and it involves test-driving a couple of electric cars. I won't sample the nimble off-road responsiveness of a Ford Explorer. I won't wax poetic on the luxurious interior of a Lexus. I won't guide a Porsche through its thoroughbred paces.

Oh well, after all, this is an environmental magazine. Those glamorous gas guzzlers may look attractive, but there's nothing sexy about the pollutants they spew into the atmosphere.

In the past few decades, legislators have pressured the automotive industry to improve. With technological advances such as the catalytic converter, lead-free gasoline and fuel injection, we're now driving the cleanest cars ever built. In the next ten years, however, U.S. laws will force the industry to do even better.

In California, by the year 1998, 2% of the vehicles on the road will have to be completely exhaust free, or "zero-emission". The required number rises to 5% by the year 2005. New York, Massachusetts and Vermont have passed similar laws. Even though the phase-in periods are gradual, the underlying legislative message is clear: gasoline vehicles are on their way out.

However, eliminating emissions is a bit more complicated than adding a few drops of Beano to a bowl of chili. It takes a lot of power to move a car-sized hunk of metal, and that power must be portable (unless you have a really, really long extension cord). Portable electricity means batteries which, given current technology (if you'll pardon the pun) can easily take up most of your storage room and add several hundreds of pounds to your car's weight. The familiar old lead acid batteries are the cheapest and most popular choice. Water-filled nickel cadmium batteries provide much more durability and efficiency, but at great cost.

You'll need an awful lot of those batteries if you want your car to perform anything like the one you drive now. Chances are, you'll have to settle for a lot less accelleration than you're used to. Even then, with a range of 50-150 km, you'd better make alternate plans for those long trips. If you run out of juice before you get where you're going, you're really stuck. You can't pull out a jerry-can and pour in a couple of extra kilowatt-hours.

And just where does your electricity come from? If you charge your car through a home outlet in Alberta, it's probably produced by burning coal. Other methods of generating electricity -- even hydroelectric plants -- come with their own environmental questions. Clearly, a plug-in car cannot truthfully be called emissions-free.

Okay then, let's slap a few solar panels onto the roof and glide along powered by the sun itself. It's a nice idea, but those panels are big, expensive, unsightly and unreliable. You'll need several hours of sunlight to get the charge needed for an hour's worth of driving -- and, as anyone who's ever planned a picnic knows, you can't always count on the sun to shine.

Given the limitations in the technology, automobile manufacturers argue that consumers won't accept electric cars. They have focused their considerable legal firepower on the new laws, fighting all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court, but to no avail. Zero-emission cars will soon be a legally-required reality.

That means that electric vehicles are about to become big business. The American, European and Japanese auto industries are investing heavily in an all-out race for technology. North American manufacturers sponsor design competitions for electric and hybrid-electric cars (which are also equipped with small gas engines).

In the meantime, electric vehicles already have their share of grass-roots enthusiasts, including none other than former Deputy Prime Minister Eric Neilson. The devoted owner of a veritable fleet of electric cars and pickups, Neilson extols their virtues to anyone who'll listen. He sees no reason why they should not already be a part of many households.

"The battery technology we have now will more than serve a two-car family," he contends. "The average commuter vehicle travels just 24 miles (38 km) a day." If you need to go farther, just switch to your regular car.

Neilson prefers using solar power to charge his batteries, but points out that even conventional electric power is cleaner -- and cheaper -- than gasoline. He estimates that power plants, which are subject to stringent emissions standards, can supply his electicity for about one quarter the cost of gasoline.

Neilson says that with a simple kit and an elementary knowledge of electricity ("like where shocks come from"), you can convert a compact car for a total cost of $11,000. It's also becoming easier and more affordable to install solar panels, he adds. Prices are plummeting, and we may soon see voltaic panels "just thicker than aluminum foil."

He feels that electric and solar-powered cars could easily catch on, provided people are willing to make a small attitude adjustment. "If people expect an electric car to perform the way their vehicle does now, they're going to be disappointed."

Thus braced for disappointment, I head for my first test-drive. At Edmonton's Wirtanen Electric Ltd., Richard Wirtanen leads me to his baby: a converted 1975 Renault. The car sports a satisfying "mad inventor" look, with a pipe framework supporting a pool-table-sized sheet of solar panels. The trunk houses 16 golf-cart batteries, which power a 10 hp. forklift motor coupled to an automatic transmission.

Because the car has a few operational quirks (for example, a relay switch which tends to cut the engine when you hit a bump), I leave the driving to Wirtanen. We have a lot of room swinging onto Calgary trail -- a good thing, given the car's glacial accelleration rate. Once we get up to speed, however, the car hums along quite respectably.

Wirtanen partially blames the car's performance on the nippy weather (a major enemy of lead-acid batteries), and things do seem to improve as the car warms up. We drive to a nearby car wash to hose off the dusty panels and crusty batteries, and return to the shop. The car won't win any beauty contests or drag races, but it gets us from point A to point B without a single puff of exhaust.

A the University of Alberta, I try out a tonier, high-tech model. In the deepest recesses of the Mechanical Engineering building I come face to face with the HEV (hybrid electric vehicle). My heart quickens -- with all of the sponsor decals covering it, I can almost imagine it's a race car. In fact, it's a Ford Escort, albeit one with completely reinvented guts.

Alongside a three cylinder Suzuki engine (which allows the car to be powered by gas when necessary), it's fitted with two electrical motors -- a large one to help out whenever you need serious accelleration, and a smaller, more efficient one for cruising. 142 nickel-cadmium cells, including 106 under the slightly higher, slightly harder back seat, provide the power.

Veteran HEV team member Victor Yung cheerfully hands me the keys -- a leap of faith given the many thousands of hours he and his colleagues have invested in the car. As we drive around the campus, Yung coaches me on the finer points of electric driving. For instance, you brake without touching the clutch -- the engine can't stall, and leaving it in gear helps to slow the car down.

I also have to get used to the car's sound, which falls somewhere between a trolley bus and a vacuum cleaner. As the novelty begins to wear off, however, I realize that the car's handling and performance are remarkably, well, car-like. In fact, as I press down on the accellerator and feel the thrust of the two electric motors working in tandem, I come perilously close to having a rush. "Bring on a regular, gas-powered Escort," I sneer, "and I'll kick its sorry butt!"

The two cars produced by the U of A's HEV project actually have kicked butt, in three annual Ford HEV Challenges. Pitted against North America's top schools, the U of A has easily been the most successful team in the Escort class, placing first in both 1993 and 1995, and third in 1994.

Hybrid vehicles will soon find their place on the road, and not merely because of legislative requirements, Yung believes. "As the technology develops, the price will come down to the point where a consumer will look at this as a viable alternative."

The next stage, a high-performance, purely electric car, is also closer than many people think, says Yung. "While we haven't seen a miraculous change, there are significant steps being made. We're reaching a point where there's rapid development in batteries and electric vehicles. The gasoline engine's been developed over a hundred years, and right now you're trying to push this technology to the same level in five or 10 years."

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