Was this ever you? A lonely figure walking on the side of the road gas can in hand after trying to stretch the tank just a bit too far? If you’ve been driving for any amount of time, especially before the era of smartphones, you’ve either seen it happen or experienced it yourself, but the internal combustion engine runs on liquid fuel, so all you need is enough to get you to the nearest gas station and you’re good. Almost any container that will carry the gas will work, even if it’s not a special government approved design with warning tags and hard to open filler caps. If you can pour enough of that highly portable, energy dense liquid into your tank, the engine will start and off you go.
Suppose, however, you’re on an electric motorcycle or driving an electric car, the scene looks the same, you’re on the side of the road, your vehicle doesn’t move because there’s no power, now what? Your super long range, high tech battery nevertheless managed to run down and there you sit. Luckily, you have a smartphone in your pocket, but who do you call? The gas station up the road can’t help. Does this mean you need a trip on a flatbed truck? Maybe. There are some trucks beginning to appear with portable generators onboard that can come to your aid and charge your battery roadside, but they’re spread pretty thin, and even as they become more available, think about the added cost and complexity for a situation that used to be a simple splash of gas and go. Hybrid vehicles solve the problem since they have a gasoline engine, but the Battery Electric Vehicle has no fall back.
If batteries become standardized so they can be swapped, perhaps that will work, but you will still probably require roadside assistance if you’re stranded, since batteries tend to be quite heavy, you won’t want to walk very far carrying one, and where those swappable batteries are available will be a question for some time.
Honda is testing a battery sharing service in India for electric rickshaws, those 3 wheel taxis used in dense urban areas. The rickshaws have four Mobile Power Packs that can be swapped at a Mobile Power Pack Exchanger. They pull up, touch their ID card and two charged packs are indicated as ready for exchange to replace two from the rickshaw. It takes a couple of minutes and they’re on their way. The battery packs weigh about 23 pounds each. The test requires quite a few of these stations in a relatively small area which means the process doesn’t work outside of the city.
Gasoline requires no standard tank of a set size and shape, the amount of energy you can easily carry is far greater than with a battery of equivalent weight, no infrastructure beyond what we already have is called for, in fact, it’s almost as though the problem electrics are trying to solve doesn’t exist, unless you have an electric. Use gasoline, no problem.
On my scoreboard, in this situation, it’s Gasoline 1, Electric Power 0.
Buck Pilkenton says
How about “one gallon” batteries with a pigtail that plugs into the charge port?
Duffey Wolvin says
It’s apples and oranges to me. Yeah, range is shorter and charging takes longer, but both get better every year. And trickle charging my electric car overnight means I have a full battery every morning. Motorcycles have the (current) problem of not being able to get through a whole day on a single charge, but my car has spoiled me to the point that I can’t imagine that my next bike won’t be electric. For what it’s worth, I’ve has a stable from 500cc to 1200cc, and have learned that fun to ride is mor important than anything else (IMHO/YMMV).
Buck Pilkenton says
It’s a 50+ mile trip to and from town, so a two wheeled electrocycle ridden properly is out. I’m with you that far, but an electric sidecar is looking feasible. 100 pounds or so of battery in the floor of the chair should enhance cornering.as well as range.
Duffey Wolvin says
Yeah, an electric Ural would be an interesting proposition!
JP Kalishek says
If you run a Prius dry, it stops and needs a Toyota tech to come and reset the car. Adding a gallon will do nothing. even if the battery was full when the gas ran out, you are stranded. I saw this once with the car on the shoulder within sight of an exit with a gas station. She walked down and got a can of gas, but was still stranded for the few hours it took the Toyota tech to get there and get the car operable.
Complete electric, I could see solar helping some, but really it is not an easy or fast thing to do. Run a Tesla dry and often enough, a diesel generator is used to get it going again. anything portable by carrying it yourself, is not likely to get a car very far, if able to move it at all. a gallon of gas and one of those supersmall Honda generators? Still gonna take time to charge the thing any amount to enable movement,
Paul Crowe says
That’s interesting, I didn’t know that. There’s probably some good technical reason for it, I wonder what it is.
So, you’re saying a Prius can never be allowed to run out of gas?
Bob says
I hate to say this, but I don’t think the Big Plan is to replace fossil fuels with electric/renewable power, but rather, demobilize society, depopulate rural and suburban areas, and destroy the middle class. Only then does all the “Planet saving” make any sense.
Just don’t point that out and hurt your social credit score….
Paul Crowe says
Well, there goes your social credit score.
You won’t hear me saying that, no sir, won’t do it, nope, … now, thinking it is a whole ‘nother thing, but I won’t say it. Nope, not going to do it.
JP Kalishek says
also, most of the design on these things assumes one lives in NYC, the EU in a city or Tokyo etc, and not in Bowbells, North Dakota needing to drive to Whitewater, Montana.
Peter says
just install these exchange points at exiting petrol stations,
Mark says
This Honda system appears to be a copy of the Gogoro battery-swapping system for scooters, based in Taiwan since 2015.
They have an almost identical charging/swapping station, with more than 2000 stations in Taiwan and they are expanding in Indonesia and China.
For an urban electric scooter, battery swapping works perfectly. The scooter battery is light enough to carry and it gives enough range for normal usage in a densely populated place like Taiwan.
Mark says
I should also point out, petrol-powered scooters and motorcycles are now banned in many large Chinese cities, so on two wheels you have the choice of either EV or pedals. Battery swapping is nice because the majority of city residents living in apartments do not have access to a power point near their parking spot, so removable or swappable batteries are the most practical way to charge.