The cost of lithium-ion batteries used in electric vehicles could fall by more than 70% by 2025, due to increased demand, leading to economy of scale, manufacturing improvements and rapid breakthroughs in expanding the life and power of the batteries. Cheaper batteries could lead to a higher adoption rate of electric vehicles. Meanwhile, National University of Singapore’s engineering faculty has signed an agreement with auto firm Toyota Tsusho Asia Pacific, a unit of Japanese automotive giant Toyota Group, to test the cars on the Kent Ridge campus for a year. Read more

University signs deal with Toyota unit to try them out on campus

By Grace Chua in Straits Times (20 July 2012):

MINI electric vehicles have begun trundling around the National University of Singapore (NUS) campus.

The 10 single-seat vehicles, each a little more than half the length of a mid-sized sedan, join others being tested by agencies and private firms here.

The university’s engineering faculty yesterday signed an agreement with auto firm Toyota Tsusho Asia Pacific, a unit of Japanese automotive giant Toyota Group, to test the cars on the Kent Ridge campus for a year.

For starters, about 30 NUS employees will drive them between University Town and the engineering faculty; later, up to 160 staff and students with valid driver’s licences will get to use them, also on campus.

Mr Yasuhiro Kakihara, Toyota Tsusho Asia Pacific’s executive vice-president and the chief operating officer of its business unit here, said roping students in as users would yield a better understanding of how their generation responds to such modes of transport and help produce a sound business model.

During the study, researchers will look into the performance and cost-effectiveness of these vehicles in tropical weather, and how well users take to them.

The interest in electric vehicles here and worldwide is keen because they are powered by electricity or other clean fuel sources, and so emit less carbon dioxide and global-warming gases than vehicles running on fossil fuels.

Those on trial at the NUS campus go by the name Toyota Auto Body COMS – with COMS standing for the Japanese tagline Chotto Odekake Machimade Suisui, or ‘smooth, short rides into town’.

Each car weighs about 300kg and can run 35km to 45km on a single overnight charge. They can hit a top speed of 50kmh.

The NUS cars are Toyota’s first-generation vehicles, some 2,000 of which are already used commercially in Japan for deliveries and personal travel.

Toyota Tsusho Asia Pacific did not reveal the cost of the NUS study, but each vehicle retails for 1 million yen ($15,990).

The second-generation vehicle, unveiled this month and available only in Japan, costs 700,000 yen.

Mr Kakihara is envisioning the day Toyota Tsusho owns and runs a fleet of these cars, shared by residents of a housing estate for short trips, such as from their home to a nearby mall.

NUS researchers also want to see whether these cars can be made to drive themselves. Professor Chua Kee Chaing of NUS’ electrical and computer engineering department said this would entail overcoming technical issues such as improving sensor technology, and non-technical issues such as liability and insurance.

Other electric cars are now being road-tested here in the Government’s $20 million, three-year trial; companies and agencies are using 37 such vehicles and 26 charging stations.

Electric-vehicle services firm smove has been testing electric bicycles around the Insead business school in Ayer Rajah since November; six electric cars will be added to the fleet of two-wheelers.

Mr Tom Lokenvitz, the director of Clean Mobility Singapore, which runs smove, said: ‘We have 15 bikes constantly running and 50 customers with a long wait list at Insead. It’s a valid alternative to a taxi or your own car if you want to make short trips.’

Source: www.cars.st701.com

EV batteries’ cost may drop 70% by 2025: study

By Reuters (18 July 2012):

The cost of lithium-ion batteries used in electrified vehicles could tumble by more than 70 percent by 2025 as rising oil prices and stringent fuel economy standards push automakers to build more of these cars, according to a McKinsey & Co study released on Wednesday.

Manufacturing these batteries on a larger scale represents one-third of the potential price reduction by 2025, McKinsey said. The expected influx of companies in the sector and new technology borrowed from consumer electronics makers like Apple Inc would also help cut lithium-ion battery costs, the consultancy added.

“Cheaper batteries could enable the broader adoption of electrified vehicles, potentially disrupting the transportation, power and petroleum sectors,” McKinsey wrote.

McKinsey predicts the price of a complete lithium-ion battery pack could fall from between $500 and $600 per kilowatt hour now to about $200 in 2020 and to $160 by 2025.

If gasoline prices hover around $3.50 per gallon or higher, automakers that purchase batteries at $250 per kilowatt hour could offer electrified vehicles that can compete with cars and trucks powered by advanced internal-combustion engines, which are now significantly cheaper.

Battery costs represent one of the main hurdles to the widespread adoption of low-emission vehicles, analysts say. The U.S. Department of Energy has set a goal to reduce the cost of a battery pack to $300 per kilowatt hour by 2014.

The 23-kilowatt-hour battery used in Focus Electric, Ford Motor Co’s first electric passenger car, can cost between $12,000 and $15,000, Chief Executive Officer Alan Mulally said at a conference in April. That suggests Ford paid as much as $652 per kilowatt hour.

Higher volumes are the biggest factor in falling battery prices, McKinsey consultants said. Prices could also drop if battery makers refine their manufacturing process and use standardized equipment, they said.

“Regulation around the world, not just in one region, is getting increasingly stringent,” McKinsey consultant Russell Hensley said in an interview.

Hensley, who helped write the study, said the new standards expected to be in effect by the mid-2020s are too strict for the internal combustion engine to meet.

“If you want to play in the automotive markets around the world, you actually need vehicles that are emitting less carbon,” Hensley said.

Battery costs will also fall as the consumer electronics industry, led by companies like Apple, keeps making rapid breakthroughs in expanding the life and power of lithium-ion batteries, according to the study.

Over time, those improvements will work their way into vehicles, said McKinsey consultant John Newman, who is also an author of the report. Batteries in the consumer electronics sector are available today for about $300 per kilowatt hour.

“It’s the consumer electronics industry as much as any other industry that’s driving the costs lower,” Newman said.

Source: www.climatespectator.com.au