WILL THE FU EVER BE S OF TO-DAY SPLACED?
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IF 147,000 out of 465,000 goods vehicles went electric, or tried to do so, what would be the attitude of the goods-vehicle manufacturers from whom such a slice of their business was about to be filched? That is to say, if the electric branch of transport, instead of being represented by a mere 5,000 vehicles running on the roads—less than 1 per cent.—were to strike out for 100,900 vehicles-21 per cent —who would stop them, and how?
It woUld not be a pleasant prospect to envisage the slicing off of one-fifth of the accustomed production with the necessary reorganization of manufacture and rearrange ment of overhead charges to meet such conditions. It would most likely mean the actual slicing of profits off the annual working programme, because profits do not accrue until a certain volume of business has been attained and it is almost certain that the conjectured electrical invasion would plunge the operations of the internal-combustion-vehicle manufacturers to a point below which only overhead charges or, perhaps, less—would be recovered.
There are, of course, those who say that it cannot be done; on the other hand, there are those who say it could be done. Let me review the arguments of both sides.
Why jump from 1 per cent. to 21 per cent.? Because practically the whole of the 69,000 vehicles up to 12 cwt. with, say, half the 67,000 of the class between 12 cwt. and 20 cwt., to say nothing of thousands of heavier vehicles such as coal lorries, laundry vans, municipal cleansing-service vehicles, etc., are susceptible to more efficient electric than petrol operation.
Battery Charging on Short-radius Operation
All these vehicles are on daily recurring duties; the journeys do not exceed 40 miles at the outside—many of them are much less—and they always return to their garages at night, so that battery recharging can take place in their own homes, as it were, with resultant complete control of this important operation. Further, the idle hours of the night are used for this recharging operation on a charging plant which is completely automatic in its functioning.
Great advance has been made in battery charging by harnessing the sudden change in voltage that occurs at a certain definite point in the recharging of a battery, which change is made to operate a control that prevents overcharge and damage to the battery. This voltage change is a. fundamental fact and is much more definite and reliable than the old personal control that was formerly necessary.
Battery-electric traction is limited by the capacity of the batteries. It is a melancholy fact that since the appearance of the first-recorded electric vehicle a hundredand-one years ago, practically nothing outstanding has
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happened to the electric battery as regards improvements in efficiency. {With all due respect to our contributor, we regard the modern battery as vastly superior to types of only a decade, or so, ago.—ED:)
Had anything like the development that has occurred with the petrol engine fallen to the lot of the electric accumulator or battery of cells, there might not to-day be a petrol vehicle "on the road. There is, of course, always the danger of some such epoch-marking invention appearing, in connection with the battery, which would constitute a major revolutionary event in road transport.
The averaige petrol-driven vehicle has some eight times the mileage per charge of the electric, two-and-a-half times the speed and a weight of fuel and fuel container of onetenth; and yet, with all these apparently crushing disadvantages, the electric vehicle has a definite niche in the
scheme of transport of the country, as witnessed by the number of companies owning and operating fairly large fleets of electric vehicles, in some cases to the complete exclusion of all other types of self-propelled vehicle. The features which give this system of transport its claim to a place in the sun are such as may some day attract the attention of capital to this industry to a much greater extent than it has done up to the moment.
These features are silence of operation, ease of driving, and economy of fuel consumption, maintenance costs, insurance, garaging, and provision for depreciation, also superior hygienic conditions in the transport of foodstuff of all kinds. (In the last connection, trouble from the gassing of accumulators has not been unknown.—En.)
Some of these features fit in well with other conditions under which battery-electries can with advantage be
employed. For instance, silenee of operation is a great asset in conjunction with early morning delivery of milk, bread, eggs, etc., for the electric, in operation, is practically noiseless, as compared with petrol inhorsed vehicles. This point is a considerable factor in the selection of electric vehicles for duties that have to be carried out before many people have risen from their sleep.
The average daily journey of household delivery vehicles ranges between 25 miles and 35 miles, some of these are double journeys, the machines returning to base at midday and again at night, but most of them return only at night.
Matters of idle time, stopping and starting have great influence on the design of the vehicle and its suitability for the duties it has to carry out. The number of stops and starts may Vary on different duties between 150 and 300 per day. This fact is greatly in favour of the electric vehicle, on account of the high torque at low speed of an electric motor. A petrol engine has not this property, and it is necessary to accelerate the unit up to a speed at which it does develop sufficient torque and then to gear it down. '
Types Suitable for Repeated Starting
• There is, furthermore, the necessity of declutching and moving gears three or four times before thevan is properly under way. Incidentally, the steam engine is a much more suitable prime mover for these conditions than either the electric motor or the internal-combustion engine.
All the above-enumerated operations necessary for starting of take time and create wear and tear, and ,as the petrol engine is a reciprocating unit, whereas the electric motor is purely rotaty; this, again, creates more wear and tear, need for increased lubrication, noise, and maintenance.
Because the nature of the duty imposes 70 per cent. of standing time in door-to-door stops, only 30 per cent. of the total time is running time, and because the electric gets away much more .quickly. for the reasons given above, the fact emerges that, notwithstanding the higher speed of which the petrol vehicle is capable, the electric has completed the day's work in the same period, and on certain classes of round in less time. Moreover, as we have seen, it does so with less fuss and wear and tear.
By clever electrical design of the controls, the driving of these machines is so simplified that they are quite safe in the hands of boy or girl drivers, a useful characteristic in these difficult days. Most of them have a " balancing speed " of under 20 m.p.h., thus limiting speed possibilities to that figure, safeguarding damage to the. machine and obviating the danger of police prosecution for speeding. On. many of the large electric public-service vehicles, down-hill running is made use of for feeding current back into the supply system, the motor, in this case acting. as a dynamo. Small vehicles have not made use of this scheme on account of the extra complications of construction entailed, and the unirnportarce of the results obtained on door-to-door duty. One feature of this system is that it makes possible electric brakes, which of itself might be of sufficient importance.to justify employing it.
That electric vehicles are safer on the reads than petrol vans is emphasized by the fact that insurance premiums are lower.
The cost of current averages between one-third and onequarter of the cost of petrol. Most towns have a special oil-peak-load rate for the charging of traction batteries, usually at night time, and sometimes at mid-day for a boosting charge, The rate is in the region of five-eighths of a penny per unit Maintenance costs are one-half or less than those of petrol vehicles. The cost of lubricating oil also is obviously less, as the running parts are considerably fewer in number and revolve instead of reciprocate, whilst the oil is not subjected to high temperatures as in petrol engines.
Garage space is in favour of electrics-58 sq. ft. against 74 sq. ft. for petrol, and 112 sq. ft. in the case of horsed vans, which are being operated in numerous cases side by side with both petrol and electric vans. In the case of large fleets this is quite an important item for consideration.
Regarding depreciation, the experience of one large fleet owner is that whilst a petrol van must be replaced in three to four years, an electric will run for eight to ten years. There are many instances on record of vehicles still running after 15 and 20 years, and some well over 20 years. [In our opinion the span of life for the average petrol van is underestimated.—En.] Such are the advantages of electric traction; they apply only under conditions of limited mileage per charge, and where a limited speed is no disadvantage. Beyond such limits batteries become too cumbersome and expensive. and costs mount out of proportion to accomplishment. Any attempt to use them in other spheres of duty is fore-doomed.
There remains to be considered the reason why battery traction cannot collar the whole of the business of short-mileage, low-speed duties of the country-100,000 vehicles.
Just prior to the outbreak of war there were fewer than 5,009 electric vehicles in service. In comparison with this figure, Germany had 22,00.1LI,-7,000 in the postal service alone. It is, doubtful if 1,000 have been added to the 5,000 on the roads of the United Kingdom up to now.
There are 10 or 12 makers of electrics in this country; each one, according to catalogues, has anything from 6 to 10 models. A total production of 1,000, divided by 10 makers, gives 100 vehicles each. If we divide this again, this time by the number of models, and think of the result in connection with the possibilities of the provision of jigs and tools, single-purpose machines and assembly tracks, as used by the competing petrol-vehicle makers, we are not astonished that the cost of an electric vehicle is twice that of a comparable petrol machine; in fact, under such conditions, it ought to be three times the cost.
ASH ELL.' ACCRE Drt i)
• Production on an Economic Basis
What is the corresponding position of the petrol-vehicle makers? For the sake of argument, .say three concerns, producing 30,000 vehicles each and two models, making 15,000 per model; all-steel bodies, but all of one model; a price that permit S a sales policy of " take it or leave it" because the figure is half that of the electric. No wonder they collar the business that on so many other grounds seemingly should go to the makers of battery electrics.
A further advantage enjoyed by the petrol-vehicle maker is that his commercial-motor product may be only a side line to his private-car output.
• There are many fleet owners possessing the requisite copilot who buy large numbers of electric vehicles because of the economy of running costs, notwithstanding the fact that they must pay double the price of a similar petrol van.
There is a point in this connection which should be. mentioned in favour of electrics. In ordinary times, the battery does not have to be purchased, but may be hired, and even A26
with this cost transferred to maintenance, instead of capital account, running costs still favour the electric,
The effect of such a financial possibility, I suggest, would be to reduce the purchase price of electric vehicles to such a level that they became competitive.
Should the electric-traction industry find means for financing itself as a complete organization instead of functioning as a small group of diminutive units, it may eventually build itself up to the extent of the 100,000 vehicles.
Under such conditions the competing petrol-vehicle industry, finding itself bereft of its big hammer—selling cost —which had been sufficiently powerful to meet and to vanquish the fundamental superiority of the electric motor, would now appear on the debit side and Without reserves.
Steam to Compete with Electricity Would it, in these circumstances, appeal to the only other known fundamental possibility, and adopt and develop the steam engine? This very thought will, of course, raise a veritable hornet's nest. " The steam engine] Why the steam engine? It's been dead for years. Never was any good except for special heavy-haulage jobs, Impossible." However, the losing competitors of the electric will have been'watching the interest that is being taken in alternative fuels, since the Ministry of Mines announced a year ago the non-taxation or non-rationing of home-produced fuels. To many people this means only producer gas, but others will have particularly noted the interest that has been aroused in methane and the articles concerning this valuable English fuel now appearing in the technical motor and transport Press. They will have read there of the 350 h.p. engine running on methane at Croydon; of six 500 h.p, engines running at Mogden, West Middlesex, sewage works. They will have seem that it can be used in roof bags on cars, compressed into steel cylinders to 3,000 lb. per sq, in„ or even liquefied and employed in the same way as petrol.
They will also be interested to hear of a car, now on the road undergoing tests on methane; that heating boilers are being fired with it, and that steam boilers are now being converted to burn this gas for steam raising.
The possibility will be appreciated of its being used in a flash boiler and, knowing the ease of control of a gas supply to a boiler as compared with oil, petrol or coal, they must realize that this project cannot be ruled out as impossible.
In the old days of steam, pressures were between 100 and 250 lb. per sq. in. To-day-1,250 lb. per sq. in. is in use in this country, and higher pressures in other countries. With steam at such a pressure, a condensing engine of uniflow design, balanced to run at petrol-engine speeds, may be envisaged. Should such matters, which are now under intensive investigation, develop, the competitors of the electric vehicle, whom we have pictured as fallen, would be on the way to supremacy again, as there is no prime mover to compete with a steam engine, provided a fuel control as efficient as that of a petrol engine is available and applicable
to the boiler which supplies the steam, AZOTE.