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Electric vehicles promise
Page 29
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wbstantial savings in cities tURING 1978 The Electric .eh.cle Association of Great ritain decided to allow users nd operators of electric ehicles to become full Lenbers of the Association. his opened the way for inLting into membership on a ?lective basis the larger ritith fleet users who have mtibuted to electric vehicle id truck development.
One important development om this move is that the EVA to compile operating data aring this year so that opera)rs can compare costs. This is irticularly relevant because irrently Britain's existing ittery-electric road vehicles .e running some 3000m miles year under all conditions. Speaking at an EVA seminar irlier this year, Sam rilliams, Smiths Electric ehicles Ltd made the very lportant point that at prent was virtually impossible obtain comparative and ;Mimic accurate running )sts of electric vehicles for ie whole of the United King)rn because of the vast range different tariffs charged by Le electricity generating )mpanies.
He called for these cornLnies to further the cause of ec Tic vehicles by introicing a special tariff by night iarging over a sufficient ne scale to allow batteries to completely recharged from ncminal 80 per cent distarged condition.
Mr Williams suggested that ctricity boards could assist onerating electric vehicles. us is now being done. the )uthern Electricity Board, for Le, is to operate a total of 22 -deride Dodge 6.25-ton deoultable vehicles by the end August.
Lucas Batteries Ltd is inilv ed with electric vehicle velopment and is concenaing its efforts on the onerune van range with Bedford. Lese vehicles are subjected the same tests as other delopment vehicles produced Vauxhall.
Following the inclusion of me of the Lucas vehicles in e present Greater London itincil programme, the cornny has initiated a special electric vehicle service unit at Acton, where the vehicles are checked at regular six-week intervals. This is now providing valuable operating data.
Last year it was found possible to drive the Lucas electric vehicle from Birmingham to London on the motorway without stopping for rechar.ging. When driven at 30 mph, Lucas found that the batteries still retained 20 per cent of their charge after the 115-mile journey.
In addition a Lucas vehicle has spent six months in France for evaluation by the French Government. In Austria another vehicle has been tested by the Post Office in Vienna, where temperatures were sometimes as low as minus 17 deg F. To prevent the elec trolyte freezing, special battery heaters were fitted.
Although the lead-acid battery is still the most common battery, with over 15 million in use in Western Europe alone, the sodium sulphur type could be in use during the second half of the next decade.
Standard electric vehicle batteries last approximately five years and although initially expensive and not costeffective for cars at the present time, they can, over their lifespan, prove to be more so when fitted to a commercial vehicle in daily use.
After finding that electric vehicles are cutting city centre delivery costs by up to 30 per cent, Initial Services are to purchase another four vehicles from Crompton Electricars Ltd. Ron Day, transport manager of IS, said that they have been using electric delivery vehicles for 41/2 years on city centre routes in London, Ipswich, Reading and Manchester and are participating in the London electric delivery van assessment scheme sponsored by the Department of Industry.
The vehicles ordered are the Crompton Electric type K85/ 36 with a payload of 1760kg (3880 lb). These have an operating speed of 16-18mph when using a rear axle ratio of 11.56 to 1.
The electric motor is a series-wound traction motor rated at 9bhp and the battery is a Crompton Parkinson 36cell SATR 19 flat-plate type having a capacity of 288 ampere hours at a five-hour rate.
The gross vehicle weight is 4320kg (4.25 tons) and an unladen weight, including the battery, of 2540kg (2.5 tons).
Bodywork is of the integral walk-through type and has a carrying capacity of 1780kg (1.75 tons).
For comparison, Leyland type 345 FG vehicles were used. All vehicles were Sregistered. Two vehicles of each type were used for comparison and the electric/diesel cost results were Crompton Electricar, 9.02 and 8.83 pence per mile: Leyland 345 FG, 14.15 and 12.02 pence per mile. The average cost of the diesel vehicle in pence per mile is 12.85: for the electric vehicle, 8.95.
Operating costs of the two types of vehicles recorded in the last quarter of 1978 were