A Battery-electric Vehicle for Per week
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Scheme to Supply Batterydairies for Urban District Deliveries. Overcoming Factors which have Militated Against their Widespread Use in This Sphere'
A1-TON electric' vehicle for £1 per week hire-purchase payment, plus £1 per week for hire and maintenance of battery and charger, sets a -standard of operating costs which it is going to be hard to, beat. : „That. _nevertheless, isa project which ivill • :materiallie closely fbllowing the publication of this article. The operator will have nothing to find but current, tyres, and the small quantity of lubricating oil needed by the electric vehicle.
The position of the battery-electric in the composite scheme of road transport in this country has been on tenterhooks for so long as .1 can
remember Its failure to come into extensive use has never been due to. anything inherently wrong in the electric vehicle itself: Its high initial cost, however, has always militated against its adoption by the average user. Lack of 'appreciation of the limitations and service needs of the battery has been a secondary, but, for all that, an important cause, and extravagant claims by electric-vehicle salesmen have served only to aggravate the position.
Problems for Solution '
The weight of the complete vehicle, which' is usually rather more than that of a petrol-driven. machine of corresponding Capacity, has been one salesdeterrent, as has been the misapprehension that its speed is loW, These matters have formed the subject of recent informative articles which have appeared in " The Commercial Motor." It has been pointed out that the high initial cost has been due to, lack of manufacturing enterprise, that the battery problem could be solved by hieing the battery instead of selling it, that the chassis weight can be reduced, and that, in actual fact, the electric vehicle is speedier than any other on work for which it is peculiarly fitted, namely, local deliveries.
Given the finance and enterprise to get into production of electric vehicles, on a basis of 'hundreds instead Of dozens, ancL:given the formulation and operation of a:Practical scheme of battery and charger hire, there will, in a
short time, be 50 times as many electric vehicles in use in this country as
there are to-day, .
Those essential requirements have been, or are now being, met. The finance has been found, to the tune of over £500,000; the enterprise is there, for the chassis are in production with Steel Engineering Products, Ltd.; Crown Works, Sunderland, with which concern .United Molasses, Ltd., is in financial collaboration. An effective scheme of battery and charger hire, with maintenance included, is planned and about to be instituted.
Standardizing Two Models
Two models of the Q goods vehicle are to be standardized, one a 1-tonner .and the other a 2i-tortner. The smaller vehicle has a twin tubular welded frame, designed on the backbone principle; the electrieal equipment comprises_a motor of the series-traction self-ventilated type, supported on the frante by four Silentbloc anti-vibration mountings. The controller is of the hand-operated drum variety and is fitted with a mechanically operated main contactor which incorporates a brake interlock. The control is four-point, giving progressive .acceleration, and rheostatic lAaking can be provided if desired.
The switch is of the double-pole type, giving forward, reverse and " off " positions, It is electrically interlocked with the circuit and is fitted with a lock-and key. A resistance of the nonbreakable grid type is employed.' The battery is mounted under the bonnet and is designed to be instantly removable, being carried in a steel container mounted on rollers and secured by quick-acting toggle levers, gunning from the motor to the finaldrive gear on the rear axle is a short Layrub universally jointed jack shalt. The rear axle is of the semi-floating type, divided in the centre and incorporating two quarter-elliptic leaf springs for the single-arm parallel-type
wheel suspension. Bolted rigidly to the fabricated rear cross-member of. the frame,is the final-drive casing; containing four-to-one reduction and differential gearing.
The front axle is of the wishbone type, with independent suspension, • having jointed radius arms above and
half=elliptic springs' below, the radius (arms and. springs being coupled to the
king-pin housings.
Steel disc wheels for 6-ln. by 18-in. .tyres are fitted, and the brakes are of • the Ilendix internal-ex-paneling mechanical type, operated by tod 'and cable and taking effect on all wheels. Steering is by rack-and-pinion gear, enclosed in an expanding gaiter, to exclude dirt. TO absorb toad shocks a flexible joint isprovided at the base of the steering column, Two types of . body are odered as standard with this model, and either can be supplied on short: or long-wheelbase. chassis. One is of the .orthodox van . type for bulk delivery and the other, of novel construction, 'has been designed for door-to-door delivery; it isof the Step-in " Class. It is so made that the roundsman 'can walk into the vehicle and, if desired, he can drive the machine while in a half-standing position. It is expected that this model, on give-and-take roads, will allow of a run of 40 to 45 miles per charge; the speed is 18 to 20 rnitali.
Coil Spring Suspension .
On the larger model the tubular-backbone type of frame is also used, but, in this case, there' is only one central member to winch box-section-cross-member s are electrically welded. A 'similar type • of motor is employed, but, here, two are employed, one to each rear wheel. The transmission is ,by worm and wheel, and each motor, together with the final-drive unit, short axle shaft and wheel, are in suspension and individually sprung by a coil spring located between a projection on the casting which houses the worm gear and an appropriate bracket underneath the rear cross-member of the frame, The general specification of this, model. is similar to..thatof the .smaller one The same .size batterY is used as it is the intention to standardize this feature; but two, ,instead of one, are provided, these being mounted amid
ships beneath the body. The procedure for removal is the same in the case of this model as in the smaller one, Steering of the 'Bishop type is used, and in addition to inechanical brakes operated on all four wheels, rheostatic braking is standard. The tyres are 32 ins, by 6 ins., mounted on steel disc wheels. This model is also expected to give 40 to 45 miles per charge and the speed is 14 to 16 m.p.h."
The battery and charger are to he hired, also for tl per week, through the power station from which the operator gets his supply of electricity. The charge for the hire will be included in his quarterly bill for electricity, just as is done in the case of a householder who hires a refrigerator or a cooker.
The maintenance of the batteries is the responsibility of the maker of the vehicle, and a comprehensive and effective plan to that end has been prepared. Each toten or eity• will have a number of service stations so located that no operator of a vehicle will be more than four miles Or so from the nearest one.
It will.be a condition of the contract of hire that the owner brings the battery in for regular servicing at least four times per 'annum, and his vehicle will spend only a few minutes in the station on the occasion of each visit.
The design of the vehicle is. such that the battery can he withdrawn and replaced with a maximum of ease. In the case of the 1-tonner machine the battery is located under the bonnet and is withdrawn by being pulled for
ward, While the battery is • having attention the chassis will be lubricated, the electrical equipment examined and, if necessary,serviced. In brief, those hebind the scheme are out to sell transport, not vehicles.
Taking the 1-ton model as an exaMple and assuming the price of current to be id. per unit and with tyres
at their present price and quality— the running cost per mile should not exceed. Id. Take licences at 4s. per week; insurance at 5s.; wages. £3 10s-; garage rent, 4s.; body maintenance,
33.; the total, plus the £1 per week battery hire, for a 240-mile week is .7E6 Os, per Week,-Whith compares most favourably with any other form of transport.
So far as chassis maintenance is concerned this, as the maker points out, it simplicity itself, as the machine is little more than a trailer 'equipped with steering gear and a couple of electric motors. The motors, by the way, are designed to lift .out; if and when they give trotible, and can be -replaced by service units in as little time as is needed to replace the batteries.
The needs of the tradesman who, on Fridays or Saturdaya, or ht Christmas time, wishes to run more than lila daily
•
quota of mileage, have not been overlooked. • Provision will be made for him to run into the service station in .the middle of such busy days, to have his battery charged. The cost will be Only
a few shillings. .
The treatment of the operator, so far as the battery is concerned, is to be 011 a plane entirely different from anything which has gone before. Hitherto, the practice has been to Sell a battery with the vehicle, replacement being made only when that became necessary. The defect of that arrangement lies in the fact'. that a battery dies slowly, its .capacity to store current gradually diminishing as time goes on. The consequence is that, in cases wherethe Operational requirements are such as to involve full utilization of the battery capacity as it is when new, there tomes a. time when the vehiele fails to return home tinder its own power---the diminished capacity is Unequal -to the demand made upon it to complete the daily round. It is the firm determination of this new concern that no .battery on any of the vehicles supplied under the projected " contract of hire " shill]. ever " die on its user." The battery on the vehicle will, at all times, be fully capable of giving the mileage the opetatoi. requires. For some time to come this project to sell transport in preference to vehicles, will be available only to urban users.
The battery-maintenance scheme is an absolutely inseparable conditimi:of the sale of these vehicles, 'even if they be bought. outfight. • As service stations cannot, for some time, :be. provided everywhere, it follows that operatorsin cities and large towns will be the first to dxperience the benefits of the plftn.
For a time it may be necessary even for them to utilize mobile service -stations, and this will obtain" until local premises be suitably equipped. It may he that, eventually, mobile service stations will serve to extend the scheme to rural areas, but this idea will, of necessity, have to await development:
The concern which is responsible fOr this project is The Q Vehicle Co., Ltd., 4, Dean's Yard, Westminster, London.