Just how green are EV machines?
We’re not quite there yet with renewable energy - but we’re getting closer, says Rob Maetzig.
The location chosen for the photographs of the car subject of this article is significant – it’s at a gasfired power station.
The car is the Hyundai Ioniq, which is the least expensive new electric vehicle currently on sale new in New Zealand. It’s an important member of a growing fleet of EVs in this country – in August a total of 331 EVs were registered, which took the grand total to more than 4500, and it is expected EV registrations will reach 5000 before the end of the year.
When we say the Ioniq is the country’s least expensive new EV, the fact of the matter is that it is still a pricey car. The entry model retails for $59,990 and a more loaded Elite version costs $65,990. By way of comparison, the Ioniq is about the same size as a conventional petrol-engined Hyundai Elantra which costs $35,990 for an entry model and $39,990 for an Elite.
So why would you want to buy an Ioniq? The answer is all to do with the car’s environmental footprint and economy. Because it is an electric vehicle and doesn’t consume any of the dreaded fossil fuels, it does not emit any exhaust fumes so removes itself from all those issues of CO2 emissions and climate change. And, of course, it’s fuel economy is zero.
Well, not quite – and that’s why the location we chose for the photographs of the Hyundai is significant.
Latest available statistics tell us that around 85 per cent of New Zealand’s electricity is produced from renewable sources such as hydro and wind, with the remaining power generated by natural gas and coal.
Fortunately most of these fossilfuelled power stations are used to meet peak electricity loads – essentially topping-up power supplies during such periods as mid-winter snaps and when South Island hydro lakes levels are low. But still, they are responsible for about 5 per cent of our country’s total greenhouse gas emissions.
Coal is the real culprit, producing about 70 per cent of these emissions. Gas is a lot better, because despite accounting for the remaining 30 per cent, it is efficient enough to generate more than three times as much electricity than coal.
That 85 per cent renewable electricity generation (which is high by world standards, by the way) is expected to get better once the big coal user – Genesis Energy’s Huntly power station – shuts down its two coal-burning generators late 2018. This will move New Zealand electricity generation closer to 90 per cent renewables.
And when that happens, it will leave just natural gas as the remaining fossil fuel used to generate electricity.
Of course the Ioniq didn’t know anything about that when it found itself parked in the vicinity of a gas-fired power station near Stratford for its photo shoot. The only thing it knows is how to use its battery pack and electric motor to provide a silent and emissionsfree ride for those aboard.
It didn’t know that transport is the second-biggest source of greenhouse gases in New Zealand at around 19 per cent of gross emissions, with road vehicles responsible for more than 90 per cent of that.
Experts say one of the best ways to reduce these transport emissions is to switch from the liquid fossil fuels petrol and diesel, to renewable sources of energy, particularly using electric vehicles.
Of course for many years yet there will continue to be the indirect emissions via fossil fuels being used to generate some of the electricity the EVs run on, but simple mathematics tells us that the more EVs on our roads, the less the transport-generated greenhouse gases.
Currently there are barriers to all this happening. The high price of EVs is one, and so-called range anxiety is another – in the case of the Ioniq, forking out more than $60,000 and more for a car that can only travel up to 200km on a single charge doesn’t really lend itself to being appropriate or cost-effective for a number of transport uses, particularly longer-distance travel.
The good news is that these barriers are being overcome. As more electric vehicles are developed and offered for sale, their prices will fall to more reasonable levels. And range anxiety will soon become a thing of the past – not only are there an increasing number of fast-charge stations being installed throughout New Zealand, but vehicle range is being increased. Just a couple of months ago during a visit to South Korea as a guest of Hyundai, I was told that EVs with ranges of 450km and more will be launched during 2018.
That’s great because electric vehicles are great to drive. During my week behind the wheel of the Ioniq I found it to be an excellent car, ideal for the daily commute. It encourages you to drive economically too, because you can use paddles on the steering wheel to operate what is known as Coasting Energy Recuperation, which offers three levels of an electric version of engine braking to recharge the batteries when coasting downhill.
I found Level 1 to be almost unnoticeable, Level 2 held the car to 50kmh when coasting down a decent urban hill, and Level 3 was powerful enough to make it feel as if the Hyundai was being braked hard.
At night I simply parked the Ioniq in the car shed and plugged it into an ordinary household socket so it could charge itself up.
That action in itself presents another potential barrier to largescale takeup of EVs – whether thousands of owners plugging-in their cars each night would overload New Zealand’s power supply network.
But studies suggest that wind electricity generation has the potential to meet all the increased demand from the update of EVs at least until 2040, so long as the charging of the vehicles takes place at times of the day when there is lower grid demand, such as late at night. The studies add that storage capacity of hydro generation would complement the wind generation.
It all looks like good news for the future of electric vehicles in New Zealand, with price being the only real hold-up. But even that’s being addressed – experts say the cost of batteries is falling so quickly it is conceivable that within 15 years EVs might be less expensive than conventional petrol-engined vehicles. Now wouldn’t that be something.