Permanent magnet motors are expected to dominate the market by virtue of their performance and efficiency. However, the growing concern over the availability and pricing of rare earth metals will open up the market for other motor technologies such as induction and hybrid motors.

New analysis, Strategic Analysis of Electric Motor Technologies for Electric and Hybrid Vehicles in Europe, finds that the market earned revenues of Euro 55 million in 2010 and estimates this to reach $1.6 billion in 2017 with emission norms and government support driving vehicle manufacturers (VMs) towards greater adoption of hybrid and electric vehicles.

The sourcing strategies for electric motors are expected to vary among VMs. Frost & Sullivan analysis finds that about 30-40 per cent of VMs outsourcing motors from suppliers are planning to bring the intelligence in-house as of now.

“While some VMs are working with more than one supplier on the development of electric motors, others are choosing to develop it in-house,” notes Frost & Sullivan Team Leader Anjan Hemanth Kumar. “Reliability, strong R&D, a smooth supply chain and tight quality control coupled with state-of-the-art manufacturing procedures and facilities are some of the key sourcing criteria for VMs.”

Car makers in Europe are required to bring down their fleet’s average CO2 emissions in accordance with the limit-value curve from 2012. Also, most EU-15 states offer a discount for EVs on the first registration tax applicable on vehicle acquisition. Against the backdrop of these drivers, all OEMs have adopted unique strategies to reduce CO2 emissions, with powertrain electrification taking precedence over other technologies.

However, hybrids and EVs tend to command high retail prices, which require VMs to bridge the cost gap between hybrids and their conventional equivalents. For VMs, EV technologies such as traction electric motors and advanced batteries are not part of a strong in-house portfolio. They remain wary of moving away from internal combustion engines, which represent a century-old technology with strong infrastructure.

Several opportunities exist for motor manufacturers down the EV powertrain. VMs in the short-term are looking to contract specialist EV system developers that can integrate the systems into the vehicle. In the medium- to long-term, the preference would be for Tier 1 suppliers with strong intra-organisational support. OEMs that would look to develop in-house electric motor capabilities are likely to retain the design and intelligence but source the modules and components.

The company’s significant progress is the result of a number of initiatives:

• Upcoming addition of 87 all-electric trucks to its green fleet bringing the all-electric vehicle count to 130.
• Acceleration of its efforts in fuel conservation through the purchase of vehicles with right-sized engines like the Sprinter vans manufactured by Mercedes-Benz. By the end of FY13, FedEx will have more than 11,000 such vehicles in service, more than 35 percent of its U.S. pick-up and delivery fleet. Each Sprinter-type van is about 70 to 100 percent more fuel-efficient than the original truck it replaces.
• Addition of 114 Reach composite-body trucks manufactured from advanced materials by Utilimaster on an Isuzu Motors chassis with an appropriately-sized engine. The lower weight design, along with the engine, is expected to save up to 35 percent in fuel over most conventional walk-in vans.
• Testing of FedEx Ground hybrid hydraulic parcel delivery vehicles that can reduce fuel usage by 40 percent.
• Testing of six standard delivery vehicles retrofitted with all-electric drivetrains from various suppliers, including AMP, Smith Electric and Freightliner Custom Chassis Corporation.

The electric truck initiative is aimed not only at improving FedEx fleet efficiency, but also in accelerating the development of all-electric trucks that could compete favorably with traditional vehicles for all users. “While we naturally want to improve performance and reduce costs for FedEx, we also want to see all-electric trucks become more affordable and reliable for everyone from your local pizza parlor to other small businesses that deliver,” said Mitch Jackson, staff vice president of environmental affairs and sustainability, FedEx Corp. “This is a strategy for reducing reliance on petroleum-based fuels in a much faster, more inclusive and impactful way.”

The new FedEx all-electric (EV) vehicles are being deployed in the next few months in numerous locations which include California (the San Francisco Bay area, Los Angeles, Orange County, San Diego and the Central Valley); suburban Washington, D.C. (Rockville, M.D.); New York City and several locations in Texas. In Chicago, FedEx is testing electric trucks from several manufacturers head-to-head in daily service to accelerate the development of the vehicles and the EV industry.

Additional all-electric trucks are being prepared for deployment in Asia and Europe, where FedEx Express currently operates all-electric trucks in London and Paris.

Fleet users present an added advantage for all-electric technology, since electric trucks can operate during the day and charge overnight when utilities have spare capacity. FedEx Express is currently working with General Electric and Columbia University on a project in New York City to optimize charging facilities for all-electric trucks.

FedEx also said that twenty percent of its diesel vehicle pickup and delivery fleet has already been converted to more efficient and cleaner emission models that comply with 2010 U.S. Environmental Protection Agency diesel emission standards.

The program is designed to appeal to residents, visitors, and business people, who will be able to reserve and drive a conveniently located electric vehicle by the hour, day or week from http://www.hertzondemand.co.uk.

The hourly rates will start from GBP5 and include in-car access to the Member Care Center, insurance, roadside assistance, maintenance, and cleaning. Membership in Hertz On Demand is free and will entitle members to use the operator’s other car clubs in the US, Europe and China.

The plan is that initially ten Nissan LEAF EVs will be available and situated in university campuses, street locations, station car parks, major employers’ car parks and other strategic locations across the city and surrounding areas.

The club cars will be recharged via the POLAR charging network for Oxford, which has 32 charging points operating in key locations throughout the city, with another 28 under construction. The charging network is supported by the Oxford Electric Vehicle Partnership (OEVP) led by Oxford Brookes University.

The Oxford charging network is part of the national electric vehicle charging infrastructure known as POLAR, and currently being rolled out by Chargemaster Plc.

In related news, Hertz has announced that Hertz On Demand and IBM are together piloting a program in Germany to advance electric vehicle (EV) mobility and user adoption through intelligent recharging solutions.

In a special agreement, Hertz On Demand in Germany will supply electric vehicles to the car share fleet used by IBM employees to drive between Stuttgart Airport and the company’s campus in Ehningen, about 30 km away.

Initially the electric cars provided by Hertz will be charged using decentralized generation of electricity on the IBM campus. The charging stations will be operated with intelligent IBM software that optimizes the usage of generated power by renewable energies. Furthermore, the software balances demand and availability of electricity power to prevent load peaks.

The companies are using this program as a field test to gauge acceptance and practicability of the electric vehicle and the intelligent recharging infrastructure usage. Upon success of the pilot program, they intend to add further electric vehicles to the Ehningen campus, as well as to extend the project to other IBM sites.

Discounted rates have been available to IBM staff since October 2011 as part of the special car sharing agreement in place between the IBM campus in Ehningen and Stuttgart Airport. From April, IBM’s frequent flyers will have one electric car at their disposal, with numbers increasing as the year goes on. The cars can be booked quickly and simply through the Hertz on Demand website using the IBM account.

Through strategic partnerships, the Province plans to spur development and investment in the electric vehicle industry and expand the availability of charging stations across Ontario.

Developing electric vehicle charging infrastructure is part of the Ontario government’s plan to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, create jobs, encourage electric vehicle use and improve the availability of electric vehicle charging stations. Electric vehicles support Ontario’s target to reduce greenhouse gases from the transportation sector.

Information gathered through the RFI process will help the province determine a strategy for expanding the availability of electric vehicle charging infrastructure and identify opportunities to partner with the public and private sectors to build, test and expand it.

Ontario has set a goal of having five percent of all new cars be electric by the year 2020. Electric vehicles provide many benefits to the environment and the economy by using clean energy resources instead of gasoline.

The province’s Electric Vehicle Incentive Program provides consumers between $5,000 and $8,500 toward the purchase or lease of eligible plug-in hybrid and battery electric vehicles purchased on or after July 1, 2010.

Infrastructure Ontario is managing the RFI process on behalf of the Ministry of Transportation. The RFI process is not part of a procurement process and RFI submissions will not be evaluated as part of any potential future procurement.

The Terra 51 is an intelligent DC fast charger that reduces electric vehicle charging times from eight hours, using regular alternating current (AC), to as little as 15 to 30 minutes.

The Terra 51 comes standard with a full range of cloud-based services that provide connectivity, security, applications and support and enable operators to get the most out of their charging infrastructure. All Terra chargers are connected to a robust IT network providing software upgrades, remote maintenance, servicing and monitoring.

Connectivity also puts more analysis and control functions in the hands of grid operators to help them ensure better power quality in the grid. The Terra 51 is CHAdeMO certified and will also be compliant with all the relevant US safety directives before start of deliveries.

The Terra 51 services all DC fast-charge capable cars that are currently on the market. At EVS26, ABB will also showcase the first prototype of a Terra 51 that supports the Combo charging standard, adopted by US and European carmakers.

The Terra 51 will be manufactured in New Berlin, Wisconsin and is available for delivery in the second half of this year.

The Terra 51 was initially launched in Europe in 2010 as the region’s first commercially available DC charging station and is well established as the leading fast charger in terms of installed base, reliability and functionality.

ABB will showcase the Terra 51 and its robust and smart connectivity solutions for operators at the 26th International Electric Vehicle Symposium (EVS26) May 6-9 in Los Angeles.

The growing number of electric vehicles is driving a global market demand for charging solutions that include sophisticated monitoring systems and software to support the electric grid. ABB recently started rolling out the world’s first DC charging infrastructure with full nationwide network coverage of 200 chargers in Estonia.

Beginning in the next half-decade, however, plug-in electric vehicles with V2G technology will play an important role in the ancillary services market, helping to address regional power grids’ continual need for stabilization to match supply demand.

According to a recent report from Pike Research, these vehicles will compete with traditional generation sources as well as with emerging technologies, such as stationary battery storage, for revenue from ancillary services such as frequency regulation and demand response.

By 2017, according to the cleantech market intelligence firm, approximately 90,000 light-duty vehicles and an additional 1,500 medium/heavy duty trucks will be enabled with V2G technologies, generating revenue of more than $18 million.

The most likely early adopters of V2G will be fleets of light-duty vehicles and medium- and heavy-duty trucks. Fleets often have a more consistent availability for connection to the grid than vehicles owned by individual consumers. Trucks, with their larger battery packs and potential to deliver power more quickly to the grid, can generate much greater revenue per vehicle than light-duty vehicles. The Asia-Pacific region will be the largest market, followed by Western Europe and North America. North America will trail both Europe and Asia in incorporating plug-in electric vehicles into grid services because of the lower penetration of renewables and a regulatory framework that is less encouraging of V2G.

“V2G vehicles have an advantage over competing centralized generation assets because they can stabilize the grid at the endpoints closer to demand,” says research director John Gartner. “In order to produce sufficient power capacity to interest grid operators, though, dozens of plug-in electric vehicles must be aggregated in a given area. Thus V2G investment will be strongly influenced by the growth in plug-in electric vehicle sales, and substantial investment in infrastructure and vehicle-based technology will be necessary to enable V2G services on a large scale.”

[source: Pike Research]

Toyota Spain is lending Gamesa a Prius Plug-in Hybrid for a six-month period so it can test and verify the car’s technology, identify potential limiting factors and analyse its charging requirements in order to facilitate the mass market rollout of vehicles of this nature in Spain in the near term.

During the pilot period, Gamesa will share the data compiled during the vehicle’s test drives regarding the car’s technology and energy saving performance with Toyota Spain in order to furnish information for the Movele initiative, coordinated by the IDAE (acronym in Spanish for the institute for energy diversification and savings), of which Toyota is a member. This initiative is working on demonstrating the technical, energy and financial viability of this class of cars.

Gamesa is committed to ‘green’ mobility under the umbrella of its technology diversification strategy.

The company is working on delevoping charging stations for electric vehicles. Manufacture of these stations at Gamesa Electric’s electric components factory in Valencia got underway this year. In fact charging stations are already in place in Valencia and at the head office in Madrid. Moreover, the company has already signed a charging station supply and marketing agreement with Iberdrola and is currently holding talks with other sector heavyweights.

Through Gamesa Venture Capital, the company has an interest in Spanish high-tech start-up N2S, a specialist provider of smart energy management services. N2S has developed a real-time smart management platform for electric vehicle charging infrastructure which is marketed under the trade name POWER2DRIVE. This system can accommodate and integrate all charging station makers in the market.

The growth of the overall market for these vehicles within Asia Pacific is also leading to strong expansion of the electric two-wheel vehicle industry in the region, with adoption being driven by rapid urbanization and increasing household incomes.

Annual sales of electric two-wheel vehicles (scooters, motorcycles, and bicycles) will reach 65.5 million units in the Asia Pacific region by 2018, resulting in a cumulative total of almost 382 million sales from 2012 to 2018, according to a new report from Pike Research.

”The total cost of ownership of e-motorcycles and e-scooters remains low enough that consumers can see payback on the vehicle with a year or two of purchase.  That means the market for electric two-wheel vehicles is likely to remain strong in regions with high economic growth rates,” says senior analyst Andy Bae.

In Asia Pacific, two main technologies are used in the e-motorcycle and e-scooter markets: lead-acid and lithium ion (Li-ion) batteries. Lead-acid batteries will continue to be the primary technology used in the Asia Pacific electric two-wheel vehicle markets, particularly China, while Li-ion batteries will account for a smaller (but growing) share of the technology used in e-scooters and e-motorcycles.

In contrast, Japan will show a far different rate of adoption of Li-ion batteries in both e-scooters and e-motorcycle, since there is a high level of consumer expectation for the quality and durability of battery performance. The percentage of e-scooters with Li-ion batteries in Japan will reach 37% in 2018, while the percentage used in e-motorcycles will reach 100% by 2015.

In Asia Pacific overall, the use of Li-ion batteries in e-scooters and e-motorcycles is expected to grow at CAGRs of 10.4% and 11.3%, respectively, between 2012 and 2018.

[source: Pike Research]

In figures, the highly integrated module has a continuous power of 20 kilowatts at a weight of only eight kilograms and just five liters of space. Mass and volume are about 33 percent less than in the previous generation. This was possible due to the integration of two modules: The inverter and the DC-DC converter are now assembled in a single housing.

The engineers designed the control device to be modular and scalable right from the start. Modifying just a few components is all that is necessary to adapt the device to a large variety of applications. For example, the same concept is used in the Full Hybrid vehicle Audi Q5 Hybrid and also in purely electric vehicles.

Power electronics: key components in electric vehicles
Many discussions about electric cars are focused on batteries. This is understandable since one of the primary development targets is to extend the electric driving range.

In order to accomplish this, it will be necessary to achieve a high degree of efficiency for the entire electric drive train, no matter what kind of vehicle is involved, whether it is a mild hybrid or a full electric car. The use of more efficient power electronics will make a major contribution here. Regardless of where the unit is installed in the vehicle, it is the mediator between a high-voltage battery and the electric motor. It ensures that energy stored in the battery in the form of direct current reaches the electric motor in the form of three-phase alternating current in the right rating and at the right frequency. Those are the parameters that control the electric motor. The power electronics also enables the reverse procedure, known as recuperation. Here, the electric motor acts as a generator to produce energy. The power electronics converts that energy into direct current and route it to the battery. Power electronics also comes into play when the driver wants to reverse down. The controls then change the polarity of the electric motor, thus reversing its direction. The direct current converter (DC-DC converter), part of the power-electronics package that Continental integrated in one housing, supplies the 12-volt electrical systems on hybrids and electric cars.

It is obvious from the wide assortment of functions that the power electronics has an effect on the efficiency of the entire electric drivetrain. Continental continues to refine this core component, especially with regard to weight, space, and cost.

Technology leader in electric mobility
Continental was the first European supplier to manufacture hybrid systems on a mass scale, and has been doing so since 2003. In addition to power electronics, the second generation of which is seeing duty in hybrids and electric cars today, the company has been mass producing externally excited synchronous motors that do not require rare earth minerals. Continental was the world’s first supplier of Li-Ion batteries for mass-produced cars in 2008 and the story continues. Continental and South Korea’s SK Innovation made a general agreement beginning 2012 to foster the joint development, manufacturing, and marketing of Lithium Ion batteries. Continental has also recently been awarded the “Gelber Engel “ award by German automobile club ADAC in the category Innovation and Environment, for introducing a new kind of electrical storage device for convenient Start-Stop operation.

The EV Project is currently gathering data at a rate of one-hundred thousand miles per day. The 24 million miles recorded so far is the equivalent to 963 trips around the world.

The electric fuel equivalent utilized by EV Project participants represents almost 1 million gallons of gasoline conserved by the use of electric vehicles. Finally, cars in The EV Project have eliminated approximately 8,700 metric tons of CO2 emissions from our air. This information comes from an analysis of approximately 675,000 charge events in key EV Project markets to date.

As part of The EV Project, ECOtality will be releasing over 40 White Papers on various topics ranging from a study of the needs of commercial charging to regulatory issues.

ECOtality is the project manager of The EV Project, a research initiative to help build America’s future EV infrastructure. The project will study EV infrastructure to support the deployment of EVs in key markets, by collecting and analyzing data from vehicles and chargers.

The project is a public-private partnership, funded in part by the U.S. Department of Energy through a federal stimulus grant and made possible by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA).

For more information about The EV Project, please visit www.theevproject.com.