People are used to driving their cars long after the empty light turns on – most people could even tell you exactly how many miles they can go before their tank completely runs dry.  The idea of charging up a car instead of filling up is foreign to most people, so it’s natural to be concerned about what happens in an electric car when the juice runs out.

These concerns are understandable, but running out of charge in a CODA is very similar to running out of gas in a gas-engine car.  In both instances there are many warning signs before the car’s wheels stop rolling.

The CODA is engineered to maximize the life of the battery by not fully draining the battery every drive cycle.  However, if you are in a situation where you simply forgot to recharge, the CODA has a system in place to maximize range (miles per charge) as the state of charge (SOC) nears zero.

When the CODA gets to about 15% SOC, a three-stage, orderly reduction of power begins which helps to maximize range and avoid high power draws from the nearly empty battery.  In the first stage, the driver can continue driving at maximum speed (80 mph) but acceleration is limited, meaning the car may feel a bit sluggish when trying to speed up.  In the second stage, acceleration and power are limited, allowing a top speed of ~60 mph.  In the third and final stage, acceleration and power are limited, allowing a top speed of ~35 mph.

With each stage lasting ~5 miles, the driver has ~15 miles to get out of traffic and pull over to safety.  At each stage, the CODA’s telematics and in-dash screen alerts will help to indicate to the driver that they should pull over.  The moral of the story is that drivers should plug-in regularly to avoid this situation, but they do forget there is ample time to find a suitable place to pull off to the side of the road.

We get it.  It’s new and it’s unfamiliar.  So there’s a lot to think through, but that doesn’t mean you should discount them so soon.  In his October 20^th post, Gas2.0 Editor Nick Chambers points out a compelling statistic:  according to the 2001 US Department of Transportation National Household Travel Survey (NHTS), the average person drives their personal vehicle less than 23 miles a day, which is more than covered by the CODA’s minimum 90 mile range.

Still, the questions persist, “What if I want to go on a road trip over the weekend? Or what if an emergency comes up and I need to drive further than I normally do?”

These concerns are understandable, but perhaps a bit irrational.  Nick may have put it best, “So, if the average person drives a quarter of the distance an electric car is capable of going in a given day, why do people still say that they aren’t practical? It certainly isn’t a feeling based in how people actually use their cars. No, it’s more of a feeling based on our obsession with risk aversion—trying to avoid potential problems even if those problems don’t crop up during 95% of the rest of our lives.”

Our solution?  A hybrid garage.  No, we don’t mean a garage of hybrid vehicles.  What we mean is a garage with a CODA electric car for every day commuting and a conventional car (that gets high gas mileage, please) that will get you where you need to go on those rare occasions when you need more than your 90-120 mile CODA range.  And since most US households (92%) already have two vehicles, the idea of having two different cars for different purposes shouldn’t be news to anyone.

On a panel, Chairman of Edison Electric Institute Anthony Earley said, “The beauty of electricity is it’s already there … So we’ve kind of got a jump-start” – meaning it’s not a huge infrastructure overhaul to build charging stations.

But when asked about overloading the grid with too many EVs he said, “The last thing you want is millions of electric vehicles plugged in at 5 o’clock on a hot summer afternoon when the grid is already being taxed.

Mr. Earley may have missed the mark, slightly.  The beauty of electricity is not only that it’s already here, but also that it’s available 24 hours a day.  Electric cars can be charged at your home while you sleep using excess electricity in the grid.  While it’s true that electric cars could significantly tax the grid if many are charged within close proximity in the daytime during peak hours, we don’t think most people will do that.  Lower night time electricity rates will be a big incentive for consumers to charge during off-peak hours (between 11 pm and 4 am), and the development and installation of timed meters, like PG&E’s SmartMeter™ will make this convenient.

In fact, according to a 2007 study done by researchers at the DOE’s Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (which assumed all cars, trucks and SUVs were PHEVs across the country),  84% of the additional electricity demand created by plug-in vehicles could be met with the current grid’s off-peak generation, transmission and distribution capacity.

Not surprisingly, this problem can be traced back to internal combustion cars.  Do you actually get the MPG promised by the EPA on the window sticker when you bought your car?  We don’t either.  Fortunately for you, and everyone else who’s not driving like my grandma or our cautious product engineer, gas stations are easily accessible, so it’s not really that big of a deal.  Most drivers know that the “EPA City” and “EPA Highway” mileage ratings are only an estimate of what they should expect when they buy a new car, not a daily guide of when to refill their tank.

The problem is that many companies coming out with an electric vehicle are communicating a single range number.  Sometimes it’s based on a combination of the EPA City and the EPA Highway driving tests, and sometimes it’s only based on the EPA City test; neither one gives consumers a realistic range expectation.  And since there aren’t yet readily accessible fast charge stations to plug into when your car runs out of juice, range is a critical piece of information that drivers of electric cars need to plan around.

The EPA City test (aka UDDS or LA 4 cycle) creates the best possible scenario for optimizing EV range, with a very low average speed of 21.2 mph and lots of stops and starts resulting in low aero drag and maximizing the benefit of regenerative braking.  While it isn’t false to claim that a vehicle gets 100 miles per charge based on the EPA City test, it seems misleading to tell consumers they can normally expect this many miles per charge considering most people drive faster than 21 mph throughout the day.

The EPA Highway test is more representative of the actual range drivers should get in an electric car.  With a top speed of only 60 mph, slow maximum acceleration (3.2 mph/sec) and no stops, the Highway test still doesn’t accurately represent the way people typically drive.   Who really tops out the speedometer at 60 mph on the freeway?

That’s why we believe the EPA City test and the EPA Highway tests don’t cut it.   From our perspective, another test, the EPA US 06 (aka aggressive driving or high speed test), is far more representative of the way average drivers actually drive.  Not only does the US 06 test have a top speed of 80 mph and average speed of 48.4 mph, but it also has higher maximum acceleration of 8.46 mph/sec than the other tests and includes stop and go situations.  We believe this is currently the most representative test to measure expected range.

In lieu of developing an EV specific test, CODA Automotive believes that the DOT should require reporting and labeling of the US 06 range along with the EPA City range to represent a reasonable lower and upper range estimate for daily driving.  In the meantime, we urge all manufacturers to voluntarily communicate both the US 06 and the EPA City numbers and for the media to report US 06 numbers so that people begin to understand that electric range can vary significantly depending on how they drive.

This is what CODA has done all along. We usually say our car will go 90-120 miles per charge. When we say this, we are using the modeling estimate for our range under US 06 and UDDS (we will confirm these numbers using our production models). When we need to use a quicker sound-bite, we say “over 100 miles” to err on the conservative side.  We think that’s the best way to communicate such a critical issue to the public.