Electric vehicles pose challenges for the grid and battery life.

• Author: Cote, Mike
• Position: [ENERGY]

Advances in battery technology are propelling the emerging success of the electric vehicle market, with manufacturers like General Motors, Nissan and Ford introducing new models this year to steal market share from Toyota, Honda and Tesla.

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"Depending upon gas prices, the use of electric vehicles could explode," says Dan Zimmerle, power system R&D manager at Colorado State University's Engines and Energy Conversion Laboratory in Fort Collins.

During the "Smart Grid Live" event in Fort Collins in January, we had a chance to talk with Zimmerle, who also serves as an adjunct professor at CSU's Department of Mechanical Engineering.

How the grid will handle the growing number of drivers charging up and what to do with all those lithium-ion batteries when they no longer operate at their peak performance were some of the issues we addressed. (Watch video excerpts at cobizmag.com.)

The grid can handle it - as long as car owners don't all charge up at once

"There have been some studies by Pacific Northwest National Laboratory and also some other parties that show the grid is technically capable of handling the load from a large vehicle fleet without too much trouble - with one caveat, which is you have to be able to control when the charging occurs," Zimmerle says.

"If charging just happens randomly it can create huge problems. A particular scenario that is a real killer problem for the grid is that everybody arrives home at about 6 p.m.--which is already your electrical peak--and then they plug in their vehicle and they charge it full rate. The real key...