I am putting this here so we don't clog poor WH6's "emergency ham radio power" thread with EV topics.
A few weeks ago I was approached by a guy who works at a renewable energy company to buy the last EV this dealership had. They were discontinuing them and this one had a few scratches (it was their test drive vehicle) and they were selling it for $6000. It was going to be listed as new (hadn't been sold before) which meant it qualified for the $7500 tax credit. In other words, I would make money on the deal, even after sales tax/title/registration/insurance for a year etc.
It was a Smart Fortwo pure EV - a two seater with battery, inverter and motor. No ICE engine. (Which also means no gas tank, alternator, exhaust system etc.) It was not a very good car - it had a range of about 70 miles and could barely hit 70mph on the freeway (a requirement around here.) I was tempted because 1) it was free; 2) it had an 18kwhr battery which I could use for other things. But the wife didn't want another car we don't have room for which I can see, so I passed it on to someone else at work.
There are several ways to use an EV for grid storage. (This is something that a local company, Nuuve, is working on.) The way that works right now is to use the DC charging connector to connect directly to the HV battery. This gives you access to the ~400 volt bus of the vehicle and you can then charge (and discharge) the battery directly. 400V is close enough to the voltage of many inverters (like the StorEdge) that it will work directly. So you need a DC charger, the inverter and some control hardware to make this work. Nuuve has built half a dozen of these in San Diego already.
The second, on the drawing board, uses the J1772 plug (standard EV charging plug.) You need to add a grid tie or hybrid inverter to the vehicle to make this work. This is harder in terms of hardware (need to add something to the car) but far easier in terms of the regulatory environment, since automotive equipment is certified and tested to different standards than normal inverters. The idea would be that:
1) manufacturers would add this to their vehicles
2) some EVSE companies (like Blink or Chargepoint) would then offer free charging to such vehicles, provided they can use 10% of their battery on occasion to power the grid
3) during heavy load times, Blink would become a generation resource, and the local POCO would pay them peaker rates to provide that energy to them.
The third is to just disassemble the car and use the modules. The Smart modules are great for home storage use - they are 15S15P, which means they are 54 volt nominal, and work well with 48 volt inverters. (Note that these are available in the EV aftermarket now and are pretty popular because they are cheap. But you still have to add a BMS.)
I couldn't do 1) since the Smart doesn't have a DC connector, so I'd either have to hack the car to do 2) or disassemble it completely to do 3). I also thought that it made a little more sense to sell the car to someone who would actually use it, rather than just take it apart for the battery - which wastes 90% of the car. And those modules are available anyway.
A few weeks ago I was approached by a guy who works at a renewable energy company to buy the last EV this dealership had. They were discontinuing them and this one had a few scratches (it was their test drive vehicle) and they were selling it for $6000. It was going to be listed as new (hadn't been sold before) which meant it qualified for the $7500 tax credit. In other words, I would make money on the deal, even after sales tax/title/registration/insurance for a year etc.
It was a Smart Fortwo pure EV - a two seater with battery, inverter and motor. No ICE engine. (Which also means no gas tank, alternator, exhaust system etc.) It was not a very good car - it had a range of about 70 miles and could barely hit 70mph on the freeway (a requirement around here.) I was tempted because 1) it was free; 2) it had an 18kwhr battery which I could use for other things. But the wife didn't want another car we don't have room for which I can see, so I passed it on to someone else at work.
There are several ways to use an EV for grid storage. (This is something that a local company, Nuuve, is working on.) The way that works right now is to use the DC charging connector to connect directly to the HV battery. This gives you access to the ~400 volt bus of the vehicle and you can then charge (and discharge) the battery directly. 400V is close enough to the voltage of many inverters (like the StorEdge) that it will work directly. So you need a DC charger, the inverter and some control hardware to make this work. Nuuve has built half a dozen of these in San Diego already.
The second, on the drawing board, uses the J1772 plug (standard EV charging plug.) You need to add a grid tie or hybrid inverter to the vehicle to make this work. This is harder in terms of hardware (need to add something to the car) but far easier in terms of the regulatory environment, since automotive equipment is certified and tested to different standards than normal inverters. The idea would be that:
1) manufacturers would add this to their vehicles
2) some EVSE companies (like Blink or Chargepoint) would then offer free charging to such vehicles, provided they can use 10% of their battery on occasion to power the grid
3) during heavy load times, Blink would become a generation resource, and the local POCO would pay them peaker rates to provide that energy to them.
The third is to just disassemble the car and use the modules. The Smart modules are great for home storage use - they are 15S15P, which means they are 54 volt nominal, and work well with 48 volt inverters. (Note that these are available in the EV aftermarket now and are pretty popular because they are cheap. But you still have to add a BMS.)
I couldn't do 1) since the Smart doesn't have a DC connector, so I'd either have to hack the car to do 2) or disassemble it completely to do 3). I also thought that it made a little more sense to sell the car to someone who would actually use it, rather than just take it apart for the battery - which wastes 90% of the car. And those modules are available anyway.
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