A ‘green’ hope for RP’s roads Charles E. Buban Philippine Daily Inquirer
November 03, 2009
SOON, THE WORD “CHARGing” may take a different meaning to most motorists. Especially those who can afford it.
The group of local motoring writers who attended the 41st Tokyo Motor Show whose closest brush with charging is with their laptops and mobile phones saw first hand how a new car technology can change the world. At the Mitsubishi headquarters in downtown Tokyo, is a station that loads electricity to an i-MiEV (short for Mitsubishi innovative Electric Vehicle, the i-MiEV is the world’s first full scale production electric car now available initially in Japan).
Takayuki Yatabe, Mitsubishi Motors EV Business Promotion Department manager, said that a number of ‘quick-charge’ stations are currently being established throughout Japan to serve the 1,400 i-MiEV models already distributed (on a maintenance lease basis) to corporations and to local authorities. These stations will also serve the thousands more we will start selling to individual car buyers next year.
This three-phase quick-charger option that can boost the battery to 80 percent of its capacity in just 30 minutes, which should serve only as a supplement to the ideal 12 to 14-hour charging time (in Japan’s 110-volt sockets) required by the i-MiEV.
And make no mistake: this is not some experiment or test but rather a glimpse of how our roads will look like in the coming years.
Primed
The Japanese automakers who participated in the 41st Tokyo Motor Show have sent a clear message: Emissions-free electric vehicles with a user-friendly plug-in charge system as well as hybrid gasoline-electricity vehicles are primed to reshape the present automobile industry.
Sadly, hydrogen, which is the cleanest and nearly inexhaustible source of energy, is just too far from being viable as a fuel for cars (producing, transporting as well as establishing a network of hydrogen refueling stations comparable to our current gas stations would be an impossibly costly venture).
“Come to think of it, electric vehicles could readily be integrated to our present set up, no need to build impossibly costly infrastructure because apart from the quick-charging stations, electric vehicles like the i-MiEV could be ‘refueled’ at home, never visiting a gas station again,” explained Arlan Reyes, Mitsubishi Motors Philippines Corp. Advertising and Promotions assistant manager.
And because they have zero emissions, Reyes said electric vehicles could dramatically reset the debate on global warming.
30 percent
Yatabe informed that in terms of well-to-wheel performance—efficiency of entire process, from fuel production and supply to operating the vehicle, including the carbon dioxide emissions produced in electric power plants—the i-MiEV emits only about 30 percent—one-third—of the CO2 generated by a gasoline powered car of comparable size.
Considering that the average household’s electricity isn’t exactly clean (the country’s electricity comes mainly from coal-fired or diesel-run power plants), this figure will likely to improve much further once the country’s energy producers started using only cleaner energy sources for electricity generation.
Expenses But how would operating an i-MiEV impact a car owner’s expenses?
Yatabe said that in Japan, the running (fuel/charge) costs per kilometer of i-MiEV are roughly one third lower than a similar sized gasoline car.
“If charged during off-peak or night time hours the operating costs will be even less, up to 70 percent,” he said.
Reyes said that owning an i-MiEV here in the Philippines will result to savings on fuel spending.
In fact, charging the i-MiEV unit here will only consume 19.8 kWh, which is comparable to opening a 2-horsepower air-con for six hours (the 15-ampere battery of the i-MiEV needs six hours to be fully charged in our 220-volt wall socket).
In Japan, Mitsubishi is selling the i-MiEV for 4.6 million yen, or about P2.42 million at current exchange rates.
However, subsidies from the Japanese central government and individual states and cities bring this price down to 2.2 million yen (P1.15 million).
“While this is still about twice the cost of the 660-cc Mitsubishi i kei minicar on which the i-MiEV is based, the initial investment is easily offset by the saving that the owners will enjoy later,” said Yatabe.
According to Froilan Dytianquin, MMPC AVP for marketing services this is what car manufacturers here in the Philippines would also like to enjoy adding that if local car manufacturers could get the much needed exemptions—from payment of import duties, customs and tariff duties, excise, value-added and ad valorem taxes—driving and maintaining a plug in electric car here would be like operating another appliance in the house.
“Though it may take a few years and collaboration of the national government as well as industry players to bring the i-MiEV and the rest of the electric cars here, we could at least rejoice in the fact that we now have a viable tool just waiting to realize our desire to reduce our dependence on crude oil and reverse the effect of global warming,” Dytianquin said.
