Filling up with electricity
22.12.2011
A total of 500 electric cars will soon be driving around the Helsinki Metropolitan area, collecting data for research.
If you happened to be outside Kamppi shopping centre in Helsinki on 8 December, you could get a foretaste of what city traffic might be like in the future. In the parking lot, dozens of electric cars are parked, ranging from an electric Porsche 911 converted by the Ruf workshop to the first Nissan Leaf electric taxi in the capital area and small distribution vans. The LED lights on various manufacturers’ charging points glow in the sleety rain. Research Director of the eSINi research project at Aalto University, Pekka Malinen, is beaming with satisfaction.
”Studying electric car user experience has been difficult. It takes users”, he says.
In 2015, the scientists at Aalto University should have plenty of material to study. The participants of the newly launched Electrictraffic.fi and Eco Urban Living projects have undertaken to procure up to 500 electric cars. Each one will be equipped with measuring instruments producing data for the research partners in the project. After a few years, 850 charging points should be found around the Helsinki Metropolitan area. All in all, total funding of EUR 100 million has been promised for the research and development of electric transport.
Aalto’s eSINi electric car project brings together scientists from five different units of the university, from the BIT Business Centre that is coordinating the project to chemists and industrial designers. The scientists hope to put together an overall picture of the value chain of electric motoring. Interdisciplinary expertise will be needed, as large sections of the value chain are still blank. Turning the current oil-based infrastructure into an electric car friendly direction will not happen overnight.
"The problem is that as yet, this is not business for anybody”, reflects Pekka Malinen.
Pekka Malinen and Jyri Häkämies discussing research in the field of electric vehicles.
The atmosphere becomes electrified when the Finnish-made Fisker Karma luxury hybrid rolls in. In stealth mode, the car is powered by batteries. From the car emerges Minister of Economic Affairs Jyri Häkämies.
”What was it like to travel in?”, asks an MTV3 news reporter.
”Quiet”, says the Minister appreciatively.
It appears that Mayor of Espoo, Jukka Mäkelä, already has an electric car provided by his employer. Häkämies promises to speak for getting the electric alternative included in the State procurements list, too.
”The aim is that by 2015, we will have a charging point network in the Helsinki Metropolitan area that makes normal traffic and running your errands using an electric car possible.”
Research Director Pekka Malinen and Research Scientist Veikka Pirhonen, Project Manager of the eSINi project, are taking a tour of the electric cars parked outside the shopping centre. A car named Electric RaceAbout built by students of Metropolia University of Applied Sciences has recently broken the track record of electric cars on the Nürnburgring track in Germany. The research partner of Aalto is developing wireless charging system for electric cars.
”You only realise what a powerhouse an electric motor is when you try it out yourself”, says Veikka Pirhonen.
Especially in city traffic, the powerful electric motor offers better performance than the internal combustion engine. The most memorable driving experience Pirhonen ever had was a two-seater Tesla Roadster. The fully electric convertible accelerates to a hundred kilometres in 3.7 seconds, and it should have a cruising radius of up to 390 kilometres.
In some ways, Finland has excellent preconditions for the more wide-spread use of electric cars: electricity is available from numerous heating points in parking lots. The scientists point out that they need to become more intelligent, too.
”It must be possible to send the invoice to whoever is charging their car, and the power grid should not be overloaded.”
As they become more numerous, the batteries of parked electric cars will provide an excellent energy reserve for wind and solar power production, the levels of which vary according to weather conditions. The eSINi project also sets out to study this aspect. If the legislation allowed small-scale producers to sell electricity back to the grid, the owner of an electric car could even make money. The batteries would be charged when electricity is cheap. If the car is not on the road, you could sell the electricity back to the grid during peak times at a better price.
”Legislation issues are a large area in our research project”, explains Veikka Pirhonen.
Text and photographs: Petja Partanen/Tarinatakomo