International Conference On Electric Vehicles & Urban Residents

Policy makers and industry leaders have a tough challenge making electric vehicles accessible for the world’s urban residents. Many apartment dwellers lack access to dedicated spots with electricity to charge the vehicles, while other city residents may need access to shared EVs to get around city streets. Unless EV leaders can solve these challenges, global deployment of this vital clean technology will be limited.

To discuss these issues and solutions from around the globe, please join us on Tuesday, June 4th and Wednesday, June 5th, as Berkeley Law’s Center for Law, Energy and the Environment (CLEE) partners with the University of Paris for an international conference on urban EV deployment, with a focus on policies and perspectives from California and France.

“Electric Vehicles and Global Urban Adoption“ will feature top officials from the Newsom Administration and other electric vehicle industry experts, including:

Jamie Hall, Manager of Public Policy, General Motors

Dominique Lagarde, Director of Electric Mobility, Enedis (France’s largest Distribution System Operator)

John McGinty, Senior Business Development Associate, Uber

Patty Monahan, Commissioner, California Energy Commission

Carla Peterman, Former Commissioner, California Public Utilities Commission

Debbie Raphael, Director of the Department of Environment, City of San Francisco

Alice Reynolds, Senior Advisor for Energy, Office of Governor Gavin Newsom

The event will also feature a pre-conference tour of the Tesla factory in Fremont, California (space is limited to early registrants only) and a guided tour of an innovative, micro-grid ready EV charging facility in Downtown Berkeley.

Register on-line (admission is $20, which includes breakfast and lunch both days) and view the full agenda. The event will take place at the Bancroft Hotel, across from Berkeley Law. Nine hours of MCLE credit is available for attorneys. Hope to see you there!

One Reply to “International Conference On Electric Vehicles & Urban Residents”

I wish I could attend. One important part of the discussion is the role of Plug-in Hybrid Electric Vehicles (apparently pronounced “fev”, at least on Irish YouTube car videos) either as an alternative to electric only vehicles or as a “gateway drug”.

A PHEV can have its battery sized to cover the majority of rides electric only. I recently bought one, and I estimate that two sigma of the trips it is used for would be less than the 25 mile battery range. Larger battery range is quite expensive in terms of cost, weight and other impacts on the vehicle design, and an electric only vehicle will probably need to go out 5 or 6 sigma and have a battery bank several times as large.

Current PHEVs have dual engine / motor drive trains rather than electric only drive trains and are therefore fairly complex, but this is mainly a transition effect due to legacy components and engineering. A PHEV could have a generator (only, rather than a motor/generator) connected to the prime mover and electric motor(s) (only) connected to the wheels with a dual battery / capacitor bank to get adequate peak acceleration, rather than a large battery bank (electric cars) or combined motor/engine power (most PHEVs). A prime mover running a generator only optimized at one speed and power level would be much more efficient and less expensive than one designed to operate effectively at a range of power and RPM. In fact, an industrial type micro gas turbine (radial flow vice axial flow seen in aircraft) would be precisely suited for this application (and are generally used for electric generation), especially because the efficiency and power capability of generators goes up directly with speed. There are a lot of other tricks in this area that could also improve efficiency, such that the PHEV might easily emit less carbon than an electric only vehicle running on mixed renewable and natural gas generation.

Here also it is worth noting that mixed diesel electric drive is well established as a weight and performance effective system, both for ships and ground vehicles. One fast tracked assault “tank killer” heavy gun vehicle had rotary diesel electric drive as weight, fuel and cost savings measures and to improve fast combat maneuver. A large number of ships are either diesel electric or steam turbine electric and some (the Chevron California class tankers) are gas turbine electric.

It is also worth noting that biomethane is also a renewable energy source and can be stored in vehicles either as LNG, CNG or ANG. A PHEV running on biomethane would be effectively carbon neutral or even carbon negative if compared to the effect of venting the biomethane.

Capstone is a manufacturer of microturbines in the LA area and might be worth contacting for this event, especially since they work with various people looking at micro gas turbines in various new applications.

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Reader Comments

CDB says:

May 9, 2019 at 4:58 am

I wish I could attend. One important part of the discussion is the role of Plug-in Hybrid Electric Vehicles (apparently pronounced “fev”, at least on Irish YouTube car videos) either as an alternative to electric only vehicles or as a “gateway drug”.

A PHEV can have its battery sized to cover the majority of rides electric only. I recently bought one, and I estimate that two sigma of the trips it is used for would be less than the 25 mile battery range. Larger battery range is quite expensive in terms of cost, weight and other impacts on the vehicle design, and an electric only vehicle will probably need to go out 5 or 6 sigma and have a battery bank several times as large.

Current PHEVs have dual engine / motor drive trains rather than electric only drive trains and are therefore fairly complex, but this is mainly a transition effect due to legacy components and engineering. A PHEV could have a generator (only, rather than a motor/generator) connected to the prime mover and electric motor(s) (only) connected to the wheels with a dual battery / capacitor bank to get adequate peak acceleration, rather than a large battery bank (electric cars) or combined motor/engine power (most PHEVs). A prime mover running a generator only optimized at one speed and power level would be much more efficient and less expensive than one designed to operate effectively at a range of power and RPM. In fact, an industrial type micro gas turbine (radial flow vice axial flow seen in aircraft) would be precisely suited for this application (and are generally used for electric generation), especially because the efficiency and power capability of generators goes up directly with speed. There are a lot of other tricks in this area that could also improve efficiency, such that the PHEV might easily emit less carbon than an electric only vehicle running on mixed renewable and natural gas generation.

Here also it is worth noting that mixed diesel electric drive is well established as a weight and performance effective system, both for ships and ground vehicles. One fast tracked assault “tank killer” heavy gun vehicle had rotary diesel electric drive as weight, fuel and cost savings measures and to improve fast combat maneuver. A large number of ships are either diesel electric or steam turbine electric and some (the Chevron California class tankers) are gas turbine electric.

It is also worth noting that biomethane is also a renewable energy source and can be stored in vehicles either as LNG, CNG or ANG. A PHEV running on biomethane would be effectively carbon neutral or even carbon negative if compared to the effect of venting the biomethane.

Capstone is a manufacturer of microturbines in the LA area and might be worth contacting for this event, especially since they work with various people looking at micro gas turbines in various new applications.