The federal government’s successful incentive program for zero-emissions vehicle purchases is running out of money and not slated for renewal, much to the dismay of environmental and industry groups.
Automotive pollution causes thousands of excess deaths every year. It is also linked to a number of negative health outcomes, and has a correlation to autism in children.
Used EV parts have the possibility of really transforming our society — EV batteries that are no longer suitable for transportation can still hold enough charge to power a home for a day or two; couple that with used EV motors which can generate electricity, and each EV that can no longer be driven is effectively a cheap and ready power plant that can power a home or office, or can help provide grid-scale storage on the cheap.
Everyone is going to benefit from a (near) fully EV world.
E-bikes are already cheaper than even the cheapest new car. If people want an e-bike instead of a car it’s already affordable. Having a Federal Rebate isn’t going to move any more e-bikes, and isn’t going to convince more than a handful of people to stop driving and cycle instead.
The end result will simply be that we would still have too many gas-guzzlers on the road spewing CO2 and other pollutants into the atmosphere (right next to bike lanes, where cyclists have to breathe that crap in). The CO2 reductions for the cost would be significantly less than incentivizing EV sales. The current incentives are supposed to help reduce the cost of EVs so they are comparable in price to the gas guzzlers; e-bikes don’t need an incentive as they’re already pretty cheap.
Governments would do better by investing in better cycling infrastructure than providing a rebate for something most people won’t use anyway.
The motors in EVs are designed to also provide regenerative services — the charge you put into the battery gets extended by having all “breaking” re-generate power in the battery. So if you’re in a situation where you’re driving down a mountain, you can wind up in a situation where you’re can have more charge when you get to the bottom as you had at the top.
(This is a problem EVs actually have to design around — they’ll turn off the regenerative breaking if your battery is at 100% so you don’t risk overcharging it driving down a long, steep decline).
When removed from the car, you can use the motors like this in a permanent installation. Anything that provides rotational power can then be used to generate electricity — a wind turbine, a water wheel, steam, 2 thousand hamsters — whatever you have on hand. Use that power to turn the motor, and you get electricity out the other end.
These systems aren’t passive, so an EV sitting in a parking lot isn’t going to generate electricity. You need movement from an external source to turn the motors to get power out.
The motors in EVs are designed to also provide regenerative services
Just a point of…not really correction… additional detail?
Any electric motor is capable of generating electricity. It’s about whether the motor is doing work, spinning through electrical input, or if it’s being spun by an outside force. This is why you can repurpose an old washing machine into an actually useful hydroelectric generator. The only difference between an electric motor in a washing machine and an EV is power output in terms of torque and speed, there’s been some efficiency gains (not really an amazing innovation as there just really wasn’t much need in prior typical applications) and finally the fact that they’re wired to also generate power while breaking (aka regenerative breaking).
Other than that bit of extra on top, very well explained. 👍
Thanks for adding that — yes, you can do this with any electric motor; EV motors have simply been optimized for this purpose, and can generate power in the kW range. They have the necessary wiring for handling high voltage, along with built-in cooling tubing/conduits.
They’re as close to a drop-in-and-spin electrical generator as you can get. And unlike gas engines they don’t really ever wear out — so it wouldn’t be a surprise to see these become highly available and pretty inexpensive as EV uptake continues to increase, and as we finally start seeing huge numbers of current EVs being taken off the roads due to age in 15 years or so.
Yes this was my understanding. I could see some DIY people making it work but I doubt we would see a massive scale industry around re using the motors. The amount of work and refurbishment coupled with relatively low power productions would make it hard to keep economically viable i think. People would worry the used motors would wear out prematurely when investing in their own power supply. Unlike something like solar, the motor needs rotational force, where as solar almost always makes at least some energy in the day even if cloudy.
As I alluded to in a comment just a moment ago, there’s actually a really vibrant community/cottage industry world wide taking the motor and the internal drum from old washing machines and turning them into hydroelectric plants, capable of powering off grid homes quite effectively for as much of the year as the water is flowing in the area.
I could absolutely see what OP was theorising happening with only a little bit of government support. The motors and batteries could easily be sold on as part of a kit, and the rest of the car recycled where possible.
Cue my friends moaning about how the gov’t wont give them thousands of dollars of free money to buy a tesla
Meanwhile, where’s my free money for never contributing to gridlock, never causing potholes, never polluting the environment, etc.?
Your free money is also in the Tesla.
Automotive pollution causes thousands of excess deaths every year. It is also linked to a number of negative health outcomes, and has a correlation to autism in children.
Used EV parts have the possibility of really transforming our society — EV batteries that are no longer suitable for transportation can still hold enough charge to power a home for a day or two; couple that with used EV motors which can generate electricity, and each EV that can no longer be driven is effectively a cheap and ready power plant that can power a home or office, or can help provide grid-scale storage on the cheap.
Everyone is going to benefit from a (near) fully EV world.
Where’s the federal ebike subsidy then?
E-bikes are already cheaper than even the cheapest new car. If people want an e-bike instead of a car it’s already affordable. Having a Federal Rebate isn’t going to move any more e-bikes, and isn’t going to convince more than a handful of people to stop driving and cycle instead.
The end result will simply be that we would still have too many gas-guzzlers on the road spewing CO2 and other pollutants into the atmosphere (right next to bike lanes, where cyclists have to breathe that crap in). The CO2 reductions for the cost would be significantly less than incentivizing EV sales. The current incentives are supposed to help reduce the cost of EVs so they are comparable in price to the gas guzzlers; e-bikes don’t need an incentive as they’re already pretty cheap.
Governments would do better by investing in better cycling infrastructure than providing a rebate for something most people won’t use anyway.
How exactly does an EV become a power plant? If EVs were power plants they wouldn’t need charging stations or to be plugged in over night.
Yoink the motor out of an old otherwise-scrap EV and diy a wind turbine
The motors in EVs are designed to also provide regenerative services — the charge you put into the battery gets extended by having all “breaking” re-generate power in the battery. So if you’re in a situation where you’re driving down a mountain, you can wind up in a situation where you’re can have more charge when you get to the bottom as you had at the top.
(This is a problem EVs actually have to design around — they’ll turn off the regenerative breaking if your battery is at 100% so you don’t risk overcharging it driving down a long, steep decline).
When removed from the car, you can use the motors like this in a permanent installation. Anything that provides rotational power can then be used to generate electricity — a wind turbine, a water wheel, steam, 2 thousand hamsters — whatever you have on hand. Use that power to turn the motor, and you get electricity out the other end.
These systems aren’t passive, so an EV sitting in a parking lot isn’t going to generate electricity. You need movement from an external source to turn the motors to get power out.
Just a point of…not really correction… additional detail?
Any electric motor is capable of generating electricity. It’s about whether the motor is doing work, spinning through electrical input, or if it’s being spun by an outside force. This is why you can repurpose an old washing machine into an actually useful hydroelectric generator. The only difference between an electric motor in a washing machine and an EV is power output in terms of torque and speed, there’s been some efficiency gains (not really an amazing innovation as there just really wasn’t much need in prior typical applications) and finally the fact that they’re wired to also generate power while breaking (aka regenerative breaking).
Other than that bit of extra on top, very well explained. 👍
Thanks for adding that — yes, you can do this with any electric motor; EV motors have simply been optimized for this purpose, and can generate power in the kW range. They have the necessary wiring for handling high voltage, along with built-in cooling tubing/conduits.
They’re as close to a drop-in-and-spin electrical generator as you can get. And unlike gas engines they don’t really ever wear out — so it wouldn’t be a surprise to see these become highly available and pretty inexpensive as EV uptake continues to increase, and as we finally start seeing huge numbers of current EVs being taken off the roads due to age in 15 years or so.
Yes this was my understanding. I could see some DIY people making it work but I doubt we would see a massive scale industry around re using the motors. The amount of work and refurbishment coupled with relatively low power productions would make it hard to keep economically viable i think. People would worry the used motors would wear out prematurely when investing in their own power supply. Unlike something like solar, the motor needs rotational force, where as solar almost always makes at least some energy in the day even if cloudy.
As I alluded to in a comment just a moment ago, there’s actually a really vibrant community/cottage industry world wide taking the motor and the internal drum from old washing machines and turning them into hydroelectric plants, capable of powering off grid homes quite effectively for as much of the year as the water is flowing in the area.
I could absolutely see what OP was theorising happening with only a little bit of government support. The motors and batteries could easily be sold on as part of a kit, and the rest of the car recycled where possible.