INL study reveals information about electric vehicles

A new study from the Idaho National Laboratory is answering questions about plug-in electric cars.

For a detailed report of the study you can click here.

“Change, it’s a different technology than people are used to that’s probably the first thing,” said Jim Francfort, program manager for the advance vehicle testing activity.

This change is called a plug-in electric vehicle, or a battery operated car.

“You don’t have the air coming out the exhaust that’s energy so the vehicle, the battery itself is very efficient,” said Francfort.

The study demonstrates how often these cars need charging.

“One percieved barrier is that we need places to plug the cars in,” said John Smart, group lead for the advance vehicle research group.

There’s the thought that battery powered cars will need battery-like gas stations, but the study found this:

“Primarily we need charging stations at home, if people are able to charge at home they’re able to meet almost all of their driving needs,” said Smart.

Accessibility beyond the home is also a concern

“Charging in public is nice to have but not required in order to be satisfied with electric cars”

If the cars become more common public charging would be in public “hot spots”.

Not only does this study make the future seem a little closer, it’s one of the largest studies in the world on the cars.

With three years of data, 8,300 privately owned vehicles in the study, 22 cities in the country participated, and 125 million driving miles were evaluated in the process.