Automotive Engineering - March 2022 - 32

READER
FEEDBACK
The bi-directional EV charging oxymoron
The article on bi-directional charging in the last issue [Feb.
2022] caught my eye, and not all of it was in a positive way.
The need of a " bi-directional charging technology " to battle
" grid failure " is just quite an oxymoron. To me, the apparent
reason for the Texas grid failure was not that people cannot
use their pickups to power their home. Rather, it was due to
the longtime failure of the electrical infrastructure, to residential
single-home zoning laws propelled forward by the automotive
industry, together with the fossil-fuel industry that
makes reliable power delivery not possible (cable to reach a
household is way more than that of
European countries.)
And taking a step back, if I want
to protect my family from power
outages, wouldn't a generator in
the garage be a better option than
driving around extra equipment
that I don't need?
The quote in the article from
Ryan O'Gorman, " It is going to be
cool to see how our customers use
it, " is not a phrase resembling a
brilliant thought process. 'Let's invent
a problem for my solution to
exist' is more like it.
Thank you for taking the time to
read my rant and much appreciated.
Xing Yun
V2L capability is being dramatically
oversold by automakers. It's not a
chicken-and-egg scenario because
electrical grid reliability and capacity
is needed before a large fleet of
EVs 1) plugs in to be charged regularly
and 2) attempts to supply battery power back into the
grid. Does anyone believe that U.S. power utilities will be
ready for the EV volume that the industry claims is coming
this decade?
Manuel Ramirez
Bi-directional charging has been the OEMs' promise ever
since electric vehicles entered production in the modern era.
It fits nicely into the dream of many homeowners, that they
can somehow escape or at least mitigate their reliance on
their local utilities which often are monopolies. " You can even
power your house with this truck, " is what advertisements
claim, right? Well, take your pick on how much of your daily
electrical load your light truck's battery can cover. The fridge?
Perhaps. Maybe one air conditioner on a July day? How about
your internet server and the interior lights, and for how long?
RogersCv76
Thank you for reading SAE's Automotive Engineering and taking
the time to share your thoughts with us. Your points regarding
bi-directional charging/V2L are well taken. Author Bill
Visnic and I agree with you that a primary challenge for widespread
vehicle electrification is the lack of a robust and/or
flexible charging grid. It's one reason that home auxiliary generators
are increasingly popular. - Lindsay Brooke
EV pickup architecture war
It appears that Ford and GM are headed in different directions
regarding the architectures of their electric pickup trucks [AE
March Editorial]. I don't believe this
situation will be permanent. Ford's
decision to keep the F-150
Lightning on a separate chassis
frame is a logical strategy for the
short-to-mid term. Planners do not
yet know at what point in the future
when electric truck volume
will exceed production of the IC
trucks that are driving revenues. So
Ford hedged its bet and engineered
the Lightning battery pack
to fit a modified version of the
frame. Smart move, but the future
for electric trucks is probably
Chevy's direction for the Silverado
EV: a flexible structure dedicated
to and optimized for electric drives
and large batteries. I think the auto
companies want to get rid of outsourced
heavy steel truck frames
from suppliers and EV construction
is one way to achieve that.
Kevin Barton
Cincinnati, OH
Pragmatic Bosch
The interview in the February issue with Uwe Gackstatter was
revealing. He was frank about the industry being steered by
regulators and politicians into the costly electric unknown,
while Bosch and other suppliers must continue to invest in
existing ICE technologies. It is impossible to predict when the
world will no longer need to support IC engines, but Bosch is
clearly not yet ready to give up on them.
Neil Tredwinski
READERS: Let us know what you think about Automotive
Engineering magazine. Email the Editor at Lindsay.Brooke@
sae.org. We appreciate your comments and reserve the
right to edit for brevity and clarity.
32 March 2022
AUTOMOTIVE ENGINEERING
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