European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - August 11, 1990, Darmstadt, Hesse                                The search for the right Battery charged up Over electric cars by Paul c. Judge new York times encouraged by serious consideration of Laws that might make commercial production of electric cars practical within a decade companies from Small Start ups to some of the world s largest Battery manufacturers Are racing for a breakthrough in Battery technology. The goal is to develop batteries with enough Power for electric vehicles to accelerate to Highway speeds and enough Energy storage to keep vehicles running for 100 Miles or  up with such a device while holding Down the weight and Cost is stretching the limits of the Battery manufacturing Industry which has been practising its Craft since the 1860s, when batteries were used to Send Telegraph messages. Batteries Are the key that is holding up electric vehicles said Clifford l Hayden chairman of the electric vehicle association of the americas in Silver Spring md., and manager of get corp s vehicle Fleet one of the largest in the nation. We know How to build All the components to make an effective electric vehicle but we still Lack a Good Power  general motors corp. Says it has a Battery system capable of powering its Impact prototype electric car for 120 Miles at 55 Miles a hour. But several Battery experts Are sceptical of pm s claim that its Battery would last for 20,000 Miles before having to be replaced at a Cost of about $1,500. They say the Auto maker has yet to produce scientific evidence that its Battery can hold up to so much recharging. Since introducing its electric car with great fanfare in january pm has been silent on the subject. While there have been reports that the company will begin producing the Impact in 1993, executives have refused to name a Date. Pm says it is waiting for breakthroughs in Battery technology that could affect the car s Range and affordability. Other Auto makers including Ford motor co., Chrysler corp. And Fiat and some Independent companies Are experimenting with modifications on their existing models so that they could run on Battery Power. Ford has developed a version of its Aerostat mini Van that runs on electric Power in a Pilot project sponsored by the department of Energy. The most promising Battery types according to the Energy department rely on combinations of chemicals like Lead and sul uric acid Nickel and Iron and sodium and Fulfur. Engineers Are already familiar with the quirks and capacities of the first two kinds to store and discharge Energy. The Lead acid combination is the same Type that starts engines in autos while Nickel Iron batteries provided electricity for Railroad cars Early in the Century. Sodium Fulfur batteries while they were developed 20 years ago in a Ford Laboratory have yet to find a routine use. Each Type has drawbacks As a Power source for electric vehicles. Conventional Lead acid batteries Are heavy and quickly lose their capacity to store Energy under the stress of regular deep discharging and recharging. Sodium Fulfur combinations produce much More Energy for their weight but go dead if the Battery temperature is not 280 to 325 degrees centigrade. Nickel Iron batteries Are durable but Cost four to five times As much per unit of output to produce than conventional Lead acid batteries according to Energy department officials. Nickel Iron batteries also give off Hydrogen which some engineers regard As hazardous for vehicles parked in garages where a spark might cause an explosion. In addition the compounds used in some Battery combinations make mass production Tricky and raise concerns about recycling the used Battery materials. For instance the handling and disposal of sodium can be a problem. Many proponents of electric vehicles agree that recently proposed Laws requiring manufacturers to sell a certain number of cars along with the offer of incentives like tax credits to buyers May be necessary to jump Start the Market. Nevertheless a relatively Small but important Market for electric vehicles is already emerging in the los Angeles Basin where pollution control authorities Are moving to restrict the Sale of gasoline powered vehicles. A Genera motors says it has developed a Battery system that can Power its Impact prototype electric car for 120 Miles at 55 Mph before needing to be recharged. Not snaring super polluters by Matthew l. Wald new York times the fight for clean air has produced a new weapon the environmental equivalent of Highway radar trap that measures Carbo monoxide from passing cars in a fraction of a second. The original idea was to pick out super polluters but some government officials in the United states Are now thinking about new approaches to pollution control. A few Are sceptical that the invention can Ever do More than perform crude screenings. But others argue that even that could be very useful. It s a pretty incredible tall tale to Tell that you can determine the emissions of a car As it drives by said Marc l. Pitchford an atmospheric physicist with the environmental Protection Agency s environmental monitoring systems Laboratory in Las vegas. But the system works he said even at Highway speeds. The Agency has financed development of a Model for $50,000. The device shines a beam of infrared Light through the exhaust behind a car 10 inches above the pavement. Carbon monoxide a major pollutant absorbs a particular Wavelength of Light Carbon dioxide absorbs a different Wavelength. The absorption can be measured by a sensor across the Lane of traffic. The inventor Donald h. Stedman a chemistry professor at the University of Denver hooked a computer to the sensor to determine the ratio of the two gases and from that calculated the amount of Carbon dioxide emitted per mile. This is the same measurement made when a technician in a garage puts a probe in the tailpipe of an idling car for the annual inspection. Stedman argues that the problem with the annual Idle test is that it is annual and Idle. It gives a car 364 Days to run around dirty and Only measures How clean it is when it is idling which is not characteristic of cars rolling Down the Road. And the device would make better use of Public resources according to some officials. Pitchford said that using the system is like picking up people weaving across traffic lanes for driving while under the influence instead of stopping everybody to see if they can pass a breathalyzer  some see a More limited use however. At the California air resources Board which used the device to measure pollution production William Sessa a spokesman said that it was very Good for measuring emissions from a car in a cruising  but it provides a snapshot and if the car is accelerating or decelerating or has just pulled out of a driveway and is not warmed up it will give a Reading that is accurate but uncharacteristic. Stedman s device which he Calls feat for fuel efficiency automobile test is linked to a video camera that records a picture of the License plate of cars that fail. Adding a computer that reads the License plate number off the picture he said would make it easy to generate a letter to the car s owner requiring that the vehicle be brought in for conventional inspection. Ten percent of the cars produce half the pollution he said and this would catch the 10 percent. But Sessa challenged this statistic saying that it came from a study limited to cars with dirty emissions. In los Angeles he said about one third of the Auto Fleet generates half the pollution. He said he doubted that the device would be useful for picking out individual violators and it could not replace traditional tests because it did not detect hydrocarbons and nitrogen oxides two other pollutants the american Petroleum Institute is underwriting development of a second beam which will measure hydrocarbons and the environmental Protection Agency will probably finance development of an ultraviolet beam next year that will measure nitrogen oxide Page 16 the stars and stripes. Saturday August 11, 1990