The Green Squad:

We are a group of automotive engineers led by Roberto DePaschoal, the inventor of the concept electric patent pending vehicle codenamed “Concept 2”, its novel systems, accessories and operational infrastructure (Concepts 3,4 & 5).

Our job has been designing green vehicles from the ground up and around a standard interchangeable 15 cubic feet (about 400 l.) container with wheels running on rails and filled with interconnected batteries. That particular size of a pack was chosen because it would accommodate enough batteries to provide the vehicle with a decent range and highway performance even when using inexpensive lead-acid technologies. It offers also the option of being filled alternatively with any other energy storage system, e.g.: Li-Ion, NiMh, Sodium, super-capacitors, fuel cell systems, etc. to work in tandem, replacing the lead-acid cells altogether or in any other combination whatsoever.

During the past twenty years of R&D; we have been perfecting and upgrading the concept crossover BEV (Concept 2), which has the length of a Smart-For-Two carrying five adults comfortably, plus a long list of 23 advantages over any other vehicle, electric or not, as you can see in our “What’s New” pages. Its main attraction is the potential for competing with ICE (internal combustion engine) vehicles with advantages on safety, range of operation, performance, novel features and affordability, in contrast with all EVs. on prototype stage, showrooms or drawing boards. In fact, they are in their almost totality nothing but OEM conversions of conventional gasoline vehicles.

The project extends also to a concept of a network of compact, fast and highly profitable swapping stations, as the one described below, which if materializes, would encourage investors and scientists to unfocus from their decades long efforts to make a battery to compete with a gallon of gas and join our cause on stationary infrastructure.

It will also turn the threat of electric vehicles widespread adoption into a blessing for the grid operators instead of a burden as feared up to now, plus give the economy a well deserved shot in the arm with the creation of thousands of outsource-proof jobs.

CAR-WASH TYPE AUTOMATED RECHARGING/EXCHANGING STATION
ARS

(Concept 3)

Capacity: 800 recharging cells for standard 25kWh. 1x3x5(15 cu.ft.) Pat. Pending battery containers on wheels running on rails.

Estimated power-pack swapping time at the car-wash type loading bay: 2 to 3 seconds.

Estimated time of recharging: 8 hrs. maximum, or 1/2 hr. on a fast charging mode.

Estimated measurements of the modular recharging plant: from 6m. X 8m. (435 sq.ft.) to about 2,700 sq.ft. with 68 to 816 recharging cells respectively.

Maximum serving capacity: 2,400 vehicles a day on a normal 8hrs. recharging cycle.
Or 38,400 vehicles a day on a 1/2 hour fast recharging mode working uninterruptedly, swapping battery containers every 2.25 seconds 24/7.

Revenue: (Gross profit on top of energy consumption) @ $10 per delivery, max. $24,000 a day ($720,000 a mo. $8.76M/yr.) on an eight hr. charging operation, or: $384K a day ($11.52M a mo, $138.24M/yr.) on a quick 1/2 hr. charging mode.

Estimated maintenance costs: Average $1 to $3K a month depending on traffic flow.

Energy consumption for recharging: About $2.00 per 25kWh. power pack @ commercial rate.

Energy consumption for operation: Max. $ ? a day, minus energy generated by solar panels on the roofs.

PRELIMINARY STUDIES FOR IMPLEMENTATION OF “ARS” IN GAS STATIONS:

A) Estimated number of licensed vehicles in the U.S.: 206,851,853
B) Estimated number of filling stations (According to the Journal of Petroleum Market of June 2008) = 187,097.

A/B= 1,105 fill-ups per station if all vehicles go to a filling station in a determined period of time. Or about an average of one vehicle per minute per station, should they all decide to get a fill up in the same 24hr. period. It means ARS could pretty well cope up with the load, if installed on every gas station.

As the novel recharging plant is conceived on modular construction, it would fit in every service stations without interfering with their normal petrol products business. Thus, the idea could be submitted to all oil distributors (BP especially) and use their existing vehicular filling infrastructure network. They would then team up with electricity generators in order to enjoy many benefits including of the V2G (Vehicle to grid) and Smart Grid systems.

In that system, will be cases when a PEV would leave a plug-in station with their batteries partly depleted because the utility company had to “borrow” energy from its power pack during an emergent demand, and then issued a credit to be collected at the nearest ARS, in case that vehicle had to leave the station before its batteries were fully recharged.

In that scenario, the ARS will switch that pack to a freshly charged one, get paid from the from the hydro company for that borrowed energy and from the customer for the remainder balance of the tab.

There will be cases when utility companies would borrow also from the huge amount of electricity stored at the network of ARS (about 20 megawatt/hr. each or 3,740 terawatt/hr. nationwide) to cope with similar situations. They could also sell them their normally unused electricity at night and make other lucrative transactions such as transferring excess energy from nuclear plants, etc., and find the idea very attractive.

ARS are not prone to become obsolete even when science advances to a point of producing an affordable power-pack with the range of a tank full of gas and beyond. They could be used to store electricity for the utility companies to save money on construction of new power plants, transmission lines, transformer stations or any other infrastructure issue caused by the increasing numbers of EVs.

As the 15 cu. ft. 300V, 25kWhr. power-pack containers will be hopefully standardized with wheels running on rails, they could be refurbished at the end of their batteries’ life cycle, and go either back to their original business or rolled into the racks of a stationary high-voltage backup system with several applications, including to replace hi-rise buildings diesel generators.

ARS in remote areas could be powered by wind/solar power generating systems in order to ensure the supply of “fuel” for long-haul electric travelers .