Emissions and Efficiency White Paper Available
If you are reading this blog, you probably have an interest in battery-powered mobility and its advantages over more traditional vehicles. Some people are interested in the efficient use of natural resources, while others are passionate about relative emissions. There is no shortage of opinions, that is for sure.
We like electric for a lot of reasons. The right electric motor can give you excellent control at low speeds, and provide the torque required to keep a rider balanced, when needed. Performance advantages aside, the environmental benefits of electric seem obvious, but can be hard to quantify.
During the last year I worked with one of our engineers, John David Heinzmann, to quantify the increased efficiency and reduced emissions one might realize by replacing a single-passenger car journey with a Segway PT. JD has been with Segway since the beginning, and is one of our resident battery gurus. Together we wrote a white paper that covers both efficiency and emissions, which can be found here:
This was a fun, albeit sometimes tedious project. First we looked at the fairest way to make comparisons (we go back to the source fuel), and then we crunched the numbers. If this is a topic of interest to you, we invite you to read it and let us know what you think. I won’t spoil the ending, but the Segway PT fares pretty well…
- Michael
August 9th, 2007 at 2:29 pm
Enough of these comparisons between autos and the PT. How about a comparison between the PT and a horse. I can tell you that my horse has emissions but he is pretty efficient. How about a white paper on this?
August 12th, 2007 at 12:03 am
I think it’s great. Lots of technical details. Wish it had more. But I realize that might be too much of a good thing for easy reading by the viewing public.
But then, you’ve already sold me, as I already own a PT.
I’m concerned that not too many prospective customers will be reading it. Have you considered printing some up and having it available at Segway dealerships and Authorized Segway tours?
Not that it will help sales all by itself, but in the hands of a good salesman it could be a useful tool to easily and accurately answer questions about the economics of PT use.
August 13th, 2007 at 9:44 am
Thanks for the interesting comments.
We tried to strike a balance between technical depth and readability. It’s naturally going to be too much for some, not enough for others. We wanted to give Segway PT owners some real data to explain the benefits, as well as inform those who are not currently owners.
We’ve made the white paper available to our dealers and I know there are some great salespeople who are using the data in their product presentations.
As for the horse, I’ll need to know what it eats (and the processes by which that food is produced and transported to the stable) on a daily basis as well as its range, in addition to all of the emissions data.
August 14th, 2007 at 10:03 pm
I thought it was interesting that the white paper said that about 1 KW-Hr was consumed in a charge cycle. This agreed with a couple estimates from people on SegwayChat.com on that topic.
I did a little math from a recent electric bill of ours here in west central Florida, and 1 KW-Hr works out to about 11ยข, including fuel costs and taxes.
Of course we have to amortize the cost of the Segway PT batteries, but if they last about three years, that’s still pretty low cost.
Any determinations yet for the Li-ion batteries’ life span? You used to say 500 full charge cycles for the NiMH’s. Are the new ones’ lives longer or shorter?
You know, I actually wouldn’t be so disappointed to hear that it was shorter, as the Li-ions actually make the machine viable for our current needs, where the gen 1 machines weren’t. This is due not only to the nominal 20-miles per charge range, but also to their increased power flow characteristics.
We live at the bottom of a medium steep hill, and our gen 1 machine would rather easily go into reduced performance mode while climbing, where our new i2 zips up the grade eagerly with no “complaints.”