The Electric Car and the Datacentre

2015 was an exciting year in the automotive industry with a huge push from car vendors to implement electric motors wherever possible.

Thanks primarily to Elon Musk and Tesla, the electric car has evolved in recent times from something which appealed only to those who typically wore socks and sandals, to a far cooler and now acceptable form of transport for the typical man in the street.

What most people consider to be a typical electric car user - until today

When Tesla brought to the market the model S in 2012, not only was electric power seen as something to aspire to for ecological concerns, it suddenly became desirable due to the increased performance, space age look and technology which petrol and diesel cars found hard to match.

Unfortunately, most average consumers just couldn't afford the model S with it's starting price tag of around &52,000. Similarly, BMW touted its i8 concept and then production car to show us the future of electric motoring, but at over &100,000 it was just was pie in the sky for all but the super-rich.

The Telsa Model S (Source WhatCar.com)

All-electric cards have been around for some time now, for example the Nissan's Leaf and the Renault Zoe, but they couldn't deliver what most family and executive car drivers needed in terms of space, comfort, range and performance.

Whilst looking at new company cars for our fleet, the team at Boston thought that electric driving for the mainstream was just a pipe dream, that was of course until we test drove the BMW i3 in late 2015 and we were pleasantly surprised.

The BMW i3 in Orange as tested (Source BMWBlog)

Whilst outwardly the style is quite different and maybe even disagreeable to some, when we saw the car in the flesh we were pleasantly surprised at how much we liked it. Naturally, it doesn't look like a traditional BMW, but this isn't a traditional BMW at all.

To keep the weight down, improve efficiency and tout the cars green credentials the whole car is made from specially selected materials such as recycled plastic, carbon fibre, and natural elements such as hemp fibres. BMW turn this into a design feature too, proudly showing off the hemp fibres in the door panels and dashboard so you are reminded of your green credentials every time you get inside.

The i3 Interior - comfortable and airy

The forward seating is very comfortable and the car has a genuinely roomy feel despite the outward size. Passengers too have a reasonable amount of space, and even get to enter through a suicide door on the driver side with more space, making it simple to get in and out or to access child seats.

What really struck us was the performance of the i3. It shoots off the line with plenty of torque and before you know it you've hit the residential speed limit. It's faster than most hot hatches in this respect and what amazed us, is the sheer relentlessness of the acceleration, which never lets up to change gear like a traditional car and just keeps on coming. Only when you hit motorway speeds does it seem to run out of breath.

Sadly , the handling doesn't quite match up with the performance though. BMW fit low rolling resistance tyres to the i3 to save energy. Whilst this is great for the environment, and the 19" tyres look great from the exterior of the car, unfortunately the tiny width of the tyre at just 155mm causes terrible understeer that frightens the life out of you if you're not expecting it.

Likewise, when you let off the accelerator the brake regeneration also takes you aback as the car slows down as if you were applying the brakes yourself. The rear brake light even comes on to warn other users that you're slowing down the effect is so great. After a while you get used to it, and begin to avoid using the brakes at all, just letting off the throttle gently to slow down - saving as much energy as possible.

All this aside, the car makes a really compelling argument for electric driving. It's comfortable, looks cool, drives well in normal conditions and is quick off the line. If it wasn't for the one thing which dogs the electrical industry - batteries - it would have been the perfect choice for the fleet.

With a full charge, the i3 with range extender is good for approximately 93 miles according to BMW's customer provided statistics. In our test however, the car showed just 60 miles of range when the temperature and other factors (such as wear) were taken into account. Equally, the petrol range extender offered an additional 60 miles of range by burning petrol and converting it into electricity for the battery - something essential for those suffering range anxiety.

Refuelling with petrol at 120 miles, and again every 60 miles until you can get time to find a charge point, and then wait the 2.8 hours on a fast charge socket or 5.5 hours on a normal socket to get 80% charge just isn't convenient for longer trips. Trips which I myself will be doing at least once per month.

It's still great for around town and short to normal commutes, but sadly battery technology lets the i3 down. The standard battery is Lithium Ion based and is good for 19kWh, which is a huge battery by most other applications standards, but for a car it's relatively small. Tesla for example ship with a 60kWh or 85kWh unit which enables up to 265 miles - not bad but still not competitive with a petrol or diesel tank.

Sadly, batteries are still way behind where they need to be to make electric cars a viable replacement for petrol and diesel in all scenarios. Problems like weight, variable capacity due to temperature and wear, leakages, disposal and environmental concerns from their manufacture make them the Achilles heel in an otherwise great proposition.

For now at least, our plan here at Boston will be to wait for technology to mature, and in the meantime look at plug-in hybrid vehicles such as the BMW 330e or the Mercedes C350 as alternatives. These vehicles seem to offer the best of both worlds - an all-electric range for the daily commute, and a full petrol engine for those out of town trips. Will they live up to the hype? We will just have to wait and see.

"What has this all got to do with the datacenter?" I hear you ask. Well, we already saw exactly the same problems with our battery backed systems that help keep us running when disaster strikes, such as UPS and battery backed RAID caches.

Lithium-ion or lead acid batteries have always been problematic, especially when computer equipment is involved.

In our experience with RAID controllers and their battery backed cache devices from all vendors, we've found over the years that they can't be relied upon; especially at higher temperatures that you find inside servers and datacentres in general.

A lithium-ion BBU