Electric vehicles (EVs) have been steadily growing in popularity for a number of years and is expected to become one of the most popular forms of transport world-wide as early as 2020.

Australia’s uptake of EVs has been noticeably slower than other countries and many residents are still unaware of what EVs actually are, how they operate, and how they differ from the petrol/diesel-fueled counterparts.

The type of EVs which will become most common in Australia are battery charged and are called Battery Electric Vehicles (BEVs).

BEVs store their electricity in a battery which is made up of thousands of chemical cells which usually sits under the floor of the vehicle. Through an electric motor, this is what powers the vehicle.

EVs differ from their combustion engine counterparts by the ‘fuel’ which powers the motor, but more than this, electric motors have some great advantages over internal combustion engines which includes:

Efficiency

EVs are far more efficient with their use of power and can produce maximum pulling power (or torque) from zero revs which results in better acceleration.

Xavier Casley, a compliance engineer at Tritium said, “The power density of electric motors is really something that cannot be beaten by an internal.

“You can have something that weighs 50 kilograms and will happily put out 300 horsepower any minute of any day of the week.”

Emissions

EVs produces no CO2 (emissions) or particulates, although this lack of emissions becomes less pristine if electricity is not drawn from a renewable source.

Recharging

Another fantastic feature of EVs is the vehicles ability to generate electricity as well as consume it.

All the driver needs to do is lift their foot off the throttle and the motor will immediately send power back to the battery pack.

Despite this, charging continues to be the biggest issue for consumers with many people still feeling range anxiety even though most new EVs have a range of more than 300km.

A solution to this is for Australia to install more fast chargers.

Source: The New Daily Electric Cars: What you need to know about the coming revolution 

8 May 2019