Current Scenario of Electric Vehicles

Unless we can ensure that the economy is kept subservient to our ecology, we will self-destruct.
 -Roger Short

In one of the previous articles, we have discussed the future of electric vehicles in India. And we saw that this invention is getting familiar gradually.

Advantages of Electric Vehicles

There is a vast number of benefits of  ELECTRIC VEHICLES as compared to the conventional ones. To list a few:

1. Lesser running cost – since charging of ELECTRIC VEHICLES costs one third the amount of fueling a traditional vehicle (petrol as a fuel). Hence it is cheaper to run the former.
2. Lesser maintenance cost – ELECTRIC VEHICLES contains a lower number of moving parts, so lower maintenance is required.
3. Healthier user – An user is healthier than the conventional vehicle user as the air around the former is cleaner than the latter. These days, some ELECTRIC VEHICLES come with an air purifier in them which cleans the surroundings for the user.
4. Boosting the country’s economy- Countries like India & Australia depend highly on other countries for their petroleum imports. If they switch to ELECTRIC VEHICLES, their currency might become economically stronger.
5. Faster and smoother – ELECTRIC VEHICLES are quite faster and make much less noise.

Disadvantages of Electric Vehicles

There are many more advantages to ELECTRIC VEHICLES. There are a few consequences too which need to be resolved like:

1. Lower range – The maximum range of ELECTRIC VEHICLES is lesser than that of conventional vehicles. Though the average range is fine.
2. Fueling takes a bit longer – The time taken by ELECTRIC VEHICLES to recharge fully may take up to 14 hrs. Whereas for fueling a vehicle with petrol would take only a few minutes to fill the tank. This parameter will be improved by improving the technology of charging points.
3. Higher initial cost – The buying cost of ELECTRIC VEHICLES is higher as batteries cost a huge amount. But this cost is compensated by the lower running and maintaining cost.
4. Smaller market- The concept of ELECTRIC VEHICLES is still an inferior concept among huge masses. But as time passes, it will soon get popularity.

Statistics:

As more and more people will start using ELECTRIC VEHICLES, the demand for more and more localized charge stations will increase. China is the largest car market in the world. It has around 650,000 ELECTRIC VEHICLES on its roads. The country has the largest number of charge stations as well. In 2017, about 213,903 poles were recorded to be present across the country. A new trend is setting up as well. The trend is of solar-powered charging stations. With the use of specific solar panels, the technology of charging stations has been improved to quite an extent.

Few Electric Models

The top 10 electric car companies consist of  BAIC EC series, Tesla Model S, Toyota Prius Prime, Nissan Leaf, Renault, BMW i3, BYD song PHEV, and Chevrolet Bolt. The Nissan Leaf was the best seller with the capacity of traveling 110 miles on a single charge. In India, the major roles are played by:

1 Mahindra e2o + : It costs about 7.57 to 11.27 Lakhs with 140 km/ full charge.

2 E verito: 9.5 to 10 Lakhs with a capacity of 110 km/full charge.

3 Tesla X model S: 55 Lakhs.

About the Batteries

With the emergence of ELECTRIC VEHICLES, there emerges a need for efficient and durable chargeable batteries. Various types of batteries are listed below:

1. Lead-acid – Lead-acid batteries are the cheapest of the available ones. It has an efficiency of 70 to 75%.
2. Nickel metal hydride – It is one of the most commonly used batteries with an efficiency of 60 to 70%.
3. Lithium-Ion- Again, one of the most commonly used batteries with an efficiency of 80 to 90%.
4. Zebra/Sodium – having an energy density of 120 Wh/kg, sodium batteries are rare in use.

These rechargeable batteries may take a period ranging from half an hour to 12 hours to charge, depending on the type and capacity of the battery. For example, it takes 4 hours for the Nissan Leaf to charge its battery fully.

Coming to the scenario of charge stations in India, there are quite a few of them in the country. There are less than 20 charge stations across the country. Hence the Indian manufacturers can see this as an opportunity to expand their business. And since this is the business of the future, the dealers can invest without any reluctance. Moreover, there is a broad scope for techno innovators to improvise the technology of ELECTRIC VEHICLES as well as that of the charging stations.

References:

Wikipedia

www.cleantechnica.com

www.ergon.com

www.livemint.com

www.chinadaily.com