Electric Vehicles: Past, Present and Future
It may surprise most to find out that some of the first cars on the roads were electric vehicles (EV). That's right! At the end of the 19th century, the horseless buggies on the road were mostly steam driven or DC motors powered by lead acid batteries and a few internal combustion engines (ICE). They were not fast, did not have a lot of range, and were unreliable in the cold.
It was not until people started to light their homes and offices with electricity rather than kerosene that the popularity of ICE grew. The oil companies that produced kerosene were losing profits and needed to find a use for a by-product called gasoline. It was cheap, easy to transport over long distances, easy to store in tanks, and had a good shelf life. All this at a time when the electrical technology and infrastructure was just starting to expand across the country.
With support from the oil industry, innovation became focused on an engine that would use this cheap and abundant fuel. They were also able to roll out gas stations far quicker than they could install infrastructure for electricity distribution. The ICE vehicle took off from there and far outpaced all others. The ICE vehicle technology has not progressed much since that era. Sure, you can get a lot more horsepower from smaller engines, but it's still just controlled explosions that produce motion, noise, heat, and greenhouse gases.
Although there were a few EVs in the 20th century, all were limited by the computing and battery technologies of their time. None were able to match the cost and practicality of ICE vehicles. Additionally, with a nonexistent recharging infrastructure, the electric vehicle did not stand a chance. It was not until 1997 that GM offered the EV-1, a 'practical' all electric vehicle, and the sole contender to the ICE vehicles on the roads at that time. The EV-1 was extremely limited in number but reached some notoriety by high profile celebrities that drove them. The interesting thing was that the vehicle could only be leased, never owned. At the end of the lease, GM discontinued the car and the program completely, without providing a reason. For those interested, the documentary "Who Killed the Electric Car? (2006)" explores this in some detail.
In the early 2000's, fuel prices increased and environmental awareness started to grow. There was a resurgence of a few EV's offered by some big names. It was also the time that a 'crazy' little company out of California called Tesla Motors started making headlines with its all electric Roadster, sporting very impressive performance numbers. It had a practical range, took time to recharge, and had a large price tag. The innovation that made the difference was the use of laptop batteries, which were lighter and more energy dense than older battery technologies. It is also what made it expensive.
The industry has come a long way over the past 20 years, from increasing range and lowering the cost, to introducing autonomous driving and a better refuelling infrastructure of charging stations.
Presently there is an ever-growing number of options for EV's, varying in size, range, price, trim, and utility. There are also exciting commitments from the big names to transition all their ICE models to electric, giving drivers more options at better prices. Some predict that the price of electric vehicles will decrease to a point where they will be much less expensive than their ICE equivalents. If you think about it, starting a new ICE car company today seems almost impossible unless you have deep pockets to compete with the household names. There are a lot of moving parts needed for an ICE vehicle, both literally and figuratively. The ICE vehicle has over 2,000 moving parts - pistons, cams, gears, pumps, fans, just to name a few. By comparison, EV's have fewer than 100 moving parts making them much simpler to innovate and produce. This allows for the introduction of some new companies to enter the race. Companies like Tesla, Faraday, Lucid, Fiskar and Rivian, and many more.
The advancements in electric vehicles would be unsuccessful without the on-going improvements that have been made to the charging systems. It takes a lot of power and energy to travel with the numerous comforts we love - from infotainment systems to heated seats, and of course air conditioning. Enjoying such comforts means cars need larger batteries. The size of the battery is specified in kilo-watt hours (kWh). More kWh means more power is needed to recharge the battery. The speed at which a battery recharges depends on the type of charger and its connection to the power source. Let us take the Tesla Model 3 with a 72.5kWh battery as an example. Below is a table of charging times with various charging options:
You’ll notice from the table above that batteries do not charge at a uniform rate. The first 0-80% is charged much faster than the remaining 80-100%. This is because the battery acts like a balloon. It is easier to blow up a balloon to a certain point, then it gets progressively more difficult to add air as the rubber reaches its stretching limit. In fact, for better battery life and to take advantage of regenerative braking, a maximum charge of 95% is recommended.
Level 3 charging stations are expensive and require a larger electrical service than most houses can support. Therefore they are only available in commercial access.
Where it is possible to do so, installing a Level 2 charger at home is worth the added cost. The nice thing about having a charger at home is that the car is charged overnight and is back to full range the next morning. Imagine never waking up to the gas light again, not to mention walking into work smelling like a gas station!
The cost of charging depends on the cost of power and how much the car is driven. In most places, the cost of power is cheaper at night, which means it is cheaper to charge the car overnight. For a Tesla Model 3 with long range, it would cost approximately 15 CAD for a 480 kM drive. If we compare this to an ICE car that gets 7 l/100km with the price of gas around $1.10/l, it will cost 37 CAD plus the cost of oil, transmission fluid, engine coolant, and environmental damage. Not to be forgotten, with EV's regenerative braking, you save on expensive brake jobs too.
Since EVs are replacing fossil fuel with electricity, then it makes sense that the electricity supporting these vehicles be eco friendly. Renewable energy sources like solar power can support the increased demand and load that charging stations will place on the electrical infrastructure.
To offset the cost of electricity with solar panels, a 6 to 8 kW system will be needed depending on location. The assumptions for which are based on a typical 80km round trip commute, plus some additional running around for errands.
In closing, it is hard to dispute that the future of transportation is electric. Electric vehicles are already safer, greener, faster, higher tech and longer lasting than most traditional cars. Soon they'll be cheaper too. The argument to make the move to an EV is getting stronger everyday. Soon enough, like renewable energy, electric vehicles will be the only choice.
For more informative articles like this, check out our info hub!