Tomorrow’s Mobility

Sustainable Technologies for the automotive sector

Week 2 – Session 1 – Why Electric Vehicles today?

Guillermo Ballesteros

Introduction

I- History of Electric Vehicles

II- Advantages of EVs
III- Challenges
IV- Electric Vehicle architecture

Conclusion

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Introduction
In this first lesson on Electric Vehicles, the history, the pros and cons, the architecture and the basic
components of electric vehicles will be described.

I- History of Electric Vehicles

The Electric Vehicle has a rich history extending back more than 150 years. The first Electric Vehicle,
as such, appeared in 1851. By the 1900s, Electric Vehicles had gained a notable share of the car
market. In the United States, 38% of automobiles sold were electric.
Despite the popularity of electric cars, however, they were expensive and their driving ranges were
limited. In contrast, internal combustion engines were cheaper and more powerful for transport.
Consequently, the market share for electric vehicles started to decline in the 1920s.
Brief History of Electric Vehicles

First electric vehicle by First car to exceed

Robert Anderson 100 km/h

1898 1900’s – 1920’s

1851 1899

+ 1/3 of the vehicles

First hybrid vehicle by
in circulation are
Ferdinand Porsche
electric

Source: commons.wikimedia.org

Manufacturers shifted interest away from Electric Vehicles toward Internal Combustion Engines.
Around 1935, electric vehicles became extinct.
Recently, a combination of environmental, geo-political, economic, and health concerns related to
internal combustion engine-powered transportation, has created fertile ground for renewed
interest and investment in electric drive vehicles and electrified transportation.
Brief History of Electric Vehicles

Decline A new generation

of electric vehicles

1990’s

1920 2010’s

Return of an offer

Source: commons.wikimedia.org

II- Advantages of EVs

Today, the issues caused by conventional vehicles have been greatly influencing the global
automotive industry. Compared with conventional Internal Combustion Vehicles, Electric Vehicles
have several advantages such as:

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  Higher efficiency: Electric motors can be made to operate with efficiency levels of above
90% compared to less than 40% for the best internal combustion engines.
 Better air quality: Improvement of local air quality due to low environmental pollution. EVs
can produce zero emissions when they operate using electricity drawn from renewable
electricity systems, including solar, wind, hydro, and tidal power.
 Noise reduction
 Better drivability
 Varied onboard energy storage devices such as batteries, supercapacitors, flywheels, and
hydrogen fuel cells
 Regenerative braking to recover the kinetic energy of the vehicle
 Low running costs
Benefits of EVs

Noise
Efficiency Air quality
reduction

Varied onboard
Drivability energy storage

Regenerative Low total cost of

braking ownership (TCO)

III- Challenges
Despite all the benefits mentioned above, purely electric-powered vehicles currently face
significant challenges. These include insufficient drive range, high costs and long charging time. All
present significant hurdles to the wide adoption of electric vehicles. To solve this problem,
researchers are investigating the improvement of the specific energy and power of battery packs.
They are inventing alternative methods to reduce the cost.
They are also working on other electrical components such as electric machines and power
electronics to make this technology competitive with conventional vehicles. In fact, mass
commercialization of electrified vehicles will require the development of power-train components
and controls that are low-cost, strong, reliable, light weight, compact, and able to be mass
produced.

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 Challenges Improvements

Insufficient
drive range

Specific energy Cost

of battery packs reduction
High
costs

Long charging
time Electrical Low-cost, strong, reliable,
components light-weight and
improvements compact components

IV- Electric Vehicle architecture

Electric Vehicles are powered entirely by their electric propulsion motors and battery packs. Their
batteries are charged from the electrical grid system in homes, in workplaces, and in public or
commercial drive-in charging stations.
An electric vehicle includes an integrated electromechanical powertrain composed of an electric
machine, a power electronic converter, an embedded software, a controller, a battery pack and a
battery management system. In addition to that, electric vehicles incorporate a regenerative
braking system, which captures most of the kinetic energy otherwise wasted when the brake pedal
is applied.
Electric Vehicle architecture

Powered entirely by their electric propulsion

motors and battery packs

Can be flexible in terms of powertrain

configurations

The mechanical complexity of the transmission

can be reduced and the drivetrain can be also
downsized.

Electric Vehicles can be flexible in terms of powertrain configurations. Compared with conventional
vehicles, the mechanical complexity of the transmission can be reduced and the drivetrain can be
also downsized.

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Conclusion
To sum up:
 Electric vehicles are not new. The technology exists since 1851 but for different reasons, like
the cost or the limited range, they became extinct.
 In the recent years, there has been an increased interest for electric motorization. This is
due to the many benefits they can provide: efficiency, recovery braking, low running cost
AND respect of the environment, which is THE key elements nowadays.

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