Tomorrow’s Mobility

Sustainable Technologies for the automotive sector

Week 3 – Session 1 – Advantages and Limitations of

EVs

Sébastien Magand

Introduction

I- Advantages of electric vehicles

II- Limitations and critical issues of electric vehicles – and how to overcome them

Conclusion

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Introduction
This lesson will show the advantages and limitations of electric vehicles. Additionally, some
solutions to overcome the limitations of EVs will be presented.

I- Advantages of electric vehicles

First, electric drivetrains are very energy-efficient. The energy performance of the drivetrain can be
up to 90%, which is far better than the conventional, thermal drivetrain that reaches about 15% on
average driving conditions from tank to wheels.
Another benefit of electric vehicles concerns local pollutants emissions. Direct emissions through
the tailpipe, such as nitrogen oxides or particulate matters, are no longer emitted by electric
vehicles compared with conventional cars. This is a great added value to help keeping the city and
world clean and thus to diminish the impact of transportation on health.
Furthermore, the electric vehicle introduction leads to a dramatic reduction of greenhouse gas
emissions from battery to wheels when comparing them with conventional, thermal vehicle
performance.
Main benefits of electric vehicles…

High efficiency of electric drivetrains

• Up to 90% compared to 15% of
conventional cars

Help to reduce local pollutant

emissions such as nitrogen oxides

Reducing the greenhouse gas

emissions from battery to wheels

II- Limitations and critical issues of electric vehicles – and how

to overcome them
Nonetheless, to reach global environmental benefits, additional analyses are required. To check the
overall impact of electric vehicles, it is important to perform a life cycle analysis.
Consequently it is important to take into account all the phases involved, from the energy
production and distribution, the vehicle material and manufacturing, up until recycling at the end of
life of the vehicle.
Therefore, depending on the primary energy production mix, the overall greenhouse gas emissions
will be different from one country to another.

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 Life Cycle Analysis

The figure below, resulting from a study of the International Council on Clean Transportation,
shows a comparison between the life cycle emissions of CO2 of an average European conventional
vehicle (on the left) and the emissions of an electric vehicle (on the right) in different European
countries. This graph highlights the importance of the energy mix. It’s clearly visible that Norway
and France are the countries where the use of EVs produces the least CO2 emissions regarding the
LCA analysis. Why is that so? The reason is that Norway has a lot of renewable resources, and
France uses nuclear power plants to produce electricity. That’s why electric vehicle’s massive
deployment must be linked to the development of renewable energies; but this is an issue on its
own.
Life-cycle emissions – over 150.000km – of electric
and conventional vehicles in Europe in 2015

Source: Effects of battery manufacturing on electric vehicle life-cycle greenhouse gas emissions, ICCT, Feb. 2018

The range of electric vehicles is another issue to deal with. Nowadays, most electric cars have a
range covering day-to-day journeys, but it remains low compared to conventional cars. For
example, most conventional cars can claim a range up to 1000 kilometers compared to 400
kilometers announced by the new Renault Zoé.

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 Range of electric vehicle
is still a challenge

1000 kilometers

400 kilometers

To deal with this issue, improvements on the battery technology have been made over the last few
years to increase their energy and power density while reducing the cost. This is shown on the
graph below from the US Department of Energy. As can be seen, the price of the battery has been
incredibly reduced. This last point is a key issue for EVs: The average user will not easily buy an
expensive car with a drastically limited range. Therefore, national or local incentives for buying
electric vehicles emerged at some point in different countries to encourage people to adopt this
new technology. These governmental aids could decrease in the next years and eventually
disappear.

Battery technology development

Notes: USD/kWh = United States dollars per kilowatt-hour; Wh/l = watt-hours per litre. PHEV battery cost and
energy density data shown here are based on an observed industry-wide trend, include useful energy onlu,
refer to battery packs and suppose an annual battery production of 100 000 units for each manufacturer.

Sources: US DOE (2015 and 2016) for PHEV battery cost and energy density estimates; EV
Obsession (2015) and HybridCARS (2015)

Also, several charging solutions are deployed or under development to enable long-distance trips
and to make the charging as easy as filling the tank of a conventional vehicle. Static charging points
are deployed at home but also in public areas: For example in France, according to AVERE – an
association that works on the development of EVs – more than 20,000 points have been set up ;
most of these points are slow charging stations that require the longest amount of time, up to
several hours, to fully charge the battery.

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Fast charging points can provide higher power supply and allow to charge up to 80% of the battery
in 30 minutes. An example can be shown by Tesla and their Supercharger network.
Charging infrastructure

Note that new services emerge and now propose maps that can help you find the closest charging
stations; these services facilitate making the user experience easier and reassuring for long
journeys. Interoperability of these systems is still a point to be addressed for hardware and
software. As for cell phones, if you have an iPhone the charger is different from these of other cell
phones; similarly, if you have a Tesla, the charger is different from that for a Nissan Leaf and so on.
There are still too many different charger formats, and it is mandatory to ensure that whatever the
electric vehicle you have, you can charge everywhere. Unfortunately, this is not yet the case.
Charging infrastructure

Other charging solutions are also under development, such as dynamic or static inductive charging;
they could be a complement to current charging stations. For specific applications – like buses –
pantograph systems are also provided to avoid the need of any handling by the driver. These
systems allow to charge less but require more often charges of the battery at each bus stop.

Hydrogen fuel cells or small thermal engines as range extenders are also alternative solutions to
deal with this issue. A range extender is an auxiliary power unit that is included in the drivetrain. It
allows some hybrid modes functions such as using this engine to charge the battery, and therefore
extend the range of the vehicle. For hydrogen system, the range extender enables a quick charge as
in a conventional vehicle. It also enables to scale to larger vehicles and trucks. However, it will
require a new infrastructure for energy supply, which has not yet been widely deployed.
Additionally, the fact that fossil fuels are currently the main resource used to produce hydrogen
worsens its greenhouse gas emissions result.

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 Alternatives solutions for charging or extending the range
Inductive charging Range extender

The impact of electric vehicles on the power system is also a critical point. The International Energy
Agency in its 2017 report shows that the current electric and plug-in electric vehicles demand will
represent 1.5% of the electricity demand by 2030.
Impact of electric vehicles on the power system
1,5% of energy requirement in 2030
30 000

25 000

20 000

15 000

10 000

5 000

0
2015 Industry Buildings Transport EV’s Total, 2030
and other
demand
increase, 2030
Source: International Energy Agency 2017

Depending on the use of electric cars and the charging pattern, the consequences on the energy
price and on energy distribution and system services might be important, especially on peak times.
Upgrading local systems could be necessary to avoid transformers or lines overloading.
Optimization of the charging pattern of the vehicle and electricity tariff structure – like longer
charging proposed to the user for a lower price instead of fast charging at peak time – is also a
solution to smooth the demand over the time. Smart grid and local storage systems, coupled with
renewable energy power supply that could have intermittent operation, are also solutions to tackle
this issue.

The materials to produce the electric vehicle is also a key point. Rare earth materials like lithium
and neodymium are widely used for electric drivetrain manufacturing. The availability and the cost
to mine these materials – which are used also by other industries – can hinder the development of
electric vehicles. Development of new electric motors and battery designs to limit or obviate the
use of these materials is one side of the solution. Recycling is another way to reduce the burden of
the electric car on these materials.

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 Materials demand - availability and cost increase

Source: BP Stats review 2018

Finally, there are different scenarios to predict how fast EVs will enter our lives. Some are faster
than others. Some say that there will be over 50 million electric vehicles per year by 2050.
However, a massive deployment will bring significant benefits for the energy efficiency, the air
pollution and greenhouse gas emissions.

Conclusion
To sum up, the following key issues are still pending concerning EVs:
 The development of renewable energy is mandatory to ensure a better greenhouse gas
emissions result from the energy supply to the wheels.
 The range of electric vehicles is improving with new battery technologies, but charging
systems have to still be enhanced to overcome this issue.
 Energy supply is another important issue. The increasing electricity demand will impact the
energy infrastructure and will require an upgrade of the network and the set-up of some
complementary solutions like smart charging.
 Recycling metals and new designs of electric drivetrain are necessary to place less pressure
on the demand for some specific metals or materials.

It will take some time to overcome these issues. Hybrid vehicles are an intermediate step towards
zero emission vehicles that require raising these different economic and technological locks before
a massive deployment.

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