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Tag: Electric cars

Norway is running out of gas-guzzling cars to tax

Posted on by dishanth
Norway is running out of gas-guzzling cars to tax

When it comes to sales of electric cars, Norway is in a league of its own. In September, battery-powered electric vehicles accounted for 77.5 percent of all new cars sold. That figure makes Norway a world leader by a long way—leapfrogging over the UK, where 15 percent of new car sales were electric as of October, and the US, where that number is just 2.6 percent.

Norway’s electric dream has been credited to a series of tax breaks and other financial carrots that mean brands like Tesla can compete on price with combustion engines. But these incentives—and their success—have created a unique predicament: Norway is running out of dirty cars to tax.

It’s quite a big problem. The previous government—a center-right coalition that was replaced by a center-left minority government in October—estimated that the popularity of EVs was creating a 19.2 billion Norwegian krone ($2.32 billion) hole in the country’s annual revenue. While EVs might be great news for the environment, their rapid success in Norway is now forcing some serious fiscal consternation.

The road to this point has been long—and offers lessons to other countries racing to ditch gas-guzzling combustion engines. In Norway, the most progressive electric vehicle policies in the world started with a pop group, an environmentalist, and a small red Fiat Panda. It was 1988 when activist Frederic Hauge, along with fellow green campaigners from the band A-ha, traveled to the Swiss city of Bern, where they found the red Fiat. A previous owner had converted the car to run off a lead battery, and the group planned to use the vehicle to persuade the Norwegian government to encourage electric vehicle uptake.

The Fiat became the centerpiece of a nine-year campaign in which Hauge and members of A-ha drove the car on Norway’s toll roads without paying. The fines racked up, and when they remained unpaid, the vehicle would be impounded and sold at auction, where Hauge would buy it back and repeat the cycle of toll dodging. A-ha’s celebrity members added glitz to the crusade against toll fees for EVs and Hauge—who has led an environmental group called Bellona since 1986—courted press attention to demand incentives for electric cars. “By being a positive vigilante, he made the media and also the politicians aware of the electric car,” says Øyvind Solberg Thorsen, director of Norway’s Road Traffic Information Council, which publishes statistics about the country’s roads and vehicles.

Eventually, in the late 1990s and early 2000s, the incentives the group campaigned for started to materialize, handing EVs a superior status on Norway’s roads. Rules were introduced that exempted EVs from all toll charges and parking fees and allowed them to skip traffic by using bus lanes. More meaningfully, purchases of new EVs were exempted from hefty taxes—including VAT and purchase tax—meaning a new Volkswagen e-Golf cost €790 ($893) less than a VW Golf with a combustion engine.

The problem was that people responded to the policy so well that it eradicated an important source of income for the government, says Anette Berve, spokesperson for the Norwegian Automobile Federation, a group representing car owners. “So this is a clash of two different goals.”

In an attempt to claw back lost income, officials are stripping electric cars of special status, sparking fierce debate and concern that the country could jeopardize its goal of selling no new cars with combustion engines by 2025. The toll charge exemption was first to go in 2017. Now, Norway’s center-left coalition government is considering removing a much broader list of incentives as part of ongoing budget negotiations.

There is widespread uncertainty about which taxes will be reintroduced. But the country’s car associations and environmental groups believe the four most likely to make a comeback are taxes for plug-in hybrids, a tax for second-hand EV sales, a tax for “luxury EVs” that cost more than 600,000 Norwegian krone ($68,650), and the resurrection of an annual ownership tax for EVs.

Labor Party MP Frode Jacobsen would not comment in detail on the ongoing budget discussions, but he confirmed that current proposals include an increase in taxes for some plug-in hybrids. The tax for “luxury EVs” will not be included in next year’s budget, he added, although he did not say it had been ruled out for following years.

In another country, it would be surprising for a left-wing government to support such policies. But Lasse Fridstrøm, senior research economist at Oslo’s Institute of Transport Economics, a research institution, says there is a sense across the political spectrum that it’s time to tax EVs now that they are no longer a novelty. “The new Labor government has just kept the proposal made by the former right-wing or Conservative government,” he adds. “So yes, there is consensus. But the environmentalists, of course, are not happy.”

Norway’s environmentalists say they are not against the idea of taxing EVs so long as taxes for fossil fuel cars stay high, too. But there is concern about the wrong taxes coming too soon. “This could cause major setbacks,” says Hauge. “Reintroducing VAT for cars above 600,000 krone seems like a strange thing to do because those are the cars that are useful” in rural areas where people spend more time on the road—and need to drive EVs over long distances, he says.

 

Berve is also worried about timing. She believes a tax on used electric car sales would undermine the market before it’s had a chance to develop, while a tax on hybrids would disadvantage drivers living in the north of the country who don’t have access to the extensive charging infrastructure that exists in the south. She echoes the Norwegian consensus that hybrids are a “transitional technology” that will eventually stand in the way of full electrification. “However it is a transitional technology that we believe is still needed because [the EV market is] still not completely mature,” she adds. Case in point: EVs still only make up 15 percent of Norway’s entire vehicle population, according to the Road Traffic Information Council. It’s a substantial number by global standards, but there’s still a long way to go.

Unni Berge of the Norwegian Electric Vehicle Association, a consumer group that represents EV drivers, says it’s not existing EV drivers who will be threatened by the withdrawal of incentives—but rather the people who haven’t yet joined their ranks. “We are not fighting for our members but fighting for new people to become EV drivers,” she says, adding that the group’s main goal was to make sure VAT and purchase tax exemptions stayed in place.

As well as facing pressure to maintain high levels of EV ownership among future generations of drivers, the government must also decide what happens after a country fills its roads with electric vehicles. Some believe the focus should shift to eradicating dirty commercial vehicles—from smaller vans to hulking trucks and even diesel-powered ships. But others are campaigning for a future where the emphasis shifts away from cars and focuses on buses, trains, and trams.

Halvard Raavand of Greenpeace Norway stresses that although EVs don’t release emissions as they drive around, they still have an environmental impact. More cars justify the development of bigger roads, he says. They demand energy during production and, depending on where they are charged, when they’re plugged in.

A country that pumps more oil per capita than Saudi Arabia or Russia seems an unlikely place for the post-car era to unfold. References to Norway’s vast oil exports—which make up more than one-sixth of the country’s GDP and more than a third of total exports—are also notably absent from the debate about travel inside the country. “We need to keep on electrifying,” says Raavand. “But at the same time, we also need to have in mind that we need to improve public transport and make sure we keep an emphasis on improving the railway infrastructure instead of just building new highways.”

 

 

Source Wired

Why it’s the end of the road for petrol stations

Posted on by dishanth
Why it’s the end of the road for petrol stations

The big worry for most people thinking about buying an electric car is how to charge the thing.

But the real question you should be asking is how you’re going to refuel your petrol or diesel vehicle if you don’t go electric.

That’s because electric cars are going to send the petrol station business into a death spiral over the next two decades, making electric vehicles the default option for all car owners.

Why? Because charging electric vehicles is going to become much more straightforward than refuelling petrol and diesel cars.

This isn’t just because the government has banned the sale of new petrol and diesel cars from 2030.

Imagine we were going the other way, replacing electric cars with fossil fuel power.

You are writing the risk assessment for a new petrol station. You want to dig a big hole in the ground in the middle of town, put in some tanks and fill them up with an enormous amount of highly flammable fuel.

Then you’re proposing to attach a really powerful pump and invite in random members of the public.

They’ll arrive in vehicles with hot engines. You’ll hand them the really powerful pump that sprays the highly flammable liquid.

 

As petrol is hazardous, refilling has to be done at petrol stations GETTY IMAGES

 

Without any supervision they’ll use it to transfer large quantities of the highly flammable liquid into their hot vehicle, they’ll pay you and drive off.

Are you OK to sign off on that? Do you think Health and Safety will give it the green light?

My point is that fuelling cars with petrol and diesel is dangerous, which is why we do it at specially-designed centralised refuelling points.

 

Ubiquitous power

Electricity, by contrast, is pretty much everywhere already. Where’s your car now? Do you think it might be near an electricity cable? Exactly.

The only challenge is how to bring that electricity a few feet to the surface so you can start getting it into your battery.

And you don’t need to be Thomas Edison to work that out.

 

The goal for the electric car industry is to have recharging anywhere you can park GETTY IMAGES

 

If you live in a flat or a house without a drive, don’t worry. The aim is to have an electric vehicle (EV) charging point at virtually every parking place.

Erik Fairbairn’s electric vehicle recharging company, Pod Point, wants to be part of this effort to rewire the UK.

“You’ll get to a point where you barely ever think about energy flowing into your car again,” he predicts.

Of course, we’re a long way from that utopia, and that should be no surprise.

We’re just at the beginning of the electric revolution: just 7% of new cars are electric and they make up a tiny fraction of vehicles on the road, so there isn’t a huge market.

But, as I argued in my previous piece, change is coming fast and investment in charging infrastructure is coming with it.

There will be good profits to be made when millions of us want to recharge, just as there was a boom in petrol station construction at the dawn of the age of the car a century ago.

 

The first people to get charging technology at home are those with driveways who can run a cable to their electric cars.

They can already install special charging points that recharge car batteries overnight from the power supply to the house, often using the cheapest possible rates.

Typically this is a slow process. For every hour of charging you’ll get 30 miles or so of driving, but who cares when most people leave their cars parked overnight anyway and you are only paying a couple of pence a mile?

Some local authorities have begun to install similar chargers in lampposts, designers are working on charging points that can be built into the kerb and some workplaces are already putting in chargers for their employees.

We’ll be seeing lots more of all of these innovations in the years to come.

We are also starting to see some businesses putting charging points in for their customers.

 

You can expect to see charging points everywhere in years to come GETTY IMAGES

 

In fact, free charging is likely to become like free Wi-Fi, a little bribe to lure you into the shop.

Electric vehicle optimists paint a world where you can plug in anywhere you park – at home while you sleep, as you work, when you are shopping or at the cinema.

Pretty much whatever you are doing, energy will be flowing into your car.

At this point, says Erik Fairbairn, 97% of electric car charging will happen away from petrol pump equivalents.

“Imagine someone came around and filled up your car with petrol every night so you had 300 miles of range every morning,” he says. “How often would you need anything else?”

In this brave new world, you’ll only ever pull over into a service station on really epic, long journeys when you’ll top up your battery for 20-30 minutes while you have a coffee and use the facilities.

 

Death sentence

If this prediction is correct it is a death sentence for many of the 8,380 petrol stations in the UK.

And the decline of the industry could come surprisingly quickly. Think about it. As electric vehicles begin to edge out petrol and diesel there will be less refuelling business to go around. Those service stations on the edge of viability will begin to go to the wall.

That’ll make it that little bit harder for petrol and diesel drivers to find a service station to fill up in and the remaining operators may also feel the need to up their prices to maintain profits.

So, fewer and quite possibly more expensive petrol stations. Meanwhile, it will be getting easier and easier to charge your electric car. What’s more, as the market scales up, electric vehicles will become cheaper to buy.

You see where this is going: the more petrol stations close, the more likely we all are to go electric. In turn, more petrol stations will be forced to close. And so on.

That’s why I called it a death spiral.

 

As petrol stations become scarce, electric cars will become more attractive GETTY IMAGES

 

And don’t worry about where the electricity to power all these new cars will come from.

The National Grid says it won’t have a problem charging all the electric vehicles that are going to come onto our roads.

In fact, it isn’t expecting much of an increase in demand, just 10% when everyone is driving electric.

That’s because we drive much less than we tend to imagine. The average car journey is just 8.4 miles, according to the Department for Transport.

And, explains Isabelle Haigh, the head of national control for the National Grid, there is already quite a lot of spare capacity built into the system.

“Most charging will not be at time of peak, and peak demand has been reducing over the years so we are very confident there is enough energy to meet demand,” she says.

That’s because the grid is designed to meet the moments of greatest demand – half time in the Cup Final when we all put the kettle on, for example.

The rest of the time some generators sit idle. Electric vehicles will be able to make use of them and, because people typically charge overnight when demand is low, they are unlikely to raise the peak demand at all.

Smart charging systems will also help. They allow your charger to talk to the grid to work out the best time for your car to charge.

The idea is to make sure you get the cheapest power and also help the grid smooth out the peaks and troughs in demand.

Smart charging also helps make maximum use of renewable resources, allowing drivers to cash in on the plentiful and therefore cheap electricity available on a windy day, for instance.

 

Seances and convenience stores

However, the end of the service station should not be a cause for celebration. They are the only retail outlet left in some small towns and villages, and a lifeline for many people.

So, can they find an alternative role? Jack Simpson believes some will be able to.

 

The site of the Hyde Park Book Club was a petrol station for more than 80 years GETTY IMAGES

 

He’s converted an old petrol station in Leeds into a plant shop/bar/music venue/restaurant/art gallery called the Hyde Park Book Club. It has even hosted seances.

“People were popping in for dinner and I was like, Oh I’m really sorry, there’s a séance going on,” explains Jack.

He says the site’s central location, large forecourt and roomy buildings make it a very flexible venue.

“I think it also fits in with this post hipster obsession with 20th Century Western culture,” he says.

Brian Madderson, the chairman of the Petrol Retailers Association (PRA), is more down to earth. The PRA represents 5,500 independent fuel retailers who account for 70% of all forecourts and Mr Madderson says his members have started adapting to the post internal combustion engine world.

Many are already investing in full convenience stores, high-quality take away food and automated car washes to boost their income and, he says, they will continue to enable motorists to fill up their petrol and diesel vehicles for as long as is feasible.

He thinks the transition away from petrol and diesel will take decades. “These vehicles will simply not disappear off the roads overnight. Petrol and diesel stations will be essential in keeping the country mobile beyond 2030,” he says.

Maybe. Yet technological change can be very rapid and very disruptive.

Look what happened to the horse and cart at the turn of the 20th Century.

Some service stations will certainly live on – those on motorways, for example – but many are likely to go the same way as the people Jack Simpson’s guests were trying to reach at their séance – unless they can find new ways to bring in cash.

 

 

By Justin Rowlatt
Chief environment correspondent

Source BBC

A Complete Guide To Electric Cars

Posted on by dishanth
A Complete Guide To Electric Cars

Introduction: Get Charged Up!

 

As time goes on, electric cars become more popular. There are an increasing number of brands from Jaguar to BMW to Audi that are making their own electric cars, and they’re becoming easier to access for the general public.

There are a lot of benefits to buying an electric car – they’re not just for the richest people in society anymore. They are affordable, and you’ll spend a lot of money on gas. You can also get tax breaks as they are energy efficient.

With that being said, electric cars are still a fairly new thing in some respects. This means that a lot of people may not know how they operate, or even if an electric car is the right choice for them.

Thankfully, we’ve got the lowdown in this article about every single thing you could possibly need to know about electric cars.

 

When Was The First Electric Car Invented?

 

It’s easy to think that the electric car was a recent, 21st century invention. What you may be surprised to learn, however, that its history spans back a lot further than this.

Electric cars have actually been around since around the late 19th century, almost the same amount of time that we’ve had standard gas fueled cars.

It is somewhat challenging to pin an exact date on when the first electric car was invented. The reality is that it was a journey consisting of a range of smaller ideas.

During the early 1800s, many inventors in the Netherlands and the United States were beginning to come up with the idea of vehicles powered by batteries.

It was during this time that some of the very first smaller-scale electric cars were produced. Then, later on the first electric carriage was made by Robert Anderson. With that being said, the first electric cars made for practical purposes didn’t emerge until the latter half of the 19th century.

There are a few different inventors credited with the ideas behind the first electric cars used in a practical setting. The electric motor is generally attributed to the Hungarian Engineer Anyos Jedlik.

Lead acid batteries for commercial projects were invented by the French physicist Gaston Plane in 1859. These two things then combined together to manufacture the first electric car in London in 1884 by Thomas Parker.

The first ‘real’ electric car was made in 1888 by a German inventor by the name of Andreas Flocken, and it was called the Flocken Elektrowagen.

In fact, during the late 19th and early 20th century, electric cars were widely popular and a favorite method of transportation.

They have continued to be popular through the years, especially during the 1960s and 70s where gas was short and electric vehicles were an attractive alternative. They were not without their faults, however.

Today, electric vehicles are seen as an environmentally friendly alternative to gas fuelled cars, releasing far fewer carbon emissions for the sake of a greener planet.

Electric cars may be seen by many as the way forward for motorized vehicles, so understanding more about these energy efficient contraptions is certainly beneficial.

 

Electric Cars: A Short Timeline

 

Date & Events

1830s

First small scale electric cars developed, and the very first crude electric car was made in 1832 to debut in the United States in 1889.

1901

Thomas Edison develops a new battery to make electric batteries more efficient and the very first hybrid electric car is invented by Ferdinand Porsche. His car was called the Lohner-Porsche Mixte.

1908

1908 – the electric car briefly falls out of popularity, thanks to Model T releasing gas operated cars that were earlier to purchase and were more affordable to the masses

1960-70

During the 60s and 70s, the prices of gas began to skyrocket. As a result, electric cars started to rise in popularity once again.

1973

General Motors created an urban electric car prototype that’s later exhibited at the Low Pollution Power Systems Development in the same year. Alternative fuel cars are being investigated by automakers across the world.

1979

Electric cars yet again fall in popularity as they couldn’t provide the same range and performance as gas alternatives.

1996

The EV1 is released by GM, and it gains a large amount of popularity in niche groups.

1997

The very first mass produced hybrid is unleashed onto the market by Toyota – it was called the Prius. It became a massive hit among celebrities and gained global fame.

2006

Tesla Motors, a company started in 2003, unleashes the prototype Tesla Roadster to the world. It used the lithium-ion battery, a common battery in electric cars in the users following.

2009

A nation wide charging infrastructure is developed to allow users to charge their cars on the go. In the United States alone, there are at least 8,000 charging stations to date.

2010

The first plug in hybrid is released by GM called the Chevy Volt, followed by the Nissan LEAF in 2010

 

What types of electric cars exist today?

 

As time has advanced, the kinds of electric vehicles on the market have also developed. As such, there is not one specific type of electric car on the market. Rather, there are numerous different kinds of electric cars on the market, all with their own pros and cons.

There are currently three primary kinds of electric cars on the market, also known as EVs. The electric vehicles are BEVs, PHEVs, and HEVs.

The first is the BEV, short for Battery Electric Vehicle. Then you have the PHEV, standing for Plug-in Hybrid Electric Vehicles. Finally, HEVs – Hybrid Electric Vehicles. Of course, there are a number of additional types of EVs, but these are the main ones that you need to know about.

BEV

PHEV

HEV

Emissions

Low

Higher

Higher

Engine Type

Electric Only

Electric & Back Up

Electric & Back Up

Charging Type

Regenerative Braking

Plug In

Regenerative Braking

All Electric Range

50-250 Miles

5-50 Miles

Short

 

BEV

The first kind of electric vehicle is the Battery Electric Vehicle. These are generally just referred to as EVs, but to put it simply they are entirely electric vehicles.

They usually come with rechargeable batteries that you would need to charge at a designated charging point, and they do not feature a gasoline engine.

You heard that right – they run on only one kind of fuel type. There’s no more worrying about the extortionate prices of gas if you have a BEV!

These vehicles are also sometimes called pure electric vehicles.

You may have already heard of some Battery Electric Vehicles. Just a few examples include:

  • Tesla X
  • Hyundai Ioniq
  • Renault Zoe
  • BMW i3
  • Kia Soul
  • Nissan LEAF
  • Volkswagen e-Golf
  • Toyota Rav4

A BEV usually stores its electricity inside of a high capacity battery pack that’s inside of the vehicle. Of course, you can’t just use any battery, in case you’re wondering.

The batteries are made just for powering up your electric vehicle, and the packs power up all of the electronics in the BEV. They also charge the electric motor.

To charge a BEV, you simply need to plug them into an external outlet. This may be an outlet that you would normally have at home, though it is best to get your own home charging point. This will make the charging better, giving your car a thorough charge in a shorter amount of time.

Battery Electric Vehicles usually tend to come with a way of charging the battery internally. This is known as regenerative braking. In essence, when you slow the vehicle, the effort of this charges the battery inside of the car.

This means that the heat and kinetic energy that is normally wasted inside of a car is instead put to good use.

There are a bunch of benefits to getting Battery Electric Vehicles, though the primary benefit is that it’s eco friendly. If you are eco conscious then you will be pleased to know that BEVs are the best for the environment out of all the EV types.

They don’t produce any harmful emissions, and you don’t need to worry about hazards caused by other kinds of fuel. You can also save a lot of money on fuel, and they’re generally easier to maintain. You even get tax benefits for owning an EV!

EVs also run much more quietly. This can be a little alarming at first if you’ve never driven an electric vehicle and you’re used to cars making a lot of noise.

It is not without its issues, however. While the ranges on EVs are certainly better than they once were, they certainly aren’t the best. They can only run for so long before they need to be charged again. This is made even more annoying thanks to the fact that EVs can take a pretty long time to charge.

 

PHEV

PHEV stands for Plug In Hybrid Electric Vehicles. It’s not difficult to figure out how they operate – it’s literally in the name. These vehicles are pretty similar to the BEVs discussed above in the sense that you can charge them by using an external charger.

They’re also pretty good as far as energy is concerned – in fact, using a PHEV car can save you up to 60% in energy, pretty impressive in comparison to many other kinds of hybrids.

As the PHEV uses an external charger to power up the electric motor, they actually boast a zero emission range. If you aren’t sure what this is, it’s essentially a vehicle that’s capable of emitting around 75g/km of CO2 or less than this.

If you’re looking to go greener in your day to day life and transport, then a PHEV is a good choice.

What about their running time? Well, a PHEV is capable of traveling at low speeds for a short amount of time, and then the standard gas engine will activate for the remainder of the journey.

You can sometimes find a PHEV will run for around 40 miles before the power will switch. As a result of this, it’s much better suited to drivers that are planning on traveling short distances than for people traveling long distances on the highway.

In short, the PHEV is essentially a stop point in the middle of a parallel hybrid and an entirely electric vehicle.

There are a few Plug in Hybrid Electric Vehicles on the market that you may have heard of, including:

  • Mercedes C350e
  • Kia Optima
  • Toyota Prius
  • BMW 330e
  • BMW i8
  • Ford Fusion Energi
  • Chrysler Pacifica
  • Chevy Volt
  • Mini Cooper SE Countryman
  • Audi A3 E-Tron
  • Volvo XC90 T8
  • Fiat 500e
  • Hyundai Sonata

 

So why should you invest in a PHEV, instead of the alternative electric car options? Well, the main reason is that it has a much longer range than a standard electric car. You can get quite a substantial run time out of your electric car before it needs to switch to gas.

As a result of this, it’s also rather cheap to use, especially for short journeys. If you’re only traveling for around 40 miles then you can save yourself a lot of money on fuel, and you don’t need to worry about the fuel depleting for the short journey.

What about the problems? Well, the battery of the PHEV can be rather heavy. This means that when your car is operating on fuel after the electricity has run out, the fuel economy isn’t the best for long journeys.

Thus for longer journeys, you are probably going to be spending more money on fuel than you may have anticipated. You will also need to charge the batteries a lot more often than you would on a standard EV, and it needs to be plugged in to charge, in contrast to a parallel hybrid.

 

HEV

If you aren’t quite ready to fully let go of traditional fuel sources but you want an introduction on the way to going fully electric, an HEV Electric car may be a good choice for you.

HEV stands for Hybrid Electric Vehicle, and as the name suggests, they usually run both on electricity and on gasoline.

Hybrid Electric Vehicles are likely the type of electric vehicle that people know the most about.In fact, they made their way onto the market all the way back in 1997 when the Toyota Prius made its first debut.

A standard hybrid vehicle usually runs on electricity, in addition to another kind of fuel such as diesel or gas.

The car will usually start on the electric motor, and then when you’re traveling at higher speeds it will switch to the standard form of power, and it may also change in other situations where the vehicle needs additional power.

Like the standard EV, the HEV charges the electric battery through regenerative braking. This means that you don’t need to seek out an external power source.

In addition to this, a standard hybrid controls its motors through the use of a computer system inside of the car.

The decision about whether electricity or gas is used is dictated by this system, and the decision is based on the most economical option for the driver. It means the car will always work in the way that you intend for it to work.

As we’ve already covered, you’ve probably heard of a few hybrids before now, but some specific models include:

  • Honda Civic Hybrid
  • Toyota Camry Hybrid
  • Toyota Prius Hybrid

 

A hybrid vehicle is usually best suited to drivers doing short to medium journeys. Thankfully though you aren’t limited to shorter journeys thanks to the additional fuel source.

They’re ideal for traveling around the city or in urban areas, and this is primarily because the regenerative braking is highly effective for charging the electric motor. You’re a lot less likely to brake on a motorway than you are in an urban area!

The big glaring issue with a hybrid is that the fuel economy is not the best. This is again because of the same problem with PHEVs – the batteries are very heavy, and the motor can run low on charge when you’re traveling at high speeds.

It’s also not nearly as eco friendly as the other two models, though it’s certainly better in this respect than a standard gas powered vehicle.

 

Electric Cars: How do they work?

 

So now you know about the main kinds of electric cars, how exactly do they work? In many respects, they don’t operate like the standard gas fueled cars that we’re used to.

Before we get into it, here’s a quick rundown of what you need to know:

  • Instead of a gasoline engine, the electric car features an electric motor
  • This motor receives power from a controller inside of the car
  • This controller then receives power from rechargeable batteries.

 

Here’s the long version:

An electric car has an electric motor inside of the car. This contrasts to the combustion engine that you would find in most gas cars.

They also have a large traction battery pack – these are positioned on the interior of the car quite low down, and are pretty large. This battery pack is what powers up the electric motor.

They are positioned lower down to make sure that the centre of gravity of the car is low, and it means that it stays in place when you are rounding corners. As we’ve already mentioned, the batteries can be incredibly heavy.

In addition to this, you will usually find most electric vehicles are equipped with auxiliary batteries. This means that if you run out of your primary kind of power the electronics such as lights and the information system will continue to work.

Once you have charged your vehicle, the inverter kicks into gear. This will change the direct current, also known as DC, from the electrical charge, into the alternating current (AC) instead.

This AC power is then changed into AC power in the AC motor, and this is what gets the wheels moving. The power from the motor is then transferred to the wheels thanks to the drivetrain.

Some cars also feature an E-Pedal. This will get the regenerative braking system going, which in turn changes the kinetic energy into the electricity you need to get the battery working properly.

 

EV Batteries

One of the key parts of an EV is the battery. To put it simply, the battery is what enables it to run on electricity! EV batteries are usually very long, sometimes stretching up to several meters! They are usually positioned on the bottom of the car along the chassis.

The batteries can stay charged for quite some time, though it depends largely on the vehicle that you buy.

There are a few different types of battery available for your EV.

  • Lithium Ion Batteries

The vast majority of EV batteries are lithium ion batteries. In terms of operation, they’re pretty similar to how batteries work in laptops or mobile phones.

The battery whole eventually drains and needs to be recharged, and their capacity will also decline as the years go on. It won’t decline too much though – it’ll likely only be around 80% of the original capacity once you’ve been using the car on a daily basis after 8 years or so.

These batteries tend to have the best power to weight ratio, they work very well in high temperatures and have low self discharge. You can usually recycle these batteries too. There are some concerns about overheating with these batteries, however.

  • Nickel Metal Hydride

These batteries are generally found in computers and medical equipment. They’re ideal because they tend to last much longer than some other battery types, they are very safe and durable. They are also expensive, however, and hydrogen loss needs to be controlled with these batteries.

  • Lead Acid Batteries

These high power batteries are pretty affordable, can last for some time without any trouble and they are safe to use.

The problem is that they aren’t the best in cold weather and they have low specific energy. Manufacturers are working on new high powered lead acid batteries, but they aren’t really the best choice at this stage.

 

EV Infrastructure and the Challenges of Charging EVs

 

Thankfully, owning and running an electric car is becoming much more feasible as time goes on and the EV infrastructure improves. With that being said, it’s not without its challenges.

In fact, one of the main reasons why EVs aren’t even more popular is because of how it works for regional travels.

Many EV owners worry about the range of their vehicle and how it will perform for longer journeys. While EV charging stations are becoming more common, there also aren’t nearly as many as there should be.

Even so, in 2020 the market size for electric vehicle charging infrastructure was placed as 2.08 billion USD and it is only estimated to grow. More governments throughout the world are beginning to focus on making charging stations more accessible in order to support the environment.

Naturally, cities and other metropolitan areas are the most prepared for electric vehicles. Here are just a few of the locations in the United States with the most charging stations to offer its residents.

 

Location

No. Charging Stations per 100,000 Residents

Washington DC Metropolitan Area

4.7

Orlando, FL

4.7

Honolulu, HI

5.1

Tucson, AZ

5.3

Austin, TX

5.3

Seattle, WA

6.5

San Francisco Bay, CA

6.6

Nashville, TN

8.2

Dallas, TX

10.6

Portland, OR

11.1

 

Naturally the infrastructure will change as more charging stations are made available, though owning an EV is becoming increasingly more popular as time progresses and more awareness is made about them.

 

Economics of Owning an EV

 

There are a few things to consider when it comes to buying an EV when it comes to price. To put it simply, you may be paying more upfront to buy the car, but could you be paying less in the long run?

Let’s get the most obvious part out of the way: buying an electric vehicle up front can be expensive. Even some of the more affordable vehicles start at around $30,000 for the latest model. Does the tax relief and the fuel economy make up for this? Let’s take a look.

 

Tax Credits and Incentives

The first thing to think about is tax credits. What you may not know is that if you buy a new electric vehicle, you can have up to $7,500 in tax credits depending on your location.

There are some brands that have reduced the tax credits, but this is not the case for all electric vehicles so you will need to check that with the car you are considering buying. Nevertheless, it’s a pretty big incentive to buy one of these vehicles. If you aren’t sure exactly how the electric car tax credits work, you can check out our guide here.

In addition to this, there are also incentives that your state can provide. For instance, in Massachusetts you could get a rebate up to $2,500 if you buy or loan a PHEV so long as you apply for the rebate within three months of the date when you purchased the vehicle.

You can find out what incentives are available in your state here.

 

Charging Costs

The running cost is the next thing to think about. If you’re free from gasoline and other fossil fuels, you may think you’re in the clear and that your car will cost you barely anything now you’re running on electricity.

This is not totally true, as it will cost some money to charge your vehicle. After all, even an electric vehicle can’t run on Fresh Air!

As you may expect, the amount of money that it could cost to run your EV can depend on a number of things from the type of charger that you use to the model of the car. When you charge an electric car it’s measured in kWh.

So for instance, if you’re going to be paying around $0.13 per kWh for your car, and your vehicle requires roughly 33 kWh in order to do a 100 mile journey, then you’re paying around $0.04 per mile.

If you’re trying to charge an EV that can travel for 200 miles then you may be spending around $9 to get it fully charged.

If you’re planning on installing your own EV charging station you may be looking at paying more than $1000 for that alone. If you’re charging in public though, the costs can vary depending on the time of day that you are charging and the location of the charging point.

For instance, if you had the 2020 Tesla Model 3 Standard Range Plus then it could cost you around $5.88 for 50 miles of electricity to charge it during peak hours, seeing as this car is rated at 24 kWh/100 miles.

In comparison, if you were charging it at home it may cost $1.44 for the same amount of power. It can cost a lot less if you were charging the vehicle during quieter times of the day in public.

Regardless of how you look at it, you’re still going to be paying less than you would for a vehicle that runs solely on gasoline, even if you have a HEV.

The only problem is that once your EV runs out of electricity (if you have a PHEV or a HEV), it is going to switch over to your backup fuel source such as gasoline.

So you will still need to purchase the fuel, it’s just going to cost you less money as you won’t be using it so often as long as you can charge your vehicle regularly enough.

 

Maintenance Costs

As with any other vehicle, you need to think about how much it’s going to cost for you to maintain the vehicle. The biggest thing to consider is the batteries. Yes, they are made to deal with long term use, but eventually they will wear out.

Batteries can be pretty expensive, though many manufacturers will provide you with 8-year/100,000 mile battery warranties despite the fact that many could last you as long as 12 to 15 years so long as they are looked after properly.

 

Safety of Owning an EV

 

Manufacturers have worked tirelessly for decades to ensure that the battery of your EV is completely safe.

The cars often have things like smart management systems installed to ensure that the battery doesn’t overheat, and some even come with things like liquid cooling systems to ensure they remain cool.

The biggest concern when it comes to electric vehicles is the fact that the lithium ion battery can sometimes combust and catch fire. This is because they have power cells that on rare occasions can short circuit if they end up getting damaged.

They are less likely to get caught in fire explosions than your standard gasoline vehicle would be. Vehicle explosions are also usually due to car accidents – it’s the same for standard gasoline vehicles.

It should be noted that really, EVs are incredibly safe. They actually tend to have lower centers of gravity than most vehicles do, and this means that the likelihood of them rolling over is much slimmer.

Electric vehicles are generally quite quiet in terms of operation, and this can sometimes make it more dangerous for pedestrians that may not be able to hear the vehicle when they are walking along the road.

Some EVs do come with the ability to play sounds that pedestrians can hear when you’re traveling at slower speeds, however. You just need to be more careful if you are planning on driving your vehicle in highly populated areas.

 

Common Questions About Electric Cars:

 

How long do they take to charge?

The answer to this question largely depends on a number of factors. Some vehicles may take as little time as around 30 minutes, whereas others could take as long as 12 hours to charge.

The amount of time that it takes to charge an electric vehicle depends on the size of the battery.

It can also depend on how fast your charger is. To put it short, you can use the following equation to figure out how long the car will take to charge:

Battery size ÷ charging speed = charging time.

For instance, if you have a 40kWh battery size, and a 7kw home charger then it would take around 5 hours to charge the battery.

If you used a 22kW charging point then it would likely take less time to charge your vehicle. It could take around 2 hours.

There are also rapid chargers available that are 43-120kW, and this may mean you can get on the road after a mere 20-40 minutes.

Usually a home charging point has a power rating of around 3.7kW or 7kW. Unfortunately it’s not possible to get 22kW chargers – you need to have three phase power for this. Some cars are also not able to charge at 22kW, though it’s sometimes possible to use them for charging at a lower speed.

It’s also worth remembering that top up charging is an option. Sure you can charge it all in one go, but if you live in an area where there are a lot of charging stations then you can just top up as you go about your day. Just charge the car whenever it’s idle.

For instance, you can sometimes get workplace charging points providing 7kW to 22kW of power, so when you’re at the office you can put your car on charge. A public charging point is also suitable. Alternatively, you can charge the car overnight and then top it up throughout the day.

If you’re still a little confused and want more information about charging times, check out our electric vehicle charging time calculator.

 

How long does the battery last?

When you first charge your car’s battery, if you charge it using a 3kW slow charger then you will get an additional 10 miles of battery after you’ve charged it for an hour.

This increases when you use a more powerful charger, so if you used a 7kW charger then you may expect to have up to 30 miles after 60 minutes of charging.

The amount of time that the battery lasts will depend on the power of the charger and the amount of time that you are charging.

It’s also important to know that a car battery is a lot like the battery in a smartphone or any other electronic device – it will eventually get weaker as time goes on and will need to be replaced. When the battery degrades, it usually means that the amount of time that the car stays charged is reduced too.

Generally the vast majority of manufacturers will have a warranty of between five and eight years on the battery, however they can usually last anywhere between 10 – 20 years if they are well maintained.

Taking proper care of your car’s battery is key to ensuring that it lasts a long time.

The first thing to keep in mind is that it’s actually a bad idea to constantly keep the car completely charged. This can damage the battery because heat is created when it’s charging.

You don’t often need to worry about this as many car models on the market will automatically stop charging once they are totally charged. With others you can charge the car up to a certain percentage before it automatically stops charging.

It’s also not a good idea to let the car run on a totally empty battery. In fact, the vast majority of car batteries are at their peak performance at around 50% – 80% capacity.

You should also be careful about what weather you are traveling. The battery of the car may not react well to very cold or hot temperatures, and this means that the weather can impact how far you can travel.

If your battery isn’t sufficient to your liking, it’s worth considering your warranty. Some manufacturers such as Nissan can give you a warranty spanning 5 years for the battery.

 

Can you drive them in the rain – what weather conditions impact an electric car?

If you’re not familiar with electric cars, you may not be sure whether driving one in certain weather conditions is a good idea.

Perhaps one of the biggest questions that people have is whether it’s safe to drive an electric vehicle in the rain.

Thankfully you are not limited by the rain when you have an electric vehicle.

the idea that you can’t drive one in the rain is a complete myth. These cars have been made with covering shields and protective layers on the charging plugs. This means that they don’t spark, lose their current, and water won’t get into the circuits.

If you wish to do so it’s also possible to charge an electric vehicle in the rain. The charging plugs have been protected so that they aren’t impacted by the rain. Vehicles are extensively tested before they’re unleashed onto the market to avoid any issues pertaining to rain. For more information about charging your vehicle in the rain, check out our article.

What about other weather conditions? Well, winter weather can have an effect on electric vehicles as it can influence the range of the vehicle. Unfortunately the cold can impact the batteries in the vehicle in a negative way, as the cold can slow down the chemical reactions inside of the battery.

In addition to this, the cold can also affect the speed at which your vehicle charges. The charging speed is generally lower during the winter.

Other than this there’s no real need to worry about the winter affecting your vehicle. You just need to take precautions when you’re out to ensure that the range is still okay and that the roads are safe to drive on.

On the same note, the range of your vehicle can be affected when it’s extremely hot outside. There are a few things that you can do to maximize the performance of your vehicle when you’re driving in hot weather. These are:

 

  • Don’t charge your battery too fast or at an exceptionally high capacity overnight. This can cause the battery to heat up too much, only for the hot weather to drain it again later on. If you have a large drive ahead of you then charge it to 100%, but generally you don’t need to go much higher than around 60%-80%.
  • It’s worth activating the preconditioning setting on your car if you have one. This will help to ensure that the temperature of the battery is cool enough when you are ready to drive.
  • Leave your car out of the sun – it’s best to park it in a shaded spot when you stop. It can also help to have tinted windows or sunshades.
  • Put the AC on when you’re driving, and activate eco mode. If possible, try to avoid driving at very high speeds.

 

What are the Pros and Cons of Having an Electric Vehicle?

There are a lot of reasons to buy an electric vehicle. Likewise, there are also reasons why you shouldn’t. Let’s take a look at both:

Pros

  • Environmentally friendly – The impact that electric vehicles have on the environment is one of the main reasons why many consumers choose to buy them. These cars usually don’t include an exhaust system like their gasoline alternatives, so they don’t emit any harmful substances out into the atmosphere. It’s an easy way to reduce your eco footprint.
  • Long Term Affordability – It costs a lot less money to run an electric car. Gasoline can be expensive, but EVs usually run at less than a third of the cost of a standard car. In addition to this, EVs don’t run on oil so you don’t need to change the oil. The brakes don’t wear as much either, so you’re saving yourself at least a little bit of money on maintenance costs, too.
  • Quiet operation – Cars are loud. This may be good for some people, but others may not like the noise pollution. EVs operate very quietly, so you don’t need to worry about the noise that they make.
  • Tax Credits – Owners of electric vehicles can sometimes get tax credits as their vehicles are having less of an impact on the environment.

 

Cons

  • Charging points – You’re going to need to charge your EV on a regular basis, and unless you live in an urban area or in a city, you may have a hard time finding a charging point.
  • Charging Time – It can take a while to charge an electric vehicle, and you need to think about this before you set out on your journey. It’s often best to plan your journeys in advance so you can make sure that the car is charged properly.
  • Price – While electric cars are a lot cheaper now than they ever were before, they can still be pretty expensive.

 

Are All Electric Cars Automatic?

If you’re used to driving a manual car where you have to change gears, it may take you a while to get used to an EV. This is because yes, pretty much all electric cars feature automatic operation. They don’t have clutches.

This has its advantages as it means that you won’t stall nearly as often. You do occasionally see 5 or 6 speed gearboxes but they are hard to come by.

This is because an electric vehicle doesn’t really need to have a gear for it to operate correctly. They have fantastic 100% torque, and this is even the case when you are traveling at lower speeds.

To get more torque then you should try to ensure your revs per minute are under 2000. Your car won’t generate as much torque at higher revs.

There’s no real reason to add gears to an electric car – it overcomplicates the system and adds extra weight to the vehicle. It may even decrease the overall power of the car.

 

How Do You Charge an Electric Vehicle?

The way that you charge your electric vehicle will largely depend on the type of EV that you have. If you need to charge your vehicle at a charging point, then you will need to think about where the best place to charge it will be.

For instance if you have off street parking then it’s possible to install a home charger in your house. This will allow you to plug your car in overnight, especially handy if your car takes a particularly long time to recharge.

Having a plug in station at home is also handy as they can come with additional features, such as Wi-Fi functionality that allows you to monitor software updates and the energy.

The vast majority of chargers for the home come with a Type 2 socket that is universally recognized. If your car does not use a Type 2 socket then most of them also work with a separate cable that you can plug into the car and charge it right away.

The manufacturer will usually give you the separate cable when you purchase the car.

It’s also possible to plug the car into a normal 3 pin charger, but this isn’t the safest option and it can often take longer to charge. It’s usually better just to invest in a home EV charger instead.

Alternatively you could charge your EV at a public charging station. As we’ve already mentioned, there are thousands of these dotted around the United States, so you shouldn’t have a problem getting to one!

How do you find an EV charging station? Your EV will likely come with a sat-nav system built in, and this should send you to the nearest location where there is a charging point.

If your car does not come with one of these, you can look online for websites that may tell you where the charging points are. You can often even see whether the charging points are currently being used.

Generally though, you will find the vast majority of electric car chargers in cities or any other urban areas – they can be more difficult to come by elsewhere.

Using a public charging station is fairly simple – it usually involves using the swipe card or mobile phone app for your vehicle. Then you can unlock and use the charging point. Then, you connect the charging cable from the charging point to your car.

It is important to note that some different charging providers will work differently than others do. It’s worth checking in advance how the charging station works before you visit it to avoid unnecessary time waiting around.

You should also keep in mind that the charging point usually comes with a lock that will stop it from disconnecting. To remove it you will again need to use your swipe card.

 

Conclusion: Time To Volt

 

So now that you know everything that there is to know about electric cars, you’re ready to embark on this new, green way of driving!

Electric cars are a great choice if you want to save on fuel expenses and you want to have a positive impact on the environment. So – what are you waiting for? Time to take all of your new found knowledge out for a test drive!

 

 

Citations

https://www.autoexpress.co.uk/car-news/electric-cars/101002/history-of-the-ev-from-the-first-electric-car-to-the-present-day

https://auto.howstuffworks.com/auto-parts/brakes/brake-types/regenerative-braking.htm

https://www.greencarcongress.com/2014/03/20140311-lin.html

https://blog.toyota.co.uk/history-toyota-prius

https://www.grandviewresearch.com/industry-analysis/us-electric-vehicle-charging-infrastructure-evci-market

https://avt.inl.gov/sites/default/files/pdf/fsev/costs.pdf

https://www.irs.gov/businesses/plug-in-electric-vehicle-credit-irc-30-and-irc-30d

https://afdc.energy.gov/laws/search

 

 

 

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