The development and introduction of modern electric vehicles (EVs), including cars, trucks and buses has been heralded as nothing short of a revolution in the personal transportation field. No longer will tailpipes spew fumes, gas vapors escape from pumps, or used engine oil be dumped down the drain. The environment and the climate will be permanently changed for the better.
That’s the message we receive about EVs on a daily basis. But as engineers we understand that there are always problems with new technologies, and we don’t blindly accept all the hype. We also know that engineers are usually the ones tasked with managing the ultimate reality of any technology. We don’t hide from the problems. We tackle them head-on.
So, what about the promise of EVs? Are they delivering on their claimed benefits of cost reduction and environmental protection. The answers, so far, are mixed, and will depend on much hard work and creative solutions that are still to come.
The Benefits of EVs
Yes, there are important benefits to widespread EV adoption for transportation. These include:
In theory, each of these benefits, when multiplied across the transportation network, can provide benefits of scale to engender positive outcomes. The problem is, right now the majority of these benefits are only beginning to become available at the individual consumer level. If you’re not buying expensive gasoline, for example, you’re saving money after the initial purchase, as the electrical costs tend to be lower. But, from a wider perspective, several large problems remain to be solved before widespread EV benefits will be apparent. Let’s take a quick look at some of these problems.
The Challenge of EV Development
Currently, EVs, despite their environmental promise, are in the evolutionary stage of development. In order to reach the many promises made based on their widespread usage, battery chemistries must improve, recycling strategies must be established so as not to endanger both the environment and vehicle maintenance personnel, and increased EV charging demands on an electric grid running largely on fossil fuels must be mitigated.
The engineering community around the globe is already at work on many of these problems, but time is critical as we put more and more EVs on the road. As has been said many times, we have miles to go before we sleep. Or indeed drive.