The lure of using electric vehicles (EVs) for transportation is based on both smart publicity and solid fact.  EVs have gone through a fairly rapid transformation in the last decade. Industry investment, research & development, and creative marketing have propelled them from an engineering curiosity to a potential environmental champion and possibly a smart consumer choice. 

We have discussed some of the development issues in the EV area in a March 2023 blog, which you can read on this site. The fact remains, however, that due to the work of some smart engineers, EVs have a lot going for them. These include reduced oil demand, less air pollution, and decreased vehicle maintenance. But the question is, are potential consumers buying the EV sales promise, and if not, what does engineering need to do to move the sales needle faster? 

The Demand Story

Recent interest in electrifying transport has been propelled by several factors, including rising retail fuel costs, increased focus on internal combustion engine (ICE) emissions, individual state and country regulations that seek to phase out ICE vehicles, and government subsidies for consumer EV purchases. This has led to a surge of new EV manufacturers and models. Kelly Blue Book notes that about 33 new EV models launched in 2023, and 50 new or updated models are on tap for 2024.

The EV engineering community has also responded by focusing resources on improvements to EV technology. But consumer EV purchase decision growth remains relatively slow due to a variety of reasons. The major ones boil down to price and distance. 

What Needs to Change

According to a recent Cox Automotive survey, EV affordability is the number one reason for consumer hesitation in purchasing an EV. In May of 2023, according to Cox, the average price of a new ICE vehicle was $48,528, while that of a comparable new EV was $55,488, or a 14% premium.   

While EV prices have been trending downwards, the pressure to eliminate government purchase subsidies will slow the appeal of this trend. History would tell us that vehicle pricing is more of a manufacturing problem than an engineering one, but production efficiencies are often driven by engineering designs that lend themselves to efficient manufacturing. Needless to say, increased competition from all the new EV models may also help mitigate this problem.

The Range Concern

An additional consumer concern is EV range, or the average distance you can travel on a full charge. According to the U.S. Department of Energy, the median ICE-powered car range for 2021 was 413 miles. The median EV charge range was 217 miles. This range difference is largely a factor of current battery technology, but the consumer must consider this along with the current lack of broad EV charging infrastructure both inside and outside the U.S. 

This difference in EV mileage potential from ICE vehicles leads to “range anxiety” in consumers, which flows from both inflated EV range predictions from manufacturers along with other engineering-related range-reducing factors. These additional factors include diminished battery performance in cold weather, charge capacity degradation with battery age, and the effect of different driving and terrain styles. 

As you might imagine, the solution for each of these range concerns is dependent on a combination of creative engineering, new technology, and an expanded charging network.   

Battery Developments

Range concerns lead us to the consumer push for improvements in battery technology. Rechargeable battery chemistries have come a long way since the initial nickel-cadmium (NiCAD) designs and are moving beyond the current lithium-ion ones. With the focus on increasing range and reducing charge time, many promising technologies are now being explored. Some of these include zinc-air, lithium-air, lithium-sulfur, lithium nickel cobalt manganese, lithium iron phosphate, sodium ion, and solid-state designs. While development activity has increased tremendously, the translation of battery technology into manufacturable solutions will take engineering time and financial investment.

Nevertheless, exciting developments in new battery designs and their promised ability to deliver increased range and shortened charge time make the news daily. Toyota’s recent announcement of new solid-state battery advancements includes a range forecast of over 700 miles/charge. The EV sales problem, however, is that while these promises may arrive in future models, the performance of current EV dealer inventory is still somewhat disappointing. The consumer strategy seems to be wait and see.

Lack of Charging Infrastructure

Tightly coupled with the need for better battery technology is a concurrent need for an increase in the number of available charging stations, along with improved charging technology to reduce vehicle charge time. Consumer range anxiety is a product of battery range per charge, distance between available charging stations, and charging time. And while private, in-home charging stations are a factor in the total charging environment, they do not address range anxiety once a vehicle is on a road trip. 

According to a recent U.S. Department of Energy report, there are currently about 105,000 EV public charging ports (both regular and fast-charging) available across the U.S. that are not Tesla-exclusive.  Over 28% of these ports are in California. This compares with an estimate by the American Petroleum Institute of 145,000 accessible public gasoline stations, where each station typically has many pumps that take mere minutes to use. 

While the development of fast-charge technology is an engineering problem, the installation of additional charging outlets is a financial and standardization problem. Financing, while both a private and public concern, is not part of this discussion. 

The standardization of charging technologies, equipment, and networks is progressing slowly. Currently, 32 different charging networks are listed by the U.S. Department of Energy. Simplification of both equipment and networks can be a large part of the range solution.    

Additional Factors

In this discussion, we’ve touched on the major issues hindering a more rapid pace of growth in consumer EV sales. But, as you may know, there are others that also come into play. The importance of each to the ultimate EV consumer may be debatable. Taken together, however, they underline the many and varied areas that need to improve in EVs prior to a stronger consumer uptake. Some of these additional issues are:    

• High repair costs, especially for battery replacement or repair
• The initial cost of home charging equipment
• Electricity charging costs 
• Environmental concerns over battery chemistries 
• Safe sourcing of battery-critical minerals 
• Battery and vehicle recycling
• Battery over-heating
• EV resale value
• State gas tax offset fees

Conclusion

EVs remain a viable and attractive option to the continued problems of using ICE engines for transportation. Increasing consumer sales of EVs, however, will require attention to the “Big Four” items that need to be addressed, along with others, in order to increase the willingness of the general public to purchase and use EVs:  

• Decreased purchase price
• Improved range per battery charge
• Improved battery charging time
• Increased public charge station availability

If you are involved in the engineering development of EVs and the support network they require, or if you design products going into this market, you are aware of the market potential and also the hard work that remains to be done. 

Our friends at CircuitBread.com offer great tutorials on the fundamentals of Power Electronics to help you propel your own search for improvements to EV technology. The website also offers further discussions on EV technology, which can be found here: What is Needed to Broaden Electric Vehicle Acceptance? As always, creative engineering is an elegant and efficient solution.