Disruptive Trends In Mobility

Electric Vehicles (EVs) is the widely acknowledged and accepted future of mobility. It is ecologically and economically more viable than internal combustion engine vehicles. EVs can save 474 million tonnes of oil equivalent (Mtoe) worth Rs 15 lakh crore and generates carbon dioxide savings of 846 million tonnes over their operational lifetime.

Battery Technology

Lithium-ion batteries are most common due to high energy per unit mass, high power-to-weight ratio, good high temperature performance, low self-discharge, and most components are recyclable. Typically delivers a 320-480 km of range per charge.

NiMH batteries has high specific energy, long life cycle, abuse tolerant but is disadvantaged with high cost, high self-discharge and heat generation at high temperature; 200 km of range.

Led-acid batteries are inexpensive, safe and reliable but has low specific energy, poor cold temperature performance and short cycle life. Both NiMH and Lead-acid batteries are almost becoming obsolete in the operation of EVs.

Ultra-capacitors store energy in a polarized liquid state that can power during acceleration to help recover braking energy and it can help electro-chemical batteries level load power as secondary energy storage device in EVs.

Types of Electric Vehicles: Hybrid (Non-plug-in): 

A hybrid electric vehicle (HEV) is a type of hybrid vehicle that combines a conventional internal combustion (ICE) system with an electric propulsion system. 

The presence of the electric power train is intended to achieve either better fuel economy than a conventional vehicles or better performance. The engine automatically stops when idle and silently starts when the optimal conditions are  met in manual and automatic transmissions. It comes with a dual battery setup including a Lithium Ion Battery setup including a Lithium Ion battery. These high capacity batteries store the energy generated during braking to assist the engine's idle start-stop and the torque assist functions. The energy stored in lithium ion battery assist during acceleration which helps engine in providing optimal acceleration and performance.

Plug-in Hybrid (Plug-in):

A plug-in hybrid electric vehicle (PHEV) is a hybrid electric vehicle whose battery can be recharged by plugging it into an external source of electric power, as well as by its on-board engine and generator. Most PHEVs are passengers cars, but there are also PHEV versions of commercial vehicles and vans, trains, motorcycles, scooters, and military vehicles.

:(Battery Electric Vehicles (BEV

BEVs run on lithium ion batteries that are obtained either from hard rocks (one-quarter of global lithium production) or brine (66% of the world's lithium reserves), sourced from Australia, Chile, Argentina, China, Brazil, Zimbabwe, Portugal and the USA mainly. Out of the two, brine lithium is more profitable as it is 50% cheaper both in terms of exploration capital to operating expenses and has much lower carbon footprint when compared to hard rock lithium.

However, brine lithium production is a time consuming process (it takes at least 4 years for a lithium brine mine to even come online) further widening the gap between growing EV market demand and available lithium supplies. The solution of this disadvantage lies in petrolithium extraction which is more cost efficient, easily producible and has lower environment footprint. However, the limiting factor of batteries rests on its driving range, which may be addressed by developing an ecosystem of fast charging or swapping batteries that will require appropriate chemistries at optimized costs and performance. Moreover, to manage battery waste, recylcling and reuse of used batteries is a viable option that the industry is deeply exploring. Another emerging technology in EVs is the use of energy dense fuel hydrogen, hereby referred to as the Fuel cell Electric Vehicles (FCEVs), which can be manufactured from variety of sources, including the by-product in industrial processes, thereby reducing energy dependence and industrial waste management. With California, Germany, Japan and South Korea investing over $850 million annually to take the lead in the fuel cell developments, the Hydrogen Council has estimated investment potential of $280 billion through 2030 (Linderetal, 2017).

BEV manufacturing is dominated by Panasonic with a 40% Global market share, LG Chem with 18% and CATL with 23%.

Also refer to: https://mymamaa.blogspot.com/2019/09/era-of-transition.html