What are EVs (Electric Vehicles)

As we all know, our cars, two-wheelers or trucks and buses are all driven by engines which need petrol or diesel as fuel. Such engines are commonly called as Internal Combustion Engines (ICEs) and the vehicles as ICE vehicles. Now instead of the ICEs if our vehicles are driven by an electric motor that needs a battery then they would be referred to as Electric Vehicles (EVs).

In the past few years, we have seen EVs moving around on our roads but the numbers are still very negligible compared to ICE vehicles. We are all aware that vehicular emissions are one of the major contributors to the deterioration of air quality in our cities and urban areas. This is where electric vehicles can make a difference as they don’t emit any pollutants while being driven. However electric vehicles are at a nascent stage compared to ICE vehicles and have a long way to go yet to become mainstream. Let’s take a look at how different EVs are and what are their advantages and disadvantages.

Types of EVs

Electric vehicles are classified broadly into two types –

Fully electric vehicles – These are EVs in the true sense as they use only an electric motor for propulsion. This electric motor can be driven by a battery or a fuel cell. The battery is charged externally by a charger and a charging station.

Hybrid electric vehicles – These are vehicles that use both IC engine and electric motor for propulsion either in a combined or individual mode wherein the ICE uses petrol or diesel and the electric motor gets power from the battery.

Types of Hybrid Electric Vehicles

Hybrids are further subdivided into micro, mild, and strong hybridization depending on how the electric motor assists the IC engine power train. Most of the hybrids do have a battery of small capacity which can provide only a few kilometers of electric mode driving. They predominantly do not have the facility of externally charging the battery pack and the charging is done through regeneration only. But some strong hybrids do get the option of externally charging and are called Plug-in Hybrid Electric Vehicles (PHEV).

How EVs work

An ICE car has an internal combustion engine that drives the wheels through a gearbox and differential. The engine burns petrol or diesel and the chemical energy is converted to kinetic energy. If this engine is taken out and in its place, we plonk an electric motor, take out the fuel tank and place a battery in its place, then what we have is an electric car. So EVs are very similar to the cars and two-wheelers that we all have been driving for years but instead of the engines which use fossil fuel we can have our vehicles driven by an electric motor. Rest everything about our vehicles stays the same. Of course, you would now have to “charge” your car instead of filling up fuel from a fuel station. The way the car would drive would still be the same for the majority of the users other than the enthusiasts.

Advantages and Disadvantages of EVs

The major advantage of an electric vehicle is the zero exhaust pipe emissions. So you aren’t polluting the environment while you are driving around or commuting to work. The other major advantage is the low operating cost. Compared to the costs of fossil fuels, the cost of electricity is less. Hence the big advantage of EVs is in the per kilometer operational cost compared to ICE vehicles. Even the maintenance cost of an EV is significantly lower than an ICE vehicle as the number of moving parts in an electric powertrain is much lower than an ICE powertrain.

Now the skeptics will argue that the range is limited and if you happen to travel long distances then the availability of charging stations isn’t there unlike having fuel stations that are pretty much in every nook and corner of the country.  Well yes, it is true in the current scenario. But look at it this way, on average the daily commute using a car or scooter/motorcycle in India is not more than 60 kilometers for the majority of the users. So range anxiety should not be a major factor for most of us on a daily basis.

As the technology continues to improve and become more mainstream we will have batteries that can provide good long-range and also the proliferation of charging stations across our highways would help. But until the critical mass is reached I agree that meticulous planning of the drives other than the daily commute is necessary. Since most of the four-wheeler EVs available in India boast a minimum of 200km range our daily commutes should not be much of a hassle in an EV. So the range compared to ICE vehicles is a disadvantage right now but soon I believe it won’t be that much of a problem.

There is also the argument that EVs aren’t as clean and non-polluting as they are made out to be. In a way this is true. This is because as long as the electricity used to charge the batteries is generated from power plants run by using coal or fossil fuels, the electricity isn’t completely emissions-free and that in turn means your EV isn’t completely a zero-emissions vehicle. However, if the electricity used to charge the batteries is generated from a renewable energy source then the EV is in true sense a zero-emissions vehicle.

But even now, the EV does not emit any harmful gases when it is being driven and the pollution happening at the electricity generation power plant is much further away from our cities and residential areas. So at least locally in our communities, the pollution levels can be drastically low or almost zero with the use of an EV.

Indian Scenario

Similar to the US, China, and European countries, India is also slowly but surely making the shift towards Electric Vehicles. Our government has scoped out an indigenous plan to support the transition to electric vehicles by looking into setting up charging infrastructure, encouraging Indian companies to take lead in battery manufacturing, and providing benefits in form of subsidies or tax breaks to those citizens opting for buying electric vehicles.

Most of the automobile manufacturers are on board and are readying their portfolio of products in the electric vehicle segment. Currently, Indian companies like Mahindra & Mahindra and Tata Motors have launched their EV models and we also have some electric crossovers available from Hyundai and MG Motors. Luxury brands like Audi and Mercedes Benz have announced that soon we will see premium electric vehicles from them available to the Indian consumers. Over the course of the next 6 to 8 years, we should see a vast majority of electric vehicles from different manufacturers available across all segments right from entry-level hatchbacks to premium and luxury sedans and SUVs.

In this time frame, we should also see significant development in charging infrastructure across the length and breadth of India and reduction in prices of batteries as the demand for EVs continues to rise. Additionally, newer battery chemistries other than Lithium-ion are being explored which would further drop the prices of the battery and thereby make the EVs comparable in terms of cost to their ICE counterparts. Fuel cell technology as an alternative to the battery is also being researched and looked into by few automobile manufacturers.

From now until say 2030 there will be a significant shift in public transport systems where ICE buses will make the transition to electric buses. This has already started with most of the metro city municipal corporations and state transport departments pushing for electric buses to run in cities and congested areas. Similarly, the government will soon start pushing the cabs and auto-rickshaws running in our cities to shift to electric. So in the coming decade or so we should see a significant rise in the number of EVs plying on our roads.

Wrapping Up

To summarize, I think electric vehicles will soon become a primary means of transportation be it personal transport or public transport. And more often than not EVs will be similar to our existing vehicles, so we shouldn’t be seeing a drastic change in how we use our cars, other than of course we will be charging our vehicles at our home or places of work instead of filling petrol or diesel at the pump. But also remember that we will be drastically reducing the pollution that is emitted from our vehicles by shifting to EVs and that is something which is definitely worth achieving for our environment!