Introduction of Electric Vehicles

Environmental as well as economical issues provide a compelling stimulus to develop clean, efficient, and sustainable vehicles for urban transportation. Automobiles and cars constitute an integral part of our everyday life, but the exhaust emissions of conventional internal combustion engine vehicles are the major source of urban pollution that causes the greenhouse effect that leads to global warming. The dependence on oil as the only source of energy for passenger cars has economical and political implications, and the crisis are becoming inevitably acute as the oil reserve of the world are diminishing very fast. The number of automobiles in the world doubled to about a billion or so in the last 10 years. The increasing number of automobiles being introduced on the road every year is adding tremendous pollution problems. There is also an economic factor inherent in the poor energy conversion efficiency of combustion engines. When efficiency of electric vehicle is evaluated on the basis of conversion from crude oil to traction effort at the wheels, it makes a difference. Emission due to power generation at power plant itself is much easier to regulate than that emanating from IC engine vehicles. The pollution from individual vehicles is scattered. Also, People living in cities are not exposed to power plant related emissions, as these are mostly located outside urban areas. Electric vehicles having high efficiency electric motors, controllers and powered by alternative energy sources provide the means for a clean, efficient, and environment friendly urban transportation system. Electric vehicles have no direct emissions, having the potential to curb the pollution problem in an efficient way. Consequently, Electric Vehicles are the only zero emission vehicles possible.

Electric vehicles as discussed in earlier article paved their way into public use as early as the middle of the 19th century, even before the introduction of gasoline-powered vehicles. In the year 1900, 4200 automobiles were sold, out of which 40% were steam powered, 38% were electric powered, and 22% were gasoline powered. However, the invention of the starter motor, inconvenience in battery charging and improvements in technology of gasoline powered vehicles and their mass production, abundant availability of crude oil led to the disappearance of the Electric Vehicle in the early 1900s. Nobody at that time ever thought of energy crises prevailing in current decade and future. Therefore, Environmental issues and the dependence on oil led to the resurgence of interest in Electric Vehicles back again in the 1960s. Development in the technologies added to environmental and economic concerns over the next several decades, increasing the demand for investing in research and development for Electric Vehicles. Recently major automobile manufacturers planned to reintroduce their own electric or hybrid electric vehicles. The trend increases today, with EVs serving as zero-emission vehicles, and hybrid electric vehicles already filling in for ultralow-emission vehicles.