Electric vehicles (EVs) are spiking in popularity as the world moves toward more renewable energy and transportation solutions to fight climate change. The technology behind EVs has improved, and they''ve become a much larger part of our culture. Companies like Tesla have even made the EV a kind of status symbol. But have you ever wondered how they actually work?
Here we''ll briefly go over what makes EVs different from gas-powered vehicles and how they work.
When people refer to electric vehicles, they''re usually talking about entirely electric cars powered by a battery. These are sometimes called battery electric vehicles (BEVs). But there are other types of vehicles that could be categorized as EVs, including:
The main types of EVs on the road today are hybrids and battery-powered vehicles.
All EVs not powered by a fuel cell need some kind of battery to store the energy used to power the vehicle down the road. Most commonly, those batteries are made of lithium-ion --- basically industrial-strength versions of the battery in your cell phone.
EV batteries are typically constructed from stacks of cells organized into units and laid out in a large bank along the bottom of the vehicle called a traction battery. The battery assembly is charged with electricity from the grid via a charging station or by plugging the vehicle into a home power socket. Larger vehicles like trucks and SUVs powered by a battery will have larger battery banks.
Once fully charged, the vehicle has a set range before needing to be charged again. Electric cars are built with other features to extend battery life, like turning the engine off when the car isn''t in motion and using the kinetic energy from when the car brakes to charge the battery.
Fuel cell vehicles operate a bit differently. Instead of a battery, they use a tank of stored hydrogen gas, mixing that hydrogen with the oxygen in the air to create an electricity-forming chemical reaction. Once the gas is depleted, the tank needs to be refilled, which can take less time than recharging an EV''s battery.
Advances in EV battery technology are constantly being made, meaning the range of EVs will probably continue to increase as we see new iterations of their design. GM announced a partnership with LG at CES 2021 that will produce smaller EV batteries that are more energy-dense.
Internal combustion engines powered by gas use compressed, ignited fuel to move pistons connected to a crankshaft, which turns the vehicle''s wheels. An all-electric vehicle uses the same principle of rotation to push a vehicle forward, just powered differently.
Instead of pistons, an EV uses electromagnets to get the crankshaft moving. The electric motor in an EV has a system of magnets, some of which are stationary and some of which rotate. The magnets are made to rotate by continuously switching the polarity of the magnets that need to spin.
Remember those science experiments you did as a kid, where you got two magnets, arranged them pole to pole, and tried to push them together? At a very basic level, the resistance you get when trying to push two magnets facing north-to-north or south-to-south together is what rotates an EV''s motor and spins the vehicle''s wheels.
To create that resistance, the rotating magnets need to always have an opposite charge to the stationary ones. That''s achieved by a device called an inverter. The inverter draws power from an EV''s battery to switch the polarity of the rotating magnets somewhere around 60 times a second. The constant switching creates sustained magnetic resistance and powers the motor. You can see a great visual breakdown of this concept in this video from the channel TechVision.
This design is more efficient than an internal combustion engine because the motor is built to spin from the start, whereas a gas-powered engine has to use a crankshaft to convert its piston''s up-and-down motion into a rotary motion to turn the wheels. Adjusting the frequency of the inverter''s polarity switching also gives the driver finer control over an EV''s speed and torque than you can get from a gasoline engine.
All-electric vehicles don''t burn fossil fuels, so they don''t emit any harmful exhaust from their tailpipes. In hydrogen fuel cell vehicles, the only byproduct of operating one is the water you get from mixing hydrogen and oxygen. In that way, EVs are more sustainable and environmentally friendly than gas vehicles. However, the batteries they require to operate have to be built and sourced carefully in order to be sustainable in the long term.
The minerals needed to build EV batteries will need to be mined at a larger scale if electric vehicles are going to compete with gas-powered ones. There''s also the question of what to do with those batteries once they''ve reached the end of their useful lifespan. The Union of Concerned Scientists issued a report on EV batteries in February 2021 outlining what would need to be done to make that happen. Key measures include battery recycling programs, strong workplace health and labor standards, and renewable energy use in manufacturing.
Battery manufacturers are also turning to more readily available materials in their battery construction. The GM batteries mentioned earlier, for example, are incorporating aluminum into their design to reduce the amount of cobalt used per battery.
Another point often made about the sustainability of EVs is that the plants that produce the electricity to power those vehicles also produce greenhouse gas emissions. Both gas and hydrogen fuel cells vehicles can use electricity produced through natural gas, for example. While the emissions are still less than those produced by gas vehicles, greater investment in renewable power sources like wind and solar could further limit the impact of generating electricity to power more electric vehicles in the future.
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The energy storage system in electric cars comes in the form of a battery. Battery type can vary depending on if the vehicle is all-electric (AEV) or plug-in hybrid electric (PHEV). Current battery technology is designed for extended life (typically about eight years or 100,000 miles). Some batteries can last for 12 to 15 years in moderate climates or eight to 12 years in extreme climates. Four main kinds of batteries are used in electric cars: lithium-ion, nickel-metal hydride, lead-acid, and ultracapacitors.
Lithium-ion batteries are the most common type of battery used in electric cars. This kind of battery may sound familiar – these batteries are also used in most portable electronics, including cell phones and computers. Lithium-ion batteries have a high power-to-weight ratio, high energy efficiency, and good high-temperature performance. In practice, this means that the batteries hold a lot of energy for their weight, which is vital for electric cars – less weight means the car can travel further on a single charge. Lithium-ion batteries also have a low "self-discharge" rate, which means they are better than other batteries at maintaining the ability to hold a full charge over time.
Additionally, most lithium-ion battery parts are recyclable, making these batteries a good choice for the environmentally conscious. This battery is used in both AEVs and PHEVs, though the exact chemistry of these batteries varies from those found in consumer electronics.
Nickel-metal hydride batteries are more widely used in hybrid-electric vehicles but are also used successfully in some all-electric vehicles. Hybrid-electric vehicles do not derive power from an external plug-in source but instead rely on fuel to recharge the battery, excluding them from the definition of an electric car.
Nickel-metal hydride batteries have a longer life cycle than lithium-ion or lead-acid batteries. They are also safe and tolerant of abuse. The most significant issues with nickel-metal hydride batteries are their high cost, high self-discharge rate, and the fact that they generate substantial heat at high temperatures. These issues make these batteries less effective for rechargeable electric vehicles, which is why they are primarily used in hybrid electric vehicles.
Lead-acid batteries are only currently used in electric vehicles to supplement other battery loads. These batteries are high-powered, inexpensive, safe, and reliable, but their short calendar life and poor cold-temperature performance make them difficult to use in electric vehicles. There are high-power lead-acid batteries in development, but the batteries are now only used in commercial vehicles as secondary storage.
Ultracapacitors are not batteries in the traditional sense. Instead, they store polarized liquid between an electrode and an electrolyte. As the liquid''s surface area increases, the capacity for energy storage also increases. Ultracapacitors, like lead-acid batteries, are primarily useful as secondary storage devices in electric vehicles because ultracapacitors help electrochemical batteries level their load. In addition, ultracapacitors can provide electric vehicles extra power during acceleration and regenerative braking.
All-electric vehicles have an electric traction motor in place of the internal combustion engine used in gasoline-powered cars. AEVs use a traction battery pack (usually a lithium-ion battery) to store the electricity the motor uses to drive the vehicle''s wheels. The traction battery pack is the part of the car that is plugged in and recharged, and its efficiency helps determine the vehicle''s overall range.
In plug-in hybrid electric vehicles, a traction battery pack powers the electric traction motor, much like an AEV. The primary difference is that the battery also has a combustion engine. PHEVs run on electric power until the battery is depleted and then switch to fuel which powers an internal combustion engine. The battery, usually lithium-ion, can be recharged by plugging in, through regenerative braking, or using the internal combustion engine. The combination of battery and fuel gives PHEVs a longer range than their all-electric counterparts.
Charging your vehicle with electricity allows you to cut your greenhouse gas emissions by fueling your vehicle with a renewable resource like solar power. On average, 80 percent of electric car charging is done at home, and solar panels can both offset the costs of charging a vehicle regularly and reduce the use of nonrenewable fuels in the recharging process. Additionally, many public chargers use solar panels to reduce the use of nonrenewable energy throughout the process. If you''re interested in a solar panel installation plus installing an EV charging station at home, simply join the EnergySage Marketplace today and mention your interest in EV charging when filling out your profile questions.
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Electric vehicles function in fundamentally different ways than traditional cars. Internal combustion engines have loads of moving parts, and while EVs have their own complexities, they’re much more digital than mechanical. Let’s take a closer look at exactly how electric vehicles work.
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