Article
Ram Kamath

Are electric vehicles really the future of road transport?

Electric vehicles (EVs) or electric drive vehicles use electric motors or traction motors for propulsion. EVs include road and rail vehicles, water vessels and even electric aircraft. Over the last decade, encouraged by global uproar at the rising negative environmental impacts of fossil-fuel based transportation infrastructure, EVs and related subsystems are being viewed with enormous interest (Eberle et al, 2010).The global electric vehicles market generated a revenue of US$83.54 billion in 2012 and is projected to enjoy a growth of 19.2 % from 2013 to 2019. By 2019, the market will be trading 64.4 million EVs (Transparency market research, 2015).

 

These statistics do paint a bright future for electric vehicles and EV related infrastructure but there are issues that will stall an even more rapid expansion of EVs in the transportation sector in the (nearby) future.  For one, are electric vehicles truly sustainable, over their lifetime? A recent study  titled “Application of Life-Cycle Assessment to Nanoscale Technology: Lithium-ion Batteries for Electric Vehicles” conducted by the Environmental Protection Agency of the USA on the life-cycle analysis of lithium-ion batteries finds that they could lead to resource depletion, global warming, ecological toxicity and human health impacts. Moreover, the nickel and cobalt cathodes used in li-ion batteries could cause adverse respiratory, pulmonary and neurological effects in those exposed.  Another study, “Comparative Environmental Life Cycle Assessment of Conventional and Electric Vehicles,” done by Yale University, says the carbon footprint of EVs could be no different from those of a conventional vehicle depending on how far they are driven and where they get electricity (McElroy, 2013).

 

An online BBC article from 2014 titled “The electric car’s biggest threat may be its battery” talks about how the big, heavy batteries currently being installed in EVs severely limit the driveable range of the vehicle (for instance, The most popular and advanced EV vehicle currently in the market, the Tesla Model S, can only go up to 270 miles (434 kilometres) per charge. Because of the substantial dimensions and weight of the battery, not more than one can be installed in a car. This means the car will have to be charged often if it is to be used on long distance runs (Stewart, 2014). Despite enjoying rising revenue, the EV market still constitutes just a small fraction of the global automobile sales, chiefly because the batteries that run them are expensive and need to be charged frequently. A more efficient battery is the need of the hour but despite a decade of research, the search for one is still ongoing. The American EV manufacturer, Tesla motors, has been successful at cutting down battery costs to half but then, it gives a range of only 200 miles (322 kilometres) and is much more expensive than a gasoline powered vehicle of similar features. Battery systems are poorly understood and researchers are still struggling with its basic chemistry and a significant breakthrough seems unlikely in the near future.

 

Given the concern regarding the sustainability of the EV over its lifecycle and the current state of battery research, it would be prudent to invest in and develop alternative power solutions. These issues may catch up to the EV system sooner rather than later and we need to think of novel solutions that solve these problems.

 

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