Ashish Kalam :
ossil fuels have become a major integral part of how the world runs, everything from power, transport to industrial work, all depend on fossil fuels. But our dependency on it has created major life threatening environmental problems among other things and we need to tackle this effectively and consistently.
A recent research determines that in order to avoid exponential growth global warming and its consequences, we must take action ‘now.’ Considering that research is a few years old, we are already late.
The best place to start is to replace fossil fuels with environment friendly alternatives. Converting all sources of energy to electricity is the first step as electricity is a universal medium of power in the majority of applications. We can generate power from renewable energy such as solar, hydroelectric and geothermal energy among others, this eliminates the use of fossil fuels in almost every scenario including powering cities and industries but one major scenario where it is ineffective is in transportation. Unlike houses and factories, you cannot simply produce electricity in one place and distribute to its position of application using a power grid. Vehicles have to carry their sources of energy wherever they go, and fossils fuels take the least volume of space for the amount of energy they contain. This is the hardest part of replacing fossil fuels mainly because over 15 per cent of manmade Carbon Dioxide is emitted by Transportation mediums, such as cars, ships and planes. What is even more of a problem is that ICE (Internal Combustion Engine) Vehicles are among the most inefficient ways of converting fuel into energy. An average new car is only 25 per cent efficient and that degrades over time.
That is quite a large set obstacle in the process of replacing ICE vehicles, but we are closer to the solution than ever before. Electric Vehicle (EV) have been the go to solution for decades now but infrastructure barriers, lack of component supply and simply a lack of effort has been the issue. That changed when Elon Musk and Tesla redefined what EVs are. Prior to Tesla’s involvement in the market, Cars like the Nissan Leaf and Smart For Two defined EVs and what they were capable of, they could travel within a city, took several hours to charge and couldn’t outperform an equivalent gasoline car. In 2008, Tesla unveiled the Roadster, a sports car based on a Lotus Exige that could not only perform better than other EVs but could even compete dominantly with competing gasoline sports cars and super cars. It could travel about 400km on a full charge and didn’t take nearly as long to charge. Unfortunately they only made 2,450 units. This was an Eye opener for many consumers and many governments too. Soon Tax returns on the Purchase of EVs were offered by countries like USA, Canada, Parts of Europe and some Scandinavian countries and few others soon followed. Plug-in Hybrid cars became popular in the process; it came with benefits from both Electric efficiency and ICE car’s Practicality. It was far from perfect but a good measure to make transitions from regular cars to electric cars more seamless. In 2012, Tesla unveiled the Tesla Model S, a Luxury Electric Sedan with 2 Trunks, room for 5 (plus 2 children) and High performance. It eliminated every complain one could have about EVs. It wasn’t cheap though, it cost just as much as popular luxury sedans like the Mercedes S-class but it sold well because of the tax returns that were now offered, which would save up to $20,000, more over public Tesla fast charging stations were abundant and free of cost in California and other developed areas soon followed the trend. It also offered sate of the ark technology like Auto-Pilot and a huge touch screen to control most of its function. It eventually sold more than 250,000 units worldwide and not only was it profitable, it made a statement in the industry, that EVs are not only an alternative but a better replacement. They soon followed up with the Model X, an 8-seater SUV and Model 3, an affordable compact sedan and plenty more to come. Volkswagen Group, BMW, Nissan, Hyundai, Jaguar-Land Rover and many others have heavily invested in Electric cars and some of them plan to sell only Electric Cars in the future. There is even and an electric version of Formula 1 racing called Formula E. There are already electric versions of popular cars like KIA Soul, Hyundai Kona, Volkswagen Golf etc.
What ensures the stability of the market is that many countries are making Zero emission Vehicles Mandatory. Norway has been making it increasingly easier to buy and run an Electric Vehicle since 1990 will make it mandatory by 2025. Several other countries such as Canada, China, Japan, South Korea, UK and the majority of European countries have ambitious targets to ban ICE vehicles by 2040 while India has an even more ambitious but unrealistic target of 2030.
While US is often considered to be the pioneer of Electric Vehicles, only few of its states have any targets while some are even against the idea due to possible decline in local crude oil market. These countries are also heavily investing on public and household fast charging stations and workshops for EV maintenance.
China of all countries leads in EV manufacturing and sales and only behind Norway on EV infrastructure. China’s lack of experience in ICE vehicles often make it a tough sell, but they have been focusing of EVs from it’s early days. They have an insane amount of incentives for EVs and even more incentives to not buy ICE vehicles. For instance there can be a year long waiting list that too after a lottery draws to register a new ICE vehicle in Shenzhen. Ride sharing apps must use EVs exclusively and almost all the public transport in Shenzhen is Electric. Chinese EV brand NIO is the season one champion of Formula E and are now making Consumer Vehicles that are said to be the best in the business, one of their Cars Hold a Lap record at the Nurburgring. 2019 Shanghai Auto Show demonstrated the dominance of the Chinese domestic Vehicle Market. Almost every manufacture has a Factory in China and cannot keep up with domestic brands, and the EV market is a rapidly growing segment of it even in the absence of Tesla which will be opening their factory in China in the near future. China also dominates the world in Lithium ion Battery supply and many other components crucial to electric cars. BMW’s new official battery supplier is a Chinese brand called CATL. Infrastructure for EVs is growing in most places and fully developed in few major cities. The world can depend on China alone for EV supply worldwide.
With China’s industrial efforts, infrastructure upgrades throughout the world and a clear determination to fix the environment, EVs will thrive to be more of a permanent solution. The adoption of electric cars is inevitable.
ossil fuels have become a major integral part of how the world runs, everything from power, transport to industrial work, all depend on fossil fuels. But our dependency on it has created major life threatening environmental problems among other things and we need to tackle this effectively and consistently.
A recent research determines that in order to avoid exponential growth global warming and its consequences, we must take action ‘now.’ Considering that research is a few years old, we are already late.
The best place to start is to replace fossil fuels with environment friendly alternatives. Converting all sources of energy to electricity is the first step as electricity is a universal medium of power in the majority of applications. We can generate power from renewable energy such as solar, hydroelectric and geothermal energy among others, this eliminates the use of fossil fuels in almost every scenario including powering cities and industries but one major scenario where it is ineffective is in transportation. Unlike houses and factories, you cannot simply produce electricity in one place and distribute to its position of application using a power grid. Vehicles have to carry their sources of energy wherever they go, and fossils fuels take the least volume of space for the amount of energy they contain. This is the hardest part of replacing fossil fuels mainly because over 15 per cent of manmade Carbon Dioxide is emitted by Transportation mediums, such as cars, ships and planes. What is even more of a problem is that ICE (Internal Combustion Engine) Vehicles are among the most inefficient ways of converting fuel into energy. An average new car is only 25 per cent efficient and that degrades over time.
That is quite a large set obstacle in the process of replacing ICE vehicles, but we are closer to the solution than ever before. Electric Vehicle (EV) have been the go to solution for decades now but infrastructure barriers, lack of component supply and simply a lack of effort has been the issue. That changed when Elon Musk and Tesla redefined what EVs are. Prior to Tesla’s involvement in the market, Cars like the Nissan Leaf and Smart For Two defined EVs and what they were capable of, they could travel within a city, took several hours to charge and couldn’t outperform an equivalent gasoline car. In 2008, Tesla unveiled the Roadster, a sports car based on a Lotus Exige that could not only perform better than other EVs but could even compete dominantly with competing gasoline sports cars and super cars. It could travel about 400km on a full charge and didn’t take nearly as long to charge. Unfortunately they only made 2,450 units. This was an Eye opener for many consumers and many governments too. Soon Tax returns on the Purchase of EVs were offered by countries like USA, Canada, Parts of Europe and some Scandinavian countries and few others soon followed. Plug-in Hybrid cars became popular in the process; it came with benefits from both Electric efficiency and ICE car’s Practicality. It was far from perfect but a good measure to make transitions from regular cars to electric cars more seamless. In 2012, Tesla unveiled the Tesla Model S, a Luxury Electric Sedan with 2 Trunks, room for 5 (plus 2 children) and High performance. It eliminated every complain one could have about EVs. It wasn’t cheap though, it cost just as much as popular luxury sedans like the Mercedes S-class but it sold well because of the tax returns that were now offered, which would save up to $20,000, more over public Tesla fast charging stations were abundant and free of cost in California and other developed areas soon followed the trend. It also offered sate of the ark technology like Auto-Pilot and a huge touch screen to control most of its function. It eventually sold more than 250,000 units worldwide and not only was it profitable, it made a statement in the industry, that EVs are not only an alternative but a better replacement. They soon followed up with the Model X, an 8-seater SUV and Model 3, an affordable compact sedan and plenty more to come. Volkswagen Group, BMW, Nissan, Hyundai, Jaguar-Land Rover and many others have heavily invested in Electric cars and some of them plan to sell only Electric Cars in the future. There is even and an electric version of Formula 1 racing called Formula E. There are already electric versions of popular cars like KIA Soul, Hyundai Kona, Volkswagen Golf etc.
What ensures the stability of the market is that many countries are making Zero emission Vehicles Mandatory. Norway has been making it increasingly easier to buy and run an Electric Vehicle since 1990 will make it mandatory by 2025. Several other countries such as Canada, China, Japan, South Korea, UK and the majority of European countries have ambitious targets to ban ICE vehicles by 2040 while India has an even more ambitious but unrealistic target of 2030.
While US is often considered to be the pioneer of Electric Vehicles, only few of its states have any targets while some are even against the idea due to possible decline in local crude oil market. These countries are also heavily investing on public and household fast charging stations and workshops for EV maintenance.
China of all countries leads in EV manufacturing and sales and only behind Norway on EV infrastructure. China’s lack of experience in ICE vehicles often make it a tough sell, but they have been focusing of EVs from it’s early days. They have an insane amount of incentives for EVs and even more incentives to not buy ICE vehicles. For instance there can be a year long waiting list that too after a lottery draws to register a new ICE vehicle in Shenzhen. Ride sharing apps must use EVs exclusively and almost all the public transport in Shenzhen is Electric. Chinese EV brand NIO is the season one champion of Formula E and are now making Consumer Vehicles that are said to be the best in the business, one of their Cars Hold a Lap record at the Nurburgring. 2019 Shanghai Auto Show demonstrated the dominance of the Chinese domestic Vehicle Market. Almost every manufacture has a Factory in China and cannot keep up with domestic brands, and the EV market is a rapidly growing segment of it even in the absence of Tesla which will be opening their factory in China in the near future. China also dominates the world in Lithium ion Battery supply and many other components crucial to electric cars. BMW’s new official battery supplier is a Chinese brand called CATL. Infrastructure for EVs is growing in most places and fully developed in few major cities. The world can depend on China alone for EV supply worldwide.
With China’s industrial efforts, infrastructure upgrades throughout the world and a clear determination to fix the environment, EVs will thrive to be more of a permanent solution. The adoption of electric cars is inevitable.
