Assignment 1

Subject Code: 01EV1101

Comparison of EV cars from 1990 to 2005 (Anyone given in

Ans:
Electrical car evolution History In short

Page 1
EV from 1990s – 2005
The 1990 Clean Air Act Amendment and the 1992 Energy Policy Act, plus the regulations on
transportation emissions in California, the interest for electric vehicles in the United States rose.

The Air Resource Board in California required the car producers to introduce and sell a zero-
emission car in order to place themselves on the market of the state. (Curtis D. Anderson, 2010)
General motors revealed in this time its EV1 model, being first of its kind by the company. It
became the most sold electric vehicle on the American market and the first one from its 5 era,
produced by a major automaker. Its main contribution in terms of electric cars is that it for the first
time caused public excitement and enthusiasm for electric vehicles. It became a pioneer vehicle in
its segment and during its initial year in production in 1996, it already sold 1117 units.

General Motors, however, was not able to turn its electric car profitable for the company and they
made it disappear from the market in 2001. (Brown, 2016) Another cornerstone and a response
from the Japanese market was when Toyota introduced its Prius in 1997. It was the world’s first
mass produced hybrid electric vehicle and worldwide sales started in 2000. It became the
bestselling hybrid car of the first decade of the 21st century

Comparison in terms of Fuel Consuming,

In 1990, Sens. Richard Bryan (D-Nev.) and Slade Gorton (R-Wash.) sponsored legislation that would raise
fuel-economy standards for cars and light trucks 40 percent over a decade. It was passed by the commerce
committee but was filibustered on the Senate floor. Had it passed, the United States would now be saving
more than a million barrels of oil per day.6 n When the Clinton administration began the process for
raising light-truck fuel economy standards, Congress responded with an appropriations rider taking away
the administration’s authority to increase vehicle efficiency. This anti-fuel economy rider remained in
effect from 1995 to 2000. n The steady increase in light-truck sales, largely due to lower fuel-economy
standards for trucks and SUVs, actually drove down fleet-wide efficiency during the 1990s. The average
car and truck sold at the end of the decade went about a mile less per gallon of gas than 10 years earlier.

Battery electric vehicles, unlike conventional and electric hybrid vehicles, have no exhaust
emissions. The source of the electricity needed to charge electric batteries — nuclear power plants,
fossil fuels or renewables — plays a large role in determining the overall emissions of an electric
vehicle throughout its lifecycle. During their lifetime, battery electric vehicles are only as clean as
their source of electricity. Any future significant growth in the numbers of electric vehicles will
lead to a greater demand for electricity, and will require both adequate generation capacity as well
as the capability of electricity grids to handle the additional amounts of electricity generated.
In this case, emissions from the road transport sector are in effect displaced to the power generation
sector. The emissions that will occur from electricity generation depend on the overall fuel mix
used in that sector (within a country or region), and, if the fuel mix varies throughout the day, on
the time when vehicles are charged

How environmentally friendly are electric vehicles?

The environmental impacts of any product requires looking at its entire lifecycle: from the
extraction of raw materials, to the pollution generated during its manufacture, operation and
disposal, through to the impacts of the residual waste remaining after disposal or recycling. For an
electric vehicle, the source of the electricity used during its operation plays a large role in the
overall environmental impacts. Production of electric vehicles is typically more energy-intensive
than conventional vehicle manufacture. It needs approximately 70 % more primary energy to make
BEVs than conventional vehicles, mainly for the electric engine systems and batteries (EC, 2015a).
These higher energy requirements can lead to higher emissions of GHGs and associated air
pollutants, depending on the source of energy used. Their manufacture also requires a number of
different rare raw materials, especially for the magnets used in the electric motor and in the
batteries. Many of these metals are considered 'critical': they are necessary if electric vehicle
manufacture is to grow, but it is not certain that they will be available in sufficient quantities for
such future market demands. Furthermore, many of these rare raw materials are either not available
within Europe at all or not available in large quantities, so European vehicle manufactures have to
rely on obtaining them from other parts of the world. The lithium included in lithium-ion batteries
is not itself considered a critical metal. Global supplies are ample, although its price has already
risen in recent years as demand for battery manufacture has increased. However, batteries can also
include a number of other, relatively rare, elements including cobalt, lanthanum and nickel. In
particular, the production processes for cobalt and nickel present potential environmental and
health hazards. Cadmium, previously an important but toxic constituent of rechargeable
nickel-cadmium batteries, is not used in modern lithium-ion batteries. The high-powered magnets
included in electric motors often contain rare earth elements that are considered critical metals,
including neodymium, dysprosium, samarium and cobalt (EC, 2014). Future demand for such
critical materials will increase significantly as the electric vehicle market develops. One open
question is if the limited availability of these metals on the global markets may restrict the rate of
electric vehicle manufacture in future.

Technological uncertainty

Electric vehicle technology is more than 150 years old. In the early 20th century many
manufacturers made battery-powered cars; their lack of vibration, smell and noise were seen as
clear advantages over the early petrol- and later diesel-fueled vehicles. However, they cost more
than internal combustion engine vehicles and could not go as far. This led to a decline in their use,
especially after the discovery of large petroleum reserves in the early decades of the 20th century
made affordable fossil fuels widely available.

Limited information

Many potential users do not know or understand the capabilities of modern electric vehicles. This
can often be a bigger barrier than concern about the use of new technology (NRC, 2013 and 2015).
This is especially true of charging infrastructure. Potential users criticize the poor quality of the
information available about charging points, access and payment methods. As a result, non-users
expect more problems in the everyday use of electric vehicles than experienced users actually
encounter (Vogt and Bongard, 2015). In addition, car labelling provides information on fuel
consumption and CO2 emissions, with the aim of enabling consumers to make an informed
decision about purchasing a new car. However, most Consumers today consider electric vehicle
technology a relatively recent development. Consumers today consider electric vehicle technology
a relatively recent development. Therefore, they think that some aspects are uncertain, such as
vehicle range, charging availability and costs of ownership. They are particularly concerned about
battery life expectancy. However, for a normally used car that most of the time was slow charged,
it is considered extremely unlikely that the battery will fade below 80 % capacity before 250 000
km. The potential users believe instead that if the battery does not last as long as expected, either
the resale value will fall or the owner will have to buy an expensive new battery. In contrast,
conventional vehicles have been optimized over many decades, and users feel they are able to
assess the potential risks of ownership (van Essen et al., 2015; NRC, 2013 and 2015)
From 1990 -2020 Evolution
There are three main types of EVs: hybrid electric vehicles (HEVs), plug-in hybrid electric
vehicles (PHEVs) and battery electric vehicles (BEV or just EV). There are many different
potential HEV and PHEV configurations, but in general, a (P)HEV has an electric drivetrain like
an EV, plus a fuel-burning engine of some type that can recharge the batteries periodically. The
advantage of an HEV is that the fuel-burning engine, in general, is most efficient in only a small
range of operating conditions (speed and load). Also, at this most efficient operating point, the
fuel-burning engine usually produces its lowest levels of emissions. Unfortunately, while driving,
the engine in the car has to run under a wide range of speeds and loads, and thus it is far less
efficient and produces much greater emissions than it would if it could run at its most efficient
point all the time.
Electric drivetrains are also most efficient at only one point, but the reduction in efficiency for
other speeds and loads is far less. Therefore, an HEV can run the fuel-burning engine at its most
efficient point for battery charging and can use the electric drivetrain to take up all the slack under
other conditions. In this way, emissions are much less than for the fuel-burning engine driving the
car by itself, and fuel economy can be significantly improved. Hybrid technologies extend the
usable range of EVs beyond what an all-electric vehicle can achieve with batteries only. Being a
hybrid or plug-in hybrid would allow the vehicle to operate on only batteries within an
urban/polluted area, and then switch to its combustion engine outside the urban area.

Fast, reliable and safe charging possibilities are required in order to help the roll-out of electric
mobility. This problem can be considered as a ‘chicken and egg’ problem. Drivers will not consider
the electric mobility reliable and comfortable unless there are charging facilities in predictable
ranges. In contrast, the investors of the charging infrastructure would expect quick and regular
income after the installation, but it probably will be a mid-term process. It should be noted that
this trend can be considered similar to the relationship between the roll-out of the gasoline cars
and the petrol stations almost a century ago.
Combustion engines and electric motor
The first fundamental property on which electric cars differ from internal combustion engine cars is the
motor. This is basically the modern gasoline engine and it was invented 150 years ago. 1. On the first
stroke, gasoline is injected into a chamber by opening a valve that is then closed again. 2. On the second
stroke, the cylinder moves upwards and the gasoline is compressed. 3. On the third stroke the energy in
the fuel is harvested by igniting it. The resulting explosion drives the cylinder down and that produces a
rotating motion. This is comparable to a bicycle, where pushing down the pedal moves the bicycle
forwards.
On the fourth and final stroke, the energy burned is emitted.
Energy storage: Gasoline vs Batteries
The main reason why the electric car didn’t make it before was because of the size and weight of
the battery that was needed. Back then fuel proved to be a far more efficient way of energy
storage. But as you can see in the table below, battery technologies have developed to the point
where size and weight are much less of an issue.

If we simplify this table, you can easily compare how much weight you need to
bring in your car to get 500 km extra range with each type of battery.
Looking at these developments, the electric car will soon be lighter than the ICE car, if you take
the weight of the drivetrain and the energy storage together into account. Further, as you can see
from this graph from the research (“Rapidly falling costs of battery packs for electric vehicles”
by Björn Nykvist and Mans Nilsson, Nature Climate Change, March 2015), battery prices are
also swiftly plummeting, meaning that the electric car will soon also be cheaper.