Sales are activities related to selling or the number of goods sold in a given targeted time period.

The
delivery of a service for a cost is also considered a sale. A period during which goods are sold for a
reduced price may also be referred to as a "sale".

A Hollister Co. store in Leeds, England; the clothing retailing is a prominent sales market

A vegetable seller in a rural Sri Lankan village

The seller, or the provider of the goods or services, completes a sale in an interaction with a buyer,
which may occur at the point of sale or in response to a purchase order from a customer. There is a
passing of title (property or ownership) of the item, and the settlement of a price, in which agreement
is reached on a price for which transfer of ownership of the item will occur. The seller, not
the purchaser, typically executes the sale and it may be completed prior to the obligation of payment.
In the case of indirect interaction, a person who sells goods or service on behalf of the owner is
known as a salesman or saleswoman or salesperson, but this often refers to someone selling goods in a
store/shop, in which case other terms are also common, including salesclerk, shop assistant, and retail
clerk.
In common law countries, sales are governed generally by the common law and commercial codes. In
the United States, the laws governing sales of goods are mostly uniform to the extent that most
jurisdictions have adopted Article 2 of the Uniform Commercial Code, albeit with some non-uniform
variations.
A person or organization expressing an interest in acquiring the offered item of value is referred to as
a potential buyer, prospective customer, or prospect. Buying and selling are understood to be two
sides of the same "coin" or transaction. Both seller and buyer engage in a process of negotiation to
consummate the exchange of values. The exchange, or selling, process has implied rules and
identifiable stages. It is implied that the selling process will proceed fairly and ethically so that the
parties end up nearly equally rewarded. The stages of selling, and buying, involve getting acquainted,
assessing each party's need for the other's item of value, and determining if the values to be
exchanged are equivalent or nearly so, or, in buyer's terms, "worth the price". Sometimes, sellers have
to use their own experiences when selling products with appropriate discounts.
Although the skills required are different, from a management viewpoint, sales is a part
of marketing. Sales often form a separate grouping in a corporate structure, employing separate
specialist operatives known as salespersons (singular: salesperson). Selling is considered by many to
be a sort of persuading "art". Contrary to popular belief, the methodological approach of selling refers
to a systematic process of repetitive and measurable milestones, by which a salesman relates his or
her offering of a product or service in return enabling the buyer to achieve their goal in an economic
way.
While the sales process refers to a systematic process of repetitive and measurable milestones, the
definition of the selling is somewhat ambiguous due to the close nature
of advertising, promotion, public relations, and direct marketing.
Selling is the profession-wide term, much like marketing defines a profession. Recently, attempts
have been made to clearly understand who is in the sales profession, and who is not. There are many
articles looking at marketing, advertising, promotions, and even public relations as ways to create a
unique transaction.
Many believe that the focus of selling is on the human agents involved in the exchange between buyer
and seller. Effective selling also requires a systems approach, at minimum involving roles that sell,
enable selling, and develop sales capabilities. Selling also involves salespeople who possess a specific
set of sales skills and the knowledge required to facilitate the exchange of value between buyers and
sellers that is unique from marketing and advertising.
Within these three tenets, the following definition of professional selling is offered by the American
Society for Training and Development (ASTD):
The holistic business system required to effectively develop, manage, enable, and execute a mutually
beneficial, interpersonal exchange of goods or services for equitable value.
Team selling is one way to influence sales. Team selling is "a group of people representing the sales
department and other functional areas in the firm, such as finance, production, and research and
development". (Spiro) Team selling came about in the 1990s through total quality
management (TQM). TQM occurs when companies work to improve their customer satisfaction by
constantly improving all their operations.
Relationships with marketing
Marketing and sales differ greatly, but they generally have the same goal. Selling is the final stage in
marketing which puts the plan into effect. A marketing plan includes pricing, promotion, place, and
product (the 4 P's). A marketing department in an organization has the goals of increasing the
desirability and value of the products and services to the customer and increasing the number and
engagement of successful interactions between potential customers and the organization. Achieving
this goal may involve the sales team using promotional techniques such as advertising, sales
promotion, publicity, and public relations, creating new sales channels, or creating new products. It
can also include encouraging the potential customer to visit the organization's website, contact the
organization for more information, or interact with the organization via social media channels such
as Twitter, Facebook and blogs. Social values play a major role in consumer decision processes.
Marketing is the whole of the work on persuasion made for the whole of the target people. Sales is the
process of persuasion and effort from one person to one person (B2C), or one person to a corporation
(B2B), in order to make a living resource enter the company. This may occur in person, over the
phone or digitally.
The field of sales process engineering views "sales" as the output of a larger system, not just as the
output of one department. The larger system includes many functional areas within an organization.
From this perspective, the labels "sales" and "marketing" cover several processes whose inputs and
outputs supply one another. In this context, improving an "output" (such as sales) involves studying
and improving the broader sales process, since the component functional areas interact and are
interdependent.
Many large corporations structure their marketing departments, so they are integrated with all areas of
the business. They create multiple teams with a singular focus, and the managers of these teams must
coordinate efforts to drive profits and business success. For example, an "inbound" campaign seeks to
drive more customers "through the door", giving the sales department a better chance of selling their
product to the consumer. A good marketing program would address any potential downsides as well.
The sales department would aim to improve the interaction between the customer and the sales
channel or salesperson. As sales is the forefront of any organization, this would always need to take
place before any other business process may begin. Sales management involves breaking down the
selling process and increasing the effectiveness of the discrete processes, as well as improving the
interactions between processes. For example, in an outbound sales environment, the typical process
includes outbound calling, the sales pitch, handling objections, opportunity identification, and the
close. Each step of the process has sales-related issues, skills, and training needs, as well as marketing
solutions to improve each discrete step.
One further common complication of marketing is the difficulty in measuring results for some
marketing initiatives. Some marketing and advertising executives focus on creativity and innovation
without concern for the top or bottom lines – a fundamental pitfall of marketing for marketing's sake.
Many companies find it challenging to get their marketing and sales teams to agree. The two
departments, although different in nature, handle very similar concepts and have to work together to
achieve the business's goals. Building a good relationship between the two teams that encourages
communication can be the key to success.
Industrial marketing
The idea that marketing can potentially eliminate the need for salespeople depends entirely on
context. For example, this may be possible in some B2C situations; however, many B2B transactions
(for example, those involving industrial organizations) this is mostly impossible. Another dimension
is the value of the goods being sold. Fast-moving consumer-goods (FMCG) require no salespeople at
the point of sale to get them to jump off the supermarket shelf and into the customer's trolley.
However, the purchase of large mining equipment worth millions of dollars will require a salesperson
to manage the sales process – particularly in the face of competitors. Small and medium businesses
selling such large ticket items to a geographically dispersed client base use manufacturers'
representatives to provide this highly personal service while avoiding the large expense of a captive
sales force.
Sales and marketing alignment and integration
Another area of discussion involves the need for alignment and integration of corporate sales and
marketing functions. According to a report from the Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) Council, only 40
percent of companies have formal programs, systems or processes in place to align and integrate the
two critical functions.
Sales, Digital Marketing and Automated Marketing campaigns. With the increase of the use of the
internet today, sales functions of several enterprises are finding traditional methods of marketing quite
old fashioned and less efficient. So the use of automated Marketing Applications is on the rise ranging
from Customer Relationship Management (CRM) to sales force management.
Traditionally, these two functions, as referred above, have operated separately, left in siloed areas of
tactical responsibility. Glen Petersen's book The Profit Maximization Paradox sees the changes in
the competitive landscape between the 1950s and the time of writing as so dramatic that the
complexity of choice, price, and opportunities for the customer forced this seemingly simple and
integrated relationship between sales and marketing to change forever. Petersen goes on to highlight
that salespeople spend approximately 40 percent of their time preparing customer-facing deliverables
while leveraging less than 50 percent of the materials created by marketing, adding to perceptions that
marketing is out of touch with the customer and that sales is resistant to messaging and strategy.
An electric vehicle (EV) is a vehicle whose propulsion is powered fully or mostly by electricity. EVs
encompass a wide range of transportation modes, including road and rail vehicles, electric
boats and underwater vessels, electric aircraft and electric spacecraft.
 Electric vehicles around the world (left to right, from top):

 Electric car, a BMW i3 charging from a standard electrical outlet.

 Electric aircraft, the Solar Impulse 2, which circumnavigated the globe
Early electric vehicles first came into existence in the late 19th century, when the Second Industrial
Revolution brought forth electrification and mass utilization of DC and AC electric motors. Using
electricity was among the preferred methods for motor vehicle propulsion as it provides a level of
quietness, comfort and ease of operation that could not be achieved by the gasoline engine cars of the
time, but range anxiety due to the limited energy storage offered by contemporary battery
technologies hindered any mass adoption of private electric vehicles throughout the 20th
century. Internal combustion engines (both gasoline and diesel engines) were the dominant propulsion
mechanisms for cars and trucks for about 100 years, but electricity-powered locomotion remained
commonplace in other vehicle types, such as overhead line-powered mass transit vehicles like electric
trains, trams, monorails and trolley buses, as well as various small, low-speed, short-range battery-
powered personal vehicles such as mobility scooters.
Hybrid electric vehicles, where electric motors are used as a supplementary propulsion to internal
combustion engines, became more widespread in the late 1990s. Plug-in hybrid electric vehicles,
where electric motors can be used as the predominant propulsion rather than a supplement, did not see
any mass production until the late 2000s, and battery electric cars did not become practical options for
the consumer market until the 2010s.
Progress in batteries, electric motors and power electronics have made electric cars more feasible than
during the 20th century. As a means of reducing tailpipe emissions of carbon dioxide and other
pollutants, and to reduce use of fossil fuels, government incentives are available in many areas to
promote the adoption of electric cars and trucks. Electric motive power started in 1827 when
Hungarian priest Ányos Jedlik built the first crude but viable electric motor; the next year he used it to
power a small model car. In 1835, Professor Sibrandus Stratingh of the University of Groningen, in
the Netherlands, built a small-scale electric car, and sometime between 1832 and 1839, Robert
Anderson of Scotland invented the first crude electric carriage, powered by non-rechargeable primary
cells. American blacksmith and inventor Thomas Davenport built a toy electric locomotive, powered
by a primitive electric motor, in 1835. In 1838, a Scotsman named Robert Davidson built an electric
locomotive that attained a speed of four miles per hour (6 km/h). In England, a patent was granted in
1840 for the use of rails as conductors of electric current, and similar American patents were issued to
Lilley and Colten in 1847.
Thomas Edison and George Meister in a Studebaker electric runabout, 1909
The first mass-produced electric vehicles appeared in America in the early 1900s. In 1902,
the Studebaker Automobile Company entered the automotive business with electric vehicles, though
it also entered the gasoline vehicles market in 1904. However, with the advent of cheap assembly line
cars by Ford Motor Company, the popularity of electric cars declined significantly. Due to lack of
electricity grids and the limitations of storage batteries at that time, electric cars did not gain much
popularity; however, electric trains gained immense popularity due to their economies and achievable
speeds. By the 20th century, electric rail transport became commonplace due to advances in the
development of electric locomotives. Over time their general-purpose commercial use reduced to
specialist roles as platform trucks, forklift trucks, ambulances, tow tractors, and urban delivery
vehicles, such as the iconic British milk float. For most of the 20th century, the UK was the world's
largest user of electric road vehicles.
Electrified trains were used for coal transport, as the motors did not use the valuable oxygen in the
mines. Switzerland's lack of natural fossil resources forced the rapid electrification of their rail
network. One of the earliest rechargeable batteries – the nickel-iron battery – was favored
by Edison for use in electric cars.
EVs were among the earliest automobiles, and before the preeminence of light, powerful internal
combustion engines (ICEs), electric automobiles held many vehicle land speed and distance records in
the early 1900s. They were produced by Baker Electric, Columbia Electric, Detroit Electric, and
others, and at one point in history outsold gasoline-powered vehicles. In 1900, 28 percent of the cars
on the road in the US were electric. EVs were so popular that even President Woodrow Wilson and
his secret service agents toured Washington, D.C., in their Milburn Electrics, which covered 60–70
miles (100–110 km) per charge. A charging station in Seattle shows an AMC Gremlin, modified to
take electric power; it had a range of about 50 miles (80 km) on one charge, 1973
Most producers of passenger cars opted for gasoline cars in the first decade of the 20th century, but
electric trucks were an established niche well into the 1920s. Several developments contributed to a
decline in the popularity of electric cars.[13] Improved road infrastructure required a greater range
than that offered by electric cars, and the discovery of large reserves of petroleum in Texas,
Oklahoma, and California led to the wide availability of affordable gasoline/petrol, making internal
combustion powered cars cheaper to operate over long distances.[14] Electric vehicles were seldom
marketed as women's luxury car, which may have been a stigma among male consumers. Also,
internal combustion-powered cars became ever-easier to operate thanks to the invention of the electric
starter by Charles Kettering in 1912, which eliminated the need of a hand crank for starting a gasoline
engine, and the noise emitted by ICE cars became more bearable thanks to the use of the muffler,
which Hiram Percy Maxim had invented in 1897. As roads were improved outside urban areas, the
electric vehicle range could not compete with the ICE. Finally, the initiation of mass production of
gasoline-powered vehicles by Henry Ford in 1913 reduced significantly the cost of gasoline cars as
compared to electric cars.
In the 1930s, National City Lines, which was a partnership of General Motors, Firestone,
and Standard Oil of California purchased many electric tram networks across the country to dismantle
them and replace them with GM buses. The partnership was convicted of conspiring to monopolize
the sale of equipment and supplies to their subsidiary companies. Still, it was acquitted of conspiring
to monopolize the provision of transportation services.
The Copenhagen Summit, conducted amid a severe observable climate change brought on by human-
made greenhouse gas emissions, was held in 2009. During the summit, more than 70 countries
developed plans to reach net zero eventually. For many countries, adopting more EVs will help
reduce the use of gasoline
Experimentation

General Motors EV1 electric car (1996–1998), a subject of the film Who Killed the Electric Car?
In January 1990, General Motors President introduced its EV concept two-seater, the "Impact", at the
Los Angeles Auto Show. That September, the California Air Resources Board mandated major-
automaker sales of EVs, in phases starting in 1998. From 1996 to 1998 GM produced 1117 EV1s, 800
of which were made available through three-year leases.
 Chrysler, Ford, GM, Honda, and Toyota also produced limited numbers of EVs for California
drivers during this period. In 2003, upon the expiration of GM's EV1 leases, GM discontinued
them. The discontinuation has variously been attributed tthe auto industry's successful federal
court challenge to California's zero-emissions vehicle mandata federal regulation requiring GM
to produce and maintain spare parts for the few thousand EV1s and
 the success of the oil and auto industries' media campaign to reduce public acceptance of EVs.
A movie made on the subject in 2005–2006 was titled Who Killed the Electric Car? and released
theatrically by Sony Pictures Classics in 2006. The film explores the roles of automobile
manufacturers, oil industry, the U.S. government, batteries, hydrogen vehicles, and the general public,
and each of their roles in limiting the deployment and adoption of this technology.
Ford released a number of their Ford Ecostar delivery vans into the market. Honda, Nissan and
Toyota also repossessed and crushed most of their EVs, which, like the GM EV1s, had been available
only by closed-end lease. After public protests, Toyota sold 200 of its RAV4 EVs; they later sold at
over their original forty-thousand-dollar price. Later, BMW of Canada sold off a number of Mini EVs
when their Canadian testing ended.
The production of the Citroën Berlingo Electrique stopped in September 2005. Zenn started
production in 2006 but ended by 2009.
Reintroduction

The global stock of both plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs) and battery electric vehicles
(BEVs) has grown steadily since the 2010s.

Sales of passenger electric vehicles (EVs) indicate a trend away from gas-powered vehicles.
During the late 20th and early 21st century, the environmental impact of the petroleum-based
transportation infrastructure, along with the fear of peak oil, led to renewed interest in electric
transportation infrastructure. EVs differ from fossil fuel-powered vehicles in that the electricity they
consume can be generated from a wide range of sources, including fossil fuels, nuclear power, and
renewables such as solar power and wind power, or any combination of those. Recent advancements
in battery technology and charging infrastructure have addressed many of the earlier barriers to EV
adoption, making electric vehicles a more viable option for a wider range of consumers.
The carbon footprint and other emissions of electric vehicles vary depending on the fuel and
technology used for electricity generation. The electricity may be stored in the vehicle using a battery,
flywheel, or super capacitors. Vehicles using internal combustion engines usually only derive their
energy from a single or a few sources, usually non-renewable fossil fuels. A key advantage of electric
vehicles is regenerative braking, which recovers kinetic energy, typically lost during friction
braking as heat, as electricity restored to the on-board battery
Ground vehicles
Pure-electric vehicles
A pure-electric vehicle or all-electric vehicle is powered exclusively through electric motors. The
electricity may come from a battery (battery electric vehicle), solar panel (solar vehicle) or fuel cell
(fuel cell vehicle).
Hybrid EVs
A hybrid electric vehicle (HEV) is a type of hybrid vehicle that couples a conventional internal
combustion engine (ICE) with one or more electric engines into a combined propulsion system. The
presence of the electric powertrain, which has inherently better energy conversion efficiency, is
intended to achieve either better fuel economy or better acceleration performance than a conventional
vehicle. There is a variety of HEV types and the degree to which each functions as an electric vehicle
(EV) also varies. The most common form of HEV is hybrid electric passenger cars, although hybrid
electric trucks (pickups, tow trucks[44] and tractors), buses, motorboats, and aircraft also exist.
Modern HEVs use energy recovery technologies such as motor–generator and regenerative braking to
recycle the vehicle's kinetic energy to electric energy via an alternator, which is stored in a battery
pack or a super capacitor. Some varieties of HEV use an internal combustion engine to directly drive
an electrical generator, which either recharges the vehicle's batteries or directly powers the
electric traction motors; this combination is known as a range extender.[46] Many HEVs reduce idle
emissions by temporarily shutting down the combustion engine at idle (such as when waiting at
the traffic light) and restarting it when needed; this is known as a start-stop system. A hybrid-electric
system produces less tailpipe emissions than a comparably sized gasoline engine vehicle since the
hybrid's gasoline engine usually has smaller displacement and thus lower fuel consumption than that
of a conventional gasoline-powered vehicle. If the engine is not used to drive the car directly, it can be
geared to run at maximum efficiency, further improving fuel economy.
There are different ways that a hybrid electric vehicle can combine the power from an electric motor
and the internal combustion engine. The most common type is a parallel hybrid that connects the
engine and the electric motor to the wheels through mechanical coupling. In this scenario, the electric
motor and the engine can drive the wheels directly. Series hybrids only use the electric motor to drive
the wheels and can often be referred to as extended-range electric vehicles (EREVs) or range-
extended electric vehicles (REEVs). There are also series-parallel hybrids where the vehicle can be
powered by the engine working alone, the electric motor on its own, or by both working together; this
is designed so that the engine can run at its optimum range as often as possible.
Plug-in electric vehicle

Togg C-SUV produced by Togg, a Turkish automotivecompany established in 2018 for producing
EVs.
A plug-in electric vehicle (PEV) is any motor vehicle that can be recharged from any external source
of electricity, such as wall sockets, and the electricity stored in the Rechargeable battery packs drives
or contributes to drive the wheels. PEV is a subcategory of electric vehicles that includes battery
electric vehicles (BEVs), plug-in hybrid vehicles, (PHEVs), and electric vehicle conversions of hybrid
electric vehicles and conventional internal combustion engine vehicles.
Range-extended electric vehicle
A range-extended electric vehicle (REEV) is a vehicle powered by an electric motor and a plug-in
battery. An auxiliary combustion engine is used only to supplement battery charging and not as the
primary source of power.
On- and off-road EVs
On-road electric vehicles include electric cars, electric trolleybuses, electric buses, battery electric
buses, electric trucks, electric bicycles, electric motorcycles and scooters, personal
transporters, neighborhood electric vehicles, golf carts, milk floats, and forklifts. Off-road
vehicles include electrified all-terrain vehicles and electric tractors.
Railborne EVs

A tram (or streetcar) in Hanover drawing current from a single overhead wire through a pantograph
The fixed nature of a rail line makes it relatively easy to power EVs through permanent overhead
lines or electrified third rails, eliminating the need for heavy onboard batteries. Electric
locomotives, electric multiple units, electric trams (also called streetcars or trolleys), electric light rail
systems, and electric rapid transit are all in common use today, especially in Europe and Asia.
Since electric trains do not need to carry a heavy internal combustion engine or large batteries, they
can have very good power-to-weight ratios. This allows high speed trains such as France's double-
deck TGVs to operate at speeds of 320 km/h (200 mph) or higher, and electric locomotives to have a
much higher power output than diesel locomotives. In addition, they have higher short-term surge
power for fast acceleration, and using regenerative brakes can put braking power back into
the electrical grid rather than wasting it.Maglev trains are also nearly always EVs. There are
also battery electric passenger trains operating on non-electrified rail lines.
 Seaborne EVs

Ocean volt SD8.6 electric sail drive motor

Electric boats were popular around the turn of the 20th century. Interest in quiet and potentially
renewable marine transportation has steadily increased since the late 20th century, as solar cells have
given motorboats the infinite range of sailboats. Electric motors can and have also been used in
sailboats instead of traditional diesel engines. Electric ferries operate routinely. Submarines use
batteries (charged by diesel or gasoline engines at the surface), nuclear power, fuel cells or Stirling
engines to run electric motor-driven propellers. Fully electric tugboats are being used in Auckland,
New Zealand (June 2022), Vancouver, British Columbia (October 2023), and San Diego, California.
Airborne EVs

Mars helicopter Ingenuity

Since the beginnings of aviation, electric power for aircraft has received a great deal of
experimentation. Currently, flying electric aircraft include piloted and unpiloted aerial vehicles.
Electrically powered spacecraft
Electric power has a long history of use in spacecraft. The power sources used for spacecraft are
batteries, solar panels and nuclear power. Current methods of propelling a spacecraft with electricity
include the arcjet rocket, the electrostatic ion thruster, the Hall-effect thruster, and Field Emission
Electric Propulsion.
Space rover vehicles
Crewed and uncrewed vehicles have been used to explore the Moon and other planets in the Solar
System. On the last three missions of the Apollo program in 1971 and 1972, astronauts drove silver-
oxide battery-powered Lunar Roving Vehicles distances up to 35.7 kilometers (22.2 mi) on the lunar
surface.[65] Uncrewed, solar-powered rovers have explored the Moon and Mars.
Components
The type of battery, the type of traction motor and the motor controller design vary according to the
size, power and proposed application, which can be as small as a motorized shopping
cart or wheelchair, through pedelecs, electric motorcycles and scooters, neighborhood electric
vehicles, industrial fork-lift trucks and including many hybrid vehicles.
Energy sources
EVs are much more efficient than fossil fuel vehicles and have few direct emissions. At the same
time, they do rely on electrical energy that is generally provided by a combination of non-fossil fuel
plants and fossil fuel plants. Consequently, EVs can be made less polluting overall by modifying the
source of electricity. In some areas, persons can ask utilities to provide their electricity from
renewable energy.
Fossil fuel vehicle efficiency and pollution standards take years to filter through a nation's fleet of
vehicles. New efficiency and pollution standards rely on the purchase of new vehicles, often as the
current vehicles already on the road reach their end-of-life. Only a few nations set a retirement age for
old vehicles, such as Japan or Singapore, forcing periodic upgrading of all vehicles already on the
road.

Batteries

An electric-vehicle battery (EVB) in addition to the traction battery specialty systems used for
industrial (or recreational) vehicles, are batteries used to power the propulsion system of a battery
electric vehicle (BEVs). These batteries are usually a secondary (rechargeable) battery, and are
typically lithium-ion batteries.
Traction batteries, specifically designed with a high ampere-hour capacity, are used in forklifts,
electric golf carts, riding floor scrubbers, electric motorcycles, electric cars, trucks, vans, and other
electric vehicles.
Charging stations

Charging stations for electric vehicles:

 Top-left: a Tesla Roadster (2008) being charged at an electric charging station in Iwata city,
Japan.
 Top-right: Brammo Empulse electric motorcycle at an AeroVironment charging station and Pay
as you go electric vehicle charging point.
 Bottom-left: Nissan Leaf recharging from a NRG Energy eVgo station in Houston, Texas.
 Bottom-right: converted Toyota Priuses recharging at public charging stations in San Francisco,
California (2009).
A charging station, also known as a charge point, chargepoint, or electric vehicle supply equipment
(EVSE), is a power supply device that supplies electrical power for recharging plug-in electric
vehicles (including battery electric vehicles, electric trucks, electric buses, neighborhood electric
vehicles, and plug-in hybrid vehicles).
There are two main types of EV chargers: Alternating current (AC) charging stations and direct
current (DC) charging stations. Electric vehicle batteries can only be charged by direct current
electricity, while most mains electricity is delivered from the power grid as alternating current. For
this reason, most electric vehicles have a built-in AC-to-DC converter commonly known as the
"onboard charger" (OBC). At an AC charging station, AC power from the grid is supplied to this
onboard charger, which converts it into DC power to recharge the battery. DC chargers provide higher
power charging (which requires much larger AC-to-DC converters) by building the converter into the
charging station instead of the vehicle to avoid size and weight restrictions. The station then directly
supplies DC power to the vehicle, bypassing the onboard converter. Most modern electric car models
can accept both AC and DC power.
Charging stations provide connectors that conform to a variety of international standards. DC
charging stations are commonly equipped with multiple connectors to charge various vehicles that use
competing standards.
Battery swapping
Instead of recharging EVs from electric sockets, batteries could be mechanically replaced at special
stations in a few minutes (battery swapping).
Batteries with greater energy density such as metal-air fuel cells cannot always be recharged in a
purely electric way, so some form of mechanical recharge may be used instead. A zinc–air battery,
technically a fuel cell, is difficult to recharge electrically so may be "refueled" by periodically
replacing the anode or electrolyte instead.
Electric roads

Three types of electric road systems. An electric bus (black) receives power from the road:
(A) with three inductive pickups (red) from a strip of resonant inductive coils (blue) embedded
several centimeters under the road (gray); (B) with a current collector (red) sliding over a ground-
level power supply rail segment (blue) flush with the surface of the road (gray); (C) with an overhead
current collector (red) sliding against a powered overhead line (blue)
An electric road system (ERS) is a road which supplies electric power to vehicles travelling on it.
Common implementations are overhead power lines above the road, ground-level power
supply through conductive rails, and dynamic wireless power transfer (DWPT) through resonant
inductive coils or inductive rails embedded in the road. Overhead power lines are limited to
commercial vehicles while ground-level rails and inductive power transfer can be used by any
vehicle, which allows for public charging through a power metering and billing systems. Of the three
methods, ground-level conductive rails are estimated to be the most cost-effective.
National electric road projects
Government studies and trials have been conducted in several countries seeking a national electric
road network.
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date information. You can help by adding to it

Korea was the first to implement an induction-based public electric road with a commercial bus line
in 2013 after testing an experimental shuttle service in 2009, but it was shut down due to aging
infrastructure amidst controversy over the continued public funding of the technology.
United Kingdom municipal projects in 2015 and 2021 found wireless electric roads financially
unfeasible.
Sweden has been performing assessments of various electric road technologies since 2013 under
the Swedish Transport Administration electric road program. After receiving electric road
construction offers in excess of the project's budget in 2023, Sweden pursued cost-reduction measures
for either wireless or rail electric roads. The project's final report was published in 2024, which
recommended against funding a national electric road network in Sweden as it would not be cost-
effective, unless the technology was adopted by its trading partners such as by France and Germany.
Germany found in 2023 that the wireless electric road system (WERS) by Electreon collects 64.3% of
the transmitted energy, poses many difficulties during installation, and blocks access to other
infrastructure in the road. Germany trialed overhead lines in three projects and reported they are too
expensive, difficult to maintain, and pose a safety risk.
France found similar drawbacks for overhead lines as Germany did. France began several electric
road pilot projects in 2023 for inductive and rail systems. Ground-level power supply systems are
considered the most likely candidates.
Other in-development technologies
Conventional electric double-layer capacitors are being worked on to achieve the energy density of
lithium-ion batteries, offering almost unlimited lifespans and no environmental issues. High-K
electric double-layer capacitors, such as EEStor's EESU, could improve lithium ion energy density
several times over if they can be produced. Lithium-sulphur batteries offer 250 Wh/kg. Sodium-ion
batteries promise 400 Wh/kg with only minimal expansion/contraction during charge/discharge and a
very high surface area, and rely on lower cost materials than Lithium-ion, Leading to Cheaper
batteries that do not require critical minerals.
Safety

The United Nations in Geneva (UNECE) has adopted the first international regulation
(Regulation 100) on safety of both fully electric and hybrid electric cars, with the intent of
ensuring that cars with a high voltage electric power train, such as hybrid and fully-electric
vehicles, are as safe as combustion-powered cars. The EU and Japan have already indicated
that they intend to incorporate the new UNECE Regulation in their respective rules on
technical standards for vehicles.
Environmental

Learning curve of lithium-ion batteries: the price of batteries declined by 97% in three decades.
EVs release no tailpipe air pollutants, and reduce respiratory illnesses such as asthma. However, EVs
are charged with electricity that may be generated by means that have health and environmental
impacts. The carbon emissions from producing and operating an EV are in the majority of cases less
than those of producing and operating a conventional vehicle. EVs in urban areas almost always
pollute less than internal combustion vehicles.
One limitation of the environmental potential of EVs is that simply switching the existing privately
owned car fleet from ICEs to EVs will not free up road space for active travel or public
transport. Electric micromobility vehicles, such as e-bikes, may contribute to the decarbonisation of
transport systems, especially outside of urban areas which are already well-served by public transport.
Internal combustion engined vehicles use far more raw materials over their lifetime than EVs.
Lithium-ion batteries
Since their first commercial release in 1991, lithium-ion batteries have become an important
technology for achieving low-carbon transportation systems. Information regarding the sustainability
of production process of batteries has become a politically charged topic.
Business processes of raw material extraction in practice raise issues of transparency and
accountability of the management of extractive resources. In the complex supply chain of lithium
technology, there are diverse stakeholders representing corporate interests, public interest groups and
political elites that are concerned with outcomes from the technology production and use. One
possibility to achieve balanced extractive processes would be the establishment of commonly agreed
standards on the governance of technology worldwide.
The compliance of these standards can be assessed by the Assessment of Sustainability in Supply
Chains Frameworks (ASSC). Hereby, the qualitative assessment consists of examining governance
and social and environmental commitment. Indicators for the quantitative assessment are management
systems and standards, compliance and social and environmental indicators.
One source estimates that over a fifth of the lithium and about 65% of the cobalt needed for electric
cars will be from recycled sources by 2035. On the other hand, when counting the large quantities of
fossil fuel non-electric cars consume over their lifetime, electric cars can be considered to
dramatically reduce raw-material needs.

Geographical distribution of the global battery supply chain In 2022, the manufacturing of an EV
emitted on average around 50% more CO2 than an equivalent internal combustion engine vehicle, but
this difference is more than offset by the much higher emissions from the oil used in driving an
internal combustion engine Vehicle over its lifetime compared to those from generating the electricity
used for driving the EV.
In 2023, Greenpeace issued a video criticizing the view that EVs are "silver bullet for climate",
arguing that the construction phase has a high environmental impact. For example, the rise
in SUV sales by Hyundai almost eliminate the climate benefits of passing to EV in this company,
because even electric SUVs have a high carbon footprint as they consume much raw materials and
energy during construction. Greenpeace proposes a mobility as a service concept instead, based on
biking, public transport and ride sharing.
Open-pit nickel mining has led to environmental degradation and pollution in developing countries
such as the Philippines and Indonesia. In 2024, nickel mining and processing was one of the main
causes of deforestation in Indonesia. Open-pit cobalt mining has led to deforestation and habitat
destruction in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
Socio-economic
A 2003 study in the United Kingdom found that "[p]ollution is most concentrated in areas where
young children and their parents are more likely to live and least concentrated in areas to which the
elderly tend to migrate," and that "those communities that are most polluted and which also emit the
least pollution tend to be amongst the poorest in Britain." A 2019 UK study found that "households in
the poorest areas emit the least NOx and PM, whilst the least poor areas emitted the highest, per km,
vehicle emissions per household through having higher vehicle ownership, owning more diesel
vehicles and driving further."
Mechanical

Tesla Model S chassis with drive motor

Cutaway view of a Tesla Model S drive motor

Electric motors are mechanically very simple and often achieve 90% energy conversion
efficiency over the full range of speeds and power output and can be precisely controlled. They can
also be combined with regenerative braking systems that have the ability to convert movement energy
back into stored electricity. This can be used to reduce the wear on brake systems (and consequent
brake pad dust) and reduce the total energy requirement of a trip. Regenerative braking is especially
effective for start-and-stop city use.
They can be finely controlled and provide high torque from stationary-to-moving, unlike internal
combustion engines, and do not need multiple gears to match power curves. This removes the need
for gearboxes and torque converters.
EVs provide quiet and smooth operation and consequently have less noise and vibration than internal
combustion engines. While this is a desirable attribute, it has also evoked concern that the absence of
the usual sounds of an approaching vehicle poses a danger to blind, elderly and very young
pedestrians. To mitigate this situation, many countries mandate warning sounds when EVs are
moving slowly, up to a speed when normal motion and rotation (road, suspension, electric motor, etc.)
noises become audible. Electric motors do not require oxygen, unlike internal combustion engines;
this is useful for submarines and for space rovers.
Energy resilience
Electricity can be produced from a variety of sources; therefore, it gives the greatest degree of energy
resilience.
Energy efficiency
EV 'tank-to-wheels' efficiency is about a factor of three higher than internal combustion engine
vehicles. Energy is not consumed while the vehicle is stationary, unlike internal combustion engines
which consume fuel while idling. In 2022, EVs enabled a net reduction of about 80 Mt of GHG
emissions, on a well to-wheels basis, and the net GHG benefit of EVs will increase over time as the
electricity sector is decarbonised.
Well-to-wheel efficiency of an EV has less to do with the vehicle itself and more to do with the
method of electricity production. A particular EV would instantly become twice as efficient if
electricity production were switched from fossil fuels to renewable energy, such as wind power, tidal
power, solar power, and nuclear power. Thus, when "well-to-wheels" is cited, the discussion is no
longer about the vehicle, but rather about the entire energy supply infrastructure – in the case of fossil
fuels this should also include energy spent on exploration, mining, refining, and distribution.
The lifecycle analysis of EVs shows that even when powered by the most carbon-intensive electricity
in Europe, they emit less greenhouse gases than a conventional diesel vehicle.
Total cost
As of 2021 the purchase price of an EV is often more, but the total cost of ownership of an EV varies
wildly depending on location and distance travelled per year: in parts of the world where fossil fuels
are subsidized, lifecycle costs of diesel or gas-powered vehicle are sometimes less than a comparable
EV. European carmakers face significant pressure from more affordable Chinese models and price
cuts by US-based Tesla Motor. From 2021 to 2022, the European market share of Chinese EV
manufacturers doubled to almost 9%, prompting the CEO of Stellantis to describe it as an "invasion".
Range
Electric vehicles may have shorter range compared to vehicles with internal combustion engines,
which is why the electrification of long-distance transport, such as long-distance shipping, remains
challenging.In 2022, the sales-weighted average range of small BEVs sold in the United States was
nearly 350 km, while in France, Germany and the United Kingdom it was just under 300 km,
compared to under 220 km in China.
Heating of EVs
Well insulated cabins can heat the vehicle using the body heat of the passengers. This is not enough,
however, in colder climates as a driver delivers only about 100 W of heating power.[citation
needed] A heat pump system, capable of cooling the cabin during summer and heating it during
winter, is an efficient way of heating and cooling EVs.[133] For vehicles which are connected to the
grid, battery EVs can be preheated, or cooled, with little or no need for battery energy, especially for
short trips. Most new electric cars come with heat pumps as standard. Public perception
A European survey based on climate found that as of 2022, 39% of European citizens tend to prefer
hybrid vehicles, 33% prefer petrol or diesel vehicles, followed by electric cars which were preferred
by 28% of Europeans. 44% Chinese car buyers are the most likely to buy an electric car, while 38%
of Americans would opt for a hybrid car, 33% would prefer petrol or diesel, while only 29% would go
for an electric car.
In a 2023 survey concentrated specifically on electric car ownership in the US, 50% of respondents
planning to purchase a future car considered themselves unlikely to seriously consider buying an EV.
The survey also found that support for banning the production of non-electric vehicles in the US by
2035 has declined from 47% to 40%.
Survey results showing that for American and European respondents, price is the main barrier to
buying an electric vehicle.
Environmental considerations
By reducing types of air pollution, such as nitrogen dioxide, EVs could prevent hundreds of thousands
of early deaths every year, especially from trucks and traffic in cities.
The full environmental impact of electric vehicles includes the life cycle impacts of carbon and sulfur
emissions, as well as toxic metals entering the environment.
Rare-earth metals (neodymium, dysprosium) and other mined metals (copper, nickel, iron) are used
by EV motors, while lithium, cobalt, manganese are used by the batteries. In 2023 the US State
Department said that the supply of lithium would need to increase 42-fold by 2050 globally to support
a transition to clean energy. Most of the lithium-ion battery production occurs in China, where the
bulk of energy used is supplied by coal burning power plants. A study of hundreds of cars on sale in
2021 concluded that the life cycle GHG emissions of full electric cars are slightly less than hybrids
and that both are less than gasoline and diesel fuelled cars.
An alternative method of sourcing essential battery materials being deliberated by the International
Seabed Authority is deep sea mining, however carmakers are not using this as of 2023.
Improved batteries
Advances in lithium-ion batteries, driven at first by the personal-use electronics industry, allow full-
sized, highway-capable EVs to travel nearly as far on a single charge as conventional cars go on a
single tank of gasoline. Lithium batteries have been made safe, can be recharged in minutes instead of
hours (see recharging time), and now last longer than the typical vehicle (see lifespan). The
production cost of these lighter, higher-capacity lithium-ion batteries is gradually decreasing as the
technology matures and production volumes increase.[154][155] Research is also underway to
improve battery reuse and recycling, which would further reduce the environmental impact of
batteries.
The same survey showing that if the respondents had to change cars, Chinese respondents are more
likely to opt for an electric one. Many companies and researchers are also working on newer battery
technologies, including solid state batteries and alternate technologies.
Battery management and intermediate storage
Another improvement is to decouple the electric motor from the battery through electronic control,
using super capacitors to buffer large but short power demands and regenerative braking energy. The
development of new cell types combined with intelligent cell management improved both weak points
mentioned above. The cell management involves not only monitoring the health of the cells but also a
redundant cell configuration (one more cell than needed). With sophisticated switched wiring, it is
possible to condition one cell while the rest are on duty.
Electric trucks

Electric Renault Midlum used by Nestlé in 2015

Auto Electric Truck, 1907

An electric truck is a battery electric vehicle (BEV) designed to transport cargo, carry specialized
payloads, or perform other utilitarian work.
Electric trucks have serviced niche applications like milk floats, pushback tugs and forklifts for over a
hundred years, typically using lead-acid batteries, but the rapid development of lighter and more
energy-dense battery chemistries in the twenty-first century has broadened the range of applicability
of electric propulsion to trucks in many more roles.
Electric trucks reduce noise and pollution, relative to internal-combustion trucks. Due to the high
efficiency and low component-counts of electric power trains, no fuel burning while idle, and silent
and efficient acceleration, the costs of owning and operating electric trucks are dramatically lower
than their predecessors. According to the United States Department of Energy, the average cost
per kWh capacity of battery packs for trucks fell from $500 in 2013 to $200 in 2019, and still further
to $137 in 2020, with some vehicles under $100 for the first time.
Long-distance freight has been the trucking segment least amenable to electrification, since the
increased weight of batteries, relative to fuel, detracts from payload capacity, and the alternative,
more frequent recharging, detracts from delivery time. By contrast, short-haul urban delivery has been
electrified rapidly, since the clean and quiet nature of electric trucks fit well with urban planning and
municipal regulation, and the capacities of reasonably sized batteries are well-suited to daily stop-and-
go traffic within a metropolitan area.
In South Korea, electric trucks hold a noticeable share of the new truck market; in 2020, among trucks
produced and sold domestically (which are the vast majority of new trucks sold in the country), 7.6%
were all-electric vehicles.
Hydrogen trains
Particularly in Europe, fuel-cell electric trains are gaining in popularity to replace diesel-electric units.
In Germany, several Länder have ordered Alstom Coradia iLINT trainsets, in service since 2018, with
France also planning to order trainsets. The United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Denmark, Norway,
Italy, Canadaand Mexico are equally interested. In France, the SNCF plans to replace all its remaining
diesel-electric trains with hydrogen trains by 2035. In the United Kingdom, Alstom announced in
2018 their plan to retrofit British Rail Class 321 trainsets with fuel cells.
Higher voltage outlets in garages of newly built homes

NEMA 14-50 240v 50 amps

In New Mexico the government is looking to pass legislation mandating electrical receptacles that are
higher voltage to be installed in garages of newly built homes. The NEMA 14-50 outlets provide 240
volts and 50 Amps for a total of 12.5 Kilowatts for level 2 charging of electric vehicles. Level 2
charging can add up to 30 miles of range per hour of charging compared to up to 4 miles of range per
hour for level 1 charging from 120 volt outlets.
Bidirectional charging
General Motors (GM) is adding a capability called V2H, or bidirectional charging, to allow its new
electric vehicles to send power from their batteries to the owner's home. GM will start with 2024
models, including the Silverado and Blazer EVs, and promises to continue the feature through to
model year 2026. This could be helpful to the owner during unexpected power grid outages because
an electric vehicle is a giant battery on wheels.
With the increase in number of electric vehicles, it is necessary to create an appropriate number of
charging stations to supply the increasing demand, and a proper management system that coordinates
the charging turn of each vehicle to avoid having some charging stations overloaded with vehicles and
others empty.