DIU Blog

Are Electric Mobility really the Future?

With increasing customer consciousness about the comfort and luxury experience in the vehicle has led the engineers to think seriously about option of electric mobility as promising alternative. From past five years, The Governments in different countries especially in Southeast Asia has undertaken many initiatives to promote and force the use of electric vehicles in the market. Based on this many automotive companies are shifting towards electric vehicles (EVs) and lined up with number of models in coming years. We can understand these EVs have some add on advantages which passes over initial resistance towards accelerated adaptation of electric vehicles.

In many countries the electric mobility has already been embraced in positive way. For example, this technology has proved its worth in terms of public transport as e-rickshaw being used by people everywhere specially in USA, China, Europe and India. Now the industries are venturing in to the other domains of transport such as luxury segment as well as heavy duty transport with this alternative. We know these EVs are run by rechargeable batteries which can easily be charged by external sources of electricity. For EVs, we need separate supply equipment, which is formally known as EV Supply Equipment or EVSE. This entire EVSE system consists of a separate power source for an EV for providing easy charging facility, network connectivity, smart metering etc.

Now a days the electric vehicle industry is becoming a center of new manufacturing hub, with added advanced technologies in battery management systems, and in its control mechanism. All over the world Government is giving different subsidies and technological supports for advancements of this new era of industry. Electric two-wheelers as well as a boost for localized ACC battery storage production are other growth drivers for the EV industry. Recently, in the month of September 2021, a production-linked incentive scheme for the automotive sector was approved by Cabinet to support the manufacturing of electric vehicles and hydrogen fuel cell vehicles. The world-wide conventional automotive industry is undergoing an exemplar shift to switch to alternative smart vehicles with higher
efficiency, which is nothing other than the electric vehicles.

From last few decades, the burden of rising pollution, green house effects, global climate changes and all, becomes a major factor which motivated to speed up the transition from traditional automotive to e-mobility. After going through the following table, we can see the promises being offered by the electric vehicles over the conventional ones.

Table: Comparison of Conventional Vehicle and Electric Vehicle

Many countries took a leading role in the world car market to provide mobility solutions to 35
crore customers by the year 2030. With the aim of reducing the carbon footprint by reducing the fossil fuel consumption the electric mobility is one of the promising technologies for the future. As more and more renewable energy being used for the electricity generation across the globe in terms of wind, solar etc. it has clutched the attention of many researchers and practitioners in all over the world.

Though, there are some challenges that makes the implementation of this technology dependent on few factors. The first challenge is absence of a manufacturing base for batteries, which makes it dependent on imports to meet rising demand. In addition, there is no clear guidelines to end of life of the batteries which will be a quite serious issue in coming future.

The second challenge is charging infrastructure. Lack of charging posts makes it unsuitable for the buyers in covering long range. Further, it takes up to 12 hours for a full charge of a vehicle at the owner’s home using a private light-duty slow charger and above this, the cost of a basic electric car is much higher than the average price of a car running on conventional fuel.

Third challenge is Policy Challenges, As EV production requires huge capital and long-term
planning to break even and profit realization, uncertainty in government guidelines related to EV making discourages venture in the industry.

Fourth challenge is Lack of Technology and Skilled Labor. Many countries are technologically
lacking in the production of electronics that form the pillar of the EV industry, such as batteries, semiconductors, controllers, etc. In addition, there is a huge demand of the skilled workforce in EV domain but still no dedicated course as of now is available in this segment.
With above discussion it is evident that there is a huge scope of electric mobility provided the
challenges are met head-on to make it a mobility of future.

Dr. Srimanti Roychoudhury, with thirteen years of experience in teaching and research, is presently working as an Associate Professor in the Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, Daffodil International University. Her research area includes control systems and has published ten research papers in various national and international journals and conferences. She has also published two research level books, one from Springer, Switzerland and another from CRC Press, USA.