It is time to drive an electric vehicle (EV)

...not to buy it

Jay Leno driving his Baker Electric, which is 100+ years old

To drive…

1.     The experience of driving an EV is excellent

2.     There is now sufficient variety of EVs being offered (between pure EV and PHEV)

3.     Range anxiety is almost over

4.     There are exclusive benefits for EVs in most large cities

5.     The running costs of an EV are much cheaper than those of equivalent ICEs

…not to buy

1.     High volatility of residual values.

2.     Current EVs may age rapidly

3.     Current local benefits of driving an EV will gradually dissapear

4.     Taxes on EVs will increase.

We are living fascinating times for the automotive industry.  We are witnessing a transition from internal combustion engines (ICEs) to electric engines as the means of providing power to move our vehicles.  As in any shift in technology, it is difficult to decide when to make the switch.  In this article I will try to give you the fundamental reasons why the time has come for most of us to drive an electric car.  I will also recommend not buying those electric cars (leasing them will be preferred).

1.     The experience of driving an EV is excellent.

After more than a century of driving cars with an internal combustion engine (ICE), we have learned to live with its intrinsic characteristics of noise, vibration and uneven power delivery.  And, of course, the emissions of unhealthy rejects into the atmosphere.  In fact, those of us who are passionate about cars, tend to admire the “good” noise that some of those engines emit, love using the gear-change to keep the engine at its optimum revs and basically ignore all the pollution generated while running.

When driving a car with an electric engine, we suddenly realise that we were just sticking to a flawed way of providing mobility because we had not tried alternatives.  If you have time, you can read my previous article on what to expect when switching from an ICE driven car to one with an electric engine (EV)[1], where I try to summarise all the things that may change in your driving experience.

It is just a plain superior reality in so many ways that you may wonder why you did not try it earlier.  The magical silence and lack of vibration while running is immediately noticeable.  Not feeling the annoying stop/start of the engine in the city is a welcome gain.  And the unstressed linear acceleration an added bonus. Of course, knowing that you are not producing pollution while running is the ultimate benefit, not only to you, but to everyone.  I cannot stress it enough, please try it and hopefully you will agree with me.

2.     There is now sufficient variety of EVs (and PHEVs) being offered

Up to very recently, the number of EVs on offer was very limited and their cost too high.  A new technology that had to compete with the 20^th century wonder of mass production, the ICE car, has faced logical challenges in order to provide a viable alternative.  The electric engine in an EV is not a technical or cost challenge, but the means of providing energy to that engine is a different story.  The batteries in an EV are by far the single largest source of cost and added bulk.

With continuously decreasing cost of batteries due to extensive research and mass manufacturing, we are reaching the point where it is economically feasible to offer a mass-produced electric car at competitive prices.

The shift to a new drivetrain technology, a fundamental change for car manufacturers, is an opportunity with high risks for the incumbents.  Up to last year, the choice of EVs on the market was very limited.  However, most traditional manufacturers are now launching EVs and have many electric models in their pipeline.  From a handful of available models, we are quickly seeing a variety of new offers entering the market in many different segments.  We are far from the myriad options of sizes, shapes, trims and engine configurations offered in the very mature ICE market. Available EVs, however, are quickly multiplying, giving drivers a reasonable variety of choice. 

In fact, in addition to pure electric cars (which only have an electric engine), there are many plug-in hybrid electric cars (PHEVs), which add an electric engine to a traditional IC engine, complementing it, not replacing it. These PHEVs combine both engines in an effort to supplement the virtues of electric driving with the long range driving capabilities of gas power.  I mention them because they are clearly bridging the gap between ICEs and EVs in this transition times. 

You can look at PHEVs as an expensive transition format, combining the cost of both engines and their accessories, the added weight and achieving limited benefits in terms of the pure electric driving experience.  I prefer to value them for helping to smooth the transition to the new electric technology for both manufacturers and drivers.  There are many of them on offer now, almost every manufacturer includes them in their range.  And most provide significant electric only range (in excess of 40 kmts on a full charge) that can cover the majority of commuting habits.

Whatever your requirements in terms of size and usage, you should be able to find a suitable EV or PHEV alternative to make the jump towards the new world of electric mobility!

3.      Range anxiety is almost over

The traditional weakness of electric cars has been their limited range on a full charge, combined with the long charging times and small number of public charging points.  Those three factors produced what has been called “range anxiety”, or the permanent worry about the need to plan your recharges in order to be able to reach your destination, especially in long trips.

Conditions are quickly changing, to the point of making range anxiety almost irrelevant.

First, for purely electric vehicles, the ranges achievable with a full battery are increasing with every new model.  Most EVs can now travel more than 300 kmts without recharging.  And, in many cases, the same vehicle is being offered with different battery sizes (and related costs and range) to give customers a broader choice.

Second, the network of recharging points is quickly being developed in many countries.  The most advanced ones in EV adoption, like Norway and The Netherlands, already offer sufficient density of public charging alternatives.

Third, the recharging times are diminishing quickly, as the combination of factors determining them is carefully optimized[2].  Nowadays, with modern chargers and battery technology, some new models are able to recharge at rates of up to 300 kilometers in 15 minutes[3].

Last, if all of the above does not offer customers full peace of mind, there is always the alternative of driving a PHEV, which combine limited electric range that is suited to most commutes and city drives with the long range and no anxiety associated with traditional ICE driven cars.

4.     There are exclusive benefits for EVs (and some PHEVs) in many large cities

Councils are trying hard to clean the air in their cities and one of the biggest sources of pollution is ICE vehicles.  In order to accelerate the transition to cleaner mobility, many large cities are offering advantages to drivers of electric vehicles.  Among the typical ones we count: free parking in regulated areas, free circulation in congestion controlled zones where ICE vehicles are not allowed or asked to pay a circulation fee, free usage of special bus or congestion free lanes, lower (or no) annual taxes.

Most of them are real tangible benefits that will make using an EV (or equivalently treated PHEV) an advantageous proposition beyond the already explained surprisingly improved driving experience.

5.     The energy cost for running an EV is much cheaper than in a fuel burning car

This is the biggest advantage from a cost perspective.  As with ICE cars, the electricity consumption of an EV depends on many variables.  And it will gradually improve over time, as manufacturers learn to optimize them.  But most EVs can now run 100 kmts on 20 kw/h of energy.  The cost of electricity will vary greatly from one region to another but, in most countries, it will be below 20 cents per kw/h.  With those numbers, the electricity cost for an EV over 100 kmts would be around 4 euros.  That would be the equivalent, depending on the fuel cost per country, of around 2/3 liters of fuel.

Numbers will vary greatly per EV model and per country, but in all cases the cost of electricity will be far lower than the fuel cost of an equivalent ICE vehicle.  That is a real economic advantage that you can enjoy on top of the other benefits of driving an electric vehicle.

These are very strong arguments for anyone to consider driving an EV or an PHEV, however, there are also significant reasons to recommend not buying it, but leasing it or searching for any form of usership where the driver does not take the risk of keeping the car after 3 to 5 years…

The reasons for this recommendation are:

1.     High volatility of residual values. 

For EVs (and a bit less for PHEVs), we are beginning to enjoy the benefits of high R&D expenditure and mass production.  We can see it in the rapidly decreasing cost of buying them, and also on the radical increase in performance that we get on the newer models compared to older ones[4].  Although the speed of improvement will logically decrease over time, we can still expect significant advances in technology for future EVs, which will have an impact on the residual value of existing ones in the future.

2.     Current EVs may age rapidly

Another effect of the speed of technological improvements on EVs is that older models quickly loose some appeal when compared to what is offered on newer ones.  For ICEs, using a car during 10+ years will not generate in the driver a feeling of great obsolescence, as long as the car is properly maintained.  In the current generation of EVs, that may not be the case.  Traditional car manufacturers have just started to dedicate large amounts to the development of electric vehicles.  The pay-off of those substantial investments is going to appear incrementally in the new EVs to be released in the years to come.  We will probably be able to access EVs that show longer range, are more efficient and less expensive than the current equivalent ones.

My personal impression is that the latest EVs offer compelling benefits to make the jump to the new technology now.  But being aware that, in 3 to 5 years, there will probably be really improved models, with so many new features available that upgrading to them will seem like a must.  Think about the first smartphones available in 2007 and how quickly newer models were providing the user with more benefits.  We will experience something similar with current EVs. They are revolutionary, a must drive, but will become obsolete in the near future when the newer ones are launched.

3.      Current local benefits of driving an EV will gradually disappear.

Some of those benefits previously described, like free parking or free usage of restricted lanes, are naturally going to be limited in time.  As more people make the switch to EVs or PHEVs, the incentives given to early adoption will stop making sense. 

Imagine regulated parking in a city, where allocation of a limited resource (parking spaces on the street) is managed by putting a price on it and restricting the total time that it can be used.  As a greater number of vehicles enjoy benefits, the resource becomes less usable and the income stream for municipalities decreases.  The natural move is to gradually remove those advantages for early adopters of clean cars as the total number of them increases.

This is another reason to avoid buying an EV/PHEV at this time, since the desirability of its usage (and the demand for it) in the future can be more volatile, depending on the privileges that it still enjoys when used.

4.     Taxes on electric vehicles will increase        

Another natural evolution that we can expect as the number of EVs on the roads increases and become significant is the creation of new taxes.  All administrations have come to rely on significant income derived from cars.  Taxes upon purchasing, yearly road licensing and, most of all, taxes on fuel.  The last ones represent a significant income for most administrations (up to 5% of total income).  It will obviously take some time to shift all cars on the road to the new electric drivetrains.  But regulators will see their tax income from ICE vehicles decrease and will probably react by creating new taxes on the EVs to compensate their income[5].

Conclusion

We are currently in what I would identify as the sweet spot, the right time, to start using an EV.  As explained, it is a fantastic driving experience, to move smoothly, without generating air or noise pollution. The technology is reliable, the drawbacks of limited range and need to recharge are quickly diminishing.  The running costs are lower.  And there are significant exclusive benefits in yearly taxes and parking/road usage. 

However, the environment is still evolving quickly.  Battery technology will continue improving and will make the next generation of EVs significantly more appealing than the existing ones.  And some of the current advantages, usage privileges, and taxes treatment may change in the near future. 

Therefore, the logical choice, is to drive an EV, but not to own it yet, since in 3/5 years circumstances may change and force us to revisit the decision.

But I invite you to make that change and start enjoying the world of EVs!

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[1] “Switching from ICEs to electric, goodbyes and hellos”, published in my blog, blog.jr-aboutcars.com

[2] The speed of transfer of electricity to the car battery depends on many factors and changes frequently.  The output power capacity of the charging station is one.  But the maximum input power capacity of the battery is another.  The latter also fluctuates with conditions of the battery, like temperature and charge level. 

[3] Tesla model 3 can recharge at that rate on their proprietary Tesla Superchargers 3.0 (250KW)

[4] The most important element of improvement is the battery, where we are benefiting from increased capacities with similar bulk, weight and cost, allowing newer EVs to offer longer driving ranges.  An  additional benefit in newer EVs is the capacity to charge batteries faster.

[5] To be fair, the speed of this change may be slower than the 3 to 5 year window that I refer to in the rest of the article.  Replacement of the existing cars on the road with EVs will take much longer and the decrease in tax income may not be felt so quickly.  However, regulators tend to be very creative when introducing new taxing figures and can try to anticipate those decreases in fuel tax income in advance.

Switching from ICEs to Electric - Goodbye´s and Hello´s

“You say goodbye and I say hello…”

I still remember the famous Beatles song “Hello, Goodbye”, which was used in kinder-garden to teach basic English to my kids and subsequently heard to exhaustion during car trips.  Now it becomes relevant again when I think about the changes that our beloved cars will put us through.

The car of the future will have an electric engine

After more than 100 years of uninterrupted service to our mobility needs, we are reaching the end of the Internal Combustion Engine (ICE) as means of propulsion in most of our vehicles.  The cars of our (very) near future will replace the ICE with an electric one (EVs).  We will say goodbye to ICEs and hello to electric while we ride and sing in our cars, like we have been doing for the past century.

The electric engine is better suited to our mobility needs

More than a 100 years ago, when engine powered carts were beginning to replace horse led ones, the electric engines were competing with the rudimentary internal combustion ones in the race to leave the horses behind.  The reason that we got to enjoy ICEs in the end was not due to the nature of the engine itself, but to the means of storing the energy needed to run it.  Gasoline, at the time, provided much more energy density storage per weight and volume unit than batteries that stored electricity.  And we know how history unfolded.  We created a vast distribution network of fuel and we perfected the ICE incredibly during the past century, so that we could enjoy vast levels of personal mobility.

Pictured: Jay Leno driving one of his old electric vehicles, a 1909 Baker Electric, which can travel 100 miles on a single charge

We have come to appreciate the freedom that the car has provided to all of us.  And we have learned to live with the peculiarities of the ICE.  Its noise, vibration, emissions, extensive cooling needs, inefficient power delivery.  Engineers have made wonders perfecting those engines and either correcting those flaws (power delivery in modern turbo´s is much more linear…), controlling them (catalysts and other emission suppression elements) or masking them (insulation). 

But the truth is that burning fuel to provide movement is still extremely inefficient.  More than 65% of the energy burnt is lost in heat.  And turning a linear movement (the one that the piston produces up and down the cylinder) into a circular one (the one needed to turn the wheels) just complicates the task even further.

In the meantime, the side effects of our dense car park have become very apparent.  Pollution and noise in the cities, together with a need to slow down global warning, have led to clear indications that the ICE car is no longer a star.  Many cities in Europe (Athens, Copenhagen, Oslo, Paris) and even countries (France, Ireland, Netherlands, Norway, UK) are putting clear deadlines to the use of cars burning fuel in our roads.

The only alternative left then is to go back to our beloved electric driven cars (EVs) that originally lost the mobility race.  They are the only existing means of producing movement that does not emit any particles or CO2 when running on the road[1], while still providing a very similar mobility service.

Hydrogen driven fuel cells or batteries will feed the electricity to our EVs

At the same time, feeding energy to power an electric vehicle is becoming much more feasible in terms of cost, weight and volume needed.  Two potential avenues are currently being explored by manufacturers to store the electricity needed to run an EV. 

The first one, like a century ago, is to put a battery in the car that stores electricity and is recharged by plugging it into the existing distribution network.  Partly fueled by the mobile phone boom of the 21^st century, battery technology has evolved enormously and, now that manufacturers are pouring money into them, will no doubt continue that trend.  Current battery powered EVs can store enough energy to move them for 400+ kilometers at a cost that is beginning to be economically competitive with ICEs. 

The second potential means of feeding electricity to an EV is using hydrogen as fuel.  A machine known as fuel cell will then transform the hydrogen into electricity that will feed the electric engine. There are no unwanted emissions in that chemical process, just plain water.

I believe the race is currently going at full speed between those two technologies and I will continue learning as much as I can about them until I finally dare to write an article about both.  However, there seems to be full consensus in the fact that the car of the future will be driven by an electric engine.

In the meantime, we are seeing a transition period, in which both technologies (internal combustion and electric) are put to work together (hybrid vehicles) trying to combine the virtues of ICEs and electric.  But there will be a gradual transition to electric only vehicles, many of which are already offered to all of us.

Switching from ICE to electric, what can we expect?

As mentioned earlier, in a plain comparison between an internal combustion engine and an electric one, we see that the latter is naturally much better suited to our mobility needs[2].  It is smaller for a given power delivery.  It is much more efficient.  It is quieter. And it generates the type of circular movement that wheels require.  That is the rosy picture that anyone who has driven an electric powered car, or a hybrid in electric only mode, has experienced.

In any transition to a new technology, however, there are many habits that can be left behind (our goodbyes) and other that need to be acquired (the hellos).   I will briefly try to summarise what to expect when you make the switch from a traditional car driven by an internal combustion engine to one that has just an electrical engine.

Many goodbyes, some of them sad…

Goodbye to noise

The first thing anyone notices when driving an EV is the silence.  It is almost magical.  And it is not just the silence, it is the absence of vibrations that we were used to in the ICE that makes the experience so positive.

The internal combustion engine burns fuel in a combustion chamber, generating lots of noise and vibration in the process.  You may not be familiar with it, but manufacturers use an acronym called NVH (Noise Vibration and Harshness) in order to measure and control those effects of an ICE.  The less NVH a car produces, the more refinement that the driver will feel riding in it.

It is not a full goodbye to NVH with EVs, but the biggest sources of it are gone with an electric engine, producing an incredible relaxed sensation when driving them, compared to our good old ICEs. 

At higher speeds, wind and tyres still produce significant roar, but in the city the difference in noise between an ICE car and an EV is amazing.

Not only the people driving in the car enjoy the decrease in noise.  For pedestrians the benefit of silence is just appalling[3].  Try to imagine a city in which all vehicles (cars, bikes, mopeds, buses, trucks...) are electric and you will realise how much better quality of life we will have in the cities of the future.

Goodbye to (manual) gearboxes

It used to be almost a cultural difference.  Americans drive automatics, Europeans drive manuals.  Still, the majority of cars sold in Europe have manual transmissions.  The reasons why were the source of endless discussions in a pub.  Not anymore.

Say goodbye to manual transmissions in EVs!  One of the characteristics of an electrical engine is its almost linear power delivery.  Specially from rest.  For ICEs, the power delivery is very poor at low revs and growing with engine speed, including only a small optimum rev range in which the engine delivers power most efficiently[4].  Thus the need for a transmission with different gears that allowed to adapt the car speed and acceleration demands to the engine power delivery. 

A pure electric driven vehicle does not have a gearbox.  It transmits power directly from the engine to the wheels.  Don´t worry, you will not need to do any significant adaptation.  Just like in an automatic, you will have to choose between forward (D), and backward (R) movement or tell the car that you are parked (P).  No more clutch, no more gear selection, no more race to see which car has more gears (I am currently counting 10 as the current record for ICEs[5])

Goodbye to engine monitoring

Remember those wonderful dashes, full of needles that allowed us to monitor the proper running condition of our ICEs[6]?  Say goodbye to them. They are a thing of the past with electric engines.

An ICE is quite a complex machine, which needs a certain running temperature, a lubrification and a control of engine speed.  A rev counter is important to adapt the engine movement to your speed and acceleration demands[7].  The water cooling the engine needs to be kept below boiling point (temperature needle).  There needs to be enough oil to provide proper lubrication/cooling (oil temperature needle).  And the oil needs to flow properly around the engine block (oil pressure needle).  Other components also need monitoring, like the battery status, to provide enough charge to help start up the vehicle (battery voltage needle). 

In an EV you will be most concerned with the battery charge level and predicted autonomy.  That´s all.  No more.

Goodbye to risk of suffocation

I still remember some years ago, trapped in a traffic jam in a huge underground parking hearing a message through the speaker system “please turn off your engines, CO2 is reaching damaging levels for everyone´s health”.  In single home garages we are keenly aware of the danger that a running combustion engine and lack of ventilation pose to our health.  Say goodbye to that worry with EVs.  No emissions, period.

Just plug overnight and drive in the morning.  Tesla´s don´t even have an on/off switch.  As you open them, they are ready to drive.  An additional plus of their lack of emissions and with the side benefit of managing that precious stored electricity, most EVs offer the possibility of setting up a predefined interior temperature in the car by a certain time every morning when it is still plugged to the mains.  Given the efficiency of electric engines, they do not generate enough heat to be used in the car heater.  An electric mechanism is needed to do so and does not generate emissions when working either.

Goodbye to gas stations

Yes, battery electric cars need recharging and it takes much longer than the time needed to refuel a car.  Which means that most times they will be recharged at home or in a place where a long stop to do something else is taking place[8].

In both cases, replenishing your vehicle with energy will probably not be done in a gas station[9].  It is one of the tangible benefits mentioned by drivers of EVs compared to ICEs.  It seems that forgetting about that periodic stop at a gas station is much appreciated.  Say goodbye to gas stations in your battery electric vehicle.

Goodbye to complex engine specifications

We have gotten gradually used to them, but in their continuous engineering improvement of the inefficient ICE, most manufacturers have advertised technical details as a means of differentiating their products.  And we have learned about many of them.  Number of cylinders is still my preferred one, because it can really be felt in the noise generated by the engine whilst running[10]. 

Displacement has always been an indicator of the size of the engine and its expected power offer.  Be it cubic centimeters or cubic inches.  Many drivers know the capacity of their engines, because manufactures were keen to advertise them.  1.5 liters, 3 liters, 366 cubic inches.  Did we really understand that it was a measure of the amount of air plus fuel that would fit into the cylinders of the car and therefore bigger meant more powerful explosions inside the cylinders and a stronger power delivery?  Or we were just under the spell of the “bigger is better”?  In any case, with the efficiency chase and the use of electronics, downsizing of engine capacity is the general trend in the ICE landscape for the 21^st century.

But in their car badges is where we have learned best about the evolution of ICE technology.  In the 70s we learned that a turbo boosted performance[11]. Although forced induction had been tried many times in the past, it only became reliable and efficient at that time.  Now it has become the norm that allows for a more efficient engine and a better control of emissions, so most ICE cars of today use a turbo and it is not a differentiating characteristic anymore.

What about number of valves (16 valves, 4 valves per cylinder)?.  It was another way to improve the engine´s “breathing” that we learned about as important power enhancement without really knowing what more valves meant.  But they were a key development that manufacturers shared with us.

And so, in the past decades we learned much about technical specs that we did not fully understand such as direct injection, common rail, overhead cams, variable valve timing (Honda was especially popular with their VTEC badges), double clutch transmissions (made popular by the VW Group with their DSG badges) and the list could go on and on.

Electric engines are much simpler and so far their manufacturers just share with us their power and torque output, that is about it.  And they don´t yet make it explicit in their badges, just in the documented technical specs.  It makes sense, switching to an EV is differentiating enough and, although quickly growing, there are not too many of them on the market today, so they are unique enough to be marketed without a myriad of technical jargons.

Say hello to re-charging variations

Not every element of our transition to EVs is a simplification meant to make our lives easier.  We are at the early adoption stages of a new fundamental technology, so we will witness quick improvements in some technical aspects of the car.  The element that is showing quickest pace of change is the battery.  It is, after all, the most expensive component by far of an EV and the one that will be subject to the biggest part of the R&D budget.  Which means that we will see continuous improvements in their price, capacity per given weight/volume and charging speed.

A bigger capacity battery provides a much welcome increase in range, but it also requires longer charging times compared to an equally specified smaller one.

Charging time, on the other hand, is one of the main drawbacks of EVs compared to our reference of more than a century re-fueling ICE cars.  Suppliers and manufacturers have been working hard at improving that weakness.

Without trying to be technical, the charging speed of a battery depends on the maximum output of the outlet on which it is plugged, the maximum capacity of the on-board converter installed in the car, the maximum input capacity of the batteries, their level of charge, and their temperature.  I hope I am not forgetting any significant element of the recharging chain, this is how much I have been able to gather in all my research and readings.

The good news is that the many combinations can be ignored by the user, as they will just add up to a certain charging speed (kind of a minimum common denominator speed of all the elements involved).  More technically oriented users, however, will have “fun” trying to optimise every element of the charging chain.

The landscape of recharging is evolving so rapidly that time needed to replenish electricity will soon become less relevant.  The latest version of Tesla´s proprietary “superchargers” has a maximum charging rate of 250kW, which means adding up to 75 miles of range in 5 minutes[12]. 

Say hello to energy recovery

Remember that more than 65% of the energy used by an ICE is wasted in heat.  What a contrast then to know that in an EV you can actually recover some of the energy generated to move the vehicle.

All EVs include generative braking in order to recover some of the kinetic energy that is usually just transformed into heat via the brakes[13].  It is a relatively simple mechanism that recovers part of the energy that would be wasted as heat back into electricity that is stored in the batteries.  It does not replace the traditional brakes, it just complements them.

For the launch of their first EV, the e-tron, Audi invited journalists to one of the highest mountain roads in the US, Pikes Peak in Colorado, where the tarmac reaches the peak at 14.100 feet (4.302 mts).  The test consisted on riding the car 19 miles downhill and checking how much energy had been recovered.  It turns out that it was enough to cover about the same 19 miles distance on a flat road.  Impressive.

It can become quite amusing to see that your battery level is increasing when you are riding your car down a mountain road.  And regenerative braking is one of the reasons EVs are more efficient in city driving, where many starts and stops take place. 

Say hello to range anxiety

This anxiety is generated by three factors.  First, the relatively limited maximum range of the first EVs launched some years ago.  Second, the low density of recharging outlets available. And third, the long recharging times.  These restrictions limited the real usage of EVs to daily commutes and city driving. 

The landscape, however, is quickly changing.  Most new EVs show ranges around 300/400 kmts[14], which would allow for typical two hours driving on the highway comfortably at legal speeds.  The recharging network is evolving positively as well, although at different paces depending on each country.  And recharging times are quickly dropping as well.

In any case, we are far away from the current situation we are used to with ICEs., for which we can usually find a petrol station within 30 kmts when driving on highways and with typical 5 minutes replenishing time.  Hello then to range anxiety for a while.

Say hello to instant power

This is one characteristic of EVs that never fails to impress.  In the first few meters of movement, the acceleration is much stronger than with an ICE.

One of the advantages of electric engines is their almost linear power delivery, which means that they can provide full torque from start.  Remember, that is the reason why they do not need a gearbox.  And it is most obvious when starting movement.  Say hello to instant power.

Goodbye to liters and hp, hello to kW/h and kW

The power delivered by electric engines is usually measured in kW (kilowatts).  For ICE engines we were used to hp (horsepower), but manufacturers were slowly making the transition to kWs[15], so that measure of power deliver can be easily compared between ICEs and EVs.

We will have to learn differently when it comes to measuring energy input into and consumed by the car while running.  We used to measure the capacity of a fuel tank and pay for the energy replenished in liters or gallons.  And, consequently, define consumption in liters per kmts or miles per gallon.

With electricity, the unit of measure for energy purchased and stored by the batteries is kW/h (kilowatt-hour).  Just look at the bill from your utility company and see that they are charging you for the number of kW/h you have consumed[16].  Most electric appliances have a watt consumption rating.  And their time usage will determine how much energy is consumed.  For example, an electric heater consuming 1000 watts (1kilowatt) operating for one hour will use 1kW/h of energy.

Your EV car battery will have a maximum energy storage capacity measured in kW/h.  Typically, something between 40 and 100. 

What is more relevant to a driver is how efficiently the car is using that energy while running.  The favored measure will be kW/h per 100 kmts or W/h per kmt or mile. 

And the other important measurement is obviously how much distance will the car be able to cover with the available energy at the current rate of usage.  Which will be measured in kmts or miles.

Say hello to kW as a unit of power and kW/h as a unit of energy and their relation to all relevant measurements of consumption and costs when using an EV.

Try it out, say hello and sing along

These are very exciting times for anyone interested in cars.  Our favourite mode of transportation is undergoing amazing changes that will significantly affect our driving experience.

If you have not done so yet, I urge you to try it out for yourself.  There are many alternatives that allow you to drive an electric car for some days (car rentals, car sharing, test drives).  Take it for a spin and experience for yourself the hellos and goodbyes while you sing along in the silence of your EV.

An ownership decision (purchase or lease), may be affected by other factors that I may analyse in future articles.  But go ahead, drive an EV and experience the future of automotive mobility!

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About the author:  Jaime Requeijo has been a car lover most of his life.  As a business executive, he has been lucky to combine his passion with work in companies like Peugeot and LeasePlan.  Now he enjoys giving advice on mobility as a consultant and writing about his favourite car topics.

Disclaimer:   This article is not meant to be a technical paper.  Its purpose is to entertain and to inform people about the exciting new world of electric mobility that is coming upon us.  When mentioning technical aspect, I have tried to do adequate research and careful statement of facts.  I may have made some wrong technological assumptions or imperfect explanations.  If that were the case, my apologies.  Please feel free to contact me if you can help me improve the accuracy of the article (jaime.requeijo@gmail.com).  Thank you for reading it.  I hope you enjoyed it as much as I did writing it!

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[1] There are many discussions on the overall emissions produced from a vehicle, including manufacture, usage and disposal of it.  And there are additional dilemmas on the potential emissions emitted in the production of electricity later used by EVs. But I would like to elaborate on those in future articles

[2] The internal combustion engine is, as stated in the main text, less efficient in transforming energy into movement.  Plus, it requires a heavy gearbox and add-ons like cooling and exhaust control that generate weight and cost.  The drawbacks which have left the electric engine behind in the past are linked to the inefficient means of storing the electricity on-board. 

[3] The paradox with noise is that it was also a means of alerting a pedestrian of an incoming car, so that he/she would not cross the street.  Regulators are forcing manufacturers to produce artificial noises (with speakers!) on electrical cars so they can be heard by pedestrians used to the noise of ICEs.  Let´s hope that it is just a transitional measure towards our silent cities of the future

[4] It is true that with modern turbo engines and sophisticated computer management, ICEs have improved a lot their power deliver.  But they still need a short gear to start movement due to the lack of power below 1500 revs per minute.

[5] Some Ford models are currently offered with an automatic transmission that has 10 forward gears.  Mercedes offers many with 9.  And 8 seems to be the prevailing number in upscale vehicles with larger engine capacity.

[6] Modern engine management and endless electronic sensors have allowed a decrease in the attention demanded from the driver towards the engine status and less cluttered dashboards.  Some sports cars still follow the old tradition of visualizing engine conditions.

[7] Modern automatic gearboxes take very good care of keeping engine revs at the optimum level for driving circumstances.

[8] Some people state that EVs and their need to recharge for longer period of times will give a much-needed boost back to the shopping malls.  I am unsure about the economics of including a charging station in a significant number of parking slots in a shopping area where most investment goes towards the commercial space.  But to be monitored.

[9] Remember that hydrogen+fuel cell electric vehicles do have similar recharging requirements to fuel based ones, so for them it may appear that going to a hydrogen station may be kept in the habits of their drivers.

[10] One of my favorite petrol head past times is to guess the cylinder count of an engine by its noise.  The deep bass burbling tone of an 8 cylinder is still a joy to hear.  An inline 6 cylinder has a unique balancing of its spark firings that gives a very refined noise.  A 3 cylinder has a racous, hard noise that can sometimes feel sporty.

[11] In my case, the eye openers were the Saab 99, Turbo and the, still in the market, Porsche 911 Turbo.  By the way, all 911s have an engine with a turbocharger, so it is just a badge to indicate a more performing one, not a unique engine characteristic.

[12] Please note that I am completely brand neutral.  I do not receive any support or sponsoring from any car manufacturer.  If I mention Tesla more frequently is because they are the most successful EV only manufacturer and by focusing on only electric they have made significant advances in most aspects related to EVs.

[13] One of my favorite learnings from school is one of the laws of thermodynamics which states that, in an isolated system, energy is not created or destroyed, it is just transformed.  A moving vehicle is constantly transforming energy.

[14] Tesla is still the champion of the range battle, with most of their models offering the capacity to drive for more than 500 kmts between charges.  They seem to still enjoy some early entry advantage over traditional manufacturers in the electric energy management that allows them to drive longer distances. 

[15] One kW is the equivalent of 1.34 hp.

[16] An interesting task, for the price of electricity usually incorporates many taxes and deferred investment charges that make its deciphering quite an ordeal.