Electric Driving: State of Play
Electric Cars aren’t a new phenomenon. In the early days of automotive mobility, electric vehicles were already market leaders in some cases. However, technological hurdles, particularly with regard to energy storage, meant that combustion engines quickly gained the upper hand and electric cars faded into obscurity for many decades. It was not until the end of the 20th century, when ecological aspects slowly became more important and manufacturers also began researching solutions for a post-dying oil supply, that the first concepts and studies for electric cars increasingly came back into play.
In addition to purely electric drives, many models with so-called “hybrid” drives have since become established on the market. In so-called “mild” hybrids, the electric motor is only used to optimize the combustion engine, while “plug-in” hybrids (PHEVs) actually also have a certain electric range (usually 30–70 km for the models currently available on the market) and can also be charged electrically.
Components of an electric car
As before, the engine remains the heart of the electric car. Unsurprisingly, the electric car is powered by an electric motor that is supplied with electricity from a rechargeable battery. In the electric motor, electrical energy is converted into mechanical energy by changing magnetic fields (and their attractive and repulsive effects). This sets the car in motion.
The rechargeable battery, a high-voltage battery, is the tank of the electric car and one of the most expensive components in the vehicle in terms of price. The capacity of the battery essentially determines the range of the electric car. Even though intensive research is being conducted into new technologies, the lithium-ion battery is still the most common technology for storing electricity (in smartphones as well as in electric cars). The on-board electronics are supplied by a second battery, the much smaller low-voltage battery. This battery can also be used to store electricity generated by recuperation while driving — i.e., the conversion of energy released during braking back into electricity.
The motor (or more often the motors if both the front and rear axles are driven) of an electrically driven passenger car is usually a synchronous AC motor. Such a motor consists of two electromagnets: a fixed stator (with a constant magnetic field generated by direct current) and a moving rotor (with an alternating magnetic field generated by alternating current). Attraction and repulsion cause the motor to rotate and set the vehicle in motion.
Other components also play a role around the motor. The power electronics, for example, ensure that the motor gets exactly the energy it needs from the battery and orchestrates the interaction of the electrical components. And even if electric cars do not need a gearshift, a transmission still often plays a decisive role in decoupling driving behavior from the sometimes high speed of the electric motor.
Last but not least, electric cars need a charging connection to “fill up” with new energy. This connection, which is now standardized, can be used to transfer electricity from the power grid to the vehicle. There are various options here, from charging at a simple household socket to very powerful fast-charging systems at service stations, but these must also be supported by the vehicle. The maximum charging power is very often limited.
Evaluation in comparison with the internal combustion engine
All in all, the technical design of an electric car is much simpler than that of a car with an internal combustion engine. The complex and highly technical interaction in the combustion engine, including fuel injection and the translation of the piston’s stroke motion into a rotary motion, is completely eliminated. This also drastically reduces the expected service requirements of an electric car.
At the same time, the efficiency, i.e. the percentage of utilization of the energy put in, is greater in the electric car. While a gasoline engine has an efficiency of about 20% and a diesel about 45%, a battery electric vehicle achieves an efficiency of 65–70% in the interaction of the electric motor with very high efficiency and the smaller losses when charging and storing the energy.
So the physics are clearly in favor of electric driving, but what about the driving characteristics? In the past, quiet electric cars were often dogmatically dismissed in favor of the euphony of a 6-cylinder engine humming in response to the accelerator pedal and engine speed. The corresponding sentiment probably corresponds exactly to the discussion of manual versus automatic transmissions. In the meantime, many people have experienced e-mobility and learned about electric driving. This changes the picture.
Studies show that precisely those who have already driven electrically would buy an electric car in significantly higher numbers as their next car. I, at least, experience electric driving as a completely new driving experience. It’s a quiet glide that — for some inexplicable reason — leads to more comfortable driving than the combustion engine, which reacts more loudly to the accelerator pedal. Added to this is energy generation through recuperation, i.e. using braking energy to charge the battery. This means that the vehicle decelerates slightly as soon as you let off the gas. The brake pedal thus becomes superfluous, at least in part, when driving with foresight.
In the end, acceptance stands and falls with the balancing act of price, performance and range. Power is not an issue in all price classes. Thanks in particular to the consistently high torque, even smaller electric cars seem much zippier than their combustion engine counterparts. And in the upper performance range, Tesla, as a pioneer of electric cars, is currently demonstrating what is now possible there. The American manufacturer’s new top model accelerates from 0 to 100 km/h with its 1,020 hp in just over 2 seconds (as a conventional vehicle from series production).
That still leaves the range. And that is currently the great dilemma of electric cars. Even though the range of battery-powered vehicles is increasing and charging times are shortening thanks to better electronics, the new technology cannot match the performance of an internal combustion engine with a range of over 1,000 km in some diesel vehicles and a short refueling stop of several minutes afterwards.
Nevertheless, electric cars are already convincing in many ways. And users must ask themselves what range they really need and whether a longer charging break during a longer trip might not be quite healthy.
Models & manufacturers’ portfolios (EU)
In addition to the will of customers to want to buy an electric car, an appropriate range is also needed. For a long time, this was a problem, at least with regard to the broad mass of car manufacturers. Accordingly, the Renault Zoe, the BMW I3 and the Tesla models were for a long time predominant exotics in the cityscape of European cities. In recent months, that has changed drastically.
The German Motor Club ADAC has published a market overview for Germany in February 2021 that already lists 40 model series of pure electric cars available in Europe. The list starts alphabetically with the Chinese Aiways U5 and ends with the Volkswagen ID.4, looking at a price range from EUR 6,950 (Renault Twizy 45) to EUR 186,336 (Porsche Taycan Turbo S). The performance of the vehicles also shows a wide range from 8 kW (Renault Twizy 45) to 585 kW (Tesla Model S Performance). In terms of range, the Hyundai Nexo leads the market survey with a nominal 666 km, ahead of the Tesla Model S Maximum Range with 652 km. As with price and performance, the lower end of the range is represented by the Renault Twizy, a small city runabout with only 90 km.
The current status is by no means the last word. Many more models have been launched recently or will be launched in the coming months. BMW, in particular, has long built on the technology of the i3, which is now ten years old and has also been installed in a similar form in the MINI Cooper SE. With no less than three new electric cars, a real e-mobility offensive is complementing the existing plug-in hybrid range of the Munich-based automaker during the 2nd half of 2021 and at the same time ensure that electromobility is truly integrated into the model range.
If you look at other manufacturers, they have all recognized the trend by now and have a more or less large model range. The question is how strongly (and how quickly) they will commit to the change to new technologies.
This is where the approaches differ. While Volkswagen has already focused very strongly on electric driving in strategic terms, others are keeping their options open for the time being. BMW’s strategy, for example, aims to give customers a choice in the medium term and allow them to configure an electric car as well as a hybrid or an internal combustion engine in any price class. Only Toyota is taking a special approach among the major manufacturers. While Toyota was a pioneer in hybrid technology, there is no “real” electric car in the manufacturer’s portfolio. Instead, the Japanese company is going its own way with the Toyota Mirai, a hydrogen-powered fuel cell vehicle. Only time will tell whether this is a smart move for a manufacturer that has been battling with Toyota for years to become the world’s largest automaker.
The markets — from niche to relevant market share
In the past year, electric driving has established itself in many countries from an absolute niche to a veritable and ever-increasing market share. It is no longer just individual markets such as Norway, which has long been considered the absolute frontrunner with 54% of new registrations being electric vehicles in 2020. Overall, according to the manufacturers’ association ACEA, the e-mobility share of new registrations (BEV + PHEV) in Europe has increased to 12.5% in 2020 compared to 3.8% in 2019.
Registrations in the first half of 2021 continue this trend. According to the German Federal Motor Transport Authority, a total of 10.7% of newly registered vehicles in Germany are pure electric cars and 11.8% are plug-in hybrids that can be driven fully electrically, at least in short-range driving.
A look into the crystal ball shows that there is still potential in the short term. If, in surveys, more than 30% of potential car buyers say that their next car will be an electric car and implement this plan in the near future, the current share in the registration statistics could quickly increase even further.
However, the biggest hurdle to a further increase in registration figures currently appears to be the manufacturers. The build-up of production capacity for many models is not keeping pace and is leading to long delivery times. A delivery time of up to one year for a Skoda Enyaq iV electric SUV, for example, is not uncommon.
