The Future of Electric Cars

The parallels between electric cars and mobile electronics are unmistakable and are likely to form the basis for a great deal of innovative and original thinking in the future. Consider for a moment the humble battery. Were it not for the explosion in laptop, handheld, phone and tablet computers, batteries as a technology wouldn’t have advanced anywhere near as far as they have. The same is true for electric cars. Battery technology must improve in order for the cars to succeed.

There are many other future milestones for electric cars, and some of them depend on advances we have already made.

Energy

Technology and energy management go together well. So well, in fact, that there remains a surplus of battery monitoring apps for every kind of device from handheld games to multi-function laptops. Future electric cars must incorporate these technologies if they are going to achieve the endurance and cost-effectiveness promised by manufacturers. Energy management should be built in to every vehicle from the start.

Redundancy

Everyone who has turned the key in the ignition of their car only to have nothing happen has wondered the same thing: Why do cars only have one battery? While electric cars are by no means perfect when it comes to performance, one of the things an electric plant enables is room for backups. Primary systems in any vehicle should rarely fail, and if they do, they should have secondaries, just like aircraft. Electric vehicles will deliver on this promise.

Safety

Because technology and electric cars are so tightly intertwined, it will only be a matter of time before manufacturers realize the potential for safety systems for the average mid-range vehicle is considerable. While systems like anti-lock braking and rear-facing cameras have found a market on all vehicles, electric vehicles must incorporate better technology in order to participate in the self-driving car revolution.

All-Weather

Mechanical devices have a habit of reacting to weather poorly. Heat, cold and even humidity can have a dramatic effect on the reliability and longevity of mechanical components. In an electric vehicle, the number and type of mechanical components will be greatly decreased due to the nature and capabilities of solid-state electronics. This will reduce the cost of ownership and will eventually reduce the cost of manufacturing while simultaneously making electric vehicles more resilient.

A great number of vehicle advancements have been waiting in the wings for some time, and electric cars are likely to be the catalyst for a renaissance in personal transportation rivaling the go-go decades of the 1950s and 1960s.

Originally published at shivanarayan.com on October 22, 2018.